Everyday Annunciations

A spiritual guidebook and memoir for navigating life’s challenges, with a call to trust in God’s grace, and say “yes.”

How are we to understand the surprises life brings, the events and upsets that challenge what we believe about ourselves and our purpose? In Everyday Annunciations, Susan Swetnam encourages readers to imagine how their own upheavals might function as “everyday annunciations”—invitations to partner creatively with God in new ways.

Reflecting on six Renaissance paintings depicting Mary’s response to her own annunciation, Swetnam unflinchingly acknowledges the difficulty of regrouping when life changes radically. Drawing on Mary’s example, wisdom figures both historical and contemporary, Scripture, and powerful personal narrative, Everyday Annunciations offers constructive hope for those struggling to find a way forward when life catches them by surprise.

Susan H. Swetnam is the author of more than a dozen books, including the award-winning In the Mystery's Shadow: Reflections on Caring for the Elderly and Dying. A retired Idaho State University English professor, she now works as a massage therapist with hospice patients, cancer survivors, caregivers, and the bereaved, and is a music minister in her home parish. Visit her at susanswetnamwriter.com.