Review of The Arrow That Flies By Day

[Rina Martini]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Arrow That Flies By Day" by John Servant.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The Arrow That Flies By Dayis a tender Catholic story with lots of inspiration to readers who need to be reminded of how important God's blessings are and how many blessings come through daily prayer. One very important character we meet, is Sister Francis. She had a difficult childhood with frail health, contracting leukemia and realized that God is her rock and source of constant strength in her life. She became a nun that helped many people, specially children, whom she showed the way of the Lord and emphasized that to do good to others is far better than to think about yourself. John was one such a person. She was his principal at school where he attended. When he was in grade seven, he played and managed to break his right leg so badly that doctors told him that he would never be able to play football. Sister Francis remembered how her legs developed while participating for long distance running. She helped John do just that and his father helped him strengthen his leg by teaching him to kick a ball. His father passed away and he became rebellious and vindictive. Sister Francis and this mother decided to enrol him into the marines to learn self control, gain stamina and courage. While he was there and on patrol one day he was trapped in a firefight and he was wounded so severely that he was dismissed from the marines. He thought of playing football, for a big team, once, and that would be the ultimate experience of his life. He came to know about the start of season practice for New Jersey Raptors Club in Madison, and headed there to try out. He met a lot of resistance from the coaches as he was unknown to everybody and he has never played professional football. All he wanted to do is to show the coaches what he was capable of. With his faith, confidence and endurance he proved to the coaches that he deserved a chance. He was exceptionally good and some of the players were jealous of his skills. Instantly John and Harvey did not see eye to eye and eventually when the team was chosen, John did not make it. John was very disappointed in himself. After the second match of the season, Harvey injured himself so badly that he was out for the rest of the season. This gave John a chance to join the team and he played for the rest of the season. When building relationships you also learn about other people’s personal problems and in this way John helped his team players and their families a lot. He also started to visit a girl that he knew from high school. John went to see Sister Francis straight after the last game to ask her to help him with a personal problem that he struggled with for a long time. As always she gave him a good answer but this time she also gave him a new Rosario from Lourdes. John was exceptionally happy about the present. On the way back, John stopped in a big parking lot to buy some mints. On his way out, he saw a man wrestling with a woman in between the parked cars, and as his nature was, he ran to help this woman. As he spun the man around, the man stabbed John in the chest. John died on the scene. The police arrived who brought the news to Sister Francis. She was the bearer of this bad news to the team and the coaches. John was buried on a Monday.

There are a lot of positive aspects one reads about in The Arrow That Flies By Day. Sister Francis who was a frail and sickly child and became a strong adult through her unfailing faith and determination. John also had bad luck with injuries and we grow with this character to see how courage and continuous hard work delivers the success that he so badly wanted. We see how the team punter struggled with his rebellious teenager and John and Sister Francis guide him to change and be a gem to his family. We have the homeless man that suffered and begged and his fortune changed after love, attention and a new set of clothes helped him find shelter and a new job. There was also the rough and self centred jerk in the team, Harvey, who hated John so much. John never stopped to pray for him and to do good to him and even his attitude changed in the long run.

I did not encounter any negative aspects in the story. The few negative things that were present, changed to positives as described in the previous paragraph.

I rate this book 4 out of 4 because of the interesting storyline and the ease with which it reads. I could not put the book down until the last page.

I recommend readers to this book specially if you are a sport lover and if you don’t mind to be introduced to some faith. I have not encountered any errors.

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The Arrow That Flies By Day
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