Now fully revised and updated. Includes Old Testament women as well.
Friendship colors the very air we breathe,' writes Sr. Joan, 'We can see it in the eyes of old women in the kitchens of the women they love. We can hear it in the voices of one young woman giggling to another over the telephone. We can feel it beating in our own hearts on lonely rainy days in far away places when, most alone, we are haunted by the memory of those who have walked through life with us and walk with us still. Friendship binds past and present and makes bearable the uncertainty of the future.'
But friendship is at best an elusive concept, a movable feast. 'The question of the place and nature of friendship' explains Sr. Joan 'has been the fascination of philosophers, the quandary of psychologists, the invisible sacrament of which theologians speak and the grail of mystics and poets. In modern society, where the individual reigns, neighbors do not know neighbors, and answering machines weed out calls, friendship becomes ever harder to define, let alone to live.'

With rare skill, Sr. Joan explores the sacred dimension of friendship through the lens of faith, tradition, Scripture, and the often-overlooked experience of women. Interwoven with the stunning icons of Benedictine oblate Marcie Bircher, she recovers and reclaims the witness and wisdom of such women as Lydia, Prisca, Phoebe, Martha, Veronica, Elizabeth, Anne, Mary Magdalene, and those gathered at the foot of the Cross. Drawing a message from each of these women's lives, Sr. Joan teaches us about friendship as it is embodied between women, between God the Creator and all of creation, and between all human beings