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For over forty years, the Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, in his role as Preacher to the Papal Household, has delivered a yearly homily in St. Peter's Basilica during the Good Friday liturgy. He has offered his meditations in the presence of the last three popes: Pope John Paul II from 1980 to 2005, Pope Benedict XVI from 2006 to 2012, and Pope Francis from 2013 to 2022. As in St. John's Gospel and the early Church, Good Friday marks the hour of the death of Christ and at the same time of his exaltation and his victory over sin and suffering--a day of mourning but even more of rejoicing. The whole Paschal Mystery is commemorated in it. These insightful and moving sermons not only illuminate the mystery of the Lord's Passion; they are also a precious instrument in view of a New Evangelization in "Spirit and power." Cardinal Cantalamessa gazes on the cross of Christ in the light of our modern world, and the modern world in the light of Christ's cross.

Thomas Aquinas is widely considered the greatest and most influential of Catholic theologians. Yet too often his insights into the nature of God and the meaning of life are seen as somehow cold, impersonal, and divorced from spirituality. In this award-winning book, Bishop Robert Barron shows how Aquinas' profound understanding of the Christian mystical life animates and helps explain his writings on Jesus Christ, creation, God's "strange" nature, and the human call to ecstasy. "When one interprets Thomas merely as a rationalist philosopher or theologian, one misses the burning heart of everything he wrote. Aquinas was a saint deeply in love with Jesus Christ, and the image of Christ pervades the entire edifice that is his philosophical, theological, and scriptural work. Above all, Thomas Aquinas was a consummate spiritual master, holding up the icon of the Word made flesh and inviting others into its transformative power."

"In this groundbreaking book, the first of two volumes, Bishop Robert Barron offers a new way of understanding the Old Testament rooted in the writings of the Church Fathers." -- Book jacket provided by publisher.

"The feminine genius," a term coined by Pope St. John Paul II, has become something of a buzzword in the Catholic world. But has the fullness of femininity been exhausted? This collection of seventeen essays, written by Catholic women of diverse backgrounds and vocations, is a call to pursue what is too often excluded from our picture of femininity: the intellectual life. Following Mary, the "Seat of Wisdom," who "treasured" the words of the shepherds and "pondered them in her heart," With All Her Mind shows how the feminine genius involves both affectivity and active intellectual engagement. Full of practical advice and personal testimonies and featuring a foreword by celebrated scholar Tracey Rowland, this collection opens readers to the endlessly unique ways for a woman to follow the first and greatest commandment: to love the Lord with all her soul, with all her heart, and with all her mind.

In recent decades, antipathy toward religious belief in general, and Christianity in particular, has been on the rise, with over a quarter of Americans now identifying as religiously unaffiliated. But the truth of what thoughtful Christians actually believe is not being told. In Light from Light: A Theological Reflection on the Nicene Creed, one of the Church's leading thinkers invites skeptics and seekers to discover the intellectual richness of the Catholic faith. Walking through the ancient Nicene Creed, Bishop Robert Barron offers readers a clear and compelling explanation of the basics of the faith for a new generation, especially those who have wandered away.

For many Catholics today, the Eucharist is merely a symbol of Christ, and the Mass is merely a collectivity of like-minded individuals gathering to remember his life. But the truth of what is made present on the altar, and what the faithful dare to receive into their bodies and souls, is far more strange and beautiful. In this engaging theological treatise, Bishop Robert Barron offers a reintroduction to the ancient meaning and power of the Eucharist. Through a threefold analysis of the Eucharist as sacred meal, sacrifice, and Real Presence--distinct but tightly interwoven motifs grounded in Scripture--Bishop Barron draws readers into the profound truth flowing out of Jesus' words at the Last Supper: "Take, eat; this is my body. . . . Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant." We are not merely invited to remember Jesus or imitate his moral example; we are invited to the grace of communion--and ultimately, to the realm of God--by eating and drinking the very self that he offers in sacrifice.

Why believe God exists, or believe Jesus is God? Why listen to the Catholic Church? Why is the Church so strict about sex? Questions like these have propelled a crisis of disaffiliation and disbelief among Catholics in recent decades. Half of millennial Catholics have turned their backs on the Church, and at many churches, only a minority of parishioners believe in all of its teachings about faith and morality. Building on the call of the Second Vatican Council for a greater appreciation of Scripture, The Wisdom of the Word invites Catholics who are thinking about leaving the Church, or who are confused about elements of Catholic faith and practice, to pause and give the Bible a chance to illuminate their way. From the infighting among the Catholic faithful to the sins of Catholic leaders, and from Christ's sacrifice on the cross to the Church's emphasis on caring for the poor, theologians Michael Dauphinais and Matthew Levering explore common challenges to the faith in light of the timeless insights of the Word. "The prayerful reading of God's Word," Pope Francis reminds us, "which is 'sweeter than honey' yet a 'two-edged sword, ' enables us to pause and listen to the voice of the Master. It becomes a lamp for our steps and a light for our path." Do you, or does someone you know, think that certain elements of the Catholic faith just don't make sense? If so, the ancient wisdom of God's Word--sweeter than honey and sharper than a sword--awaits.

It is difficult to overestimate the impact that Pope Benedict XVI has had on the Catholic Church. He served the people of God as a priest, an advisor at the Second Vatican Council, a bishop, a cardinal, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the 265th pope. But in addition to his influence as a churchman, Joseph Ratzinger also stands out as one of the most significant thinkers in recent history. He is the author of more than sixty books, numerous articles, and countless homilies. Catholics and non-Catholics alike have been inspired and challenged by his theological writings. For many people, it can be difficult to know where to begin. The Pope Benedict XVI Reader offers a point of entry for those seeking a deeper engagement with his teachings, whether you have read little of his work or have enjoyed it for years. This wide-ranging collection draws together some of the finest excerpts from Ratzinger's interviews, speeches, audiences, homilies, and books, with insights on a variety of topics, including the Trinity, the person of Jesus Christ, the Church, Mary and the saints, the Bible, the liturgy, prayer, the Second Vatican Council, and the challenge of living the faith in the modern world. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of a man whose legacy of scholarly erudition, pastoral gentleness, and deep and abiding love for Christ and his Church continues to awe the world.

The Rosary is one of the most widely recognized prayers of Catholicism--and also one of the most misunderstood. What is it all about? How do you pray it? And what is it meant to accomplish? Join one of the world's leading Catholic evangelists, Bishop Robert Barron, in exploring the meditative depth, rhythmic beauty, and spiritual power of this ancient prayer. Informative, intuitive, and beautifully designed, The Rosary with Bishop Barron is an essential book for anyone hoping to gain a better understanding of the Rosary, a stronger commitment to praying it, and a deeper appreciation of its power.

The seven sacraments are the main expressions of the Church's life, and in the lives of the saints, we see the concrete effects of their power. This brief booklet accompanying Bishop Barron's new Sacraments study program was created to help you to come to a deeper understanding of these channels of grace through some of the great holy men and women of the Church, including Pope St. John Paul II and Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, and to seek out the sacraments--and the holiness of life they produce--with renewed clarity and energy.

The book of the prophet Jonah is only two pages long--and Jonah's prophesying is limited to one short sentence. And yet, around this small book, as if it were around Jonah's own troubled ship, high waves of controversy and mystery have swirled for centuries. In A Journey with Jonah: The Spirituality of Bewilderment, the Irish Dominican scholar Fr. Paul Murray strives to uncover the great lesson of this story of bewilderment. Featuring a 2003 lectio divina on Jonah by then-Cardinal Ratzinger--published here in English for the first time--A Journey with Jonah, like the book of Jonah itself, is a brief but compelling journey into the heart of the spiritual life.

Proclaiming the Power of Christ: Classic Sermons is a collection of over thirty of Bishop Robert Barron's greatest homilies. Exploring both Old and New Testament texts, Bishop Barron brings his characteristic blend of erudition and relatability to a variety of subjects. From its humble beginnings in Chicago to its worldwide reach to millions today, Word on Fire emerged out of Bishop Barron's masterful preaching. But that preaching--as these classic sermons demonstrate--emerged out of a mission: to proclaim Christ to the culture and to draw people into his Church.

"After Humanity is a guide to one of C.S. Lewis's most widely admired but least accessible works, The Abolition of Man, which originated as a series of lectures on ethics that he delivered during the Second World War. These lectures tackle the thorny question of whether moral value is objective or not. When we say something is right or wrong, are we recognizing a reality outside ourselves, or merely reporting a subjective sentiment? Lewis addresses the matter from a purely philosophical standpoint, leaving theological matters to one side. He makes a powerful case against subjectivism, issuing an intellectual warning that, in our "post-truth" twenty-first century, has even more relevance than when he originally presented it. Lewis characterized The Abolition of Man as "almost my favourite among my books," and his biographer Walter Hooper has called it "an all but indispensable introduction to the entire corpus of Lewisiana." In After Humanity, Michael Ward sheds much-needed light on this important but difficult work, explaining both its general academic context and the particular circumstances in Lewis's life that helped give rise to it, including his front-line service in the trenches of the First World War. After Humanity contains a detailed commentary clarifying the many allusions and quotations scattered throughout Lewis's argument. It shows how this resolutely philosophical thesis fits in with his other, more explicitly Christian works. It also includes a full-color photo gallery, displaying images of people, places, and documents that relate to The Abolition of Man, among them Lewis's original "blurb" for the book, which has never before been published" --

St. Catherine of Siena is well-known for her mysticism, preaching, and piercing intellect"€"she's the only layperson to ever be named a Doctor of the Church"€"but her work is written with a fiery passion that is not common to theological works. But for all the attention to St. Catherine, surprisingly little has been said about her understanding of freedom. While she knew well the "unspeakably crazy" love of God, she also recognized the slavery of sin and the necessity of facing our own inner darkness. Her passion, the passion that inflamed almost all of her works, was to lead those enslaved by sin to freedom and self-knowledge in God. In this profound new book from the Word on Fire Institute, the Irish Dominican poet and writer Fr. Paul Murray, OP, draws us into the fire of St. Catherine's love for God and humanity. This unique book looks at her life through not only the lens of Dominican spirituality but also the work of Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and the modern psychologist Carl Jung. Murray ultimately draws a compelling portrait of a saint and thinker whose writing still speaks to us forcefully.

G.K. Chesterton once said that Catholicism keeps its beliefs "side by side like two strong colors, red and white . . . It has always had a healthy hatred of pink." Catholicism is both/and, not either/or. It celebrates the union of contraries--grace and nature, faith and reason, Scripture and Tradition, body and soul--in a way that the full energy of each opposing element remains in place. In Vibrant Paradoxes, bestselling author Bishop Robert Barron brings together themes and motifs that many would consider mutually exclusive or, at best, awkward in their juxtaposition. But seen through the Incarnation, these opposites crash together and reflect new light in every direction requiring a new vision. This book will train you to see.

Dig into the rich tradition of Catholic literature with these significant and influential books recommended by Bishop Barron. These titles have transformed cultures and have proven indispensable to those seeking to encounter God, as revealed in Jesus Christ through His Church. The books are each elegantly bound and include a ribbon bookmark and a foreword and charcoal sketch of the book's author by Bishop Barron! You will not only enrich your life with these works, you'll be proud to display these gorgeous editions in your home or office. Translated by F.J. Sheed Prior to Augustine, no author had ever turned his speculative gaze so intently upon his own life and interiority. Hence, without the 'Confessions', there would have been no Shakespearean soliloquies (in fact, Augustine coined the term 'soliloquia'); Joyce could never have written 'Ulysses' or 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'; Freud and Jung could never have developed psychoanalysis. - Bishop Barron

In the modern world, Christianity has come to be seen by many as an unintellectual, uninspiring, and unthreatening worldview. But the classical tradition of mystics and scholars reveals something quite different: the most engaging, surprising, and strange of all the religious paths. The Strangest Way: Walking the Christian Path is an instructive guide through the breathtaking reality of what it means to be a Christian. Bishop Barron not only lays out his famous three paths to holiness--finding the center, knowing you're a sinner, and realizing your life is not about you--but also concretizes them with practical actions. Drawing on both literary and spiritual masters, Bishop Barron invites readers to intimacy with God through imitation of his own self-gift in Christ.

This book addresses the claim that Tolkien read very little modern fiction, and took no serious notice of it. This claim, made by one of his first biographers, has led to the widely accepted view that Tolkien was dismissive of modern culture, and that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are fundamentally medieval and nostalgic in their inspiration. In fact, as Holly Ordway demonstrates in this major corrective, Tolkien enjoyed a broad range of contemporary works, engaged with them in detail and depth, and even named specific titles as sources for and influences upon his creation of Middle-earth. Drawing on archival research, Ordway shows how Tolkien appreciated authors as diverse as James Joyce and Beatrix Potter, Rider Haggard and Edith Nesbit, William Morris and Kenneth Grahame.

Jordan Peterson's lectures and writings on psychology, philosophy, and religion have been a cultural phenomenon. Yet Peterson's own thought is marked by a tensive suspension between archetype and reality--between the ideal of Christ and the God who acts in history. Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life is the first systematic analysis, from a Christian perspective, of both Peterson's biblical series on YouTube and his bestselling book 12 Rules for Life, with an epilogue examining its sequel, Beyond Order. Christopher Kaczor and Matthew R. Petrusek draw readers into the depths of Peterson's thought on Scripture, suffering, and meaning, exploring both the points of contact with Christianity and the ways in which faith fulfills Peterson's project.

" ... a foundational tool for both the Word on Fire Institute and the broader Word on Fire movement. Its purpose is to help evangelists better understand the spiritual and theological ethos of Word on Fire. The contents of this book are aligned with the Eight Principles of Word on Fire." --

Catholic social teaching--when it is not distorted or misrepresented--is famously confounding to the pundits and politicos, both left and right. How can the Catholic Church simultaneously advocate against abortion and assisted suicide but for immigration reform and attention to the poor? How can it stand against the abuse of the environment and for the free market, against the death penalty and for the family? This unique Word on Fire Classics collection aims to bring the both/and of the Church's social teaching into sharp relief. That teaching comes roaring out of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament, into the writings of the Church Fathers, and down through the Church's encyclicals and in the writings of the saints. The Catholic Social Teaching Collection encompasses all of these different dimensions of the Church's history. But its purpose is not just to reveal the ethical and historical breadth of Catholic social teaching; it is to reveal its metaphysical heart--namely, God. With God out of the picture, it is indeed hard to make sense of the array of opinions the Church holds. But with God at the heart of things, the positions fall into harmony, much like the medallions in a rose window. If God exists, then every individual person is a subject of rights, freedom, and dignity. If God exists, then no one is expendable and everyone is equally worthy of respect.