Join Dr. Bryan Litfin as he guides you through Scripture and other ancient literature to sift fact from fiction, real-life from legend. Skillfully researched and clearly written, After Acts is as accurate as it is engaging. Gain a window into the religious milieu of the ancient and medieval church. Unearth artifacts and burial sites. Learn what really happened to your favorite characters and what you should truly remember them for.Did Paul ever make it to Spain' Was he beheaded in Rome'Is it true that Peter was crucified upside down'Was the Virgin Mary really bodily assumed into heaven'The book of Acts ends at chapter 28. But its characters lived on.

    For more than four-hundred years, Introduction to the Devout Life by Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales has been regarded as the essential guide to holiness and loving God. This spiritual classic takes on new life in Lift Up Your Heart, where Rev. John Burns has interpreted ten meditations for the modern reader and distilled them into a ten-day mini-retreat that can easily be completed in the midst of a busy life. This practical book goes right to the heart of helping you kick the habit of floating along on your spiritual journey to start actively pursuing holiness and devotion to God. During the course of the retreat, you'll learn the basics of forming a daily prayer routine, including how to offer yourself to God, meditate on his love, and maintain peace in the face of suffering and clarity in the midst of temptation. The meditations will help you:Adopt gratitude as a daily prayer practice.Examine and reorder your priorities and relationships to better reflect your love for God.Discern between good and evil in your life.Desire to love and serve as Jesus did.In a very real sense, Burns helps you take St. Francis de Sales as your spiritual director for ten days. As you do so, you’ll feel God’s fatherly love and restart your faith life, equipped with the tools to connect with God and live for heaven now.

    Belet wages war against one of the worst sins of his (and our) time - backbiting - better known to us as detraction (telling the faults of others without cause). Most of us do not realize how evil this sin is. In fact, many of us don't think it's a sin at all. After ruining someone's reputation, or satisfying our anger (and yes, our hatred) by spewing out every bad thing we can say about someone, we justify ourselves by saying, "Well, it's true!" We even think we are acting justly by giving someone what they deserve.. Due to our lack of charity and also to our pride, little do we see things from God's point of view, to whom these are vile sins - a form of hatred of neighbor - a failure to do the two things necessary - to love God and our neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40). In explaining this sin of backbiting, properly called detraction, Fr. Belet quotes the best men of Western Civilization: Aristotle, Plato, Horace, Seneca, Pliny, the Roman Emperor Constantine, King David, Isaiah, Saints James, Luke, Matthew, Paul, John Chrysostom, Jerome, Cassian, Gregory the Great, Augustine, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, and many others. A very helpful book for those who wish to know to meaning of backbiting---and how to avoid it.

    Through stories, domestic insights from Zelie's correspondence, and running commentary on their faith and family, we see in vivid detail how Louis and Zelie created a joyful Catholic home amid the daily stresses of ordinary life with their children.

    Her words and actions have inspired millions of people from every race and religion and country to help the poor and needy, a legacy that is her gift to all mankind for generations to come.From 1950, when she founded the order of Missionaries of Charity, to winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and then, in 1985, being awarded the Medal of Freedom—the United States' highest civilian award—to her final days, Mother Teresa served the world as a beacon shedding the light of hope, comfort, and peace on all.Mother Teresa: In My Own Words is a timeless testament to the power of her words. Here are the same quotes, stories, and prayers that helped strengthen and inspire the poor, the dying, the suffering, and the doubting who she met during her lifetime, and that will continue to strengthen and inspire all who read them.

    In the months before Sonnier’s death, the Roman Catholic nun came to know a man who was as terrified as he had once been terrifying. She also came to know the families of the victims and the men whose job it was to execute—men who often harbored doubts about the rightness of what they were doing. Out of that dreadful intimacy comes a profoundly moving spiritual journey through our system of capital punishment. Here Sister Helen confronts both the plight of the condemned and the rage of the bereaved, the fears of a society shattered by violence and the Christian imperative of love. On its original publication in 1993, Dead Man Walking emerged as an unprecedented look at the human consequences of the death penalty. Now, some two decades later, this story—which has inspired a film, a stage play, an opera and a musical album—is more gut-wrenching than ever, stirring deep and life-changing reflection in all who encounter it.

    Highly visible as a public teacher, preacher, and theologian, he nevertheless has remained nearly invisible as man and saint. What can be discovered about Thomas Aquinas as a whole? In this short, compelling portrait, Denys Turner clears away the haze of time and brings Thomas vividly to life for contemporary readers—those unfamiliar with the saint as well as those well acquainted with his teachings. Building on the best biographical scholarship available today and reading the works of Thomas with piercing acuity, Turner seeks the point at which the man, the mind, and the soul of Thomas Aquinas intersect. Reflecting upon Thomas, a man of Christian Trinitarian faith yet one whose thought is grounded firmly in the body’s interaction with the material world, a thinker at once confident in the powers of human reason and a man of prayer, Turner provides a more detailed human portrait than ever before of one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in all of Western thought.

    He covers every book of the Old Testament in the order in which it appears in the Hebrew Bible and treats the most important issues and methods in contemporary interpretation of the Old Testament--literary, historical, and theological.

    Something Beautiful for God interprets her life through her conversations with Malcolm Muggeridge, the quintessential worldly skeptic who experienced a remarkable conversion to Christianity because of her exemplary influence. He hails her as a "light which could never be extinguished."

    Where was he in the interim? Ancient Buddhist manuscripts say Jesus left Palestine and traveled to India, Nepal, Ladakh and Tibet. For the first time, Prophet brings together the testimony of four eyewitnesses of these remarkable manuscripts plus three different translations of the texts. Illustrated with maps, drawings and 79 photos.

    Now, to commemorate the Great Catholic Jubilee of the Year 2000, the authors bless us with an updated and expanded version of this beloved national bestseller. Filled with a witty, poignant, and downright hilarious potpourri of essays, lists, games, drawings, photos, and quizzes, it includes the best of all three Growing Up Catholic books, along with many all-new features, such as:Jubilee 2000: Not Your Average Birthday PartyFather Phil: Confessor to the SopranosWho Will Be The Next Pope?: A Handicapper's GuideAnsubstantiationtray: Can't Anybody Here Speak Latin Anymore?www.holy.comFor Catholics of all ages -- from those who lived through Vatican II to those who've never seen a nun's habit except in a movie -- Growing Up Catholic celebrates in a lighthearted way the funny and sublime side of day-to-day Catholic life.

    In 24 enthralling lectures, Professor Miller guides you through a core selection of the major books of the Old Testament, inviting you to probe their meaning and relevance in incisive and thought-provoking commentary. Among the books of the Old Testament, you’ll explore:• Genesis: Uncover fascinating features of the Old Testament’s opening, such as how the events of the first week of creation form an elaborate pattern, expressing the complex order of the universe; and how the text does not lay primary blame for “the fall” on the woman, Eve;• Deuteronomistic History: Study the epic history of the people of Israel in the Promised Land; follow the story of the Israelites’ disobedience to God, and its tragic consequences; • The Prophets: Through the dramatic stories of the prophets, take account of the challenges faced by those who sought to actualize God’s plan for humanity; • The Books of Ruth and Esther: Among notable women in the Old Testament, explore two stories of women who are doubly at risk, and who prevail through loyalty, resourcefulness, and integrity; and• Daniel and the Apocalyptic: In the Book of Daniel, encounter the genre of apocalyptic literature - revelation initiated by God - and contemplate the figure of “the Son of Man,” a promised redeemer.Throughout the lectures, Professor Miller offers a wealth of perspectives on how to approach the texts. You’ll assess the role of translation in the understanding of the texts, studying the meanings of key Hebrew words; you’ll also look in depth at the history, dating, and writing of the texts, and you’ll study their literary and linguistic features, noting how they achieve their impact on the reader.In Understanding the Old Testament, you’ll take a revelatory look at this epically impactful document, finding its deeper historical and religious meanings, as well as its sublime literary treasures.

    At twenty-seven, he became a professor of Old Testament Exegesis and Semitic Languages at Dallas Theological Seminary. He started and pastored an influential church in Ft. Worth, Texas. He taught his church and his students that God no longer gave the "miraculous gifts of the Spirit" or spoke outside the pages of Scripture.After teaching seminary for ten years, a bestselling author shocked Deere when he told him that he not only believed God was regularly healing people today, but that he had seen undeniable miracles in answer to his prayers. For the next four months, Deere studied every healing story in the New Testament. This time he came to those stories with the open mind of a scholar, completely at home in the original languages of the Bible, not as a gullible student swallowing the prejudices of his teachers. At the end of those four months, Deere was convinced, against his will, that God was still healing and speaking just as he had done in the New Testament.Deere and his wife Leesa began to pray for people in their church and witnessed dramatic, documented healings.In Why I Am Still Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Deere demonstrates that the Scriptures teach that God is healing and speaking today just as he did 2000 years ago. He tells documented stories of modern miracles. He explains the nature of spiritual gifts, defines each spiritual gift, offers sound advice on discovering and using the gifts in church today. He shows how all of this part of God's way of deepening our friendship with him.A modern classic, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit was published twenty-five years ago, and in that book Deere claimed that he would live long enough to see the majority of conservative evangelicals come to believe in all the gifts of the Spirit. That has come true. The theological landscape has changed dramatically. Nearly completely rewritten, this new edition still offers that proof but has about seventy percent new material on the practical matters of experiencing and using spiritual gifts. For example, anyone who prays regularly for the sick will encounter demonic power. Demons pop up all over the Synoptic Gospels. There are two new chapters on ministering to the demonized. There is much confusion on what it means to be filled with the Spirit today. Deere takes three chapters to examine every use of "filled with the Spirit" and "full of the Spirit" in the New Testament to show why and how God still fills his servants with the Holy Spirit. There are many new stories of God's power, even walking on water and multiplying food. Deere also introduces the newest literature defending and explaining the gifts of the Spirit. All this and more continues the book's legacy for a new time.

    His story like the stories at the start of each chapter in the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults give us a glimpse into the lives of Catholics who lived out their faith throughout our country's history. Each chapter in the Catechism for Adults includes stories, doctrine, reflection, quotations, discussion questions, and prayer to lead the reader to a deepening faith. The Catechism for Adults is an excellent resource for preparation of catechumens in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and for ongoing catechesis of adults.

    He contrives a style of speech for his narrator--Godric himself--that's brisk and tough-sinewed...He avoids metaphysical fiddle, embedding his narrative in domestic reality--familiar affection, responsibilities, disasters...All on his own, Mr. Buechner has managed to reinvent projects of self-purification and of faith as piquant matter for contemporary fiction [in a book] notable for literary finish...Frederick Buechner is a very good writer indeed." — Benjamin DeMott, The New York Times Book Review"From the book's opening sentence...and sensible reader will be caught in Godric's grip...Godric glimmers brightly." — Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek"Godric is a memorable book...a marvelous gem of a book...destined to become a classic of its kind." — Michael Heskett, Houston Chronicle"In the extraordinary figure of Godric, both stubborn outsider and true child of God, both worldly and unworldly, Frederick Buechner has found an ideal means of exploring the nature of spirituality. Godric is a living battleground where God fights it out with the world, the Flesh, and the Devil." — London Times Literary Supplement"With a poet's sensibly and a high reverent fancy, Frederick Buechner paints a memorable portrait." — Edmund Fuller, The Wall Street Journal