Religion Catholicism

This book offers the inspirational story of an unlikely friendship and the two men who collaborated in an extraordinary way to begin to help heal centuries-old wounds. For two decades Sir Gilbert Levine and Pope John Paul II collaborated on symbolic acts of reconciliation: a series of internationally broadcast concerts designed to bring together people from all religious backgrounds under the auspices of the Vatican.

In a small Scottish parish, an English priest is stalked by the fear of scandal, class hatred and lost ideals. Over the spring and summer of 2003, Father David becomes friends with two young people, Mark and Lisa: by the year's end his life is the focus of public hysteria. As he looks back to his childhood and to Oxford in the fever of student revolt, Father David begins to reconsider the central events of his life, and to see what may have happened to the political hopes of his generation.

St. Gregory of Nyssa (AD 335 - 395), the great theologian and bishop of Nyssa, turned his considerable skill to finishing the work that his brother St. Basil the Great had started on the creation of the world (the Hexaemeron). The result is this book, which examines how humans are formed as a "mean between the divine and brute beasts".

This book, edited by biologist Ann Gauger, clears up common misconceptions regarding intelligent design, showing why it is an argument not from ignorance but from knowledge and how the evidence for God's design of the natural world is growing.

Still as fresh and relevant as when it was first released, The Faith makes the Catechism of the Catholic Church accessible to a new generation of listeners. Fr. Hardon helps to form Catholics in the faith by focusing on the principle points of doctrine, moral teaching, and spirituality conveyed so richly in the Catechism.

The Vatican's silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope". But a key part of the story has remained untold. Pius ran the world's largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis.

Jean Pierre de Caussade's accounts in this work present the case that the present moment is a sacrament from God and that self-abandonment to it, and its needs, is a holy state. In the theological climate of France at the time, this belief was considered close to Quietist heresy. In fact, because of this fear, the work was kept unpublished until 1861.

In this short book, Forbes beautifully recounts the life and accomplishments of the famous St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism. Forbes tells of St. Benedict upbringing and early life in Rome, where he became disillusioned with their pursuit of pleasure and comfort. Taking up the life of a solitary in a cave in the mountains of Italy, he grew in holiness through prayer and fasting.

This comprehensive survey of Catholic history in what became the United States spans nearly 500 years, from the arrival of the first Spanish missionaries to the present. Distinguished historian Leslie Tentler explores lay religious practice and the impact of clergy on Catholic life and culture as she seeks to answer the question, What did it mean to be a "good Catholic" at particular times and in particular places?

Do you have what it takes to become a next-level Catholic hipster? Building on the overwhelming popularity of The Catholic Hipster Handbook, Tommy Tighe is back with a new cast of fellow hipsters - including Haley Stewart, Samantha Povlock, Matthew Sewell, Fr. Damian Ferrence, and Patrick Neve - to share overlooked saints, forgotten prayers, and profound practices that define the countercultural Catholic lifestyle, inspiring you to live your faith in radical ways.

Jared Dees, creator of the popular website The Religion Teacher, shows how applying the steps of lectio divina to teaching can reorient religious education toward encountering the person of Christ rather than merely sharing information about him. In Christ in the Classroom, Catholic author and speaker Jared Dees applies the five steps of lectio divina - reading/learning, meditation, prayer, contemplation, and action - to the ministry of catechesis.

Author Heather Anderson Renshaw, mother of five, is a lot like you. She knows all about the wild, crazy, and often hilarious experience of motherhood. And she feels sometimes like she's barely keeping up and maybe even failing at the whole “mom thing”. Thankfully, as she shares in this book, motherhood isn't a trip that's meant to be taken alone. God's got this, and the more we let him lead, the more we find the fruits of his Holy Spirit taking root in our hearts and in our families.

The issue isn’t technology itself. The issue is the attachment we have to technology. Former tech addict T.J. Burdick tells you how, in just 21 days, you can find a happier and holier life when you learn to control your phone, rather than letting it control you. This is not a 12-step program or a three-week detox in the woods with no Wi-Fi. Detached is an easy-to-follow spiritual retreat, inviting you to listen, reflect, and take actions to strengthen your personal and spiritual life, while decreasing the time you feel you “need” to spend on your phone.

In My Badass Book of Saints, Johnson shares her experience as a first-generation Cuban-American, educator of at-risk college students, and caregiver for a husband with Lou Gehrig's disease. Through humorous, empowering, and touching portraits of 24 spiritual mentors who inspired her, Johnson describes how their bravery, integrity, selflessness, perseverance, and hope helped her and can help others have courage to reach for a closer connection to God.

Author Rebecca Frech details the different types of friends, ways to grow intentionally in friendship, and how to decide which friends really deserve a place in our inner circle. Ultimately, Can We Be Friends? reminds us that authentic, life-giving friendship not only gives us a stable tribe in which to belong, it helps us to become our true self.

Ladies, whether we realize it or not, we are facing a battle every day. We face battles in our homes, in our relationships, and in our cluttered hearts and distracted minds. We want a Pinterest-worthy house, flawless skin, a picture-perfect marriage, envy-inducing Instagram feeds - oh, and total control over everything that will ever happen to us. And since for most of us this is just normal life, we forget that this “normal” is actually a battlefield. One where souls are won - or lost.

Fr. Stanley Rother was true to his word. He did not run. And was martyred at the age of 46. Fr. Stanley arrived in Guatemala in 1968, and immediately identified with his parishioners' simple, farming lifestyle. He learned their languages, prepared them for the Sacraments, and cared for their needs. Fr. Stanley had found his heart's calling. In early 1981, his name was on a death list, so he returned to Oklahoma and was warned not to return. But he could not abandon his people, so he went back, and made the ultimate sacrifice for his faith.

Writer, speaker, and blogger Elizabeth Scalia takes a look at 13 little sins that, if left unexamined and unconfessed, can have a serious impact on our spiritual lives and relationship with Christ. Through her honest (and sometimes funny) examination of these same sins in her own life as well as Church teaching on each one, she helps us ask ourselves the tough questions and gives us the tools to kick these bad habits before they kick us.

In a series of reflections on every part of the Mass, author Tim O'Malley challenges us to turn the idea of boredom on its head, calling boredom the good boredom that opens us to the quiet interior space where we can encounter God. It is there that full participation in the Mass becomes possible the potential to be transfixed by a ritual, to contemplate the readings, and to savor the Eucharist. Become a Bored Again Catholic and rediscover the power of the Mass to change your life and the entire world.

Shocked to find corruption widespread in the ranks of their shepherds today, too many good Catholics are tempted to leave the Church, unaware that ever since the days when Jesus' own treasurer, Judas Iscariot, had his hand in the till, the Good Shepherd and His faithful followers have regularly been betrayed by bad shepherds. In this eye-opening book, Church historian Rod Bennett introduces a number of those bad shepherds, including Pope Stephen VII, who so hated his late predecessor that he had him dug up, put on trial, and flung into the Tiber....