ANN OF GREEN PASTURES
The Inner World of Ann Sultana
The makings of your married American Catholic Pastor
By George Pieczonka
I spent 5 intense years writing a book that summons up multifaceted images of Ann and at times those images came alive. My humble intent was to forward to the reader those special images.
Ann of Green Pastures is a very personal, historical love story. Ann had an ?inner world? that fascinated me. That is the story this book aspires to tell.
Ann?s human affection is center stage in our courtship love letters. One day after Ann?s death, Georgann, our daughter, discovered a shoebox containing our courtship love letters that went back 32 years. I never knew of their continued existence. This treasured resource is one of many significant-revelations that I present to you, in this book, in order to magnify Ann?s ?inner world.?
Ann never abandoned her previous 20 years as a nun before her marriage. The ?habit? of love persisted.
This is not a love story without pain. The pain is psychological. We did not want to abandon the enormous number of years of dedicated preparation and service that pointed beyond ourselves―to God, to the poor, and to the wider world of suffering. We were counting on continuing this service through a ?married priesthood.? The Catholic leadership said, ?No!?
Was there a mysterious reason why God postponed our individual desire for a ?married priesthood?? I think so. I eventually surmised the real reason. God needed a real, true, worldwide, human love story between a priest and wife; in order to persuade the Catholic leadership to reinstitute the lost tradition of a ?married priesthood? as complementary to the ?celibate priesthood.? Ann of Green Pastures is that love story. I invite you to come inside our marriage and witness the evidence.
Therefore, I hope Ann will be seen, in this book, as a self-confident daughter of God in which God has no misgivings if His daughter marries a priest. If this is the case―the Catholic Church leadership will have a lot to answer for.
Well, this is the snap shot. As the storyteller I accepted the challenge to bring Ann to the forefront. I see her through my pen becoming what she never imagined?the representative image as a wife―for priests. So, I conclude with a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer that wraps up my projection of Ann?s future: ?There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.?
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