For Love of the Broken Body: A Spiritual Memoir

by Julia Walsh

“Julia Walsh gives me hope for a future with religious women changing the world. She tells a story all her own, but I felt her doubts, questions, and passion each step of the way. Highly recommended.” —Sister Helen Prejean, author of  Dead Man Walking  and  River of Fire
A questioning novice nun’s coming-of-age story. Readers will be moved to reflect on the universal human experiences of being broken and the pull to be part of something bigger than themselves. At the age of 25, just a month into her novitiate as a Franciscan Sister, Julia Walsh fell from a cliff and became disfigured. While working toward healing, she felt pulled to religious community life, but also toward unresolved feelings regarding her own sexuality, identity, and injustice. For Love of the Broken Body is a story of pain, questioning, recovery, and discovery. What does it mean to exist as a broken body? Why would a young woman dedicate herself to the Catholic Church—to a life as a Franciscan Sister—while others are leaving churches in droves? The number of women choosing to enter religious life across the U.S. is shrinking rapidly, so Walsh encounters a lot of curiosity about her choice. In this memoir, she writes honestly about feeling drawn to men and to sex, as well as what it means, in this age of self-discovery and hook-ups, for a young woman—physically broken and still very much attracted to the world—to join a celibate, religious community.

Genres: Memoir

256 pages, Paperback

Published March 26, 2024

About the author

Julia Walsh is a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration based in Wisconsin. A storyteller, poet, and community-builder, her ministry experience includes teaching, retreat facilitation, preaching, spiritual accompaniment, justice advocacy, and caring for people who are unhoused and incarcerated. Sister Julia is the author of two books including For Love of the Broken Body: A Spiritual Memoir and is the founder of Messy Jesus Business, a website and podcast that explores the messiness of modern Christianity. The author of numerous articles, her work has been featured on the BBC, Relevant Radio, U.S. Catholic, America Media and National Catholic Reporter. In 2017 she received a Master’s in Pastoral Studies from Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. Today she serves her Franciscan community as a vocation director and speaks to a variety of groups about topics such as creativity, contemplation, and Gospel living.

Reviews

[Jean Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This vulnerable, refreshing memoir about discerning one's vocation is highly readable, entertaining and most of all inspiring. While the author's vocation is avowed life as a Franciscan sister, readers of all life stages and faiths will find treasures in Sr. Julia's self-revelations about how she found the way toward a loving, joyful and fully examined life. She tells how during early adulthood she felt called to closer relationship with the Divine, yet had to wrestle with counter-cultural choices, including celibacy, not to mention her body's brokenness due to a serious fall before choosing to become a religious sister. Her story leaves little doubt that the once-"boy crazy"-girl who matured into a mature, caring and engaged woman of remarkable courage and faith chose wisely, both her life's work and deciding to share her journey with readers.

[Darcy Osby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sr Julia shares so honestly and vulnerably her vocation story and her wrestling with the great loves in her life. Anyone who has had to decide or is deciding which path to pursue will relate to her searching questions and prayers. I found pieces of my own story echoed in hers. She shares the deep joy and freedom she finds in her commitment to religious life as a sister, which is a comfort for all who grieve giving something up to follow God’s call in their hearts. This book made me laugh and cringe, reflect and pray, and will stay with me for a long time.

[Marika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered about the spiritual journey of Sisters/Nuns? Do they ever question their faith and/or their life choices? Do they just know that they are meant to be Sisters/Nuns? Maybe they're just born with more faith than other women? In this memoir author Julia Walsh's writes about her path to becoming a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration and what she had to grapple with in doing so. A month into Julia's novitiate she returned home to visit her childhood farm and fell over 20 feet from a cliff and suffered disfiguring facial injuries requiring extensive rehabilitation. It's during this rehab period that Julia ponders many questions. Why? What does a broken body have to offer God?

A fascinating book that will resonate with Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

*I read an advance copy and was not compensated

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Health and discernment - so full of emotion. The prayer and reflection from the heart - very touching.

[Marybeth Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sister Julia relates her journey to becoming a Sister with raw honesty and openness. Her personality and generous sense of humor shine even through the devastating tragedy she endured during her discernment. A beautiful read.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, surprising, honest memoir about Sister Julia's journey to Franciscan sisterhood. At times uncomfortable, at times reassuring, consistently heartfelt.

[Kathy Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

For Love of the Broken Body: A Spiritual Memoir

On the paperback cover of Julia Walsh’s spiritual memoir is a self-portrait she painted showing part of her face. Above her right brow is a purplish scar. Much of Julia’s riveting narrative relates to an accident which scarred her face and shattered many parts of her body when she accidentally fell from a cliff. She landed on rocks twenty feet below. At age 25, her body shattered and disfigured, she faced a long and challenging recovery. Caring family, friends, and religious women in her community steadily helped her heal, throughout the ordeal.

As Julia unfolds her story, she develops a remarkably inviting, welcoming tone. I’m reminded of a political activist, Sam Day, who loved to say “Come on in! The water’s fine!” when speaking of his frequent experiences in U.S. jails and prisons. Sam wasn’t making light of the cruel carceral system. Rather, he was sure that people could learn and grow through entering into the prison-industrial complex as nonviolent resisters to war. Julia Walsh would never wish the shattering experience she went through on anyone. But her story brims with capacity for discovery. She even finds joy while coping with adversity.

Throughout the journey toward full recovery, Julia questioned whether or not to commit herself to becoming a Franciscan sister. Her honest reflections, sewn throughout the narrative, underscore her fundamental desire to love and be loved. Her empathy for people who face loss of love or who feel unloved shines through many of her reflections regarding her own vocation.

The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, a religious order based in LaCrosse, WI, seemed to be a constant source of gentle, kindly guidance. And yet, they join her in a humorous embrace of her podcast entitled “Messy Jesus Business.”

Truthfully, I found it difficult to set aside Julia Walsh’s story. I stayed up late and arose early, eager to continue reading. For Love of the Broken Body is a testament to prayerful, communal life and the goodness resting in belief that we are all part of one another.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brutally honest memoir about Julia's experience falling off a cliff and breaking her jaw, face, teeth, and hand in a terrible accident during the first year of her novitiate as a Franciscan sister. Not a conventional "nun type," Julia's sense of fun, her love of a good beer and night out, and her ongoing grappling with her attraction to men make for a rocky but REAL transition to her life as a sister. Her faith is deep and poignant - a good book for anyone in a time of discernment, recovering from a bad accident, or considering religious, ordained, or community life. Also, the painting on the cover is a self-portrait - she is a woman of many talents.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend wrote this!! Yay Julia!!

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

©2024 EPL collection

[Sarah Hennessey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julia's story is both ordinary, and also not. It's about those choosing to follow those callings we feel deep in our heart, and how to discern out the truest road that makes your heart sing. But she also talks about the call to celibacy, what becoming a Catholic sister is really like, her struggles with being "boy-crazy" and also about how almost losing her life changed everything. A read well worth it.