The poet's cry, "O world, I cannot hold you close enough!" is the heart's cry of the enclosed contemplative. No one who has not lived in a cloister can fully understand just how intertwined are the lives of cloistered nuns. Their hearts may be wide as the universe and bottomless as eternity, but the practical details of their living are boxed up into the small area within the enclosure walls. Cloistered nuns rub souls as well as elbows all their lives, and if they do not step out of themselves to get a true perspective, they can become small-souled and petty and remain immature children all their lives long. But, as Mother Mary Francis points out, they also have "as great a right to be merry as any lady in the world." Nor is merriment all. "Hidden away from the glare and noise of worldly living," Mother Mary Francis writes, "we are enclosed in the womb of holy Church. I walk down the cloisters, and my heart moves to a single tune: Lord, it is good, so good to be here!"

    She is Saint Teresa -- known as a mystic, reformer and founder of convents, and the author of numerous texts that introduced her radical religious ideas and practices to a society suffering through the repressive throes of the Spanish Inquisition. In Barbara Mujica's masterful tale, her story -- her days of youthful romance, her sensual fits of spiritual rapture, secret heritage as a Jewish convert to Catholicism, cloak-and-dagger political dealings, struggles against sexual blackmail, and mysterious illness -- unfolds with a tumultuous urgency. Blending fact with fiction in vivid detail, painstakingly researched and beautifully rendered, Mujica's tale conjures a brilliant picture of sisterhood, faith, the terror of religious persecution, the miracle of salvation, and one woman's challenge to the power of strict orthodoxy, a challenge that consisted of a crime of passion -- her own personal relationship with God.

    He tackles the tough issues in an attempt to expose how the opposition is misunderstanding the Scriptures and history. He uses many Protestant scholars and historians to support the Catholic position. This book contains the most complete compilation of Scriptural and Patristic quotations on the primacy of Peter and the Papal office of any book available. It has over 500 footnotes with supporting evidence from Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, and non-Christian authorities.

    In 1979, Pope John Paul II departed from this traditional dichotomy and offered an integrated vision of the human body and soul. In a series of talks that came to be known as the theology of the body, he explained the divine meaning of human sexuality and why the body provides answers to fundamental questions about our lives. In CALLED TO LOVE, Carl Anderson, chairman of the world's largest catholic service organization, and Fr. Jose Granados discuss the philosophical and religious significance of the theology of the body in language at once poetic and profound. As they explain, the body speaks of God, it reveals His goodness, and it also speaks of man and women and their vocation to love. CALLED TO LOVE brings to life the tremendous gift John Paul II bestowed on humanity and gives readers a new understanding of the Christian way of love and how to embrace it fully in their lives.

    Drawing heavily on poignant anecdotes from his own experience as a life-long Catholic born in 1960s, Madrid offers readers a way of looking at the Church--its members, teachings, customs, and history--from perspectives many may have never considered.Growing up Catholic during a time of great social and theological upheaval and transition, a time in which countless Catholics abandoned their religion in search of something else, Patrick Madrid learned a great deal about why people leave Catholicism and why others stay. This experience helped him gain many insights into what it is about the Catholic Church that some people reject, as well as those things that others treasure. Drawing upon Madrid's personal experiences, Why Be Catholic? offers a deeply personal, fact-based, rationale for why everyone should be Catholic or at least consider the Catholic Church in a new light.

    This essay is an attempt to contribute effective strategies to engage our own time and culture once more with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and – for a weary world – to awaken the Catholic imaginative vision.

    You'll learn how these key virtues influence your actions and color all of your spiritual life. You'll discover real-life ways to develop these virtues -- virtues that bring lasting improvement to those parts of your character that need it most.

    Never has there been spiritual reading as powerful as What Jesus Saw from the Cross, the book that will intensify your love of Jesus by burning the events of His Passion into your memory and imagination. Written by Rev. A. G. Sertillanges, this acclaimed devotional classic gives you vivid and dramatic details not included in the Gospel.

    KENNEDY, VINCE LOMBARDI , DOROTHY DAY, FULTON SHEEN, AND ANDY WARHOL HAVE IN COMMON? They’re all Catholics who have shaped America. In this page-a-day history, 365 inspiring stories celebrate the historic contributions of American men and women shaped by their Catholic faith. From famous figures to lesser-known saints and sinners, The American Catholic Almanac tells the fascinating, funny, uplifting, and unlikely tales of Catholics’ influence on American history, culture, and politics. Spanning the scope of the Revolutionary War to Notre Dame football, this unique collection of stories highlights the transformative role of the Catholic Church in American public life over the last 400 years.Did you know…• The first immigrant to arrive in America via Ellis Island was a 15-year-old Irish Catholic girl?• Al Capone’s tombstone reads “MY JESUS MERCY”?• Andrew Jackson credited America’s victory in the Battle of New Orleans to the prayers of the Virgin Mary and the Ursuline Sisters?• Five Franciscans died in sixteenth-century Georgia defending the Church’s teachings on marriage?• Jack Kerouac died wanting to be known as a Catholic and not only as a beat poet?• Catholic missionaries lived in Virginia 36 years before the English settled Jamestown?

    According to Carmelite Father Wilfrid Stinissen, surrender to God, abandonment to the One who loves us completely, is that central reality. The life of Jesus shows us the centrality of abandonment, for it is truly the beginning and the end of his mission on earth. In this simple but profound book, Father Stinissen distinguishes three degrees or stages in abandonment. The first stage consists of accepting and assenting to God's will as it manifests itself in all circumstances of life. The second is actively doing God's will at every moment of one's life. In the third stage, abandonment to God is so complete that one has become a tool in God's hands. At this stage it is no longer I who do God's will, but God who accomplishes his will through me.

    The Glory of the Crusades

    How can men and women overcome the interior and exterior battles and discover the love they desire?From “Hey” to “I do”—as well as the inevitable “gray areas” along the way—Emotional Virtue offers a compelling blueprint for how to navigate relationships and thrive in every stage of life—not just survive.

    "I want the Church to go out onto the streets, I want us to resist everything worldly, everything static, everything comfortable, everything that might make us closed in on ourselves." Pope Francis, World Youth Day 2013 Pope Francis has been called the "pope of the people" as he captures minds and hearts with his joyful faith, with his warm, direct and loving attention to those he meets, and with his attention to the poor and needy.Now you can start or finish every day encouraged by the same engaging spirit alive in these 365 short meditations written by Pope Francis.Let his words inspire and challenge you, push you deeper into Scripture, raise your prayer to new heights, or simply fill you with gratitude for God's personal love for you.Join Pope Francis and let the flame of faith catch fire within you, as it slowly catches fire across the world.

    It is packed with vital new information in addition to the basic story of its beginnings and where it is today. Included is startling commentary on the alleged secrets and how they will change the world forever. Underlying the story is the disclosure by the Mother of Jesus that she will never come to earth again in apparition. THE LAST APPARITION is a must read!

    For too many Catholics, Confession is just a means to an end: cleaning us up from sin so we can receive Communion. But, as Pope Francis tells us, Confession is much more than "going to the dry cleaner." It s "an encounter with Jesus, who waits for us as we are.In his years of speaking all over North America, Flynn saw that many Catholics have this limited appreciation of Confession, and the urgent need for clear teaching about this great Sacrament. If you have not yet experienced Confession as a wonderful, personal encounter with Christ; if you do not yet look forward to going to Confession with the same eagerness and expectation with which you receive Holy Communion, this book is for you. It will be a whole new way of going to Confession, inviting you to begin an exciting personal journey to healing and holiness. It may change your life.