Helen Prejean has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 1 narrator, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is River of Fire.
River of Fire
Summary
“River of Fire is Sister Helen’s story leading up to her acclaimed book Dead Man Walking - it is thought-provoking, informative, and inspiring. Read it and it will set your heart ablaze!” (Mark Shriver, author of Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis) The nation’s foremost leader in efforts to abolish the death penalty shares the story of her growth as a spiritual leader, speaks out about the challenges of the Catholic Church, and shows that joy and religion are not mutually exclusive. Sister Helen Prejean’s work as an activist nun, campaigning to educate Americans about the inhumanity of the death penalty, is known to millions worldwide. Less widely known is the evolution of her spiritual journey from praying for God to solve the world’s problems to engaging full-tilt in working to transform societal injustices. Sister Helen grew up in a well-off Baton Rouge family that still employed black servants. She joined the Sisters of St. Joseph at the age of 18 and was in her 40s when she had an awakening that her life’s work was to immerse herself in the struggle of poor people forced to live on the margins of society. Sister Helen writes about the relationships with friends, fellow nuns, and mentors who have shaped her over the years. In this honest and fiercely open account, she writes about her close friendship with a priest, intent on marrying her, that challenged her vocation in the “new territory of the heart”. The final part of River of Fire ends with the opening part of Dead Man Walking, when she was first invited to correspond with a man on Louisiana’s death row. River of Fire is a book for anyone interested in journeys of faith and spirituality, doubt and belief, and “catching on fire” to purpose and passion. It is a book, written in accessible, luminous prose, about how to live a spiritual life that is wide awake to the sufferings and creative opportunities of our world. “Prejean chronicles the compelling, sometimes-difficult journey to the heart of her soul and faith with wit, honesty, and intelligence. A refreshingly intimate memoir of a life in faith.” (Kirkus Reviews)
©2019 Helen Prejean (P)2019 2019
Dead Man Walking
Summary
In 1982, Sister Helen Prejean became the spiritual advisor to Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers who was sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana’s Angola State Prison. In the months before Sonnier’s death, the Roman Catholic nun came to know a man who was as terrified as he had once been terrifying. She also came to know the families of the victims and the men whose job it was to execute - men who often harbored doubts about the rightness of what they were doing. Out of that dreadful intimacy comes a profoundly moving spiritual journey through our system of capital punishment. Here Sister Helen confronts both the plight of the condemned and the rage of the bereaved, the fears of a society shattered by violence and the Christian imperative of love. On its original publication in 1993, Dead Man Walking emerged as an unprecedented look at the human consequences of the death penalty. Now, some two decades later, this story - which has inspired a film, a stage play, an opera and a musical album - is more gut-wrenching than ever, stirring deep and life-changing reflection in all who encounter it. Read by the author, Helen Prejean Preface written by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and read by Dominic Hoffman Afterwords written and read by Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins
©1993, 2013 Helen Prejean (P)2019 Random House Audio