Shannon Zelinka is a Catholic wife and mother called to convey the message that true fulfillment is found in God’s love. With her considerable experience as a social worker and volunteer crisis coordinator, she has seen restlessness, brokenness, and a real need for that message. Her new book, “Unconditional: 52 Weeks Immersed in God’s Love,” invites readers to spend a year focused on prayer practices and reflections designed to deepen their awareness of His love. Readers are encouraged to follow Zelinka’s example and open their hearts.
What inspired you to write “Unconditional,” and why did you feel this message was important to share over a year-long format?
Over the past five or six years, the Holy Spirit has been teaching me about His love — particularly about how I and the rest of the world desperately need to know that God’s love is what we are all searching for, and that He is always extending his love to us! It was in the middle of one of these prayer experiences that I sensed a clear invitation from God to write a book about his love.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, God helped me to see how I’m often restless and looking forward to the next thing to make me happy, whether that’s when I have more time, or when we buy a house, or any number of things. I’ve seen a similar restlessness with loved ones, and also with clients and people I encountered through crisis counseling. There’s so much pain and brokenness and conflict in our lives and in our world. So we have a real need to encounter the beauty and power of God’s love.
We all have universal, good desires: for fulfillment, happiness, meaning, and love. Our culture today tries to sell us on so many ways to be happy, and there are endless things to distract us. But what we most need — the most important thing — is to receive and respond to God’s love. His perfect, unconditional love is the answer to our deepest longings.
I thought a year immersing ourselves in God’s love was a good length of time because many of our habits, tendencies, and beliefs are deeply ingrained in us. We need time to bask in God’s love, to grow to trust His goodness and love, to be willing to allow Him access to the parts of ourselves we try to keep hidden, and to cultivate new disciplines and practices that help us to stay rooted in Him. Honestly, this is the work of a lifetime, but a year seems like a good place to start!
Tell us about your background. What parts of your career or life do you feel prepared you best to write this book?
I was raised Catholic, and I’m grateful that my parents made it a priority for me and my siblings to learn about the faith and to attend Mass. Through God’s grace, He has kept me close to Him throughout my life, through moving to different places, through depression, heartbreak, loss, and just day-to-day life. I don’t think I had a deep understanding of His love — that it was personal, and that this unconditional love is what will bring us the fulfillment we all seek — until He inspired me to write “Unconditional.”
I knew since I was in middle school that I was going to be a social worker when I grew up. I studied social work in college and graduate school, and I worked in several different social work arenas for over six years. There’s a lot of overlap between social work principles and our Catholic faith. For example, both value the inherent dignity of each person and our free will, and both focus on the holistic person, not just one part of ourselves.
As challenging as social work could be, it was a gift to walk with people through some of the darkest times in their lives. I saw deep woundedness and pain, but I also witnessed resilience, hope, and the lovability and inherent dignity of each person.
Then I had the privilege of being a stay-at-home mom for 10 years. Through the challenges and joys of family life, God has opened my eyes and my heart to glimpse His love for us as a Father, to embrace the beauty of self-donative love, and to recognize my tremendous need for Him. Somehow (most often through my husband’s help), while being a stay-at-home mom, God gave me the time to volunteer as a crisis counselor and then to work on this book.
Crisis counseling opened my eyes even more to the widespread despair in our world, and it also inspired a desire to share the truth that God's love is the fulfillment that we all seek. Not that all our problems will magically disappear, but that we can have peace and joy in truly believing and abiding in His love for us. Working in the social work and crisis counseling fields also introduced me to many helpful tools for coping and well-being. I realized these tools could be even more powerful if they involved God in the process. Finally, when I started the editing process for “Unconditional,” I had also just started a new job as a liturgy coordinator at my parish. It was a blessing to learn more about our Catholic faith and tradition through this work while I was working on the revisions. God is so good to weave together the many parts of my life to prepare me for this project.
This book invites readers to encounter God’s divine love. What does it mean to move from knowing that God loves us to actually experiencing that love?
It seems like this is true for all or most of us at some point in our lives: we’ve heard about God’s love, we may think we believe it, and we think it sounds great. But we don’t really let this belief take root in us, allowing it to truly touch our minds, our bodies, and our souls. It’s something that’s in the back of our minds — something we might even forget about from time to time. When we truly encounter God’s infinite, perfect love for us, it is so amazing and life-changing that it necessarily stays in the forefront of our minds and influences every aspect of our lives.
I’d like to note that this isn’t something that we can strive for or that we really have to try to get right in order to feel. We can, of course, do our part, like praying through the exercises in “Unconditional,” to open ourselves up to God, but, ultimately, the grace comes from God, and He is the one who fills us with His love.
Jesus said He came so that we might have life and have it in abundance. I believe this is the abundance He was talking about — truly believing in God’s great love for us and allowing His love to settle deep into our bodies, minds, and souls. This includes opening ourselves up to His loving gaze so that He can transform even our weaknesses, our sinfulness, and our mistakes, all for good. Ultimately, we learn to love as He does.
For me, writing this book has been a huge blessing. I sensed God telling me at some point in the writing process that the message of His love isn’t just for other people, it’s for me too. So writing out and praying through these exercises has helped me to grow closer to God. I’m amazed at how my trust in Him has grown. I was a shy little girl, and I’m still often shy and self-conscious, but He has helped me to believe and depend on His love so much that I want to share His message with the world.
How can God’s unconditional love change the way we approach daily life? How do you think it can impact Catholic women in their businesses or careers?
I believe God’s love can change our perspective and our priorities. When we know that we are deeply and completely loved, we don’t have to strive to be perfect, look for others’ approval, or pursue money, success, or anything else for our own fulfillment. We can let go of our expectations of ourselves, of others, and of how our life should look. When we trust in God’s love and goodness, we live out of a mentality of abundance rather than scarcity.
We can rest in God’s love and allow Him to lead us. And the beautiful thing is that when we surrender our plans to Him, it will be better than we ever could have planned ourselves. For example, I didn’t have plans to publish a book, but God invited me to participate in His plan, and He is leading me through it. I trust that He will touch the hearts of those who read the book so that all we say, think, and do will flow out of His amazing love.
I’m still a work in progress in terms of work-life balance and trying to prioritize the eternal things in life, but it makes a huge difference to me knowing that I have a Father who is all-powerful and overflowing with love for me. I am slowly learning to surrender to Him and to let go of things that are not His will for me because I can trust that He is ultimately in control.
There are a variety of prayer practices and reflections included in the book. Why was it important to you to offer readers new approaches to prayer?
Each one of us is a uniquely created child of God, and we connect with others — including God — in different ways. I think we often don’t realize there are countless ways to pray and encounter God. I love finding new and powerful ways to pray. I recently learned about audio divina (sacred listening), which is like lectio divina (sacred reading), but with music. And I fell in love with this prayer and how it helped me to connect even more deeply with God.
We have so many rich prayer practices in our Catholic faith that we may not have heard of or tried before. We can also incorporate helpful elements of psychology and counseling and make them even more powerful by inviting God into the process. For example, when we focus on our breath or do a grounding exercise, this can calm our nervous system, our bodies, and our minds. When we add prayer and invite the Holy Spirit in, our souls are also impacted. Praying in diverse ways and engaging mind, body, and soul can help us to grow in our lived experience of God’s love.
What was the journey to publication like for you? What advice do you have for others who feel called to write a book or devotional?
The journey to publication has been a humbling and eye-opening learning experience. I didn’t always see it at the time, but I can see more clearly now how God has been leading this whole effort. For example, friends at my parish previously published a book, and told me about Pauline Books & Media. I submitted a book proposal to Pauline Books & Media, along with proposals to two other publishers. When I received an email from an editor saying they were intrigued by my book proposal, I was floored and elated.
There was a lot of waiting in the process. I would submit chapters for their review and then wait weeks or months for a response. The editor I worked with was always so kind and apologetic for the delay. It was a good lesson in waiting and trusting in the Lord. I think it was about six months from when I submitted my book proposal to when they agreed to acquire the book.
The editing and publication process has been fascinating. I think of a stereotypical author experience as being stressed about being “on a deadline.” While I had deadlines, the editors were always generous and asked me how much time I thought I would need, and they were open to giving extensions. For the most part, God helped me to find the time to complete the revisions even ahead of schedule. And in His goodness, He helped me to find joy in the editing process.
I always knew that I would want to work with a traditional publisher because I wanted the assurance that my writing was in line with the Catholic Church, that it made sense to other people and not just me, and that it was professional in quality. I know it’s easy to miss errors myself, so I was very grateful for the many sets of eyes that read the manuscript. All the staff at Pauline Books & Media have been incredibly encouraging, offered wonderful feedback, and helped to shape the book into what it is today. It’s a blessing that they have staff to help with the permissions process, publicity, and other things I know nothing about. It definitely takes a team to publish a book!
I would say it was a humbling experience, revealing my littleness, but also allowing me to witness how God can work through me and others in ways I never imagined. In an ideal world, the editors would have loved every single word I wrote, and I wouldn’t have had to do much additional work. But of course, that’s not realistic at all, and I benefited greatly from the wisdom and expertise they shared with me. I learned so much about theology and writing. And the formatting and design of the book turned out beautifully. When I first saw the formatted manuscript, I had so much joy — it looked like a “real book!” I’ve also been humbled and moved by the prayers, support, and encouragement of my family, friends, and parish.
To anyone who feels called to write a book or devotional, my main advice would be to trust in the Lord. If He is inspiring this project, He is doing it for a reason. I used to tell myself that maybe God’s plan for this book was only to reach me and the few loved ones I asked for feedback. While it wasn’t easy, I had to trust that what He had in mind would be enough, offer my efforts, and work on it with open hands. We never know what God has in mind, but we can be sure that His plans are good. He may be leading you toward contacting different publishers, considering self-publication, or reaching out to people in your network. I believe you will find more peace and clarity if you stay close to God and bring your questions, concerns, and ideas to Him.
Some people struggle to believe in God’s divine love, especially during difficult seasons of life. How can this book help someone who might find it difficult to receive that love?
I can relate to that experience of struggling to believe that I’m truly loved, of feeling unlovable and unworthy. And I understand that it can be difficult to trust in God’s goodness and love when circumstances are challenging and painful. I think “Unconditional” guides the reader through this valuable process of entering into God’s love in a way that isn’t overwhelming. If someone were to tell me, “God loves you, you just have to believe it,” that would be incredibly daunting. I wouldn’t know where to start. And especially for those of us who have experienced rejection or betrayal, it may be frightening to open ourselves up because we’re afraid of getting hurt again.
The exercises in “Unconditional” gently lead the reader on a journey to discover God’s love. We spend time in silence with God, time reflecting on the people in our lives who have revealed His love and how God shows us His love, and time engaging with Him in many different ways. I believe readers will discover that God will never reject us, never hurt us, and never stop loving us.
If someone began reading this book today, what is one thing you would hope they carry with them through the 52 weeks?
Anyone who reads this article or who reads “Unconditional” — whether they buy the book or get it as a gift — this is not an accident or coincidence that you happened to read it. I believe that “Unconditional” is God’s personal invitation to you to draw closer to him and experience His love. The best part is that it’s not about what we do when we read and pray through these exercises. It is God’s grace that leads us closer to Him and transforms us with His perfect love.
Sharon Bengel is a cradle Catholic with more than 30 years of experience in writing, communications, and publication design. A recovering newspaper reporter with a crush on the prophet Jeremiah, Sharon loves discovering new things about the scriptures. She runs an LLC out of her home office in southwest Ohio, where she keeps a stash of chocolate for her grandkids.