Religious Books

"During the past few years, various friends have asked me, 'What do you mean when you speak about the spiritual life?' Every time this question has come up, I have wished I had a small and simple book which could offer the beginning of a response. I have felt that there was a place for a text that could be read within a few hours and could not only explain what the spiritual life is but also create a desire to live it. This feeling caused me to write "Making All Things New.".."

"The beginning of the spiritual life is often difficult not only because the powers which cause us to worry are so strong but also because the presence of God's Spirit seems barely noticeable. If, however, we are willing to live a life of prayer and practice the disciplines of solitude and community, a new hunger will make itself known. This new hunger is the first sign of God's presence. When we remain attentive to this divine presence, we will be led always deeper into the kingdom. There, to our joyful surprise, we will discover that the power of our worries is weakening and all things are being made new."
- -from "Making All Things New"

Manual for Women is for women who seek to grow closer to Christ and his Blessed Mother, for women who seek to discover or rediscover what it means to be a woman after God's own heart.

In Part I, noted Catholic author Danielle Bean, using examples from Scripture, the lives of the saints, and modern life, reminds women of today to embrace and cultivate their distinctive gifts:

Receptivity, or an openness and welcoming spirit toward others.Sensitivity, or an ability to see and understand the needs and feelings of others.

Compassion, or an instinct to suffer with and alleviate the suffering of others.

Beauty, or the recognition that the female body is a reflection of her great capacity for nurturing, whether she ever becomes a mother physically or not.

Generosity, or an extraordinary capacity for self-giving love.

She also reminds readers that they will embrace those gifts most perfectly if they imitate that most immaculate of women, Mary of Nazareth. Bean concludes with practical advice which every woman, whatever her state in life, will benefit from.

In Part II, readers will be nourished by the depth and richness of the Catholic tradition's teaching on women. Church documents, wisdom of the saints, relevant passages from Scripture, wisdom from today's Catholic women, prayers, and hymns will inspire, delight, and edify women, young and old, single and married, consecrated to God in the religious life or a member of the laity.

Now, perhaps more than ever, women need to be women. But what it means to be a woman has been so distorted by the various ideologies that the modern world imposes. Manual for Women serves as a reminder to women that authentic femininity (and, yes, authentic feminism) springs from an embrace, rather than a spurning, of the great and unique gifts God has bestowed on them, whether they be married or single, in religious life or a laywomen, a homemaker or a women who works outside the home, or, as so many women in today's hectic world are, some combination thereof!

Daily meditations on the readings of Easter to Pentecost.

Even three hundred years ago, believers found it difficult to sustain for forty days the proper Lenten spirit. That's why even then, countless Christians turned to the writings of Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704), whose great piety and simple eloquence won him renown as one of the greatest preachers of his time. From Bishop Bossuet's sermons and spiritual writings, believers drew ever greater Lenten wisdom and strength.

Now translator Christopher Blum has selected from Bishop Bossuet's voluminous works fifty brief but remarkably powerful meditations that complement the daily readings at Mass during the Lenten season, thus offering to us the perfect companion for a thoughtful and fruitful Lent.

If you read and meditate briefly on just one of them each day in Lent, I guarantee that this good French bishop's eloquence will soon have you not merely remembering the events of Christ's journey to His Crucifixion; it will have you spiritually walking with Him on that journey . . . which is precisely what we are called to do in Lent!

With Bossuet, this Lent you will find yourself saying, "O Jesus! I present myself to you to make my journey in your company. O my Savior, receive your traveler! Here I am ready, holding on to nothing. Let me go with You to the Father."

That's the fire that should burn in the heart of all Christians. This Lent, let Bishop Bossuet enkindle it in yours. Among the Meditations:

God Alone Suffices

Pray to God in Secret

The Truth and the Life

Tempted in the Desert

The Sign of Jonah

Love Your Enemies

This Is My Beloved Son

And You Will Be Forgiven

The Wicked Tenants

In Spirit and in Truth

The Silence of Christ

Priest, Prophet, and King

Our Life, a Journey to God

The Great Commandment

I Was Hungry and You Fed Me

The Love of God for Repentant Sinners

Up to Jerusalem

God, the Life of the Soul

The Witness of the Baptist

The Raising of Lazarus

Jesus Is Persecuted

The True Messiah

The Anointing

The Betrayal

The Eucharist

The Passion

The Brevity of Life

Washed of Our Sins

A Sign of Contradiction

No Man Ever Spoke Like This Man

The Entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem

To Unite Ourselves with Christ

In this wise and hopeful book, reminiscent of Tuesdays with Morrie, a pastor reveals lessons for living he's learned from the dying.

What would you do with your life, if you knew it was going to end soon? Peter Roebbelen Mercy distills the life lessons he's discovered from sitting at the bedsides of courageous people facing death's certainty. He explores the gifts that people have given him and this wisdom he has gleaned, almost as if he's been the one being counseled, rather than the other way around.

This joyful and instructive book encourages us to live to the fullest in the present, and to love the people around us as never before.

"In this sacred journal, Peter vulnerably shares 'riches stored in secret places'--intimate and holy moments with the dying, illuminating the promise of Psalm 116:15: 'His loved ones are very precious to him, and he does not lightly let them die.'"
--Moira Brown, author and former host of 100 Huntley Street

"To pull life from death is a great calling upon the Christian community. Roebbelen's book does this honestly, beautifully, and with a compelling awareness that can only come from a hand that has held many in the journey towards death. I first read this while holding the hand of my sleeping mother, who is in her own season of dying. Having been absent, in a variety of ways, in the death of my father, I am now deeply grateful for a book that calls us (and shows us the way) to presence and life in the season of dying."
--Greg Pennoyer, Editor of God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas

"An open, thoughtful discussion, not just about death, but the journey of life as we face the inevitability of death. This book calls us to live well so that dying well is possible. Most of all, it is an intimate insight to a pastor's heart--one who has walked openly with people he loved and cared about as they entered the mystery of dying. This is essential reading for anyone entering into the debates of a society fearful of death."
--Dr. Gary V. Nelson, President, Tyndale University College and Seminary

"Accompanying dying people is the most privileged part of pastoral ministry and also the toughest. This book's heartening testimonies demonstrate paradoxical gifts and blessings from the end of life. Discover how a dedicated pastor overcame fear of working with the dying and became an agent of God's healing and hope in the direst of circumstances."
--Rev. Arthur Paul Boers, author of Living into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions

"How do you help someone to die? Or those left behind? Realizing he had come up against his own limits as a pastor, Peter Roebbelen turns to the experience of those he has seen over the threshold. In their responses, he discovers what he calls the gifts of dying--which, when attended to, can transform the very way we live. Here is an honest account of a believer living at the edge of what we can understand in facing our own shared mortality." --Jerusha McCormack, author of Grieving, A Beginner's Guide

"So often in the presence of death the Christian response is to pray for healing so life will continue. Turning that notion on its head, this book demonstrates that life and healing can actually be part of death both for those who are approaching the end of life on the earth as well as for those who are walking with them. But what is both disarming and helpful is that the author gives us a vulnerable glimpse into his own inner discovery around this complex subject, and in the process, invites readers to confront our own journey as we move toward death."
--Dr. Rod Wilson, former President, Regent College, Vancouver, and co-author of Keeping Faith in Fundraising

A commonly held impression is that Pope Francis is a compassionate shepherd and determined leader but that he lacks the intellectual depth of his recent predecessors. Massimo Borghesi's The Mind of Pope Francis: Jorge Mario Bergoglio's Intellectual Journey dismantles that image.

Borghesi recounts and analyzes, for the first time, Bergoglio's intellectual formation, exploring the philosophical, theological, and spiritual principles that support the profound vision at the heart of this pope's teaching and ministry. Central to that vision is the church as a coincidentia oppositorum, holding together what might seem to be opposing and irreconcilable realities. Among his guiding lights have been the Jesuit saints, Ignatius and Peter Faber; philosophers Gaston Fessard, Romano Guardini, and Alberto Methol Ferrer; and theologians Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Recognizing how these various strands have come together to shape the mind and heart of Jorge Mario Bergoglio offers essential insights into who he is and the way he is leading the church. Notably, this groundbreaking book is informed by four interviews provided to the author, via audio recordings, by the pope himself on his own intellectual formation, major portions of which are published here for the first time.

With an equal emphasis on every word in the title--and with a distinctly American perspective--Himes and his distinguished associate editors and contributors, have assembled the most thorough and authoritative assessment of modern Roman Catholic social teaching to date, likely to remain the touchstone volume for decades. This culmination of many years of effort by twenty stellar scholars has produced a reference work for anyone interested in understanding or studying the key documents that comprise the central corpus of Catholic social teaching.

In addition to interrogations of the major documents, this volume provides an understanding of the biblical and philosophical foundations of Catholic social teaching, addresses the doctrinal issues that arise in such a context, and explores the social thought leading up to the "modern" era, generally accepted as beginning in 1891 with the publication of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum. Finally, there is a review of how Catholic social teaching has been received in the United States, and an informed look at the shortcomings and questions that future generations must address.

By any standard, Modern Catholic Social Teaching is a remarkable work--intellectually rigorous and deeply faithful, it provides accessible and thought-provoking insights into the heart of a belief tradition that every Catholic will find invaluable.

In a moving, dramatic conclusion to his four New York Times bestselling Mother Angelica books, Raymond Arroyo completes the saga of this singular nun with his most intimate book yet.

For more than a decade, the beloved, wise cracking nun who founded EWTN, the world's largest religious media empire, was confined to her cell at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Alabama. Though Mother Angelica is still seen and heard by millions each week in reruns on seven continents, the private drama within her monastery, her personal supernatural encounters, and the prolonged suffering she endured has remained hidden. Until now.

Revealed for the first time is the personal request Mother made of God--which sheds light on her long silence. Here are Mother Angelica's spiritual battles in her cell--including encounters with the devil--and the unrevealed episodes of hilarity and inspiration. From playing possum (to avoid undesirable visitors to her room), to undertaking a secret trip to the far East, to blessing her nuns as they leave her care to create new monasteries, Mother Angelica's spunky spirit shines through the narrative.

Mother Angelica Her Grand Silence, the touching, climactic coda to the Mother Angelica canon also offers readers the personal testimonies of people around the world who were spiritually transformed by Mother during her long public absence. And for the first time, the author writes movingly of his personal relationship with Mother--the highs and the lows.

Quiet your mind and soul, put away the smart phone and tablet, and pick up some colored pencils or markers and color! At home, in a waiting room, at church, coloring is a wonderful way to find peace and calm.

This coloring book for adults from Paraclete is not only a simple path to making something beautiful, it has a spiritual element as well. Reflect on thirty names of the Blessed Mother such as Morning Star, Mother of Sorrows, and Our Lady of Light. Each page includes a prayer or meditation, and a beautiful, original design to color as you ponder.

Handy little book of essential prayers.  Daily prayers, prayers for Confession and Communion, prayers for every day of the week.