Reading the book of life : the life and teachings of St Angela of Foligno for everyone

Angela of Foligno was a well-off, complacent wife and mother when she was first attracted by the Franciscan ideal of poverty.

She wondered how someone as worldly as she could be part of the great new Franciscan Order that was nurturing so much holiness around her.

The turning-point in her spiritual life came when she understood that she was loved by God, accepted as she was and forgiven.

Freed by this certainty she responded with love. To her, Christ is a Living Book. She `reads' him with loving attention and describes with immediacy and verve their growing relationship.

In this edited selection from the accounts Angela dictated both of her visionary experiences and her advice and insights, Ruth Obbard has rendered into direct speech the voice of a woman from the thirteenth century, robust and passionate, constantly open to fresh perspectives. Angela remained a lay woman, living as a Franciscan Tertiary.

Her life helped to develop the Order's identity in its early years.

She assures us of the limitless love God has for each one of us and urges us towards the adventure of exploring our unique path into it and towards one another.