Abide: A Pathway to Transformative Healing and Intimacy With Jesus

Reminded me who I am and what I forgot in a dark time of tragedy in this life we all wonder through.

I never write reviews, but am so grateful for this book that I feel compelled to do so now. This book is easy to read and is grace-filled. It has paved the way to my healing by encouraging me to allow Jesus to enter into those hidden areas within me that are in desperate need of light and transformation. The charts that are listed in this book were extremely helpful to me in discovering a knowledge and understanding about myself and my childhood...

I saw the author on EWTN and I was impressed with her insights. The book is a 'keeper' and one that I will frequently refer to.

I often use a book to guide my daily prayer and meditation time, and this looked, from the reviews, as if it could be a good book to use for Eastertide, the weeks after Easter. I read it in one sitting and was deeply disappointed. The author is a young woman with good intentions, I am sure, but this book casts the normal ups and downs of a suburban wife and mother as faith-testing tragedies (her child has appendicitis, and is just fine after antibiotics.) She also normalizes intolerance of non-cisgender, non-straight, non-monogamous people in the Christian context. I'm a 60 year old pediatric ICU nurse with five grown children. I see real tragidies, including death of children, racism, bigotry, poverty, and religious intolerance on the daily. My Christian faith is all about that keeps me walking forward, most days, and I want that faith to inform my witness to the Christ who excludes no one except those who oppress others. (Who did he say was getting into heaven ahead of everyone else? Prostitutes. Who did he say would be cast into hell? Those who saw the sick, those in jail, and immigrants and DID NOT HELP THEM. Not one word about gay people.) This book is not helpful.

Khym’s sharing of her faith journey so openly and honestly sheds light on our own journeys and fills us with hope. This book is a beautiful read!

Wow! I devoured this book in a few days while highlighting and making notes the whole time! “Abide” leads the reader through the truths of being loved by God in the most profound and healing way. The mixture of her personal story, healing Scripture passages and gentle guidance towards surrendering our need to be healed by the Lord is profoundly moving. It’s lasting impact on me and my personal journey cannot be overstated. Heather reminds us all that living in His peace and love is for NOW as well as for all Eternity.

I was excited to see that Ave Maria Press recently published books by Heather Khym and Sr. Miriam. "Restore: A Guided Lent Journal for Prayer and Meditation", by Sr. Miriam, is being accompanied by other multimedia content produced by Ave Maria Press and is a program for individuals or groups to follow during the 40 days of Lent. "Abide: A Pathway to Transformative Healing and Intimacy," by Heather Khym, is a healing retreat. Both books invite readers to engage in personal healing, to work through suffering by embracing deeper relationship with Christ and to live a more abundant life. "Abide" was a good prelude to Sr. Miriam’s Lenten meditations and it would also be a good follow-up read. Khym’s voice in "Abide" mirrors her tone on the podcast she cohosts, called "Abiding Together." She writes in a manner that is calm, steady, well thought-out and directive. Abide is not heavily philosophical, but it does rely upon scripture and quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The 137-page book is presented in an eye-pleasing format with fairly large type, heavy off-white paper and a binding that holds open easily. Though it could be read in a day, Abide is meant to be worked through with prayer and journaling. In her introduction, Khym makes her purpose clear: “Above all, a personal encounter with Jesus remains the source of our healing. She encourages her readers to “live a life of abundance in Jesus.” She said she wants readers to see her book as a manual, a resource to be accessed frequently. There are ten chapters and at the end of each chapter there are questions to ponder. Interactive fill-in-the-blank charts are scattered throughout. For example, in the chapter, “Blocks to Healing,” Khym provides a chart that helps the reader to discern the voice of God by writing down messages they believe about self, God and others. “Khym offers you a compass to navigate your past as you dig into difficult memories that have disoriented your understanding of God and made you afraid to trust him,” the publisher states. This is not a memoir, but Khym describes some of her personal wounds – psychological, emotional and spiritual abuse by her brother when she was a young child and the revelation early in her marriage that her husband had an addiction to pornography. She sets aside the generalizations, the advice that “you” or “we” should look to the Lord for healing, and allows us to briefly walk with her on her journey of healing and religious self-discovery. In addition to co-hosting Abide Together, Khym and her husband, Jake, are creators of Life Restoration Ministries in British Columbia. She also is a Catholic speaker and retreat leader. Her prose is encouraging and up-beat. “My hope is that throughout this book you will encounter Jesus in a more personal way and that a desire to respond to him would come naturally,” she says. Khym is an organized writer, frequently providing guide posts for the reader. For example, on page 18, she tells the reader that she will discuss her own traumas in Chapter 3. She also returns several times in the book to refer to her title, "Abide." There are many places in the book where she uses popular culture to get her point across: the video series "The Chosen"; the movies "Pride and Prejudice," "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hunger Games." She encourages readers to dive into their past pain and work through it. “The importance of understanding our story and the impact of our wounds cannot be understated,” she says. This is a very good book to read for Lent or as a contemplative piece for reflection and conversion.

With everything going on around us, it's easy to be disillusioned and feel overwhelmed and overcome by despair. If your heart has felt the burden of current events, the pain of past wounds, and the weight of present suffering, this book offers wisdom through Scripture, the lives of the saints, literature, and Heather's own personal experiences to point you towards hope.Reading Abide felt like sitting down for a chat with a really good friend; it is full of gentle and firm reminders of God’s faithfulness in our every day life. I loved how Heather used real examples that are relatable, and offered practical advice that actually feels doable. Heather shed light on a path to healing and restoration, and whispered the encouragement needed to take the first steps towards freedom.The reflection questions and exercises at the end of the chapters also really helped me internalize what I’ve just read to help move head knowledge into my heart. I highly recommend this book!

Easy read I highlighted and took notes. Most enjoyable and enlightening.Heather Khym is a really good writer and storyteller..

Heather Khym has written her first book. I absolutely loved it! Her reflective writing offers insight and inspiration on every page. This book invites disciples of every kind to go deeper with the Lord. Thank you, @heatherkhym ❤️