Book Review: The Years of Ripening by Joyce Rupp
by Kenan Bresnan | September 24, 2025
Servite Sister Joyce Rupp, in her latest book “The Years of Ripening” invites us to walk the journey of our last two decades of life together.
She has become a companion for me and she invites all of us to be a companion with her on her journey into what she calls Elderhood, those years after one’s 80th birthday.
In her gentle and graceful way, Rupp covers a wide range of subjects we experience in our later years, ranging from physical, emotional, and spiritual issues.
There are blessings in what we encounter: “We have the graced time and spacious presence to reflect, integrate, and bring to wholeness the significant features of our individual transformation that were previously set aside or not given enough attention.”
Rupp doesn’t sugarcoat the issues we’re facing. We know we are becoming elderly.
Yet, she says we can look at changes in different ways. “It is our attitude towards them that either instills peace or creates a troublesome angst.”
Rupp quotes author Kathleen Dowling Singh from her tome “The Grace in Aging: Awaken as You Grow Older” in establishing the theme that runs throughout the book: “To live the life of an elder is to ripen into being that is more than simply elderly, more than just old. It involves ripening into clear-eyed acceptance of the way things actually exist.”
Among a plethora of issues that are covered are anxiety and grief. For each, Rupp lists the truth, which might be seen as a negative. But for each, she shows us the positives.
We will experience grief, but we must treasure the love people leave with us, she says. “We can’t live in grief continually as people we love pass away. Every person who leaves, leaves a portion of their love with us.”
She tells of trials that we have and those that are yet to come; Trials that are full of pitfalls and promises laced with hope, gratitude and growth.
It is a relief to know others have the same feelings and concerns that I do.
She talks of the simple things older people do, like tripping on a curb (which I have done) or trying to use the wrong gift card. She shares her experiences with embarrassments which are faced by elders all of the time.
She illustrates her insights with excerpts of humorous and thoughtful conversations with others. For instance, she asked a 94-year-old how he was doing; he replied that he didn’t buy green bananas anymore.
How do we develop a positive approach to aging? Rupp says it’s a habit of deliberately focusing on the positives rather than the negatives.
A well-known author, spiritual director, and retreat director, Rupp starts several sections of her latest publication with poems. A favorite, entitled the “Pulse of Positivity” illustrates how one can see the good amid struggle: “Another ache in your arthritic joints greets you when you slowly awaken, but then you turn to see the sunrise gloriously coloring the crimson sky.”
Perhaps the phrase that gives me hope and inspires me the most focuses on the effect we have on others. “Much has been poured into the chalice of my being, and much is to be emptied from it to benefit humankind,” she wrote.
I feel blessed to have this book. I consider it a valued companion as I enter the ups and downs of being a proud member of the Elderhood.