Junia

As the beautiful daughter of a Roman senator, Junia enjoyed the best that life had to offer in second century Rome. She was grateful and anxious to please her family, a dutiful and obedient young woman of privilege. That is, until a chance friendship and its abrupt end sparks an interest in a new religion that will lead to a destiny she never imagined. Junia is a fictional exploration of life at the very beginning of Christianity from a very personal point of view. It shows how the attractions of the new religion were accompanied by social struggle, family division, and the risk of a disgraceful death to those courageous enough to embrace it. The author is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei in St. Louis.

Set in the second century of the early Christian Church, Grain of Wheat takes you into the heroic lives of the early Christians. Along the way, it shows the beauty and dignity of the Christian family, along with the power of the vocation to celibacy - a charism lived not only by priests and bishops, but by many of the lay faithful. These brave men and women, both single and married, followed Christ and spread his Kingdom while remaining in society. Through their courageous faith an entire culture was transformed, one person at a time, one family at a time. This work of fiction draws on early Christian testimonies, as well as more recent historical and contemporary books. It continues the saga which the author introduced in Junia (2002) and Marcus (2004).