This free sampler is a curated volume of excerpts from new and classic titles from leading authors in the field, including C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright, Desmond Tutu, Ann Patchett, Candida Moss, John Dominic Crossan, Father Jonathan Morris, and Thomas H. Groome.The 10 Best Books to Read for Easter: Selections to Inspire, Educate, and Provoke includes:An Introduction from James Martin, SJAnd excerpts from:Together on Retreat by James Martin, SJMere Christianity by C. S. LewisSimply Jesus by N. T. WrightMade for Goodness by Desmond Tutu and Mpho TutuNot Less Than Everything by Catherine Wolff (Editor)The Worthless Servant by Ann PatchettThe Myth of Persecution by Candida MossThe Greatest Prayer by John Dominic CrossanGod Wants You Happy by Father Jonathan MorrisWill There Be Faith? by Thomas H. GroomeThe Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin, SJ

    Mike Driscoll answers all these questions and more. Drawing on his experience as a priest and counselor, and on his research with exorcists, Fr. Driscoll clears up many popular misconceptions about demons and the spirit world and offers sound information and pastoral advice rooted in Catholic tradition, including:•What we know about demons from history, Scripture, and Church teaching•How to tell whether personal problems come from mental illnesses or demonic attacks•What exorcists actually do—and don’t do—when they help people suffering possession•Why homemade “deliverance ministries” are not a truly Catholic way to counter the influence of demons•Authentic prayers and practices that will make evil spirits flee—and invite God’s grace into your heartThe devil has designs on our soul and hosts of wickedness who want to win it for him. Know your enemy—read Demons, Deliverance, and Discernment and prepare yourself for the fight.

    It would alsomake a good RCIA resource as well as a blockbuster stimulus fordiscussions."—Book Nook, Pecos BenedictineThe authors answer the question, "Why Be Catholic?" fairly and squarely, showing a deep appreciation about what is good in Catholicism and a penetrating honesty about the Church's shortcomings. Rohr and Martos also examine what it means to be Catholic in the United States today. Finally, to answer the title question in a more personal way, they present portraits of some outstanding Catholics, especially those we call saints, who have found personal fulfillment by living their faith to the utmost.After reading this book, you will appreciate more fully the unique heritage of the Catholic Church. You will understand how its magnificent tradition enriches the lives of Catholics today and propels the ever-changing Church into the 21st century and third millennium. A popular resource for RCIA, evangelization and religious education.

    Throughout the last two thousand years, Christ has raised up patristic writers who have defended that original model. In modern times, however, this model is being pushed aside, the taste for genuine mystical expression is disappearing, and the initial Christian impetus is being disfigured. That is why the works of St. Theophan the Recluse are so vital for today. He keeps the ancient patristic model sharp and clear, presenting it in modern language. He speaks to contemporary people who have been exposed to new realities, and thus renders inestimable help in linking them to the original Christian impetus and revealing to them the way into the Heavenly Kingdom. The works of St. Theophan changed the spiritual face of Russia in the 19th century. With the publication of his greatest work, THE PATH TO SALVATION, the English-speaking world now has the opportunity to benefit likewise from this powerful inheritance to the people of the modern age. Saint Theophan the Recluse is first and foremost a Church Father for modern times. Deeply aware of the roots of the modern age, he reinterprets ancient patristic wisdom in order to adapt it to the needs of the modern unchurched mind, which has been divorced from the Orthodox philosophy of life and even from the rudimentary principles of practical Christianity. This classic textbook of spiritual life, now being offered in its entirety for the first time in English, seems to have been sent directly to today's readers by the great Russian recluse himself. Every line breathes his profound psychological understanding, his intricate experience in spiritual struggle, and above all his love, compassion and all-consuming desire that every person might be saved. Inspiring the reader with a sober longing for acquiring the Kingdom of Heaven, St. Theophan provides an infallible system for taking the Kingdom by force, in a Christian life of grace and repentance.

    Nearly a hundred years later, Justin, born and raised in New Jersey, knows little of his family beyond the Garden State.That changes in 2001 when he discovers that his grandfather's cousin, Padre Gaetano Catanoso, is a Vatican-certified miracle worker. After a life of serving the poor and founding an order of nuns, Gaetano had been approved by Pope John Paul II to become a saint, the first priest from Calabria ever to be canonized. A typically lapsed American Catholic, Justin embarks on a quest to connect with his extended family in southern Italy and, ultimately, to awaken his slumbering faith.My Cousin the Saint charts the parallel history of two relatives—Justin's grandfather, Carmelo, and his sainted cousin, Gaetano. While Carmelo leaves his homeland to pursue New World prosperity, Gaetano stays behind to relieve Old World misery. Justin reunites the two halves of a sundered family by both exploring the life of the saint in Calabria and uncovering the untold story of his grandfather's family, raised in New Jersey between two world wars.Justin confronts his own tenuous spiritual moorings in the process. After meeting with Vatican officials in Rome, he is astonished by the complexity of saint-making. After hearing one miracle story after another, he struggles with the line between the mystical and the divine. After seeing his brother fall ill with terminal cancer, he questions the value of prayer. And after reveling in the charm and generosity of his newfound Italian relatives, he comes to learn what it means to have a saint in the family.A compelling narrative written with grace and honesty, My Cousin the Saint is a testament to the challenge of being Catholic in twenty-first-century America. More than a biography, more than an immigrant memoir, more than a chronicle of renewed faith, it is a love letter to a family now reunited across oceans and years.

    All the while, he deftly used modern media to awaken our disbelieving modern culture — and even the Church — to the reality of the Devil and his nefarious actions at all times and everywhere.In these eye-opening pages, angelologist Father Marcello Stanzione tells the fascinating story of Father Amorth and his life as an exorcist. You’ll learn of his daily schedule and how he managed to perform dozens of exorcisms each week. You’ll find out what his exorcism room looked like, and how various devils responded to his bold practice. Best of all, you’ll read Father Amorth’s own startling explanations of many truths about the Devil that our culture has forgotten — and about the canny methods the Deceiver has adopted in recent years to corrupt believers and unbelievers alike. Among the many questions Father Amorth answers here are:•How can we recognize the action of the Evil One?•Can a person in the afterlife enter spiritually into a living person?•Which prayers of liberation are the most successful?•What are the four methods a demon uses to enter souls?•Can demons hide from an exorcist?•What are the six characteristics of evil spells?•Are all instances of clairvoyance managed by demons?•Is an exorcist infallible in his judgment and his ministry?•Why is there no longer any possibility of salvation for the fallen angels?•What are the arms of combat that each of us must use to do battle with evil?•And many more surprising facts about the Evil One and how to resist him.“We can do nothing against you because you are too protected!” cried the devils that Father Amorth battled. Let Father Amorth teach you in these pages how you, too, can be protected!

    In this land of tobacco farming, bluegrass music, and devout fundamentalist Christianity, he is compelled to explain and justify the Catholic faith. His only defense, the Bible.Join Michael on an Amish-style farmstead as he learns to milk a cow, harness a horse, disk a field, and harvest hay with a team instead of a tractor. Will he discover the truth about the papacy, the Eucharist, and devotion to Mary in Sacred Scripture?

    But these ponderings beg one more critical question: What exactly should the Church be moving toward? In Walking with Jesus: A Way Forward for the Church, Pope Francis's own words lead us to the answer. Francis urges us to make Jesus central in our individual lives and in the collective life of the Church—to walk toward him, and ultimately to walk with him at all times and in all places. Each chapter of this Vatican-authorized book helps us put one foot in front of the other as we move ever closer to God and to our neighbors through the sacraments, prayer, evangelization, the gifts of the Spirit, and service to others. Francis reminds us that while the Church is indeed made up of individual people, we must walk together as a community of believers in a transformative relationship with Jesus if the Church is to be an effective, faithful witness to the Gospel. With a foreword by Archbishop of Chicago Blase J. Cupich, Pope Francis's first major appointment in the United States,Walking with Jesus offers the Church a much-needed way forward, past its inner and outer walls, as it fearlessly follows Christ toward the future.

    For James Alison, a gay Catholic theologian, the key to moving beyond resentment is a radical re-conversion to the gospel message of God’s love and understanding that even those in power are our brothers and sisters.

    Gail has written another heart pounding, page turner of a novel for Catholics who are straining to hear their Church's voice in what Pope John Paul II called "the final confrontation between the Church and the anti Church, the Gospel and the anti Gospel." Motherless takes the reader on a riveting behind-the-scenes journey around the globe to the boardrooms and laboratories where the architects of The Life Sciences Revolution are preparing Mankind's Final Solution... and into the confessionals and chanceries where the Church's response is being challenged.

    Throughout A Friendship Like No Other, renowned spiritual director William A. Barry, SJ, explores the premise that God wants to relate to us as a close friend. Barry has contemplated this idea—radical for many Christians—throughout his lifetime, and he explains that it actually traces back to the “developing revelation of God contained in the Bible.”A Friendship Like No Other offers three well-supported and practical sections: prayerful exercises to help lead you to the conviction that God wants your friendship; a close look at objections to this idea; and reflections on experiencing the presence of God and discerning those experiences. Brief, personal meditations are woven throughout. Grounded in biblical tradition and with a clear focus on Ignatian spirituality, this book offers a fresh, heart-changing approach to living joyfully in the freedom of the divine embrace.

    He gave them each specific roles. In Man Up!, men will discover Gods true design for themwhether as a guy searching for his footing in this culture, a husband seeking a godly relationship with his wife, or a father looking for guidance on raising his children to be confessional followers of Jesus. This book is ideal for individual study, small groups, mens Bible studies, and one-on-one studies.

    He may have changed his name to become Pope Francis, but it did not change their friendship. Since Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis in 2013, countless books have been written to help the world understand this deeply complex yet simple servant of God. What sets Pope Francis: Life and Revolution apart from all other biographies of Pope Francis is the careful research and original investigation behind it, along with the fact that it is written by an internationally respected journalist—Elisabetta Piqué—who has remained close to the Pope since first meeting him back in 2001. Over 75 individuals were interviewed for Pope Francis: Life and Revolution, including lay people, priests, bishops, and cardinals who have known or worked with Francis at various times in his life. Insights from these people, as well as from friends and family members, allow us to see a profoundly personal side of the Pope. His humility and humanity, courage and conviction, and warmth and wisdom are revealed as Piqué shares little-known episodes from Francis’s life. With a foreword by Cardinal Seán O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap., Pope Francis: Life and Revolution is the definitive resource and narrative of a man personally known by few and revered and respected by many.Pope Francis: Life and Revolution reveals a man consistent in his beliefs and actions. He is a spiritual leader unwavering in his love for God, whose inner joy and peace move him—and can inspire us—to serve the least, the last, and the lost.Also available in Spanish! El Papa Francisco: vida y revolución

    Pope Francis’s stewardship of the Church, while perceived as a revelation by many, has provoked division throughout the world. “If a conclave were to be held today,” one Roman source told The New Yorker, “Francis would be lucky to get ten votes.” In To Change the Church, Douthat explains why the particular debate Francis has opened—over communion for the divorced and the remarried—is so dangerous: How it cuts to the heart of the larger argument over how Christianity should respond to the sexual revolution and modernity itself, how it promises or threatens to separate the church from its own deep past, and how it divides Catholicism along geographical and cultural lines. Douthat argues that the Francis era is a crucial experiment for all of Western civilization, which is facing resurgent external enemies (from ISIS to Putin) even as it struggles with its own internal divisions, its decadence, and self-doubt. Whether Francis or his critics are right won’t just determine whether he ends up as a hero or a tragic figure for Catholics. It will determine whether he’s a hero, or a gambler who’s betraying both his church and his civilization into the hands of its enemies.

    Beginning in the eleventh century and ending as late as the eighteenth, these holy wars were waged against Muslims and other enemies of the Church, enlisting generations of laymen and laywomen to fight for the sake of Christendom.Crusading features prominently in today's religio-political hostilities, yet the perceptions of these wars held by Arab nationalists, pan-Islamists, and many in the West have been deeply distorted by the language and imagery of nineteenth-century European imperialism. With this book, Jonathan Riley-Smith returns to the actual story of the Crusades, explaining why and where they were fought and how deeply their narratives and symbolism became embedded in popular Catholic thought and devotional life.From this history, Riley-Smith traces the legacy of the Crusades into modern times, specifically within the attitudes of European imperialists and colonialists and within the beliefs of twentieth-century Muslims. Europeans fashioned an interpretation of the Crusades from the writings of Walter Scott and a French contemporary, Joseph-Fran�ois Michaud. Scott portrayed Islamic societies as forward-thinking, while casting Christian crusaders as culturally backward and often morally corrupt. Michaud, in contrast, glorified crusading, and his followers used its imagery to illuminate imperial adventures.These depictions have had a profound influence on contemporary Western opinion, as well as on Muslim attitudes toward their past and present. Whether regarded as a valid expression of Christianity's divine enterprise or condemned as a weapon of empire, crusading has been a powerful rhetorical tool for centuries. In order to understand the preoccupations of Islamist jihadis and the character of Western discourse on the Middle East, Riley-Smith argues, we must understand how images of crusading were formed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.