In God's Trombones, one of his most celebrated works, inspirational sermons of African American preachers are reimagined as poetry, reverberating with the musicality and splendid eloquence of the spirituals. This classic collection includes “Listen Lord—A Prayer,” “The Creation,” “The Prodigal Son,” “Go Down Death—A Funeral Sermon,” “Noah Built the Ark,” “The Crucifixion,” “Let My People Go,” and “The Judgment Day.”

    Revelatory, inspired writing, frequently called the "Matri Upanishad".

    

    Politically radical, the essays ridicule militarism, prudery & religious intolerance. Ten were originally published in Max Eastman's magazine, The Masses, the 1st in '14. Following passage of the Espionage Act of '17, The Masses was suppressed by the US government on grounds it was detrimental to the war effort. Wood continued to write more discourses. In '27 Vanguard published a collection of 41 of them under the title Heavenly Discourse. Titles include: Is God a Jew; Marriage; God Receives a Delegation; Freedom; The Monkeys Complain; Birth Control; Anthony Comstock in Heaven; Prohibition; Billy Sunday Meets God; The US Must Be Pure; Billy Sunday Instructs God; A Fly Bothers God; St Peter Loses a Soul; Preparedness in Heaven; Prayer; Satan Brings the US into the War; A Pacifist Enters Heaven-in Bits; The Stupid Cannot Enter Heaven; T.R. Enters Heaven; Prince Buttinsky; God, Paul & Satan on Christianity; Satan Loses His Mind; God's Picnic; God's Picnic & the Playwright; Rabelais & Censors; Censorship; God & Christ Have a Merry Christmas; Denver Prays for Rain; God on Catholicism & the KKK; God Advises Peter as to the Church; Bishop Wm Montgomery Brown Enters Heaven; God & St Peter Discuss Theology; Joan of Arc-Heretic & Saint; Satan Regains His Reason; Charles Evans Hughes Visits Heaven w/out a Passport & Is Deported; England's General Strike; The Lame Duck & Imperialism; The Golden Rule; Satan Asks for Help; Noah's Cruise; & God's in His Heaven-All's Wrong w/the World. In Billy Sunday meets God, Sunday is surprised to find people he condemned in heaven. "Why, there is Herman Morgenstern. I sent him to hell. He kept a family beer garden on 4th Avenue in New York...What is he doing here?" Jesus replies "I liked him. He was a gentle, charitable soul." Sunday objects that he kept a beer salon, & Jesus replies "I lived with publicans & sinners." Sunday complains about the presence in Heaven of a woman who had had an illegitimate child; Jesus replies "I liked her. The one with her is Mary Magdalen." From A Pacifist enters Heaven—in bits:BATTERED SOUL: I'm a pacifist. GOD: A what? BATTERED SOUL: A pacifist. I believe in Jesus & peace. GOD: So you are a Christian? BATTERED SOUL: O, no. I really do believe in peace. In a discourse on Preparedness in Heaven, God decides to prepare for a war against Satan.GABRIEL: I am afraid Heaven won't stand for that. Jesus has preached peace too long. GOD: ...We must first frighten them, fill them with fear, then with hate. For example, headlines in the Heavenly Herald: "Horrible Atrocities of Satan," "Make the Cosmos Safe for Jesus," "Satan Threatens Your Halos," "Satan Disembowels a Cherub," "Satan Rapes the Ten Foolish Virgins" & so on... GABRIEL: But none of this will be true. GOD: True? Of course, it won't. Don't be a fool, Gabriel. You can't work up a war—preparedness, I mean—on the truth. This is war—I mean preparedness—& we simply must lie—the more horrible the lies the better.

    Whether or not the information contained in the apocryphal literature is entirely precise—as is the canon of Scripture—these ancient texts provide commentators’ valuable insight into what many ancient Jews and early Christians believed when, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets” (Heb. 1:1)."The [Book] of Sirach is a collection of ethical teachings. Thus Ecclesiasticus closely resembles Proverbs, except that, unlike the latter, it is the work of a single author, not an anthology of maxims drawn from various sources... The teachings are applicable to all conditions of life: to parents and children, to husbands and wives, to the young, to masters, to friends, to the rich, and to the poor. Many of them are rules of courtesy and politeness; and a still greater number contain advice and instruction as to the duties of man toward himself and others, especially the poor, as well as toward society and the state, and most of all toward God. These precepts are arranged in verses, which are grouped according to their outward form. The sections are preceded by eulogies of wisdom which serve as introductions and mark the divisions into which the collection falls." --WikipediaThe Book of Sirach is available in The Researchers Library of Ancient Texts (Volume One—The Apocrypha: Includes the Books of Enoch, Jasher, and Jubilees; also available on Kindle), as well as The Book of Enoch, The Book of Jasher, The Book of Jubilees, 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Tobias, Wisdom, Judith, Baruch, Susanna, Prayer of Azariah, Prayer of Manasseh, Bel and the Dragon, and Laodiceans.

    Though superficially plundered by thieves in antiquity, the burial remained intact, surrounded by a mass of funerary equipment arranged in three peripheral chambers. "The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen: The Burial Chamber" was originally published in 1927 as the second volume of Carter's trilogy. It records the work of the second and third seasons at the tomb: the opening of the four protective shrines; the discovery within of Tutankhamun's quartz-sandstone sarcophagus; the extraction of the king's three anthropoid coffins (the innermost of solid gold); and the final examination of the pharaoh's mummy.

    Creative spiritual development represents a new principle which signifies an offering of human freedom to God, an offering which God expects from us. The life of the spirit is a creative and dynamic process. Spiritual development is possible only because there is freedom. Spiritual development is not movement on the plane of the external world, but the bringing to birth of forces which lie hidden in the inner depths of existence. To quote Berdyaev, "the spiritual world is like a torrent of fire in free creative dynamism." The Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948) was one of the greatest religious thinkers of the twentieth century. His philosophy goes beyond mere thinking, mere rational conceptualization, and tries to attain authentic life itself: the profound layers of existence that are in contact with God's world. Berdyaev directed all of his efforts, philosophical as well as in his personal and public life, at replacing the kingdom of this world with the kingdom of God. According to him, we can all attempt to do this by tapping the divine creative powers which constitute our true nature. Our mission is to be collaborators with God in His continuing creation of the world. This is what Berdyaev said about himself: "Man, personality, freedom, creativeness, the eschatological-messianic resolution of the dualism of two worlds - these are my basic themes."

    The Catholic Historical Review Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls translated and introduced by Ellen L. Babinsky preface by Robert E. Lerner LOVE: This Soul has within her the mistress of the Virtues, whom one calls Divine Love, who has transformed her completely into herself, is united to her, and which is why this Soul belongs neither to herself nor to the Virtues. Reason: But who are you, Love? says Reason. Are not you one of the Virtues with us even though you be above us? Love: I am God, says Love, for Love is God and God is Love, and this Soul is God by the condition of Love. Thus this precious beloved of mine is taught and guided by me, without herself, for she is transformed into me, and such a perfect one, says Love, takes my nourishment. Marguerite Porete (?-1310) We know very little about Marguerite Porete, only that she was a beguine from Hainaut who was burned at the stake as a relapsed heretic in 1310. She might have been a solitary itinerant beguine who expounded her teachings to interested listeners. She wrote The Mirror of Simple Souls in Old French sometime between 1296 and 1306. The format of the text is a dialogue among allegorical figures who represent the nature of the relation between the soul and God. The fundamental structure of the discourse is grounded in traditional Neoplatonist philosophy, and courtly language is used to express theological abstractions. The Mirror is a theological treatise which analyzes how love in human beings is related to divine love, and how the human soul by means of this relation may experience a lasting union of indistinct ion with God in this life. This is the first modern English translation of the complete text. The translation is based on a critical edition of the Old French and Latin versions of The Mirror. The introduction sets The Mirror in the maelstrom of political and ecclesiastical tensions and conflicts, and offers an analysis of the French beguine's thought.

    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

    Are you feverent in your faith? Fr. Dunney will give you a greater depth of understanding.Are you lukewarm? Have a hard time concentrating on the Mass? Then read this book. Not accessible to the average Catholic, you say? Too mystical? Think again. Liturgical scholars and authorities are quoted throughout, and 126 illustrations clarify important points.