Spirituality Catholicism

This work was originally composed by St. Teresa of Avila for her fellow sisters of the Carmelite Order. Although written for nuns it is very much accessible to modern readers. In this classic book she guides her fellow sisters on the way to union with God through prayer and meditation, offering helpful advise for readers to seek self-perfection. Her words are practical and heartfelt, coming from her personal experience. The book is less formal and gives a more clear form of St. Teresa's theological views than her autobiography or her famous book, The Interior Castle.

The Venerable Louis of Granada, OP (1504-1588), was a Dominican friar who was a noted theologian, writer and preacher. He is best known for his ascetical writings of which The Sinner's Guide has achieved the greatest success. It was published in 1555 and quickly became a classic....

The way to perfection is simple - to unite one’s will with God’s, putting into action the prayer “Thy will be done". In this precious short work, Uniformity with God's Will, St. Alphonsus Liguori explains the importance of conforming one’s will to God’s and how to do so; how God is glorified by our resignation to his will even more than by our acts; how to gain peace of mind and serenity by trusting in God, accepting what he wills for our lives, and following his commands.

"Here, then," says St. Alphonsus, "is our heaven on earth - the Most Blessed Sacrament". This book was conceived and written to help us grow in the knowledge and love of God and in appreciation for what he has done for us. For each of the 31 days of the month, St. Alphonsus provides for us a "Visit to Our Lord" - which is a brief meditation on and a fervent prayer of love toward Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Each Visit to Our Lord is followed by a "Visit to Our Lady".

So begins David Anders in this remarkably forthright book. In it, David reports that by the early 2000s, his marriage was so painful that he and his wife had just one thing in common: contempt for each other. Today, he and his wife are extremely happy together not because of marriage therapy, but because they came to know and fully embraced the Catholic church's teachings on marriage. Many people who encounter the church's teachings are shocked by their rigor.

St. Francis worked hard at evangelizing Calvinist Protestants to return to the Catholic faith. However, they were afraid of the backlash, and so, St. Francis wrote pamphlets and slipped them under doors and posted them on walls. After four years of his efforts, more than 70,000 people had returned to the faith. These pamphlets were compiled into this book, which remains one of the best sources for defending the Catholic faith.

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.

Richard Rohr focuses on finding God in the depths of silence. Divine silence is more than the absence of noise; it has a life of its own. We are invited into its living presence to find the wholeness of being and peace it brings. This book will inspire you and show that the peace of contemplation is not something just for monks, mystics, and those divorced from the worries of the world, but rather for all people who can quiet their own mind to listen in the silence.

In this remarkable exploration of the Catholic world, prominent Catholic author and papal biographer George Weigel offers a luminous collection of letters to young Catholics, not-so-young Catholics, and curious souls who wonder what it means to be Catholic today. Weigel takes readers on an epistolary tour of Catholic landmarks - from Chartres Cathedral to St. Mary's Church in Greenville, South Carolina; from the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to G.K. Chesterton's favorite pub in Oxford; and from the grave of a modern martyr in Warsaw to the Sistine Chapel.

In The Accursed Tower, Roger Crowley delivers a lively narrative of the lead-up to the siege and a vivid, blow-by-blow account of the climactic battle. Drawing on extant Arabic sources as well as untranslated Latin documents, he argues that Acre is notable for technical advances in military planning and siege warfare, and extraordinary for its individual heroism and savage slaughter. A gripping depiction of the crusader era told through its dramatic last moments, The Accursed Tower offers an essential new view on a crucial turning point in world history.

In this third installment of the Theology of Home series, Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering turn their attention to the role of the sea in our memories and imaginations. Drawing from literature, mythology, and scripture, At the Sea pulls out the rich connections between the sea and mystery, recreation, yearning, and joyful reunions. With reflections from other writers who join Gress and Mering, At the Sea serves as a love letter to the time we spend on the beach with our families, romping in the waves, toes in the sand, eyes lingering on the pink sunsets beyond the horizon.

Pope Benedict XVI affirmed the ongoing growth and perpetual validity of the Traditional Latin Mass, insisting that "what earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden, or even considered harmful". However, with the 2021 release of Traditionis Custodes, his successor has declared the opposite.

"L'Église n'est pas là pour condamner, mais pour permettre la rencontre avec cet amour viscéral qu'est la miséricorde de Dieu. Pour que cela se produise, il est nécessaire de sortir. Sortir des églises et des paroisses, sortir et aller chercher les gens là où ils vivent, où ils souffrent, où ils espèrent." (Franciscus) Chaque page de ce livre vibre du désir du pape François de toucher les âmes qui cherchent un sens à leur vie, un chemin de paix et de réconciliation, un remède à leurs blessures physiques et morales.

Today's most popular general prayer book, the Catholic Book of Prayers contains many favorite prayers for every day - to the Blessed Trinity and to Mary and the Saints, as well as a summary of our faith.

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.

Dr. James Papandrea introduces you to all the major theologians, philosophers, and martyrs of the early Christian church and explains the theological principles that guided the Church from the New Testament era through the apologists, and, ultimately, to the development of the major doctrines. He uniquely situates the teachings of the early Church Fathers against the social and cultural context of the Roman Empire and its relationship to the Church.

Mother Teresa's life teaches us that it is never too late to make a difference in the world. As a figure of the 20th century, she saw the rapid changes taking place in the world and among its people. She asked individuals to contemplate the meaning of ideas such as home, love, and family and to be open to new conceptions of these terms in the midst of our changing world. In doing so, Mother Teresa introduced a new, modern way of doing missionary work.

The world-changing appearance of Our Lady at Fatima ushered in a continuing series of remarkable apparitions worldwide that the Church has either officially approved or marked as likely authentic. Author and Mariologist Wincenty Laszewski summarizes the powerful and urgent messages of these apparitions in this unparalleled, encyclopedic work—instantly the new standard on the subject. Most of these riveting chapters include portentous warnings—some are ominous, others more hopeful.

The war is on. The Devil plots to defeat you. Meet some battle-tested warriors who fight at your side. Satan is real. He's a formidable foe who wants to snatch us away from God, and the thought of doing battle with him can seem daunting. Even so, the saints who have gone before us have engaged the Devil, armed with the power of Christ and emerged victorious! These fellow warriors in heaven now fight on our behalf.

What happened to the girl who was not afraid to climb to the top of the waterfall and jump? Who backpacked across Europe? Who took on any feat of bravery without batting an eyelash? You wouldn't recognize her - she's become that woman paralyzed by fear, scared to death to trust God, and trying to manage her family's hectic life, financial crises (yes, plural), and family issues on her own steam. Relatable, touching, and yet hopeful, On the Other Side of Fear is the beautiful story of how one young woman learned to live in God's will, without fear.