Sanctuary is about some unlikely and unexpected places where Becca Stevens has encountered God--a trail in the Andes, her son's bathtub, Dorothy Day's Hospitality House, the Kroger parking lot. Sanctuary was nominated by Christianity Today as best spirituality book of 2005.

"I have never read a more direct and moving set of meditations. Becca Stevens has the most extraordinary gift for finding the ineffable in our ordinary old real world, and for making us feel it, too."
-Lee Smith, author of The Last Girls

"Becca Stevens' meditations...

I remember the first day I came home. There were four beautiful women walking out onto the porch to say hello. This was the home I'd almost forgotten about. Thank you, God, for leading me home.

Have you ever felt lost?
Do you long for a group of friends?
Will you ever find your way home?

In this remarkable book, the women of Magdalene ask questions that all of us ask, and they share their own joyous, painful, uplifting answers. Inspired by the classic Benedictine Rule, the women have written down 24 rules they...

""In the world of snake oils, you have to see the world a little differently. Where others see poverty, you see riches; where others see weeds, you see flowers; where others see sickness, you see openness." "
Becca Stevens calls herself a "snake oil seller": She takes natural oils, mixes them with a good story, sells them in an open market and believes they help to heal the world. Becca is the founder of Thistle Farms, one of the most successful examples in the US of a social enterprise whose mission is the work force. She is also the founder of its residential program, Magdalene. The...

What started as an impossible dream-to build a cafe that employs women recovering from prostitution and addiction-is helping to fuel an astonishing movement to bring freedom and fair wages to women producers worldwide where tea and trafficking are linked by oppression and the opiate wars.
Becca Stevens started the Thistle Stop Cafe to empower women survivors. But when she discovered a connection between cafe workers and tea laborers overseas, she embarked on a global mission called "Shared Trade" to increase the value of women survivors and producers across the globe.
As she...

What started as an impossible dream-to build a cafe that employs women recovering from prostitution and addiction-is helping to fuel an astonishing movement to bring freedom and fair wages to women producers worldwide where tea and trafficking are linked by oppression and the opiate wars.
Becca Stevens started the Thistle Stop Cafe to empower women survivors. But when she discovered a connection between cafe workers and tea laborers overseas, she embarked on a global mission called "Shared Trade" to increase the value of women survivors and producers across the globe.
As she recounts...

""Love is my grounding," says Becca Stevens. "It provides the axioms that inform and govern what I do. First is that love is the most powerful source for social change in the world. Second is that love heals. I'm not called to change the world. I am called to love it."

"All spiritual paths can be walked more gracefully by avoiding the pitfalls of disillusionment and not getting distracted by the bright lights of ego that have led countless priests far afield. Following simple road signs like courage, humility, forgiveness, compassion, and faithfulness that others have put at the...