by C. L. Francisco Phd (Author)
"Lydia, a seller of purple," is the apostle Paul's friend-but in Yeshua's Loom, she is also Aeliana, disciple of Jesus of Nazareth and the gifted young weaver of Cat Born to the Purple. How a penniless Galilean exile weaving in a purple factory on the Phoenician coast becomes Lydia, a wealthy merchant of Macedonian Philippi, is the tale of this 5th volume in the Yeshua's Cats series, Yeshua's Loom: A Tapestry of Cats. Yeshua's Loom picks up Aeliana's story as she, her betrothed husband Chariton, and two cats descended from the temple cats of Bubastis sail for Chariton's home in Miletos on the Ionian coast. Once they reach their journey's end, they must find a way around his patrician parents' objections to Aeliana, as well as the Roman laws against Roman citizens marrying foreigners. But the task Yeshua has laid upon Aeliana herself is more challenging still: to release her grip on her old pain and let him heal her completely. This becomes the work of a lifetime, as every new grief only thickens her scars, and her mother-in-law's coiling evil entangles her feet. Three cats with the gift of understanding human thought take turns as guides and narrators: Aeliana's cat Purple Gleaming in Shadow, who accompanies her throughout her travels; the powerful male Nightfire, drawn away from the temple courts of Perga by visionary dreams of bonding with Chariton; and Yeshua's own cat Mari, called Wind on Water by cat-kind. Mari lives with Aeliana's family for several years as a wise guide sent by Yeshua, while Maryam of Magdala travels abroad without her. Years of mingled love and tragedy bring Aeliana to a crisis of healing-and to Philippi, where she dreams of simply weaving and living her life in peace, hidden from the shadows haunting her past. But just as Yeshua's hand has guided Aeliana through her life until now, he has also drawn her to this unlikely colony of Roman veterans, where her compassion and hard-won openness to his love make her the ideal messenger to prod Paul up the path toward his own wholeness-and change the course of Christian faith. Supporting characters from three of the four previous books in the Yeshua's Cats series come together again in Yeshua's Loom. Maryam of Magdala, Mari, and Aeliana first appear in The Gospel According to Yeshua's Cat: Aeliana is Eliana there, the young woman Yeshua heals when she is stoned and left for dead after a false accusation of adultery. In The Cats of Rekem, Paul spends many weeks after his conversion arguing with Maryam and Mari. And all but Paul appear together in Cat Born to the Purple.
Author Biography
C. L. Francisco always chooses fiction for her downtime reading: "Fiction sneaks up on me, gets under my guard, and touches my heart," she says. "It opens up new possibilities and sets me dreaming. For me, life-changing books have always been fiction. That's probably why I chose to write a book like Yeshua's Cat." A retired college professor, Francisco found her faith again after a time of radical doubt. Her conservative Christian upbringing, undergraduate study at Mount Holyoke College, year's stay at L'Abri, early career years in art therapy, and PhD in world religions all contributed to her confusion, but as a woman whose life was grounded in faith, she struggled to find her way. The voice of non-human nature spoke more clearly than any other-except for C. S. Lewis' fiction, her lifeline. The whispers were faint at first, often resulting in dead ends, but when they finally spoke clear, she found herself in the presence of the Christ who transcends all walls. The Gospel According to Yeshua's Cat had its roots in Francisco's desire to offer fellow strugglers a fresh perspective on Jesus of Nazareth. The book's feline narrator speaks with the wise voice of a young cat whose death after a devastating wildfire provided Francisco with the impetus to begin the book. A Cat Out of Egypt grew from readers' eagerness for Francisco to write another book in the same series. A stand-alone prequel to Yeshua's Cat, Egypt introduces Francisco's original feline character's many-times great-grandmother Miw, beloved of the child Yeshua. The Cats of Rekem is a richly layered story set in ancient Petra, culminating in the early ministry of Paul the apostle. Cat Born to the Purple picks up Yeshua's Cat's story of Eliana, a young woman healed by Yeshua after being stoned. She follows Yeshua to the home of a merchant and weaver in the Phoenician city of Acco (today, Akko), where, with the help of an extraordinary young cat, she begins her journey toward true healing. Yeshua's Loom, the conclusion of Purple, completes the stories of both Paul and Eliana. Eliana journeys to Thyateira, in the Anatolian province of Lydia. When she finally flees to Philippi and changes her name to "Lydia of Thyateira," she enters history through the few cryptic lines in Acts that link her with Paul. Yeshua's Loom describes the author's take on the relationship that might have grown up between these two brilliant but dissimilar followers of Yeshua when their paths cross in Philippi.