Spiritual Memoir

What Catholic guy made money as an organ-grinder's assistant, spent one-on-one time with John Paul II, met a very nice Thai prostitute, and confessed his sins on a beanbag chair? Lino Rulli, of course!

In The Minister’s Wife, Karen shines a light on the rhythms and tough realities of the spiritual life for each and every one of us. She explores how community helps us grow; the unexpected beauty of doubt; the messy pain of families and funerals; how church can hurt and heal; and the beauty of showing up when sometimes it is more appealing to go to a coffee shop on a Sunday morning (even when you’re the pastor’s wife).

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was not trying to start a movement. She was simply tired of the social injustice. Yet her simple act of courage started a chain of events that forever shaped the landscape of American race relations. Now, decades after her quiet defiance inspired the modern civil rights movement, Mrs. Parks' own words tell of her courageous life, her passion for freedom and equality, and her strong faith.

In 1963, following twenty-three years of hard labor and abuse in Russian prison camps, Walter J. Ciszek, S.J., finally returned to America. Had he come back a bitter man, or a man of diminished faith, it would have been hard to fault him. But he didn’t. For the remainder of his years, until his death in 1984, Fr. Ciszek’s grace, faith, and wisdom touched—often in profound and lasting ways—everyone who came into contact with him.

AN AWE-INSPIRING TRUE STORY of Angela Lenhardt and Trigger the Wonder Horse is a testament of faith and how the power of prayer can change your life. This book is for anyone in need of a reminder that when life gets you down and you’re faced with uncertainty and fear, God is omnipresent. Within your own heart, exists a superpower called love, that will open up a world of possibilities once you connect and believe in it.

For anyone who feels caught in the tension between the beauty of God’s story and the ugliness of human hypocrisy, Why I Still Believe by apologist and Professor Mary Jo Sharp is the hopeful story of an unlikely convert and an approachable case for believing in God when you want to walk away from Christianity.

As a troubled teenager, Tamara Laroux just wants the pain to go away. Crying out to God for forgiveness, she makes the heart-wrenching decision to end her life. As she plummets from her body to a place of vast darkness, torment, and agony, Tamara instantly realizes the finality of her rash decision and begs God to save her.

Cold Tangerines is a collection of stories that celebrate the extraordinary moments hidden in our everyday lives. It is about God, and about life, and about the thousands of daily ways in which an awareness of God changes and infuses everything. It is about spiritual life, and about all the things that we have called nonspiritual life that might be spiritual after all.

Toni Morrison's Spiritual Vision unpacks this oft-ignored, but essential, element of Toni Morrison's work - her religion - and in so doing, gives listeners a deeper, richer understanding of her life and her writing.

It’s been over sixty years since the late Loretta Lynn first rose to stardom, transforming from a coal miner’s daughter to the Queen of Country Music. Loretta knew she was blessed—to record music, to sing her songs to such great crowds, and to write books. A Song and A Prayer is a collection of devotionals combined with song lyrics that delivers a unique form of worship. Inspired by her songwriting sessions with Kim McLean (a fellow songwriter, music producer, as well as ordained minister and reverend doctor), Loretta's love of God is felt in this book.

Love Fraud tells two parallel stories. The first is the outrageous true story of Donna’s marriage to James Alwyn Montgomery, originally of Sydney, Australia. Montgomery took a quarter million dollars from her, cheated with at least six women during a two-and-a-half-year relationship, had a child with one of them, and 10 days after Andersen left him, married the mother of the child. It was the second time he committed bigamy.

Krishnanand catapulted to the other side when he was hit in the face by a full-size SUV. While he remained in a Stage 3 Glasgow coma for nine days, he remained fully conscious in a celestial dimension he now calls The Portal—what Tibetan Buddhists call The Bardo and what Vedic/Sanskrit philosophy calls The Akashic Records. Listeners will viscerally travel to the other side with him and learn how his lifelong commitment to spiritual studies and practices enhanced his NDE with unprecedented insights.

Fighting against an addiction to pornography while trying his best to live as a Christian, Matthew Robert Payne is a sinner who has gone through a lot in his efforts to conquer the challenges that life throws at him. In his memoir he speaks of his battle to overcome the past and ensure that he will walk in the future in the grace of God. Yes, there are days when the darkness seems to be gaining ground, but he perseveres and keeps a tight hold to his faith.

Author John C. Preiss describes in clear detail the Virgin Mary's appearances to Lucia dos Santos and Francisco and Jacinta Marto (now the Church's youngest canonized saints) and shares the background, sights, and sounds that draw you into the events as they unfolded over the course of the 20th century. More than just a history lesson about the apparitions, The Miracle and the Message shows us how to claim the message in our own lives and fully embrace what Mary offers the Church and the world.

In You Are Loved, artist Alex Cook intimately relates his creative and spiritual adventures in his quest to create beauty and know God. Anyone longing to bring their own precious vision into reality will find solace and inspiration in these very human stories of a life dedicated to following inspiration. This inspiring collection of stories paints the heartfelt, personal journey of an artist who experiences and observes his inner life with unflinching honesty and strives to live his outer life just as honestly.

Into the Nothing: A Spiritual Autobiography is about the wild, adventurous, mystical life that led to the liberation of Gabriel Cousens, MD. The book takes us through the unique process of classical spiritual awakening and liberation in several paths, including yoga, Torah-Kabbalistic traditions, and also his experiences in the Lakota Sundance, Eagle Dance, and Spirit Dance.

Kathryn Hulme's life was radically changed and enriched by the influence of Gurdjieff. Undiscovered Country is a tribute to him and his teachings, a vivid personal memoir of her experience as his student, and of the burning spiritual intensity that dominated her life as a result of his influence.

Famous for setting in motion the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther is often lifted high as a hero or condemned as a rebel. But underneath it all, he was a man of flesh and blood, with a deep longing to live for God. This biography by respected Reformation scholar Herman Selderhuis captures Luther in his original context and follows him on his spiritual journey, from childhood through the Reformation to his influential later years.

As a beloved evangelist and a respected man of God, Billy Graham’s stated purpose in life never wavered: to help people find a personal relationship with God through a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. This was a calling that only increased over time, and Billy embraced it fully throughout his active ministry and beyond. Yet Billy pursued his life’s work, as many men do, amid a similarly significant calling to be a loving husband and father.

In an openhearted memoir of faith on the fringe, Roger Thompson meditates on the life and premature death of his best friend and business partner, Tim Garrety, cofounder of Skate Street Ventura. Roger and Tim's 25 friendship was forged in the surf and on the streets of 1980s California. Together they hazarded countless waves and every rite of passage - from guitars to girls to God - and influenced the lives of thousands of skateboarders, musicians, surfers, and otherwise disconnected youth in the process.