Poems of pain and forgiveness,

for those who struggle to find healing from a childhood marked by addiction

“In words of courage, conviction, and terrible beauty, Sister Sharon Hunter dispels the myth of escaping life in the real world for the shelter of the cloister. By reading these poems, we are privileged to join her on the path to hope and healing.”

—Sister Helen Prejean

author of Dead Man Walking and River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

a graphic of "Chasing Manhattan" Novel by John Gray

“There’s not an ounce of affectation or pretentiousness in these poems. They have a ‘Mary Oliver’ directness. . . . they hear your broken heart and help you name your unshed tears.”

—Ronald Rolheiser, OMI

New York Times bestselling author of The Holy Longing

ABOUT To Shatter Glass

To Shatter Glass is a memoir in poetic form, tracing seventy years of struggle and experience. In her early thirties, at the end of an abusive and childless marriage, Sister Sharon Hunter entered a modern convent. Neither sheltered nor immune from reality, she confronted demons of the past and trauma brought with her, unresolved and in need of healing. Her collection obliterates a common belief that men and women enter religious orders to escape life. Its fifty-six poems vary in style and capture the heart and imagination of those searching for straight answers to difficult questions. To Shatter Glass touches on the need to know ourselves, to accept our humanity as defined by God, and to strive toward reconciliation through self-examination and forgiveness.

This book is an invitation to wholeness for those scarred by family alcoholism. It is written for the quiet and sensitive buried by depression, and for those who may be too afraid to expose their wounds. It is for anyone who has experienced betrayal or the loss of a loved one through tragic circumstances.

“In this new collection of poems, rising as they do out of past turmoil and brokenness, Sister Sharon Hunter’s meditations speak in redemptive ways, inviting us into the old wounds and scars and presenting to God, and to us as readers, fresh understandings of what it takes to heal.”

—Luci Shaw

author of Eye of the Beholder and The Generosity

“Sister Sharon’s poetry leads her reader seamlessly through several chapters of life’s most fearsome and heart-wrenching struggles to a place of redemption… the fact is, she may just be the most honest poet I have ever encountered”

—Rev. Dr. Bradford D. Lussier

pastoral counselor, author of How Does He Love Me? A Collection of Love Sonnets

portrait of John Gray, writer and award-winning journalist

Sister Sharon Hunter, CJ

Sister Sharon Hunter, CJ, is a professed religious of thirty-five years at the Community of Jesus, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Born in 1947 in the farming region of Western Pennsylvania, Sister Sharon was raised a country girl. Her writing, infused with practical, sometimes stark reality, compliments her desire to offer hope in extreme circumstances, beauty in our sufferings, and assurance that light is always with us.

portrait of John Gray, writer and award-winning journalist

Sister Faith Riccio, CJ

Sister Faith Riccio, CJ, is an artist and a religious sister at the Community of Jesus, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Her work can be seen in private collections and exhibits, both nationally and internationally, and at the Church of the Transfiguration in Orleans, MA. Sister Faith is also the author of Icons: The Essential Collection.

logo for Christian Books