It was probably some mountain-top guru who coined the adage, “Experience is attained by living through failure.” That little bromide could well be the motif of this treatise, for it is essentially an autobiographical account of a very experienced women who sustained many failures in her anguished struggle to find human fulfillment.

Judy Hankel recounts her experience as if she were a traveler, eager to reach her destination of human fulfillment, but who keeps taking all the wrong turns in her journey. Each of her many turns left her repeatedly fascinated but utterly trapped in one of the many deceptive and spiritually toxic practices of the New Age Movement. Each venture lead her deeper into the hellish grasp of Satan. For her, the term, “experiencing failure” became almost a euphemism, and the warning of St. Angela Merici no longer appeared as a quirky hyperbole: “The devil doesn’t sleep; he’s always awake, seeking our ruin in a thousand ways.”

With God’s grace, Judy response echoed the squib of St. John Bosco: “Tell the devil to rest; then I’ll rest too.”

Today’s headlines keep reaffirming the ever-growing conviction that “all the world is hell bound in a hand basket,” as my grandpa used to say. When will we ever learn to seek our destiny in our Creator, our end in our beginning-our Omega in our Alpha-and turn wholeheartedly to our true source and our purposeful end-The almighty and All-loving Creator Himself? His Divine Son Jesus is beside us in the passenger seat to guide us on our journey, helping us to avoid the treacherous ditches and potholes the booby traps and ambushing demons lurking along the roadway. Ultimately, that’s the uplifting and peace-fostering messages of this fascinating book: Hell’s terrorism and deception surrounds us, but Jesus’ Divine Mercy and Love embraces us protectively. Surrender your life to Him.

-Rev. John Hampsch, CMF