We find everything we need for spiritual growth as we picnic with the children, go to the grocery store, and pick up the morning paper. Denise’s intimate approach invites us to recognize the grace that exists within our own lives. We needn’t pull over and look for enlightenment; the divine is always present, even in the car-pool lane.   Stories of finding wisdom in the everyday   God is in the silence and also in the noise. Spirit is in stillness and also in silliness. The Sacred is in the monastery and also in the minivan. “I don’t know how it is that days filled with children and noise and mess and clutter can seem endless, and then, when the kids are grown, it can seem as if those same days passed ever too quickly. I don’t know how many billions of stars are up in the sky or how suffering can hold the seeds of resurrection. I don’t know how to answer all my children’s questions, or my own. I don’t know how to completely let go. Life keeps inviting me to learn these things, presenting me each and every day with opportunities for growth. And it does seem that when I open my eyes and heart to others, I begin to recognize something that has been there all along. It feels like a presence, a light, a love that is unbounded by time or space or matter. It moves within us and among us, healing us, filling us, calling us to recognize that what we seek is right here in our midst.” —From My Monastery Is a Minivan   “I was thrilled to discover a soul sister in Denise Roy.  This book will be a wonderful companion to any parent, whatever their faith tradition.” —Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, author, Parenting as a Spiritual Journey “This is the kind of book that makes you want to grab all your friends and say, ‘You’ve got to read this!’ This collection of inspirational stories will lift your spirits and soothe your soul. Denise Roy’s minivan wisdom invites you to discover the sacred right smack in the middle of ordinary life.” —Steve and Patt Saso, authors, 10 Best Gifts for Your Teen “The humor and honesty of Denise Roy’s writing pulled me in right away. If you are not a saint but an ordinary man or woman hoping to live the joys and trials of daily life with your eyes and your heart wide open to the sacred, this is a book for you.” —Oriah Mountain Dreamer, author, The Invitation and The Dance “Some people can hold up a lens to life that reveals the depth and beauty all around us. Denise Roy is that kind of person, and spending time reading the stories that fill her book is like spending time with a wise friend who brightens your life.” —Tom McGrath, family-life editor, U.S. Catholic, author, Raising Faith-Filled Kids

    Now, graduating from business school, newly married, Kristin is ready to take the next step of starting a family. But when Kristin’s first pregnancy ends with a miscarriage, she is devastated. When her second pregnancy does as well, Kristin and her husband Bob turn to in vitro fertilization – and are heartbroken again after a third miscarriage. Undaunted, they turn to alternate options, including surrogacy and adoption, but face setbacks at every turn, some so unthinkable that they never could have been predicted. In the most extreme of circumstances, when all of our careful plans are thrown out the window, how do we persevere? In spite of the pain and sorrow of the many years spent trying to start their family, Kristin and Bob remain positive, loving, and driven – and learn in their ultimately rewarding journey that life’s joys come more from the unexpected than from the expected.100% of Kristin Peck’s proceeds from the sale of Perseverance will be donated to Family and Children's Agency.Kristin Peck is thrilled to be the working mother of two amazing children. She keeps herself sane by belting out her favorite pop and country songs while running and completing triathlons, and is proud to have recently completed her first marathon. She is currently EVP, Group President of Zoetis, Inc., the world's largest animal health company. Kristin received her bachelor’s from Georgetown and her MBA from Columbia Business School. Kristin, her husband, two children and their dog live in CT. Perseverance is her first book.Cover design by Hannah Perrine Mode.

    And it inspired two close friends to get together in Dharamsala for a talk about something very important to them. The friends were His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The subject was joy. Both winners of the Nobel Prize, both great spiritual masters and moral leaders of our time, they are also known for being among the most infectiously happy people on the planet.From the beginning the book was envisioned as a three-layer birthday cake: their own stories and teachings about joy, the most recent findings in the science of deep happiness, and the daily practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives. Both the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu have been tested by great personal and national adversity, and here they share their personal stories of struggle and renewal. Now that they are both in their eighties, they especially want to spread the core message that to have joy yourself, you must bring joy to others.Most of all, during that landmark week in Dharamsala, they demonstrated by their own exuberance, compassion, and humor how joy can be transformed from a fleeting emotion into an enduring way of life.

    And in her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow, she has coalesced everything she knows about prayer to these fundamentals.It is these three prayers – asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating what we have that is good, and feeling awe at the world around us – that can get us through the day and can show us the way forward. In Help, Thanks, Wow, Lamott recounts how she came to these insights, explains what they mean to her and how they have helped, and explores how others have embraced these same ideas.

    

    This book takes up the question of what these changes mean—of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.

    From choices about careers to roles in local churches to relationship dynamics, this belief shapes the everyday lives of evangelical women. Yet biblical womanhood isn't biblical, says Baylor University historian Beth Allison Barr. It arose from a series of clearly definable historical moments.This book moves the conversation about biblical womanhood beyond Greek grammar and into the realm of church history--ancient, medieval, and modern--to show that this belief is not divinely ordained but a product of human civilization that continues to creep into the church. Barr's historical insights provide context for contemporary teachings about women's roles in the church and help move the conversation forward.Interweaving her story as a Baptist pastor's wife, Barr sheds light on the #ChurchToo movement and abuse scandals in Southern Baptist circles and the broader evangelical world, helping readers understand why biblical womanhood is more about human power structures than the message of Christ.

    This book is the catechism (the word means "instruction") that will serve as the standarad for all future catechisms.The Catechism draws on the Bible, the Mass, the Sacraments, Church tradition and teaching, and the lives of saints. It comes with a complete index, footnotes and cross-references for a fuller understanding of every subject. Using the tradition of explaining what the Church believes (the Creed), what she celebrates (the Sacraments), what she lives (the Commandments), and what she prays (the Lord's Prayer), the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers challenges for believers and answers for all those interested in learning about the mystery of the Catholic faith. Here is a positive, coherent and contemporary map for our spiritual journey toward transformation.The Catechism of the Catholic Church is, as Pope John Paul II calls it, "a special gift."

    Written in the author's early forties in the last years of the fourth century A.D. and during his first years as a bishop, they reflect on his life and on the activity of remembering and interpreting a life. Books I-IV are concerned with infancy and learning to talk, schooldays, sexual desire and adolescent rebellion, intense friendships and intellectual exploration. Augustine evolves and analyses his past with all the resources of the reading which shaped his mind: Virgil and Cicero, Neoplatonism and the Bible. This volume, which aims to be usable by students who are new to Augustine, alerts readers to the verbal echoes and allusions of Augustine's brilliant and varied Latin, and explains his theological and philosophical questioning of what God is and what it is to be human. The edition is intended for use by students and scholars of Latin literature, theology and Church history.

    Discourse seems futile when we are no longer a people with shared principles or even a shared understanding of reality. What seems obvious to one person is patently absurd to the next.    This collapse of meaning is not accidental. It has been plotted and documented for decades, and now presents in its current form as Woke ideology.   Awake, Not Woke unmasks this ideology by examining its history, major players, premises, and tactics, showing us that “Wokeness” at its core is an ideology of rupture. Indeed, it is an ideology with fundamentalist and even cult-like characteristics that is on a collision course with Christianity.   With a wit and clarity that both exposes the absurd and mourns the brokenness of our culture,  Noelle Mering provides answers to such questions as:      Why does tolerance seem to only go in one direction?How does the ideology create enemies, eroding friendship across the sexes and races?Why is violence the natural end of Woke ideology?Why are the Woke considered blameless?Why have politics become all-absorbing?Why is the corruption of children a logical outgrowth of Woke principles?How is the movement fundamentally a rejection of the Logos?  This is a spiritual battle, and it is not accidental. The architects of revolution have long known that the transformation of the West had to come by way of destabilizing the social, familial, and religious pieties of a citizenry.   But there is a road to restoration, and it begins with identifying and understanding the operating principles of the Woke movement. While the revolution is a counterfeit religion resulting in alienation and division, the One True Faith brings restoration. It is this restoration -- of the person, the family, and the Faith -- for which we all hunger and is the most fitting avenue toward a more harmonious and whole society

    There are many contradictory beliefs about God that claim to be the truth. But since truth never contradicts itself, who really has the truth? Utilizing objective evidence like a detective does in an investigation, the facts point to the one belief that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. One truth that applies to everyone if they believe it or not. Follow the evidence and see for yourself.Setting feelings and what others believe aside for a moment learn why objective evidence is the best way to find truth in any investigation, including the truth about God. See for yourself exactly why Christianity is the most reasonable belief available based on the facts and why it applies to everyone, everywhere even if they do not believe it. Learn the two things we all encounter daily that the Bible states is absolute proof of God's existence and leave every person without excuse, even those who have never read the Bible. Learn why trying to be a good person is not good enough.Weigh the objective evidence for yourself and make a reasonable decision about God and then pass the evidence on to others so they can discover the truth. Everyone deserves the opportunity to examine the evidence for themselves.Perfect for the seeker and the believer who want to eliminate doubts and have a reasonable assurance that their faith is actually placed in the truth.If you are a believer you have an obligation to share the truth. Let this book show your friends and family the sound foundation your belief rests upon. It's not about religion, it's about truth.

    The End of Faith. The God Delusion. God Is Not Great. Letter to a Christian Nation. Bestseller lists are filled with doubters. But what happens when you actually doubt your doubts?Although a vocal minority continues to attack the Christian faith, for most Americans, faith is a large part of their lives: 86 percent of Americans refer to themselves as religious, and 75 percent of all Americans consider themselves Christians. So how should they respond to these passionate, learned, and persuasive books that promote science and secularism over religion and faith? For years, Tim Keller has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced “doubts” skeptics bring to his Manhattan church. And in The Reason for God, he single-handedly dismantles each of them. Written with atheists, agnostics, and skeptics in mind, Keller also provides an intelligent platform on which true believers can stand their ground when bombarded by the backlash. The Reason for God challenges such ideology at its core and points to the true path and purpose of Christianity.Why is there suffering in the world? How could a loving God send people to Hell? Why isn’t Christianity more inclusive? Shouldn’t the Christian God be a god of love? How can one religion be “right” and the rest “wrong”? Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God? These are just a few of the questions even ardent believers wrestle with today. In this book, Tim Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations and reasoning, and even pop culture to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth.

    I’ve triedto listen to it, and follow it, and trust it.It’s been devastating at times, intoxicatingat others, heartbreaking and maddeningand euphoric——how do you make senseof this experience we’re having here onthis ball of rock hurtling through spaceat 67,000 miles an hour?There are big questions: Everythingis made of particles and atoms, and theuniverse has been expanding for thirteenbillion years?And then there are those other questions, about the people and places andevents that have shaped us.HOWEVER MASSIVE ANDCOSMIC IT ALL IS, IT’S ALSOREALLY, REALLY PERSONAL.AND SPIRITUAL.THAT’S THE WORD FOR IT.That’s the sense I’ve been followingfor a while now——this awareness thatthere’s something bigger happening inthe depth and complexity and struggleof life, something that connects us all,reminding us that it all matters and it’sall headed somewhere.Part memoir, part confession, partextended riff on the endlessly evolvingnature of reality, Everything Is Spiritualis an invitation to see what you’ve beena part of this whole time.

    Daniel's next book provides humorous yet intellectual commentary on the way religion gets talked about today. She explains Christian ideas and practices in non-academic, yet non-facile terms.In her signature style, popularized in widely debated articles for The Huffington Post and Christianity Today, she outlines four types of non-church-goers: no-longer, no-way, never-have, not-yet. And with experiential insight from more than a decade as a pastor, she explains how churches of all denominations and doctrines can provide them intellectual rigor, reasons for belief, and authentic religious community. No one should have to check their brain at the door of the church, she says, and churches must deal with present-day issues and be intellectually open, inviting people to bring questions, rather than dispensing old, easy answers.

    Our awkward silence reveals the gap that exists between what we are and what we know we should be. But God loves those awkward moments, Sammy Rhodes argues, because they are precisely where we find connection with God and one another.In This Is Awkward, Rhodes talks directly, honestly, hilariously about the most painfully uncomfortable subjects in our lives. In chapters like “Parents Are a Gift (You Can’t Return Them)” and “The Porn in My Side,” he boldly goes where most of us fear to tread, revealing that we can be liberated by the embrace of a God who knows the most shameful things about us and loves us all the same. Because nothing is too awkward for God.