Spirituality
Download a printable Examination of Conscience with special attention to the influence of digital technology HERE.
These past two decades, modern technology has brought into being scores of powerful challenges to our interior peace and well-being. We're experiencing a worldwide crisis of attention in which information overwhelms us, corrodes true communion with others, and leaves us anxious, unsettled, bored, isolated, and lonely.
These pages provide the time-tested antidote that enables you to regain an ordered and peaceful mind in a technologically advanced world. Drawing on the wisdom of the world's greatest thinkers, including Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas, these pages help you identify - and show you how to cultivate - the qualities of character you need to survive in our media-saturated environment.
This book offers a calm, measured, yet forthright and effective approach to regaining interior peace. Here you'll find no argument for retreat from the modern world; instead these pages provide you with a practical guide to recovering self-mastery and interior peace through wise choices and ordered activity in the midst of the world's communication chaos.
Are you increasingly frustrated and perplexed in this digital age? Do you yearn for a mind that is more focused and a soul able to put down that IPhone and simply rejoice in the good and the true? It's not hard to do. The saints and the wise can show you how; this book makes their counsel available to you.
Ministry is transformative action. As Christians, when we do something in service--engaging the needs of our sister and brothers in the name of Jesus Christ--we minister for the reign of God. The Romero House volunteers, whose narratives undergird this volume, actively construct a theology of ministry while undergoing a powerful sense of personal transformation. In Ministry That Transforms, Kathleen McAlpin:
Anyone involved in ministry--whether in formation programs, in parishes, or in social justice activities--will welcome this creative, process-oriented framework for ministerial theology and faith development, a framework that is firmly grounded in the minister's grassroots experience.
Whether we know it or not, we all have family members or friends who are fighting hidden battles of doubt, alienation, isolation, guilt, compulsions, grief, or hopelessness. But often we don't know exactly how to offer the Good News of Jesus to them in these struggles--at least not beyond offering our "thoughts and prayers." Mission-Ready Friendship is a roadmap for how to truly befriend your friends, not by solving their problems for them but by going deeper to become the friend Jesus created you to be.
Jason J. Simon grew up in a faithful home but wandered into darkness through his high school and college years. For years, he struggled with shame and despair until Chip, a guy he met while eating donuts after Mass, noticed that darkness and disrupted it by being an intentional, thoughtful friend. This relationship changed Simon's life and eventually inspired him to lead the Evangelical Catholic, a national organization dedicated to helping people discover how God is already at work in the lives of our innermost circle.
This book spells out simple and incremental practices any Catholic can use to develop deeper, more purposeful friendships. You will learn how to
Jesus himself used these practices with his followers and sent each of them to use mission-ready friendship to share his good news with others. It's a simple but powerful approach to relationships that promises to change lives, including your own.
How can I experience God? What are His angels like? What will I know, feel, and sense in Heaven? In these insightful pages, Mother Angelica answers these and countless more otherworldly questions - not Mother Angelica the teacher, but Mother Angelica the mystic.
These pages are the fruit of her intense, lifelong Eucharistic contemplation, and were written in the hundreds of hours she spent in adoration of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Out of Her communion with Jesus have come these mystical insights into the nature of God, the experience of Heaven, and the active work of His holy angels.
Mother Angelica's meditations on God, His home, and His angels will open vistas of God's creation that few have ever experienced. Mother Angelica on God, His Home, and His Angels is a unique experience, an irreplaceable vision, and an unparalleled lesson in what the human spirit is capable of when it is totally open to God.
From the spiritual writings and reflections of Mother Angelica comes this lucid and life-transforming book for anyone who struggles with suffering, or finds difficulty in persevering in your daily responsibilities.
Mother Angelica provides consolation and advice that only a spiritual mother can provide, helping you to understand the purpose of suffering, how it can be redemptive, and when to know you're allowing your suffering to go to waste.
You'll also learn about dryness in prayer and how it can be a gift, as well as how to respond to what she calls "spiritual hangovers."
You'll learn how Christ is closest to you when He is silent, and how His silence can be one of the most powerful and purifying elements of the spiritual life.
Finally, Mother Angelica shows you that what Jesus needs most from you is gratitude, trust, and, indeed, weakness. Follow the advice Mother Angelica offers in these pages, and you'll soon find yourself consoled and reawakened to the generous grace God is daily offering to you.
MOTHER ANGELICA'S GUIDE TO THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
A GUIDE TO THE SPIRITUAL LIFE from the nun who made it her life’s work to instruct millions
Mother Angelica, the celebrated founder of EWTN Global Catholic Network, dedicated her life to directing the gaze of her audience to Heaven. This volume assembles her most profound and timeless advice on how you can grow in holiness and achieve your ultimate purpose – to spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus.
In her typical entertaining but uncompromising style, Mother Angelica reminds you that salvation is won at a great price. You will learn why following Christ is often so difficult, and you will discover the simple ways you can begin even now to make progress in the most vexing areas of your life.
Mother Angelica will inspire you to enter willingly and confidently into the battle for virtue while she offers time-tested methods for overcoming your fears and anxieties. She identifies the many common flaws and obstacles to spiritual growth and shares with you the strategies the saints employed to conquer their temptations.
You will also learn:
- How to conquer nervousness, self-doubt, and timidity
- How to deal with tension involving a loved one
- Ways you can avoid dwelling on past missteps
- Techniques for profiting from criticism and for avoiding situations that bring it about
- Why not all anger is intrinsically wrong
- Why we all have genuine identifiable weaknesses
- How hang-ups over past mistakes can thwart future growth
- Why uncertainty is different from doubt
- The four essential duties of all parents
- How to evaluate your spiritual growth with humility and objectivity
- How to know if someone is bringing out your best or least favorable qualities
Paperback. 153 pages.
For years, Mother Angelica blessed viewers with her timeless wit and wisdom. Now, this beautiful collection provides highlights of her trademark compassion and down-to-earth advice.
Mother teaches how to truly love and forgive amidst life's many challenges. She provides guidance on how to live Catholicism in the modern world and grow in your personal relationship with God. With this candid and inspired expression of the Faith, you will feel your devotion to our Eucharistic Lord and the Blessed Mother deepen, and find healing in the transformative power of suffering that leads to joy.
With this spiritual master to guide you, you will also learn how to open your heart to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and be filled with the courage you need to boldly live out your faith.
Many books approach Scripture with a scholarly method, critically examining each line and interpreting symbols or metaphors in a way that can be hard to digest. Refreshingly, Mother Angelica unpacks biblical lessons from a "grassroots" perspective for the average person. Her meat-and-potatoes explanations reveal the meaning of the Scriptures in ways you can understand and relate to in your life. She invites you to ask yourself: What's in it for me?
This book is drawn from Mother's popular Bible Stories Spirituality television series. Through her personal accounts and down-to-earth reflections, you will enter into each passage and experience God's love and guidance as never before. You will also see how the stories you read in Scripture are still occurring today, only with an ever-new cast of characters.
Mother encourages you to stand in wonder of God's creation and contemplate His generosity, rather than trying to "figure things out." In her conversational way, she explores stories in Genesis and connects them to your story. She also shows how the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament and the sacramental life of the Church.
In these compelling pages, you will discover how deeply you are cherished by God and how close He is to you, especially in difficult times. You will also learn:
Moreover, Mother's life lessons will show you how to stop looking back in order to look ahead and how to enjoy the promises of God. You will see the importance of consulting the Lord in all things and the power of your prayers in helping convert sinners -- even at the last moment of their lives.
Furthermore, you will find out how to restore true reverence for God in your life and in our world. Most significantly, you will discover how to read the Bible with the faith of a child so you may enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Many books approach Scripture with a scholarly method, critically examining each line and interpreting symbols or metaphors in a way that can be hard to digest. Refreshingly, Mother Angelica unpacks biblical lessons from a "grassroots" perspective for the average person. Her meat-and-potatoes explanations reveal the meaning of the Scriptures in ways you can understand and relate to in your life. She invites you to ask yourself: What's in it for me?
This book is drawn from Mother's popular Bible Stories Spirituality television series. Through her personal accounts and down-to-earth reflections, you will enter into each passage and experience God's love and guidance as never before. You will also see how the stories you read in Scripture are still occurring today, only with an ever-new cast of characters.
Mother encourages you to stand in wonder of God's creation and contemplate His generosity, rather than trying to "figure things out." In her conversational way, she explores stories in Genesis and connects them to your story. She also shows how the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament and the sacramental life of the Church.
In these compelling pages, you will discover how deeply you are cherished by God and how close He is to you, especially in difficult times. You will also learn:
- Three ways to attain the wedding garment for eternal life
- Practical ways to grow in virtue and combat vice through the Precious Blood of Jesus
- What to do during life's deserts when life seems impossible
- Ways you can imitate Abraham and other biblical models of holiness
- How similar your struggles are to the struggles of biblical figures who learned "the hard way"
- The means by which you can help release an ocean of God's mercy in our world
Moreover, Mother's life lessons will show you how to stop looking back in order to look ahead and how to enjoy the promises of God. You will see the importance of consulting the Lord in all things and the power of your prayers in helping convert sinners -- even at the last moment of their lives.
Furthermore, you will find out how to restore true reverence for God in your life and in our world. Most significantly, you will discover how to read the Bible with the faith of a child so you may enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Rich in imagery, history, and spirituality, these stories evoke the nearness of those we have loved beyond the graves that hold them. A perfect gift for anyone who has or desires a deep and abiding love for their mother. In every remembrance the true gift of a parent's love and legacy will touch our own minds and hearts in appreciation and thanksgiving.
Peter Le understands suffering.
His dramatic story begins in a childhood marked by polio and a flight from war-torn Vietnam as one of the thousands of "boat people" who immigrated to the United States in the 1980s. But Le says his greatest trial--and most profound joy--began in the fall of 2018 when he learned he had thyroid cancer.
In My Life of Grace, he offers a practical yet deeply personal exploration of redemptive suffering and how we can uniquely enter into the Passion of Christ by embracing our trials so we can persevere in grace and hope.
"The greatest grace that God can give someone is to send him a trial he cannot bear with his own powers--and then sustain him with his grace so he may endure to the end and be saved."
Le says this quote attributed to St. Justin Martyr defines his life.
Throughout his continued battle with thyroid cancer--years of pain, multiple treatments, surgeries, medications, and visits to numerous doctors and cancer centers--Le's confusion and hopelessness were overtaken by excitement, hope and awe. He realized that he was receiving God's consolation.
Le considers himself blessed--and that's why he calls himself "Graceman."
Without glossing over the realities of his suffering, Le shares lessons he learned in the "school of suffering, including new life is possible in Christ, allowing us to share not only in the Cross but also in the glory of the Resurrection. He also challenges us to embrace our own pain as a conduit of grace.
The book includes a special novena to Our Lady of La Vang, the patroness of Vietnam, who consoles her children in their suffering.
Have you ever longed for a soul-enriching personal retreat with a spiritual master that you could experience in the comfort and privacy of your own home?
Well, your wait is over, because this extraordinary volume by the Theologian of the Pontifical Household, Fr. Wojciech Giertych, O.P., aspires to nothing less than giving you intimate "eye contact" with God.
In his deeply penetrating and engaging style, Fr. Giertych reveals how to cultivate the theological and moral virtues in your daily life. He describes faith as a spark plug: "Every time we make an act of faith, the supernatural life is triggered; there is the ignition of the supernatural life, and power comes out of Jesus." Miracles happen, he attests, when we show faith - like the woman who touched Jesusï1/2ï1/2ï1/2 cloak, and His heart, with her belief and was healed of a hemorrhage.
You will learn how to pray in faith each time you pray, even when your faith has been challenged. You will also learn how to go beyond intellectual reasoning and experience and how to nourish the supernatural quality of faith. You will see how a mustard seed of faith can lead to contemplative prayer and communion with Jesus and will learn ways to introduce children to contemplative prayer.
This book reveals how to demonstrate authentic love in marriage and how to regard sexuality as an expression of charity, regardless of your vocation. It relates how to foster a pure faith, free of "mental contraceptives" that block the life of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, it clarifies the connection between faith and reason and their role in Catholic social ethics.
Best of all, Fr. Giertych explains how Christ shows us the "Face of the Father" and His paternal heart. In His divine mercy, Jesus pours His power out through us. In this radiance, you will view different aspects of the virtue of hope - how to rekindle it in your life and share it with the world. These pages also illustrate how:
"A valuable contribution to the reflection on the relationship between science and religion, presenting very sound arguments with abundant documentation and a casual style that makes for an enriching and gratifying read."
--Fernando Sols, professor of condensed matter physics, Complutense University of Madrid
Here is the book you need to challenge atheists and agnostics to defend their ideologies logically and rationally and to fortify your own beliefs. In this distinctive book, which draws from all fields of science, José Carlos González-Hurtado presents a preponderance of empirical evidence for theism in a way that you can easily understand and explains how atheism twists reality to justify its view by "selective skepticism."
This thoroughly documented incisive work will strengthen your view of the existence of God, regardless of your beliefs about evolution or lack of religious affiliation. González-Hurtado explains how the majority of mathematicians and scientists who are remembered for remarkable discoveries in mathematics, physics, quantum mechanics, chemistry, cosmology, biology, and more were theists -- and he provides many of their accounts. In these enlightening pages, you will find:
In addition, González-Hurtado illustrates why string theory and multiverses are best left for Hollywood movies, how verified results in cosmic microwave background and other observations verify the creation of the universe, and how multiple attempts to support the "theory of the bouncing universe" are disproved.
Although the science behind a Necessary Being is irrefutable, a small but vocal number of scientists refuse to accept the evidence. Some oppressive regimes have gone so far as to persecute or kill those who espouse cosmology, but Hurtado exposes these crimes and debunks their illogical thinking.
You will learn the difference between creationism and Intelligent Design and what it really means to live by Darwinian laws. As even Stephen Hawking admitted, "The universe has not always existed; on the contrary, the universe, and time itself, had a beginning with the Big Bang."
Faith, simply put, places us in real contact with God. Faith is our strength as Christians, because it teaches us to rely on Him in all things. Often lived most fervently when experiencing spiritual desolation, faith bears the fruit of peace, hope, and love. Take nine days with Fr. Jacques to meditate on your faith and learn how to deepen and strengthen it, so that through both times of ease and times of burden, your faith can keep you focused on God, as he faithfully keeps his focus on you.
Peace of heart is not only a blessing but also a necessary condition for the growth of our spiritual lives. How do we not only find peace but then keep it? Step by step, in a period of nine days, Fr. Jacques Philippe describes how to welcome this inner peace in all areas of our existence. He shows us how to rest in the deep resonance of God’s holy peace amidst the highs and lows, ease and struggles of everyday life. Allow your heart to be guided by Fr. Jacques toward a more peaceful existence that penetrates every area of your life and calls you to a deeper relationship with the Lord.
This is the second of Fr. Jacques’ books in the “Nine Days To” series.
We tend to think that miracles are all God's doing, that our cooperation is not important. But in truth, part of every miracle taking place is a profound faith expressed through action. In No Faith, No Miracles Arlene McGannon takes Gospel accounts of Jesus' miracles a step further by applying each account to our own lives. Rather than expecting the miraculous, Jesus calls us to recognize our role in the making of miracles.
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With characteristic simplicity and love, Bishop Robert Morneau shares his passion to understand and relate to the mystery of God. Gleaning key experiences from 21 diverse spiritual guides (including Saint John of the Cross, Teilhard de Chardin, Evelyn Underhill, Dag Hammarskjold, Mother Teresa, Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Yves Congar, Dietrich Bonhoeffer...), he shows how each teacher's unique approach contributes to the beauty of how we can return God's love for us. A profound collection of spiritual lessons, Notes of Thanksgiving will call you to prayer, to gratitude, and to a renewed awareness of how to allow God's will to govern your life.
Bishop Morneau's wise and pithy meditations from twenty-one masters of the spiritual life will carry you through the day. You'll want it in your purse or pocket." Dana Greene,author of biographies of Evelyn Underhill, Maisie Ward and Denise Levertov
What happened to the girl who was not afraid to climb to the top of the waterfall and jump. Who backpacked across Europe? Who took on any "feat of bravery" without batting an eyelash? You wouldn't recognize her - she's become that woman paralyzed by fear, scared to death to trust God, and trying to manage her family's hectic life, financial crises (yes, plural), and family issues on her own steam.
Asking always, "Does God truly love me?"
Relatable, touching, and yet hopeful On the Other Side of Fear is the beautiful story of how one young woman learned to live in God's will, without fear.
We live in apocalyptic times: secularization, persecution, and atheism abound. In the history of the Church, the faithful relied on councils to unify and help them weather life's fierce trials. But what recourse do we have when the synods themselves begin sparking confusion and discord?
Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong was formed during the "wind of Pentecost" surrounding the Second Vatican Council and taught theology and philosophy in seminaries for more than fifty years. In these pages, collected from His Eminence's homilies, pastoral letters, and addresses, Cardinal Zen breaks open the Gospels and Sacred Tradition to help you remain steadfast in the true Faith and enliven your personal relationship with our Lord.
These wise teachings will safeguard you and provide the spiritual medicine and "rich nutrition" need for fruitful daily living. Cardinal Zen reveals how to transmit the Faith with vitality and love to every generation -- even from your own home. Through his insights, drawn from extraordinary real-life experience, you will also glean:
Regardless of where you are on your faith journey, Cardinal Zen reminds you: "Jesus has crazily fallen in love with you with all His heart, has dedicated Himself to you, and will not give up on you." As you encounter Christ's transformative presence in your life, you will be empowered with the courage to invite others to loving union with Him.
Just before she died of brain cancer in April 2020, Macrina Wiederkehr gifted her friend and coauthor Joyce Rupp with one of the many journals she kept over the years where she reflected on scripture and her own spirituality. Rupp writes in the foreword for Open Wide My Heart, "I observed certain currents of yearning and faithfulness that remained throughout the decades: a thirst for an ever-fuller relationship with the Holy One; a tremendous respect for scripture as an incentive for spiritual transformation; a recognition of not being all she hoped to be regarding her inner growth; and a continual return to a belief in her essential goodness."
That is the essence of Open Wide My Heart, which pulls together two years of personal reflections by Wiederkehr, a beloved spiritual author, popular retreat leader, and Benedictine sister. These brief yet poignant writings serve as guideposts as you begin or deepen your scripture study and offer gentle direction for your faith and a better understanding of daily life.
Wiederkehr also shares nuggets of spiritual wisdom she gained in her reading, including
Open Wide My Heart is an invitation to learn from a bestselling spiritual writer's practice and witness her deeply meditative approach to scripture and life. In the process, you can grow in confidence in your own scripture reading.
Every twenty-five years, pilgrims from all over the world flock to Rome for a jubilee year to witness the opening of a special door on the north side of St. Peter's Basilica--the Holy Door--and to receive a special blessing by passing through it. This bronze Holy Door uniquely depicts the salvation story, from the dawn of creation to the present, through sixteen panels that inspire the faithful to connect their lives to the timeless story of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
In Opening the Holy Door, scripture teacher and veteran tour guide Joan Watson examines these sixteen panels of the jubilee Holy Door, guiding readers to pray and reflect upon the deeper meaning of these images by contemplating them through the lens of scripture. With a unique combination of an attentive gaze and imaginative prayer, Watson guides you to experience, panel by panel, each image as a focal point in the scripture narratives.
Whether you're preparing for a visit to the Holy Door or embarking on an armchair pilgrimage from home, these reflections provide a meaningful way to celebrate the Year of Hope by exploring the people and holy moments that have been revered for centuries by Christians all over the world. Each reflection will help you to cross the spiritual threshold of this iconic door--located in the heart of the Church--as you enliven and enrich your faith by contemplating their timeless beauty.
This book is more than a guide for the jubilee year; it's a spiritual companion for anyone seeking answers and hope in a fractured world.
2017 Christopher Award Winner
2017 Catholic Press Association Book Awards, First Place: Marriage
There is one commonality among every saint: they all have deep faith in God that was lived out in their daily lives. Fr. Maurice Emelu explains here how the faith of Abraham, Moses, Mary, and other biblical figures evolved, and how their journey serves as a roadmap for how our faith-life can be built, nourished, and grown.
Drawing on his West African roots as well as his many years of pastoral ministry, Fr. Emelu combines the story-telling culture of Africa with a Western worldview to offer a unique perspective on the nature of faith and what it means to grow closer to the Lord.
Theological yet practical, these pages show you what the journey of faith looks like, and explains the essential elements to a life of faith which can transform not only lives, but society itself.
Leticia Ochoa Adams met Jesus in a dive bar when she was eighteen years old.
She didn't actually meet Jesus, but it was there where she first witnessed holiness in action. The bar's regulars taught her about the importance of community, being honest about who she is, not giving up on people, and how to laugh--even when awful things happen.
In Our Lady of Hot Messes, Ochoa Adams tells the ongoing story of her redemption. At times funny and heartbreaking, but always gritty and unflinchingly honest, her story shows that no matter what you're dealing with, God wants you to trust in his love.
The Tejana daughter of a single mother--a cycle she would repeat in her own life--Ochoa Adams was sexually abused as a child. She married after a two-week courtship and, eight years later, divorced her husband who struggled with drug addiction. In between she suffered a late-term miscarriage and had three more children back-to-back.
She always thought a dream life meant having a big house, kids, lots of money, and new cars. Since she hadn't yet cracked the code for the American dream, "I turned to the person that every American woman turns to when looking for a way to make a better life for herself: Oprah."
Watching the daytime talk show queen helped Ochoa Adams put a name to what happened to her as a child. But she was still searching for something more. Ochoa Adams was baptized Catholic but attended a small-town Baptist church growing up. When she reverted to Catholicism at age thirty-three in order to marry her second husband, Ochoa Adams was convinced that Catholics had all of the answers to life's toughest questions. But she quickly learned that becoming Catholic didn't mean she could just erase her bad choices and difficult past. And just when she thought she was getting her life together, her son, Anthony, died by suicide.
God, therapy, and caring priests helped her face her pain and heal her brokenness. She wants you to see yourself in her mistakes, learn from them, and realize along with her that even when we've put our trust in God--even if it's begrudgingly--we still have to do the tough work to become the person God wants us to be.
"I still make mistakes," she says, "but I'm trying not to live as a hot mess even when things around me are messy."
We are all prone to a sleepiness of the soul. That raging fire of love that was once within dwindles slowly, often extinguishing without notice. Like an unknown cancer, this spreading toxin clouds your reasoning and enfeebles your will. Your spirit feels somehow empty and your joy becomes fleeting if not faded.
What can you do?
Like any relationship of love, the soul's friendship with God must always be reinvented, refreshed, and renewed. When the honeymoon is over, the real work begins.
This brilliant volume—fully revised and remastered by the author—will help you to squelch that silent poison within: lukewarmness. From the creator of the internationally best-selling In Conversation with God series, this indispensable guide on overcoming lukewarmness can truly change your life. Learn how to defeat the “noonday devil”—that sluggish tepidity within—by rekindling the incomparable joy of following Christ.
You will find that an unwavering cheerfulness will begin to pervade every area of your being and that what once was dying will be filled with life: the life of true love.
No matter how pure or virtuous your intentions may be, you can easily get so caught up in temporal pursuits -- the things of this world -- that you forget about God and His intimate, sustained involvement in your life. But with help from this book, you can turn that around by making an examination of your life that will orient you on the fertile path to Jesus Christ.
It's not enough simply to call yourself a Christian or attend Sunday Mass: you need to decide to live for God rather than for yourself. To help you do so, Archbishop Alban Goodier explains how giving yourself to God will ennoble you and bring you great rewards. He details the many ways in which you will gain happiness by rising above the concerns of this world, even amid the cares and duties of your daily life! He shows how the very fact of God's existence -- to say nothing of achieving spiritual closeness with Him -- gives meaning and dignity to your life in a way that worldly possessions or success never can.
Uncompromising, incisive, and comprehensive, Overcoming Worldly Concerns is a much-needed wake-up call for every "comfortable Christian."
Abandon yourself fully to God and learn:
--Saint Albert the Great What is virtue? It is not a question often asked anymore; yet throughout the centuries, philosophers have considered it one of the most important questions of human life. Coming from the Latin word for "strength," virtue denotes a steady habit of willing the good--in Christian terms, pursuing the love of God and neighbor--in some particular way. While most Catholics know the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, as well as prudence, temperance, courage, and justice, many of us are unaware of numerous other virtues, such as discretion, constancy, and holy silence. Saint Albert the Great, one of the greatest Doctors of the Church, and one of the greatest intellects of all time, recognized 42 distinct virtues. His teachings not only name and define the virtues but also direct and guide us in their fruitful exercise. Few are as qualified to teach on this subject as Albert, the Universal Doctor, best known as the teacher of Saint Thomas Aquinas himself. Only a man of true virtue could teach the truth of the virtues. Brimming with heavenly insights, The Paradise of the Soul teaches what it means to attain beatitude--that is, the fulfillment of all virtue. But as Saint Albert knew, since the fullness of virtues is contained in love, and because God is love, ultimately, we can only achieve true plenitude of virtue by possessing God Himself. This is the true paradise of the soul. Let Saint Albert the Great, Doctor of the Angelic Doctor, instruct you on the path to sanctity among angels.
'If you want to know and learn how to live the sublime sacrificial, contemplative and redemptive spirituality that Our Lord introduced into the early Church, then look no further than this book. It gives the ordinary faithful the true, practical, and orthodox guidance that any serious searcher will need. It details a blueprint for prayer from the very beginning, and a step-by-step guide through meditation to the heights of contemplation.' Sr Bernadina OSF
David Torkington is a Spiritual Theologian who specialises in Mystical Theology. He has spent over sixty years living, teaching, preaching and writing about the spiritual life all over the world.
Baptism summons each Christian to a virtuous life. In this book, well-known author Robert F. Morneau helps readers to answer that call more completely by reflecting on the three great theological virtues. He has collected a month's worth of daily reflections on faith, hope, and charity. Each week opens with a song or hymn that invites readers to proclaim their faith, followed by passages for meditation from a variety of poets, novelists, philosophers, and theologians. Each day's entry concludes with a question and short prayer.
Do you want more joy in life? Make room for a daily encounter with the Lord.
In Pause in Wonder, Eddie Ensley recounts stories from his own spiritual journey as a Native American and a Catholic deacon to show how you can experience joy even in the most difficult circumstances. Simple, spiritually sound prayer practices--based on scripture and tradition--heighten your sense of wonder and bring you greater joy in everyday life.
"Joy has its tendrils in God," writes Deacon Eddie Ensley. "It draws on the infinity of his love. Having joy is a matter of being in relationship with the wellspring of joy, not due to our circumstances. God is always available, always ready to touch us. The question becomes: Are we willing to touch him? Do we want to seek deep joy in our lives?"
With compassion and wisdom, Ensley draws from his Native American heritage and spiritual journey to the Church to explore joy's true meaning and how to find it and experience it in both happy and discouraging seasons of life. Combining prayer exercises with his personal testimony, Ensley and his ministry collaborator Deacon Robert Herrmann will help you appreciate in a new way the life-changing power of the sacraments and other riches of the Church, and to be more mindful of the invisible realities all around you.
Ensley and Hermann offer step-by-step pointers to help you cultivate practical spiritual habits such as engaging in contemplative prayer and journaling to enrich your prayer life. You will also learn how to:
You will discover how to encounter God in deeply personal yet practical ways. Fresh approaches to prayer combined with scripture and the wisdom of the saints will help you rejoice always and appreciate life in all its messy excellence.
For nearly 20 years, Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain and Illness has brought encouragement and inspiration to thousands of faithful who live with the serious, ongoing health conditions. In its 110 scripture-based meditations, readers will find examples of how they can find God's grace in some of the toughest situations with illness, and how Jesus' support and tenderness are a comfort in the midst of pain. The prayers at the end of each meditation provide expression to the deep yearning, joy, and gratitude that come with journeying through a life of illness and pain with true, abiding faith. Now in a new publishing home, Peace in the Storm... is the only devotional focused on chronic pain and illness that holds the nihil obstat and imprimatur - ecclesial designations signifying that the book is free from any error in Catholic teaching. This version contains exactly the same text as the original version and is the basis for the national ministry of pastoral accompaniment for persons with chronic pain and illness, The Peace in the Storm Project.