Review: Gold in your Memories: Sacred Moments, Glimpses of God

by Macrina Wiederkehr

Review by Darren Cronshaw

Macrina Wiederkehr is my favourite writer of prayers that are down to earth and that nourish the soul. In this deeply personal book she invites and gives permission to look for the gold in our memories. “Such good things can happen to people who learn to remember”, wrote Emily Dickinson. Sometimes therapy and writing on memories can dwell on healing painful memories, and Macrina does not deny the need for healing of pain. But her focus is to sit with the breadth of good and bad, joyful and painful, precious occasions and grown-up scars, easily recalled and long hidden memories.

“As you begin to gather your memories you will recall moments of feeling gloriously alive, renewed, full of hope, and fulfilled; and you will probably also remember times of despair when you felt nothing but loneliness, misunderstanding, neglect, or rejection. There will be moments of great loss, feelings of failure, sadness, fear, and confusion just as there will be memories of success and victory, memories of being loved and in love, moments of great joy and a sense of peace. You will remember moments of exquisite beauty and wonder, and you may also recall what seemed like decades during which all loveliness was hidden from you.” (pp.12-13)

Instead of being preoccupied with getting healed, she counsels contentment in being “in process”. She says our souls thrive on memories, and need the joyful, life-giving, sometimes forgotten events of the past to sustain us.

Macrina models remembering. She describes some of her own memories of childhood, mentors, favourite books, retreats and deep longings. She offers some of her prayers and poetry inspired by her memories. And she outlines creative rituals to recall and express memories – liturgies, Haiku poetry, letter-writing, journaling, and pilgrimages to personally significant places. Each chapter concludes with questions and exercises to engage slowly. I love her suggestion to ask grandparents to tell us more of their rituals and stories.

She shows how making space for solitude and remembering can refresh our image of God, refocus our vocational aspirations, reconnect us with family roots, and help us find peace and joy in the midst of uncertainty. It can help us find resources for forgiveness, work through our anger, befriend our fears and live in the present. Macrina promises, “The seeds of memory contain a spiritual energy that can help shape our future” (p.153).

My favourite section was the chapter on books she remembers fondly – pointing me to treasures that offer to touch a chord for me and connect with my joys, grief and passions. I will look up some of her suggestions for my summer reading for me and my family: Wind in the Willows, The Lost World of the Kalahari, Passion Below Zero, The Perfection of the Morning and Cry the Beloved Country.

Here is a thoughtful and prayerful memoir that offers to help us get in touch with the reservoir of beautiful memories of the past, make space for healing of what feels broken, and live today in ways that make memories for the future.

Rev Dr Darren Cronshaw is the BUV’s Coordinator of Leadership Training, and Pastor of Auburn Baptist Church.