First published 1985
Margaret O'Brien clutches her worn prayer book as she enters St. Joseph's Church for Sunday morning Mass. The familiar Latin phrases offer comfort, but her teenage daughter Sarah questions everything the Church teaches. Margaret's husband Tom has stopped attending altogether after losing his job at the factory. Their son Michael serves as an altar boy while secretly doubting his calling to the priesthood. As the family struggles with unemployment, changing social values, and their own spiritual crises, Margaret must decide whether rigid adherence to tradition will hold them together or drive them further apart. The weekly ritual of Mass becomes a battleground where personal faith meets institutional doctrine, and where a mother's devotion faces its greatest test in the changing landscape of American Catholicism.
Genres: literary-fiction, christian-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama, catholic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, religious-doubt
Setting: St. Joseph's Church
Period: Sunday Morning
Paperback · HarperCollins Publishers