Published treasures

With Rosary beads hanging off the back of her gliding rocker, with a half-full glass of sweet tea on the side table, and with the sun shining through a glass door that leads to a patio area, a woman in her eighties collects her thoughts as she puts pen to paper to write a book. She writes about her own conversion story of almost abandoning her Catholic faith to finding again a treasure of great price.
The woman is Elizabeth Yvonne Ardoin Dardeau, of Ville Platte, who wrote One Foot in the Grave, the Other Groping for Life: Lessons for Christians’ and Christianity’s survival in the Twenty-First Century. “This book is a collection of lessons centered around a truth of Christianity which we Christians need to learn, relearn, and practice so that our Christian culture can survive this 21st Century environment,” she said. “Our world is not only intolerant, but hostile, toward the one God and toward religion, especially Christianity.”
The book contains 40 chapters modeled after Christ’s 40 days in the desert he spent praying and fasting. “Each lesson is some teaching of our Christian faith, Jesus’ religion, focusing on the purpose for which we were born,” Dardeau explained. “Ideas, insights, and guides are explored to help us understand and practice a truth about the purpose for which God made us. Each lesson is independent, complete.”
She continued, “The common bond of chapters is the theme of knowing, loving, and serving God by following Jesus, His Church, and His religion, Christianity. There are suggested resolutions at the end of each lesson that are designed to aid our journey. The Scripture passages cited can be helpful to reinforce the lessons and provide study and familiarity with the Bible.”
As Dardeau said, none of the lessons contained in the book are new. However, the lessons need to be reviewed daily, especially in these trying times.
“No time in recent history has the whole world been on its knees before an invisible, foreign enemy, a virus;” she said, “no time in recent history have we Christians needed to turn our thoughts, prayers, our lives to God Whom we have neglected; the One Whom we have refused to obey; the One Whom we have refused to depend on.”
“We 21st Century Christians, like most of the Western world, have believed that we did not need God;” she continued, “that we could be independent of Him. We need to work at changing the culture; but, first, we must change our own attitudes and behaviors, and lead by example.”
Dardeau was reared in the Catholic faith, especially by her mother, Rose. Dardeau said of her mother that she “belonged to study and prayer groups until her death.”
Despite having the seeds of Christian faith planted in her at a young age, Dardeau became influenced by the modern age and confused during the times of the Second Vatican Council. Other factors in her life led to fall away from the faith. But, as she said, “I repented, converted, and recommitted myself to my Catholic Christian faith.” She added,
“The seeds of faith sprung anew!”
Following her conversion, Dardeau said she, “studied Scripture, Church history, the early Church fathers, many saints, many spiritual leaders’ writings, Catholic and Protestant, for the last 20 years.”
Meanwhile, she began teaching and counseling others about the faith and their own formation.
“Christians of all ages need this formation, the guidance on how to live according to Christ’s teachings,” she explained. “This is important not only to know, love, and serve God, but is crucial to good mental and emotional health. There is a critical need for teachers and leaders, besides our ministers, to get to work, living and teaching, by words and by deeds, to revive the seeds of faith in our little world. Christianity well lived is the path to peace.”