This is a book I could not put down. The story of the wise woman will follow me throughout my life as I feel it communicates essential ideas at a crucial point in life. There is a great difficulty we must face in our approach to sanctity that few can truly grasp. It is the experience of finally seeing for ourselves the reality of our own person with all our behaviors as in a mirror. This was a humiliating revelation for me, and Macdonald’s writing is masterful at presenting in a parable a familiar figure such as myself. The book is noteworthy for me as an experience I would reluctantly recommend someone to follow after. At the same time, I feel it is an essential right of passage for a saint to see in an image their own badness manifest, even shaming the picture as vile. I feel that it is an essential sorrow and in this sorrow we can respond appropriately, humbly, and obediently, whether by this book or some other noted experience marked with a milestone.