Religion Catholicism

St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696 - 1787) was an Italian bishop famous for his moral teaching. Initially, he practiced law, but was drawn to the religious life and became a priest in the Catholic church. He ministered as a missionary to the poor, setting up "evening chapels". He would later form his own congregation and then be appointed as bishop. He wrote many famous sermons, meditations, and ascetical works. His meditations are still used today for the stations of the cross during Lent.

Voici l'histoire époustouflante d'un jeune séminariste plongé, à l'aube de la seconde guerre mondiale, dans la sinistre légion de Hitler.

Sometimes discernment seems complicated, and we struggle to “be still” to listen to God’s voice. Following the death of his spiritual director, St. Alphonsus Liguori penned timeless advice in a letter to one of his spiritual daughters, and it became the famous work titled Uniformity with God’s Will. Now, Dan Burke breaks open St. Alphonsus’s 18th-century classic for you. He intersperses relevant explanations and insights within the text of this great saint and includes reflection questions for each chapter.

Nearly 40 years ago, Ralph Martin's best-selling A Crisis of Truth exposed the damaging trends in Catholic teaching and preaching that, combined with attacks from secular society, threatened the mission and life of the Catholic Church. While much has been done to counter false teaching over the last four decades, today the church faces even more insidious threats from outside and within. In A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward, Martin offers a detailed look at the growing hostility to the Catholic Church and its teaching.

Women have been shamans since time immemorial, not only because women have innate intuitive gifts, but also because the female body is wired to more easily experience altered states, such as during the process of birth. Whether female or male, the altered states produced by psychedelics and ecstatic trance expand our minds to tap into and enhance our feminine states of consciousness as well as reconnect us to the web of life.

Just as Job was tried, all of us are tested by suffering. It comes to us in many different forms: grief about the past, pain in the present, and sadness about what might have been. The personal dimension of suffering means that it marks our experience and, in some ways, makes us who we are. Coping with suffering as Christians includes certain spiritual practices that lead us to surrender our lives more fully to the Lord.

Originally delivered in 1962 for artists - and made available now for the first time in English - St. John Paul II's (Karol Wojtyla's) penetrating spiritual exercises on divine beauty and its reflection in our humanity - and the art it produces - remain as timely as ever. The retreat itself, of course, forms the heart of this attractive volume.

Seeing with the Heart is a tour de force that weaves together the author’s personal experiences, the 16th-century wisdom of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and the insights of sages, poets, artists, and storytellers through the ages.

This audio version of The Imitation of Christ from Catholic Book Publishing is a wonderful new edition of the original, deeply spiritual book by Thomas à Kempis. From this audiobook, listeners will experience the peace and wisdom that has comforted Catholics from around the world. The Imitation of Christ tells us how to better live the life of a Christian by closely following Christ's example. The Imitation of Christ will bless all who want to respond to the call to follow Jesus.

Pope Benedict XVI's second encyclical, Saved in Hope, ("Spe Salvi" in Latin) takes its title from St. Paul, who wrote, "In hope we have been saved." In this audiobook, the Holy Father continues a line of thought he began with his first encyclical, God Is Love. Love and Hope are closely related in the spiritual life. Love of God involves hope or trust in God. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man."

Whether you are a cradle Catholic learning the Holy Bible or a Protestant convert divesting yourself of your Protestantism, this book on the scriptures is for you. The only book of its kind from a traditional Catholic perspective, it cuts through the fluff and gets to the heart of the spiritual realities, which are fundamental to all discussion on the Holy Bible. It also tells the story of how the rejection of these spiritual realities has led directly to the current crisis in the Church.

The spiritual life is not a life then and there, but a life here and now. It is a life in which the spirit of God is revealed in the ordinary enccounters of every day. With a smile and a tear, Nouwen looks at the day-to-day events of our lives and discovers there places where God chooses to dwell and call us.

In this joyful and charming book, Maria von Trapp (from The Sound of Music) unveils for you the year-round Christian traditions she loved - traditions that created for her large family a warm and inviting Catholic home and will do the same for yours.

What is a monastery? A monastery is a place set apart - a place to learn the blessings of powerlessness, and that time is not ours but God’s. Our home and our duties can, just like a monastery, teach us those things. The vocation of monastic men and women is to physically withdraw from the world. But the principle is equally valid for those of us who cannot go off to monasteries. Certain vocations offer the same kind of opportunity for contemplation, and provide a desert for reflection.

The Hammer of Witches, known as the Malleus Maleficarum in Latin, is perhaps the most important (and infamous) treatise on witchcraft in the history of the Catholic Church. Penned in 1486, the Malleus Maleficarum challenges those who would deny the existence of witchcraft and offers authorities, both civil and religious, the tools necessary to expose, condemn, and ultimately defeat it.

Is it time to take your spiritual pulse, reorient yourself to your Creator, and seek his guidance to live your faith more seriously? The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola outline the rigorous self-examination and spiritual meditations St. Ignatius set forth. Listeners will make a new beginning on the path to holiness, repenting of their sins and attaining freedom from Satan's power. Though St. Ignatius wrote The Spiritual Exercises as a handbook for a four-week guided retreat, this edition contains step-by-step explanations suitable for independent use.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism refutes misrepresentations and misconceptions about the Catholic Church and separates rumor from truth when it comes to Catholic traditions, faith, and controversial leaders.

Do you have two and a half minutes in your day that you can give to God? This is the beauty of the rosary. You don’t have to pray the rosary all at once and you can pray it anywhere! Do you struggle with praying the rosary: finding time, fighting distractions, worrying about your mind wandering? In Praying the Rosary Like Never Before, Edward Sri offers practical suggestions that come from the rosary’s tradition and, most especially, St. John Paul II. These helpful tips will make the rosary a constant companions through the different seasons, moments, and challenges we all face.

Cardinal Ratzinger compellingly shows us the biblical, historical, and theological dimensions of the Eucharist. The cardinal draws far-reaching conclusions, focusing on the importance of one's personal devotion to and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, for the personal reception of communion by the individual christian, as well as for the life of the church. For Ratzinger, any transformation of the world on the social plane grows out of the celebration of the Eucharist. He beautifully illustrates how the omnipotent God comes intimately close to us in the Holy Eucharist, the heart of life.

Emeritus Pope Benedict commands both adulation and unremitting criticism. In this second volume of Peter Seewald’s authoritative biography, the story runs from the Second Vatican Council (1965-68) that shaped Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s conservative ideas about the role of the Catholic Church, through his short, scandal-ridden papacy and unprecedented resignation. Volume two introduces listeners to the Pope Emeritus living in the Vatican Gardens, contemplating the future of the church and his controversial legacy within it.