Religious Books

In Living the Mass we encounter the Holy Eucharist as paschal mystery, the "Source and Summit of the Christian Life." We encounter God's love for us through what God has done and is doing for us in the Eucharist. The book presents the paschal mystery defined in a Trinitarian mode as the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It also presents new theology on the paschal mystery based primarily on the abandonment text of Matthew 27:46.

God gives God's self to us in love through the Mass as the ongoing work of redemption, and we imitate that love in response by living the Mass in everyday life--professing Christ, growing in virtue, overcoming sinful tendencies, increasing in knowledge of God, and exercising faith, hope, and love.

Seven million copies of his books in print! This collection of over 100 unpublished letters from the bestselling author of such spiritual classics as The Return of the Prodigal Son and The Wounded Healer offers deep spiritual insight into human experience, intimacy, brokeness, and mercy.

Over the course of his life, Henri Nouwen wrote thousands of letters to friends, acquaintances, parishioners, students, and readers of his work all around the world. He corresponded in English, Dutch, German, French, and Spanish, and took great care to store and archive the letters decade after decade. He believed that a thoughtful letter written in love could truly change someone's life. Many people looked to Nouwen as a long distance spiritual advisor.

Love, Henri consists of over a hundred letters that stretch from the earliest years of Henri's career up through his last 10 years at L'Arche Daybreak. Rich in spiritual insights the letters highlight a number themes that emerged in both Henri's work over the years, including vocation, solitude, prayer, suffering, and perseverance in difficult times. These deeply spiritual letters, sometimes poignant, sometimes funny, ulimately demonstrate the rich value of communicating with God through others.

"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!

With simple language and lovely illustrations, this book retells the stories of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Share in the excitement as Mary learns from the Angel Gabriel that she will become Jesus's Mommy.

Be with Mary as she teaches Jesus to walk and to read, and join Joseph as he shows Jesus how to cut wood and use carpenter's tools.

As Jesus grows older, he sets off to tell people that God loves them. Mary is always there, and she loves to see Jesus surrounded by all his friends!

A wonderful book to read aloud to children!

This delightful blessing is the perfect birthday gift for cherished friends and family members. Its twelve expressive verses, each accompanied by an evocative image, call to mind the many ways that God's sustaining and supportive care is present each day. With the touch of a poet, Joyce Rupp calls forth a spirit of gratitude and wonder for the gift of being alive. With content appropriate for any depth of relationship, this booklet has a page for personal inscription and makes a thoughtful present for the person who seems to have everything.

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

Even three minutes can change your day for the better.

Spend a few minutes each day from the first Sunday of Advent through the first week of Christmas with a short scripture passage and reflection by Fr. Michael White and Tom Corcoran that will help you find hope in the promise of Christmas.

White and Corcoran--the authors of the bestselling and award-winning Rebuilt, which tells the story of their parish--share their Messages of Hopefor Advent and Christmas 2019. The reflections offer practical, everyday wisdom that will allow you to see the gift of hope in every aspect of your life, helping you to become closer to God each day.

The compact size and affordable price of this book makes it perfect for parishwide distribution during Advent.