Ingrid Henzler is an author, poet, photographer, and passionate woman with a deep reverence for life and love. She was born in Germany and has travelled extensively in Europe, India, and the USA. As a young adult, she lived in India for one year and came to know the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda and his classic book, The Autobiography of a Yogi, which transformed her life and brought her back to a deeper understanding of Christianity. Ingrid has a degree in education and speaks German, English, and Italian. She wrote meditation exercises, and for seventeen years, organized and guided retreats for young people with the theme "The Encounter with God."
Since early childhood, she has been devoted to the lives and stories of saints. She was powerfully drawn to the homeland of St. Francis of Assisi, where she now lives and has become an ambassador for Assisi, the City of Peace. Ingrid occasionally leads groups to sacred known and unknown places including convents, hermitages, and charming medieval cities in Umbria and Tuscany.
I have deep faith in God and believe that we are guided. While everything around us changes constantly, I try to be anchored in what is changeless and is to be found inside: the awareness, the divine essence of our being. Meditation has been my practice since early youth. Love and service are a central part of my personality. I cared for dear family members, who suffered for many years with disease. From the first to their last days, they slowly faded from this world. I can testify that when we say "Yes“ and accept difficulties, when we walk with perseverance, love, and faith through a dark tunnel, God's power and love will sustain us and at the end bright light welcomes and transforms us.
The life of St. Francis has changed me. I am grateful to testify that by practicing the following words of St. Francis and beholding God’s beauty in creation, my life as a caretaker has been in many ways transformed:
“If you accomplish your deeds which are bitter for you, in loving service for the suffering Christ, then that which was bitter to you will be turned into sweetness of soul and body.”
-St. Francis
Twelve Franciscan Brothers and Sisters talk openly in sensitive interviews about their relationship with God, their hopes and dreams, their joys and temptations in sensitive interviews about their relationship with God, their hopes and dreams, their joys and temptations in everyday life.
What have they found?
What have they let go?
Why did they follow their calling?
The veil lifts up like the curtain on a stage; we are in the middle of the interior life of a Franciscan Order.
This book will illuminate whatever path you have chosen!
The book was published in Italian, German and English.