Religious Life

God helped me to recognise that I had been, and was being abused. He taught me how to understand and recognise the tactics abusers use, and then how to counter them with faith. God started restoring my life by undoing the lies I was told about myself, my life, my future and my faith. I would like to share some of this journey with you, in the hope of helping you through your own.

ON A DARK WINTER NIGHT with little to do, Rivvy Neshama took a "Find Your Highest Purpose" quiz. And the funny thing was, she found it: to live a sacred life. Problem was, she didn't know how.

St. Benedict was not interested in fame, power, or legacy. He was only interested in living the Christian life to the fullest and helping those around him do the same. The rest is history - and the work of Providence. Not only consecrated religious, but also many lay people, find inspiration in his call to balance, discipline, and prayer. Historically, St. Benedict helped bridge the early Church with the medieval period by standing on the shoulders of the fathers of the monastic tradition.

This text presents the life of Fr. Roman Braga, while also exploring the broader historical context in which he lived. Most fundamentally, it reveals the transfigured life of a man who is close to us in time, but who passed far beyond us in his spiritual life, who was not broken but rather transformed by Gods grace, even in the midst of the horrors of torture and imprisonment. He continues to shine as a beacon of God's love, and a witness to His power to overcome even the greatest of evils.

As director of the world's largest abortion clinic and the nation's most prominent abortionist, Dr. Bernard Nathanson presided over 60,000 abortions. As co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League, he helped make abortion legal. Then, in a conversion that made headkines and astonished both sides of the abortion debate, he renounced his profession to become a pro-life advocate. But Dr. Nathanson's journey was not over.

Jenna, Livvy, Heather, and Manda strive for their best in their respective sports: gymnastics, figure skating, ice-dancing, and downhill skiing. Their ultimate goal: the Olympics. As each girl struggles with life's challenges and rejoices with each triumph, the encouragement of the other Girls Only club members and their faith in God give the girls the moral support needed to push their limits and learn important lessons. In this book, Livvy misses her mother, who passed away just months ago, and frustration mounts when Livvy's grandmother offers to help but oversteps her boundaries in every way.

The path to joy is paved with adversity as Carmen Browne discovers in the fourth book in the series from best-selling author Stephanie Perry Moore. Perfect Joy captures the tumultuous changes every sixth-grade girl faces - including new friendship.

In this second book of the Yasmin Peace series, family tensions and school unrest soar to a fever pitch. A school counselor starts a club for eighth-grade girls, The LIGHT club, which deals with major issues: gangs, depression, teen suicide, self-esteem, etc. Yasmin discovers that there is hope on the other side of every obstacle - if she holds on to her faith.

Jenna, Livvy, Heather, and Manda strive for their best in their respective sports: gymnastics, figure skating, ice dancing, and downhill skiing. Their ultimate goal: the Olympics.

Jenna, Livvy, Heather, and Manda strive for their best in their respective sports: gymnastics, figure skating, ice-dancing, and downhill skiing. Their ultimate goal: the Olympics. As each girl struggles with life's challenges and rejoices with each triumph, the encouragement of the other Girls Only club members and their faith in God give the girls the moral support needed to push their limits and learn important lessons. In this book, Manda is concentrating so hard on winning the Dressel Hills Downhill Classic that she's turned her back on everyone that matters to her: her family, her friends....even God.

Energetic pre-teen Carmen Browne is determined to live her life to please God as she faces life issues such as an unexpected family move, her big brother's search for his birth family, and the tragedy of domestic violence. Carmen's learned a lot about herself, too: being popular doesn't guarantee you true friends, honesty up front saves a lot of hurt, and sometimes self-confidence is just bossiness in disguise. In this fifth and final volume, Carmen enters the uncharted waters of adolescence, discovering that her changing moods and growing body bring new challenges....

Carmen Browne is a 10-year-old African-American girl beginning fifth grade. With her family moving to a new city, Carmen is anguished to give up her friends and comfortable home. As her family adapts to a new location, Carmen learns that finding new friends and fitting in is not easy. Part of her doesn't even want to try. Family issues become complicated when Carmen's brother learns he is adopted.

Third in the Carmen Browne Series, Golden Spirit finds Carmen meeting new challenges and facing serious issues such as domestic violence, and her own tendency toward bossiness. This series focuses on issues faced by many preteen girls and teaches inspiring lessons about dealing with gossip, self-esteem, and body image.

Yasmin is graduating from the eighth grade and headed to high school. With the help of the LIGHT club, she ends the school year on a positive note, as she learns about self-esteem and true joy. What Yasmin learns will be put to the test over the summer and at the beginning of her first year in high school as she encounters new drama with family and friends. Through it all, and in less than perfect circumstances, Yasmin manages to hold on to her hope, keep her head up, and experience joy.

Jonathan Edwards is widely hailed as the greatest theologian in American history. In Edwards on the Christian Life, Dane Ortlund invites us to explore the great eighteenth-century pastor’s central passion: God’s resplendent beauty. Whether the topic was the nature of love, the preeminence of Scripture, or the glory of the natural world, the concept of beauty stood at the heart of Edwards’s theology and permeated his portrait of the Christian life.

Ian Buruma explores the life and death of Baruch Spinoza, the Enlightenment thinker whose belief in freedom of thought and speech resonates in our own time

When little Zanna's oldest brother died just before Christmas, she was left with the gift she had made for him - a picture that only he would have understood. Every Christmas, Zanna's gift is brought out and displayed as a way of including their lost brother in the celebration. This is the story of the life of that family, and of the many gifts they gave each other that could only be understood with love.

Among the most beloved saints in the Catholic tradition, Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) is popularly remembered for his dedication to poverty, his love of animals and nature, and his desire to follow perfectly the teachings and example of Christ. During his lifetime and after his death, followers collected, for their own purposes, numerous stories, anecdotes, and reports about Francis. As a result, the man himself and his own concerns became lost in legend.

A minister must be both learned and religious. It is not a matter of choosing between the two. He must study, but he must study as in the presence of God and not in a secular spirit. He must recognize the privilege of pursuing his studies in the environment where God and salvation from sin are the air he breathes. He must also take advantage of every opportunity for corporate worship, particularly while he trains in the Theological Seminary.

In addition to penning acclaimed poetry and plays, Coretta Scott King Honor recipient Shelia P. Moses wrote the novels The Legend of Buddy Bush and The Return of Buddy Bush. Humor and pathos abound in this moving tale of a wide-eyed African-American boy striving to understand his place in his family and their rural North Carolina town.