“Birds do it, bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. Let’s do it. Let’s fall in love!”

With all due respect to Cole Porter, I am not sure that my husband and I resemble fleas, even educated ones!

There are those who truly see no difference between fleas and human beings. We are all earthlings, right?
Well, yes and no. God created everyone and everything, fleas and middle-aged matrons included. However, human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. Fleas are not. We know this truth from the Bible, but we also can experience this truth in our daily lives. It is written on our hearts.

(Chicago: Loyola Classics,  2007, 256 pp. $13.95)

Sister Lise Fanshawe isn’t your typical nun. She wears a habit, lives in a convent, and spends several hours a day in prayer, but her work is very specialized. Her order, the Sisters of Bethany, is dedicated to serving prisoners, prostitutes, and other outcast women. What’s more, Lise herself was once one of these outcasts. She was first a prostitute, then a brothel manager, and finally a murderer. Lise served a long sentence for her crime in a French prison, which is where she encountered the Bethany nuns.