Bøger udgivet af Ave Maria Press

Winner of a 2018 Catholic Press Association Award: First-Time Author, Spirituality Softcover (First Place) and a 2018 Association of Catholic Publishers Award: Inspirational (Second Place). For more than four-hundred years, Introduction to the Devout Life by Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales has been regarded as the essential guide to holiness and loving God. This spiritual classic takes on new life in Lift Up Your Heart, where Rev. John Burns has interpreted ten meditations for the modern reader and distilled them into a ten-day mini-retreat that can easily be completed in the midst of a busy life. This practical book goes right to the heart of helping you kick the habit of floating along on your spiritual journey to start actively pursuing holiness and devotion to God. During the course of the retreat, youll learn the basics of forming a daily prayer routine, including how to offer yourself to God, meditate on his love, and maintain peace in the face of suffering and clarity in the midst of temptation. The meditations will help you:Adopt gratitude as a daily prayer practice.Examine and reorder your priorities and relationships to better reflect your love for God.Discern between good and evil in your life.Desire to love and serve as Jesus did. In a very real sense, Burns helps you take St. Francis de Sales as your spiritual director for ten days. As you do so, you'll feel God's fatherly love and restart your faith life, equipped with the tools to connect with God and live for heaven now.

Named one of the 50 best spiritual books of 2017 by Spirituality & Practice. Winner of a 2018 Catholic Press Association Award: Prayer Collections (First Place). and a 2018 Association of Catholic Publishers Award: Prayer & Spirituality (First Place). Some of Sr. Joyce Rupp's most perennially popular books have been collections of her original prayers, blessings, poems, and reflections. In Prayer Seeds, the bestselling author and retreat leader offers almost a hundred new selections on a variety of themes such as the feasts and seasons of the liturgical year, compassion, ministry, difficult times, and important eventsall suitable for personal or group prayer. People who attend Rupp's retreats or workshops often approach her to ask for a copy of a prayer that she composed for the event. In 2000, she collected her prayers in the book Out of the Ordinary. In Prayer Seeds, Rupp follows up with about a hundred never-before-published prayers written since the publication of the first collection. The prayers are organized thematically. Rupp's warmth and closeness to God along with her sensitivity to the joy and sadness of life make her an ideal prayer companion. Her prayers are like seed planted in your soul. Tended and watered by love, they will grow and bear a rich harvest in your life.

Winner of a Catholic Press Association Award: Soft cover-spirituality books. (Third Place).For thirty years, beginning with Fresh Bread in 1985, Joyce Rupp has comforted millions with books such as Praying Our Goodbyes and May I Walk You Home. For the first time, she shares the story of her own grief in the wake of her mother's death, offering readers both a profile of her mother's resilient spirit and a voice of compassion for their own experience of loss. In this heartfelt memoir about her mother Hilda's final years, Joyce Rupp shares the lessons her mother taught her, especially to "e;fly while you still have wings."e; As a poor farmer's wife and the mother of eight living on rented land in Maryhill, Iowa, Hilda lived a life of hard labor and constant responsibility--from milking cows and raising chickens to keeping the farm's financial ledger. Rupp shows how the difficulties of her mother's early years and family life, including the loss of a twenty-three-year-old son, forged a resilience that guided her through the illnesses and losses she faced in later years. This affectionate profile of their relationship is, at the same time, an honest self-examination, as Rupp shares the ways she sometimes failed to listen to, accept, and understand her mother in her final years.Rupp begins each chapter with a meditative poem that captures the essence of each stage in the journey. Her unfailing candor and profound faith illumine this story of a mother and daughter with a universal spirit of hope, reconciliation, and peace.

The distorted view of the perfect female body created by popular culture, television, movies, and the media often causes women to become uncomfortable with their own bodies. Christine Valters Paintner, popular author of nine books and abbess of the online retreat center Abbey of the Arts, draws from Celtic, desert, and Benedictine traditions to help women connect with their bodies through writing, visual art, and movement. In The Wisdom of the Body, Christine Valters Paintner focuses on the true meaning of the IncarnationGod became fleshand points to the spiritual importance of appreciating the bodies God gave us. Each of the book's ten chapters is a mini-workshop designed to lead us to new ways of being in relationship with our bodies. Starting with the senses and shifting toward emotions and desires, Paintner explores their role as thresholds to discovering the body's wisdom. She draws from Christian tradition to offer principles and practices such as stability, hospitality, and gratitude to lead us on a journey that ends with a sense of deep peace and self-acceptance. Through expressive arts and creative movement, Paintner demonstrates a new a language and way of integrating and sharing our discoveries. By exploring the lives of women in the Bible and in the Christian traditionincluding Eve, Mary, Hildegaard of Bingen, and Amma SyncleticaPaintner introduces us to companions that accompany us on our journey.

Acclaimed, award-winning essayist and novelist Brian Doyle (1956-2017)--whose writing, in the words of Mary Oliver, is a gift to us all--presents one hundred original prayers that evoke his deep Catholic belief in the mystery and miracle of the ordinary (and the whimsical) in human life. In, A Book of Uncommon Prayer: 100 Celebrations of the Miracle & Muddle of the Ordinary, which was named A Best Spiritual Book of the Year by Spirituality & Practice, you will find a series of prayers unlike any of the beautiful, formal, orthodox prayers of the Catholic tradition or the warm, extemporized prayers heard from pulpits and dinner tables. Doyles often-dazzling, always-poignant prayers include eye-opening hymns to shoes and faith and family. In Doyles words, the world is crammed with miracles, so crammed and tumultuous that if we stop, see, savor, we are agog, and the pages of his newest book give voice and body to this credo. By focusing on experiences that may seem the most unprayerful (one prayer is titled Prayer on Seeing Yet Another Egregious Parade of Muddy Paw Prints on the Floor), he gives permission to discover the joys and treasures in what he often calls the muddle of everyday life.

Spirituality & Practice 2016 Award Winner. For the first time, all five major writings of Pope Francishis encyclicals, bulls, and apostolic exhortationsare gathered into one volume. Pope Francisthe 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Churchwas elected on March 13, 2013. Since then, he has been the most influential religious leader in the world, drawing praise and admiration from people of all faiths. The impact of his writings has been felt not just in the Catholic Church for which they were intended but throughout the world. Each of the five works collected in The Complete Encyclicals, Bulls, and Apostolic Exhortations is a book unto itself, so this volume is one that can be cherished, read, and reread by all Catholics and devotees of Pope Francis for many years to come. Volume 1 includes:Lumen Fidei, June 29, 2013: The Light of Faith is an encyclical on the centrality of faith, the relationship between reason and faith, the Church's role in the transmission of faith, and how faith results in redeeming the world.Evangelii Gaudium, Nov. 24, 2013: The apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel has been called Pope Francis's manifesto. It challenges all Christians to approach evangelization anew and overcome complacency in order to fulfill Christ's great mission.Misericordiae Vultus, April 11, 2015: In The Face of Mercy, the papal bull for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015, the pope urges Catholics, ';We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy.'Laudato Si', May 24, 2015: Praise Be to You: On Care for Our Common Home is the landmark encyclical in which Pope Francis issued a call to the entire Churchand the worldon climate change, human responsibility, the role of faith in how we live among God's entire creation, and the future of the planet.Amoris laetitia, March 19, 2016: Love in the Family is an exhortation published after the Synods on the Family. In it, Pope Francis ranges in his quotations and examples from St. Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther King Jr. to the film Babette's Feast.

Internationally known marriage and family expert Greg Popcak draws on more than twenty years as a counselor as well as his own experience as a father to show how the Beatitudes can be viewed as a practical guide to understanding the love of God and applying that love to being a better father. In the first book to uniquely focus on the Beatitudes and fatherhood, Greg Popcak helps you stop focusing on yourself and instead focus on God, learning how to be the father God wants you to be by becoming a servant leader in your home. As a father of three children, Popcak realized that Jesus call to be humble in the first Beatitude--Blessed are the poor in spirit--stands in direct opposition to what modern men learn growing up. Instead, they are taught they should live a life of unbroken success, defined by promotions at work and beautiful wives and honor students at home. The Catholic author, speaker, counselor, and radio host will show that when you practice meekness, you will connect with your family by asking them questions and listening closely to their responses. By practicing mercy, you come to know your own sins, the difficulties that lie on the path to sainthood, and how your family needs to hear about Gods grace in their lives. In BeDADitudes, you discover the profound love of God found in the Beatitudes and understand how that love can transform you into being an awesome dad.

What are the sources of anxiety, stress, and fear you experience in your life? Popular Catholic speaker and author Sonja Corbitt believes that these often-paralyzing emotions are the direct result of our everyday battles against sin and temptation. In Fearless, she equips us with the spiritual tools we need to restore our spiritual well-being. The term ';spiritual warfare' conjures images of heavenly battles between archangels and demons, but Sonja Corbitt insists that there is a realm of spiritual warfare that is more domestic than it is cosmicin the trenches of dirty bathrooms, fighting children, irritable spouses, the struggle to stop smoking or overeating, crazy schedules, and overwhelming workloads. In her new book, the author of Unleashed takes us deep into scripture and the spiritual practices of the Church in order to show us how to resist the avalanche of temptations that can threaten us and lead to paralyzing anxiety and fear. Through her powerful personal story and teaching, Corbitt shows us how to put on the armor of Christ and learn to live fearlessly, love with abandon, and embrace life with confidence. In Unleashed, Corbitt identified the spiritual wounds that reveal themselves through the harmful patterns and relationships in our lives. In Fearless, she offers scriptural tools that help us understand and conquer the demons of sin, Satan, self, and sloth. She helps us recognize the methods the devil uses to keep us enslaved and she immerses us in a profound contemplation of love, which is the only possible weapon against the spirit of fear. In this book you will come to understand the spiritual roots of fear, depression, and anxiety;ways to ';abide' in Christ and find freedom from fear;signs of negative spiritual suggestion and influence in your daily life;the deep, personal lies we believe that keep us slaves to fear;specific truths about the limitations of Satan's power and character;the ';pieces' of spiritual armor that protect us from fear; andhow to rest fully in God's goodness and love. Each chapter contains features that will make it a popular resource for personal and group study: review notes, an invitation to prayer, and a series of probing questions (called God Prompts) that encourage you to explore the content in a deeply personal way. Fearless offers encouragement to those who are anxious or fearful about the future and who seek a spiritual solution.

Catholic school teachers have a special vocation to reach the hearts and minds of young people, even in the midst of never-ending lesson planning, grading papers, and trying to lead a balanced life. Called to Teach, a book of 366 short, thought-provoking reflections, can help teachers stay focused on their Christ-centered mission by providing a source of energy, renewal, and affirmation for their day. This collection of one-minute daily reflections offers a prayerful opportunity to recapture the joyous expectation Christ has in mind for Catholic teachers. Each day begins with a scripture passage that sets a theme and provides much-needed encouragement as a reminder of the daily gifts present in a Catholic school. Justin McClain, a theology and Spanish teacher at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland, will help teachers take a fresh look at everyday benchmarks of success in lesson planning, classroom prayer, and dealing with difficult theological questions. He also addresses needs outside the classroomrelaxation and a good night's sleep, healthy eating habits, continuing education, and more time for prayer.

Winner of a 2018 Catholic Press Association Award: Sacraments. (First Place). How can Christians grow spiritually in the midst of our sinfulness? How can we transform our lives in a way that allows us to share in the resurrection of Jesus?God has already given us the perfect solutionthe sacraments.Whether it is the wound of past hurts, the strain in our relationships, or the stress of daily life, we all need to be comforted and made whole by Christ. In this follow-up to his bestselling Be Healed, Bob Schuchts explains how the sacraments can fuel your emotional and spiritual healing and bring you closer to God.Based on more than thirty-five years of experience as a therapist and decades spent in parish ministry, Schuchts demonstrates how each of the seven sacraments can be a life-changing encounter with Christ, communicated through the power of the Holy Spirit. He pairs each healing sacrament with one of the seven deadly wounds that emanated from original sin in the Garden of Eden. We perpetuate and deepen those wounds each time we sin, but the sacraments are God's remedy for sin. They give us a way to restore us to wholeness in Christ.In Be Transformed, You'll discover how each sacrament can help you heal from wounds that can impede your relationships and sense of self-worth. With Schuchts's help, you'll learn how:Baptism makes us beloved children of God, healing our wounds of rejectionHoly Communion heals our wounds of abandonment by inviting us to share in Jesus' abiding presenceConfirmation overcomes our powerlessness through the power of the Holy SpiritHoly Orders heals wounds of confusion and disorder by re-establishing God's authority in our livesIn marriage, God's faithful love heals wounds of fear and mistrustReconciliation restores purity and releases us from shameAnointing of the Sick provides enduring hope to overcome our hopelessnessBe Transformed offers all of the tools you need for a fresh understanding of the sacraments, including reflection questions, scripture meditations, prayers, and inspiring stories. You'll come away hungry for the sacraments in a way you never knew possible.

Are you confused about how to find your true love? Do you want to work on a current dating relationship, preparing it for engagement and marriage? Packed into 101 bite-sized suggestions,101 Tips for Marrying the Right Personis the help you need to approach dating with confidence and joy, while at the same time helping you become the best, most marriage-ready version of yourself. Jennifer Roback Morse and Betsy Kerekes offer inspiration and advice for all stages of your relationship. With research conducted by the Ruth Institute and almost fifty years of marriage experience between them, authors Jennifer Roback Morse and Betsy Kerekes have compiled their best tips to inspire and support Catholic singles during all stages of dating and engagement. The life-changing ideas in101 Tips for Marrying the Right Personoffer short, practical suggestions that will help you find a mate and build a strong relationship. You'll find advice for meeting other Catholic singles, questions to ask yourself before getting too serious, and topics to talk about before engagement. Tips include: When you're on the first date, or once you're in a relationship, see the other person for who they are. Avoid thinking you can change him or her; only God can do that.Don't expect your significant other to be perfect when you know that you are not.If you're interested in someone who isn't Catholic, have an open discussion about how you each expect faith to impact your relationship and potential marriage. Morse and Kerekes clearly articulate the challenges that face single Catholics today. The hook-up and cohabitation culture is prevalent in our society and in the media, making the temptation to succumb strong. The authors want you to know that you aren't weak for being interested in these options, but you are strong enough to resist them. You can combat these challenges by recognizing single life and dating as ideal times to discern your own call to the vocation of marriage as well as your dating relationship's readiness for the sacrament.

St. Therese of Lisieux's ';Little Way' has been embraced by people of all walks of life. In Twelve Little Ways to Transform Your Heart, author Susan Muto explores twelve facets of St. Therese's simple spiritual path as a way to personal holiness and the secret to being a powerful witness to Christ in the world today. Though she lived only to the age of twenty-four and spent almost her entire life at her family home and in the Carmelite convent, St. Therese of Lisieux displayed a love for Jesus and a passion for his gospel that have made her the patroness of the missions. The ';Little Flower's' humility and childlike trust are still powerful examples of how ordinary people can grow closer to Jesus and respond to Pope Francis's call for a new evangelization. The calls to holiness and to witness to Christ can seem daunting, but as Susan Mutorenowned speaker and expert on Carmelite spiritualityexplains, Therese shows us that they are neither difficult nor dramatic. The Little Way can be lived by any of us, even with what Therese called the ';ministry of the smile.' With deep insight and warm personal devotion, Muto explains the Little Way and will help you put twelve dimensions of it into practice, drawing others to Christ by living a simple, joyful life. These twelve ways, derived from the example of Therese, are:Learn to love the hidden lifeAppreciate what a treasure the ordinary isTrust in Divine Mercy as little children doReceive the sacraments devoutly day after dayAbandon yourself to Father, Son, and Holy SpiritFoster friendship with God and othersTake up your cross and follow JesusPray unceasinglySimplify your lifeLet God free you to be your best selfCommit yourselfbody, mind, and spiritto living the GospelLeave a legacy of evangelical virtues others want to cultivate Muto features short quotations from the saint's autobiography, poetry, letters, and prayers, as well as perceptive reflection questions and personal prayers to show how imitating Therese can make us a powerful force of love. Muto also offers practical spiritual advice for those who want to deepen their faith and are attracted to the simplicity of St. Therese's Little Way.

Originating in the early twentieth century, the Divine Mercy devotion of St. Faustina Kowalska is one of the most celebrated of all Catholic devotions. In this, their first book, Catholic bloggers and speakers Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet break open the history, practices, and prayers associated with the devotion, guiding busy moms to receive God's message of Divine Mercy and pass it on to others through their words, deeds, and prayers. In her famous Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul, St. Faustina Kowalska recorded a series of visions of Jesus where he revealed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and promised that anything can be obtained with the prayer if it is compatible with his will. St. John Paul II formally established the Divine Mercy devotion and canonized Faustina in 2000. The Marians of the Immaculate Conception are dedicated to spreading the Divine Mercy devotion the foreword for this book was written by Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC, author of Divine Mercy Explained and 33 Days to Morning Glory. In Divine Mercy for Moms, Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet of the Columbus Catholic Women's Conferenceone of the largest annual Catholic women's conferences in the countrydraw upon their own experiences to introduce you to St. Faustina and her five essential elements of the Divine Mercy message: The image of the Merciful JesusThe Feast of Divine MercyThe Chaplet of Divine MercyThe House of MercySpreading the honor of Divine Mercy With heartwarming stories and practical advice, this book reveals that mercy is not just a gift to be received in the confessional but a spiritual resource that strengthens those who extend themselves in word, deed, and prayer. Designed for personal or group study, Divine Mercy for Moms celebrates the infinite mercy of God and the role of Mary, the Mother of Mercy, in the lives of all believers.<i>Divine Mercy for Moms</i> was the winner of a 2017 Catholic Press Association Book Award: Family Life (Third Place).

How do you walk with your children during times of struggle and crisis? Do you feel as if nothing you do will be enough? In Marys Way, a heartfelt book for moms who struggle to guide children through the various stages of their lives, Catholic speaker and teacher Judy Landrieu Klein shows how her own crisis of faith helped her release her children to the care of the Blessed Mother. In doing so, Klein shows you how to find the love, joy, and peace of Our Lord as you surrender your will to him. Judy Landrieu Klein struggled with her faith as she lived through her son's near-fatal addiction to drugs and her daughter's painful anxiety. She discovered she couldn't handle the relentless pressure of life not measuring up to her expectations and it was eating away at her family. Klein considered Mary's reaction to the events in the life of Jesus. She meditated on Mary's fiat and her prayer of total surrender to God's will and saw how this act of obedience carried on throughout Mary's life as she witnessed the life of her son. As Klein focused on her devotion to the Blessed Mother, her life and faith were transformed. In Mary's Way, Klein reflects on the Annunciation and describes her own to struggle to embrace the will of God by surrendering control of her family planning. She meditates on Mary's powerlessness during the Crucifixion, finding a place of calming surrender during her own son's escalating battle with addiction. Klein shows how you can become a more powerful intercessor for yourself and your children. When you finish reading this book, you'll find yourself turning to Mary and surrendering yourself and your children more fully to God.

Bestselling author and biblical scholar Stephen J. Binz presents the first book to combine the ancient Western practice of lectio divina (sacred reading) with the lesser-known Eastern Orthodox tradition of visio divina (sacred seeing). Binz offers a life-changing way to pray through twenty gospel readings paired with beautiful, never-before-published contemporary icons. St. Benedict urged his followers to listen to God's Word ';with the ear of the heart.' Eastern Orthodox spiritual writers focused on gazing at icons, as St. Paul said, with ';the eyes of the heart.' Popular speaker and retreat leader Stephen J. Binz draws on the richness of both traditions by combining lectio and visio divina. Contemplation is more difficult than ever during this digital age and Binz offers a proven and profound way to cut through the noise and pray the gospels. He walks you through six steps: reading, seeing, meditating, praying, contemplating, and acting. Binz also provides simple suggestions for self-reflection that can lead to practical changes in your everyday life. The book's twenty Bible passagesstarting with the Annunciation and ending with Pentecostare paired with full-color icons of each story. The original, never-before-published icons, written by Ruta and Kaspars Poikans, are displayed in the Unity Chapel at the Mary of Nazareth International Center in Israel.

What is the origin of life? Hasn't the Catholic Church always been hostile to science? Can a Christian accept the scientific theory of evolution?How can you, as a Catholic, explain what the Church teaches about the relationship between science and faith? Scientist, writer, and scholar Stacy Trasancos gives us ways we can talk about how science and our Catholic faith work together to reveal the truth of Christ through the beauty of his creation. As a scientist who was led to Catholicism through her work, Stacy Trasancos has confronted some of the basic questions we all face. In Particles of Faith, she teaches us how to explain the symbiotic beauty between our curiosity expressed through science and our love of Christ and his Church.Trasancos uses her own story, as well as encyclicals such as Pope Francis's Lumen Fidei, the deep reflections of theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas, and the exacting work of Catholic scientists like Rev. Georges Lemaitre (who proposed the game-changing Big Bang theory), to show how science and faith are interwoven and meant to guide us on the path to truth. By the time you finish reading Particles of Faith, you'll be able to answer questions about, generate discussion on, and explain why science helps deepen your faith.

Spirituality & Practice 2016 Award Winner. Blessed Charles de Foucauld (18581916) was a complex man. Born into French aristocracy, he floundered as a military officer, but rediscovered his Catholic heritage and eventually lived voluntarily as an impoverished priest/hermit in the Sahara Desert in Algeria. Foucauld wanted to emulate the hidden life of Jesus in Nazareth and in doing so, left a spiritual legacy that attracted such figures as Dorothy Day and author, poet, and spiritual director Bonnie Thurston. Published in celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of Charles de Foucauld's death on December 1, 1916, Hidden in God highlights the profound conversion that led Foucauld to embrace the life of a hermit in the Sahara, where he was eventually murdered by a band of marauders. Foucauld's legacy is an enduring spiritual vision: believe in God, you should live for God and make him your reason for living. Drawing from his letters and journals, Bonnie Thurston explores how the hidden life of Nazareth brings the grace of great closeness to Jesus; the gift of the desert is the grace of complete dependence on God; and the grace of public life is the practice of charity and self-giving. Thurston adeptly demonstrates how these three locations are metaphors for states of spiritual life and ministry and how each one brings both a challenge and a danger. Words of wisdom from Foucauld, as well as questions to ponder and biblical texts to explore conclude each chapter. Thurston shares how she became enamored with Foucauld for the passionate way he lived his ideals without regard for recognition or success. ';I've fallen in love with a dead Frenchman who was a hermit,' she admitted to a friend. Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, also was attracted to Foucauld's desert spirituality and wrote to Thomas Merton and others about Foucauld's spiritual influence.

Winner of the Association of Catholic Publishers 2017 Excellence in Publishing Award: Inspirational Books (First Place). In the first book to explore how memories impact and are affected by faith, bestselling author Dawn Eden offers a guide to the process she used to heal the pain of her past. Through her own story, as well as the examples of St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Peter Faber, and Pope Francis, she shows how the mercy of God, who holds all of events of our life in his own memory, can bring you healing and inner peace. Dawn Eden's My Peace I Give You helped thousands find peace after abuse and established her as the leading Catholic authority on recovering from traumatic stress. In Remembering God's Mercy, Edenwho suffered childhood sexual abuse that left her with PTSDdescribes how she was inspired by the example of Pope Francis, St. Ignatius, and St. Peter Faber, all of whom suffered from their own painful experiences and followed a similar path to healing. Pope Francis has spoken openly about how a life-threatening bout of pneumonia affected his relationship with God, saying that recognizing and accepting the power of memories to color perceptions is essential to seeing God in all things and experiencing inner peace. The pope was influenced by the examples of Ignatius and Faber. Ignatius suffered the loss of his mother at a young age and was sent by his father to live with another family. He also fought as a mercenary soldier as a young man and experienced the trauma of war and physical pain. Faber, a student of Ignatius and among the early members of the Society of Jesus, suffered from bouts of depression and anxiety for years. He wrote in his diary how he applied Ignatius's spiritual practices in a way that enabled him to rise above his mental suffering to grow closer with God. Through the wisdom of these three Jesuits, Eden developed an Ignatian model of healing:Acknowledge your memories.Accept that they change the way you see God, your fate, and other people.Allow God to transform your memories by coloring the past and present with his story of salvation. Eden examines how Jesus' wounds can bring healing to your own hurt through prayer, Mass, the Sacraments (particularly confession), and the life of the Church. In each chapter, she will engage you with specific steps to take using the most famous Ignatian prayer, the SuscipeLatin for ';receive'to transform your past traumas into an offering to God that is united with Jesus' own self-offering.

With 250,000 copies sold, this new edition of Joyce Rupp's most popular book offers a fresh opportunity for readers to reflect, ritualize, and reorient themselves as they navigate life's inevitable changes. Everyone has unique goodbyestimes of losing someone or something that has given life meaning and value. With the touch of a poet, Joyce Rupp offers her wisdom on these experiences of leaving behind and moving on, the stories of union and separation that are written in all our hearts. Praying Our Goodbyes, Rupp says, is about the spirituality of change. It is a book for anyone who has experienced loss, whether a job change, the end of a relationship, the death of a loved one, a financial struggle, a mid-life crisis, or an extended illness. It is designed to help readers reflect, ritualize, and re-orient themselvesto help heal the hurts caused by goodbyes and the anxieties encountered when one season of life ends and another begins.

Greg and Lisa Popcakpopular Catholic authors, radio hosts, and marriage and family expertspresent this unique guide to caring for one's baby, self, marriage, and spiritual life in the first three years of parenthood. InThen Comes Baby:The Catholic Guide to Surviving and Thriving in the First Three Years of Parenthood,Greg and Lisa Popcak lend readers the benefit of their twenty-five years' experience in parenting and marriage and family counseling to help them navigate the earliest years of parenthood. They recommend rituals, routines, and tips on how to manage feeding, fatigue, and finances and how also to prioritize marital bonding and faith life, suggesting that setting the pattern early will pay dividends later. The Popcaks coach Catholic couples as they become first-time parents as they adjust to their new identities and help them face the inevitable challenges of parenthood with ideas for bonding with babies and getting sufficient sleep and nutritionall while seeing these everyday experiences through the lens of Catholic teaching on the purpose of family life.

When Sr. Miriam James Heidland's life as a successful college athlete proved unfulfilling, she went searching for something deeper and ended up falling in love with Jesus. By charting her own journey toward wholeness, Heidland invites young Catholics to pursue their own relationship with Jesus. Although originally full of athletic ambition and goals for a career in sports news, Heidland was transformed in a very slow but deep way during her undergraduate years, moving from party girl to bride of Christ. In Loved as I Am:An Invitation to Conversion, Healing, and Freedom through Jesus,Heidland helps readers learn from her experience of seeking love in the wrong places and instead finding it in Christ.She shares her struggleslearning she was adopted, battling alcoholism, and healing from childhood sexual abuseas signs of hope that anyone who desires to know Christ can find him and be loved intimately by him in return. By bringing readers into Heidland's healing process,Loved as I Am provides a gentle and subtle template for finding peace and freedom in Jesus.

The Mystical Body of Christ captures the theological precision and communicative genius of Fulton J. Sheen (18951979), whose radio and television broadcasts, including Life Is Worth Living, have reached millions of homes since the 1950s. With more than thirty of his works still in print, Sheen is one of the most beloved Catholic evangelists of all time. This full-length and fully developed work on the Church as an extension of the Incarnation reveals Sheen's accessible and theologically astute teaching style in the early years of his ministry. First published in 1935, the book's themes of the Eucharist as a source of unity for the Mystical Body of Christthe Churchand the link between the liturgy and works of social justice were echoed in the Second Vatican Council several decades later.

I advise you to read it.--Pope Francis on Lord of the World In an airplane news conference on his return from the Philippines in January 2015, Pope Francis mentioned Robert Hugh Bensons Lord of the World. It wasnt the first time the Holy Father praised the book. This 1907 futuristic narrative has been hailed as the finest work of this unsung, but influential author and son of the Archbishop of Canterbury whose conversion to Catholicism rocked the Church of England in 1903. The compelling book includes a new introduction, a biography of Benson, and a theological reflection. Popular young adult books such as The Hunger Games and Divergent, as well as literary classics such as Walker Percys Love in the Ruins and Cormac McCarthys The Road, have created a growing interest in dystopian novels. In one of the first such novels of the twentieth century, Robert Hugh Benson imagines a world where belief in God has been replaced by secular humanism. Lord of the World describes a world where Catholics are falling away and priests and bishops are defecting. Only a small remnant of the faithful remains. Julian Felsenburgh, a mysterious and compelling figure arises, promising peace in exchange for blind obedience. Those who resist are subjected to torture and execution. Soon the masses are in Felsenburghs thrall and he becomes leader of the world. Into this melee steps the novels protagonist, Fr. Percy Franklin. Dauntless and clear-sighted, Franklin is a bastion of stability as the Catholic Church in England disintegrates around him. Bensons harrowing plot soon brings these two charismatic men into a final apocalyptic conflict. With an imagination to rival H. G. Wells and theological insight akin to G. K. Chesterton, Bensons astute novel has captured the attention of many today, including Popes Benedict and Francis. This new edition makes it easily available and features an insightful introduction by Rev. Mark Bosco, S.J., a brief biography of Benson by Martyn Sampson, and a theological reflection by Rev. Michael Murphy, S.J.

Dorothy Day's unpretentious account of the life of St. Therese of Lisieux sheds light on the depth of Day's Catholic spirituality and illustrates why Therese's simplicity and humility are so vital for today. Whether you are called to the active life like Day or a more hidden existence like Therese, you will discover that these paths have much in common and can lead you to a love that has the power to transform you in ways that are unexpected and consequential. Now back in print, this short biography of St. Therese of Lisieux by Dorothy Day expresses the surprising yet profound connection between Daythe founder of the Catholic Worker movement who was praised by Pope Francis for her passion for justice and dedication to her faithand the beloved saint best known for her Little Way. When Day first read St. Therese's autobiography, The Story of a Soul in 1928, she called it ';pious pap.' At the time, Daya social activist who had been living a bohemian lifestylehad only recently been baptized a Catholic. Some twenty-five years later, Day's perspective on Therese had so completely changed that she was inspired to write this biography. She did not find it an easy task: ';Every time I sit down to write that book on the Little Flower I am blocked. . . . I am faced with the humiliating fact that I can write only about myself, a damning fact.' But she persisted, and despite numerous rejections eventually found a publisher for it in 1960. She wrote in the Preface: ';In these days of fear and trembling of what man has wrought on earth in destructiveness and hate, Therese is the saint we need.' Written originally for nonbelievers or those unaware of Therese, the book reflects how Day came to appreciate Therese's Little Way, not as an abstract concept, but as a spirituality that she had already been living. The Catholic Worker, which she cofounded with Peter Maurin, was dedicated to feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless. Day's life, like Therese's, was filled with all the humble, self-effacing jobs that were a part of this work. She found in Therese a kindred spirit, one who saw these simple hidden tasks as the way to heaven. ';We want to grow in love but do not know how. Love is a science, a knowledge, and we lack it,' Day wrote. Just as Day had a conversion of heart about the Little Way, you, too, can be changed by Therese's simple, yet profound spirituality.