Guest Posting about Faith from the Author Of Widow's Walk- Kenneth Weene

Author Kenneth's Weene's Widow’s Walk is a story of good people's struggle – sometimes successfully and often not – to deal with the challenges in their lives. The novel reflects how family, friendship, love, faith, and character affect that struggle.
Join author, Kenneth Weene, on his blog book tour September 1-30. A New Englander by upbringing and inclination, Ken Weene’s career – primarily in New York – included teaching, pastoral care, and psychology. Throughout his career Ken has also been devoted to writing. His poetry has appeared in a number of publications – both print and web. He authored a number of professional publications. His short stories and essays have also been published. One of his short plays was recently workshopped. An anthology of Ken’s work, Songs For My Father, was published 2002. His novel, Widow’s Walk, has been published in 2009. Ken and his wife, Roz, now live in greater Phoenix where he spends much of his time writing.
He started writing, primarily poetry, in the 1980s. Regarding Widow's Walk, Weene says, "Stepping away from full-time work was the best decision I ever made. Writing this story has given me tremendous personal satisfaction, and it has shown me an avenue for expression I will always treasure."

If you haven't already read Widow's Walk, be sure to pick your copy up at Kenneth Weene’s Author Website
You can also connect with him on Facebook- or Twitter.
Amazon: link available in September
Check out more information about Kenneth Weene and his Virtual Tour at Virtual Blog Tours. -taken from Virtual Blog Tours

Mary Flanagan pushes her glasses back on her nose. Then, with well-practiced ease, she slips her hands under her graying brown hair where it covers her ears and fluffs it out. These are customary gestures when she is concerned, what gamblers might call her tell. “Christ hae mercy,” she says. It is Mary’s strongest oath, one that she has used only three times before. She can remember those times well.


Thus begins “Widow’s Walk,” my new novel. Immediately the Mary, the book’s main character, is introduced as a woman of faith. But, is she, or is she more a woman of religion? That distinction is one of the underlying themes that developed as I worked on this book. It is, I think, one of the major distinctions that need to be made in our culture. There are many people who want to believe, as does Mary, that their religious views give answers – often seemingly simple answers – with which to approach life. They believe that as long as they follow the rules – rules that they have accepted out of the myriad possibilities – then God will do the rest. Confusion and ambivalence disappear to be replaced by certainty and rush to judgment.
Mary’s life is disrupted, not by something negative but rather by something good. Her son, Sean, who has been severely injured in Vietnam, decides to seek rehabilitation. Mary is then faced with having to make sense out of her own life – with the need to find purpose. As we all know, this is no easy task. For Mary it brings her into the world of questions, a world represented by the man she meets and with whom she falls in love, Arnie Berger.
For Arnie, life is full of possibilities and questions. For me, that approach to life represents true faith – faith that our creator allows us not only free will and purpose but also the grace with which we can in assurance approach and challenge life.
Recently I was host to three Chasidic students who were traveling across the country trying to awaken the “Jewish souls” of non-practicing Jews whom they met along the way. One of them is the nephew of a dear friend, and my wife and I were happy to have them visit. Naturally, we had a good old-fashioned bull session, one of those discussions that most naturally take place when you are young and full of questions. (It was great to return for the moment to my college days.)
The discussion soon turned to one of my favorite Biblical metaphors, Jacob wrestling with the Angel. “That,” I said, “is for me the essence of faith. Not certainty, never being sure. Faith is about the internal conflict, the battle to find where I’m going and why. It isn’t about good versus evil. Jacob isn’t evil. Certainly, the angel isn’t either. They are both good. Still the fight.”
“And the fight doesn’t end,” one of our guests added.
“No, never. They wrestle forever, or at least until they both stand before God.”
“And that is faith?”
“And that is faith,” I responded. “It is the struggle within.”
It would be nice if I could have that simple, old-time religion. It would be nice if I could be so sure of election that I did not have to struggle with myself. There are those who approach life with such certainty. I do not. And, if truth be told, I am glad that I cannot. To accept that faith is actually uncertainty allows me two very important graces in my life. The first is the grace of constantly becoming – of saying in Arnies words, when he first meets Mary, “I’m not great at answers, but I’m terrific at questions.” The second is to hold in my heart the deepest belief in God’s love and mercy. Having made us so fallible, so wonderfully human, God must also hold us in His mercy. Therefore, if we are to live a life of faith, let us be thankful for the mercy of a merciful God.

-Author Kenneth Weene