Some develop very quickly, but do not achieve significant depth; while others develop quite slowly, but seem to be almost unending in the depth of wisdom, trust, hope, virtue, and love they engender. The best way of explaining this is to look at each of the pillars individually.Before doing this, however, it is indispensable for each of us to acknowledge (at least intellectually) the fundamental basis for Christian contemplation, namely, the unconditional Love of God. Jesus taught us to address God as Abba. If God really is Abba; if His love is like the father of the prodigal son; if Jesus' passion and Eucharist are confirmations of that unconditional Love; if God really did so love the world that He sent His only begotten Son into the world not to condemn us, but to save us and bring us to eternal life (Jn 3:16-19); if nothing really can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rm 8:31-39); and if God really has prepared us "to grasp fully, with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love, and experience this love which surpasses all understanding, so that we may attain to the fullness of God Himself" (Eph 3:18-20), then God's love is unconditional, and it is, therefore, the foundation for unconditional trust and unconditional hope. There can be nothing more important than contemplating, affirming, appropriating, and living in this Unconditional Love. This is the purpose of contemplation; indeed, the purpose of the spiritual life itself.

    At the time when Dorothy wrote about her, she was already known to the world as the Saint of the Little Way; in the April 1952 CW Dorothy also called her "the saint of the responsible." Dorothy reflected in her book that while Therese's popularity was great, the "social implications of her teachings are yet to be written." Since the time that Dorothy wrote about her, St. Therese has become even better known and is now a Doctor of the Church. --Houston Catholic Worker-- full article http://www.cjd.org/paper/roots/rdespa...

    We bury ourselves in pursuits big and small, afraid to face the shame, unworthiness or loneliness echoing in the silence of a question unasked.Yet something in us needs to know. We long to feel that we are unconditionally, extravagantly, irresistibly loved. This book is your invitation to experience that lavish love finally and fully. In these pages you will begin a journey of discovering the good news Jesus revealed: that the Father loves you. You will uncover the lies that have kept you from Him and from His mercy. And you will sense the incredible joy of the strength, acceptance and love flowing from His heart into yours. You are loved. You are accepted. You are home. "A powerful invitation to know God as our Father, to experience His fatherly love and to witness that love to others in our everyday lives."--Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., archbishop of Philadelphia"A wonderful, enlightening and moving book."--Randy Clark, D.Min., founder and president, Global Awakening and the Apostolic Network of Global Awakening "For those who feel empty, lonely or thirsty. . . . it would be impossible to read this book and not fall more deeply in love with God."--Mary Healy, associate professor of sacred Scripture, Sacred Heart Major Seminary"This is a beautiful and hope-filled book."--from the foreword by John Eldredge, president, Ransomed Heart; bestselling author

    What are angels like? How many kinds are there? Are mental disorders caused by their influence? Long favored by scholars, this classic has now been rewritten to give us accessible scriptural answers to our questions about the spirit world.

    Pope Clement XI and Benedict XIV gave like decisions.

    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.

    He then describes the Church's developing self-awareness of its dual elements of the human and divine. Concerned with verifying the Church's claim to embody Christ, Giussani situates the locus of verification in human experience, arguing that a different type of life is born in those who try to live the life of the Church. Why the Church? is a seminal study that will engage both the scholar and the general reader.

    Perhaps that’s because it is so hard to experience lasting happiness.In The Saints’ Guide to Happiness, Robert Ellsberg suggests that some of the best people to show us are holy men and women throughout history—from St. Augustine to Flannery O’Connor, Thomas Merton to St. Theresa of Avila and Mother Theresa.These people weren’t saints because of the way they died or their visions or wondrous deeds. They were saints because of their extraordinary capacity for goodness and love, which—in the end—makes us happy.

    It is a reflection of the profound spiritual experience and elevated theological reflection of its author, St. John of Kronstadt. Appropriate both for beginners in the spiritual life and for those more experienced, no one can come away from reading this work without profit. This is the kind of book you will return to time and time again. Appropriate, relevant, and edifying reading for all Christians.

    Says, \"Impregnate yourself with humility, and you will soon find that all other virtues will follow without any effort on your part.\" A treasure; filled with insights. Buy copies with confidence for all your friends!

    This is a comprehensive attempt to make the spiritual tradition of large areas of mankind more generally accessible to the ordinary interested reader. A. M. Allchin in Church Times Catherine of Siena-The Dialogue translation and introduction by Suzanne Noffke, O.P., preface by Giuliana Cavallini If you have received my love sincerely without self-interest, you will drink your neighbor's love sincerely. It is just like a vessel that you fill at the fountain. If you take it out of the fountain to drink, the vessel is soon empty. But if you hold your vessel in the fountain while you drink, it will not get empty: indeed, it will always be full. Catherine of Siena, 1347-1380 This is the crowning spiritual work of the only woman other than Teresa of Avila to be granted the title of Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church. This volume was simply called my book by the fourteenth-century Italian saint. The aim of her book (one of the first books to see print in Spain, Germany, Italy, and England), says Dr. Noffke in her Foreword, was the instruction and encouragement of all those whose spiritual welfare was her concern. Catherine was a mystic whose plunge into God plunged her deep into the affairs of society, Church and the souls who came under her influence. Professor Noffke goes on to call The Dialogue a great tapestry to which Catherine adds stitch upon stitch until she is satisfied that she has communicated all she can of what she has learned of the way of God. In this, the sixth centenary of the great Dominican's death, we live in a time so badly in need of her sense of institutional reform as flowing from Divine truth, love and charity. Dr. Noffke says: In the opening pages of The Dialogue Catherine presents a series of questions or petitions to God the Father each of which receives a response and amplification. There is the magnificent symbolic portrayal of Christ as the bridge. There are specific discussions of discernment, tears (true and false spiritual emotion), truth, the sacramental heart ('mystic body') of the Church, divine providence, obedience.... It is not so much a treatise to be read as it is a conversation to be entered into with earnest leisure and leisurely earnest.

    And yet it is this which can allow us to know the grace of God most powerfully. This study explores why Henri Nouwen is, perhaps, the modern writer who has done most to confront the question of woundedness. In doing so his work brings us face to face with Jesus the wounded healer and can release new depths of grace in the reader's life

    Miller delivers!" - Jeffrey Long, MD Reports of near-death experiences (NDEs) are flooding the media with books, articles and interviews. People describe hovering over their bodies, details of their surgeries, talking with deceased relatives, and reviewing their lives in vivid detail, often while their brains should be incapable of producing rational thought or memories. While the accounts are no doubt interesting, do they provide any solid evidence for the afterlife and the existence of God? Miller argues, in nontechnical and engaging prose, that it does indeed. He began his study doubting that NDEs provided such evidence, but found himself convinced by the weight of the evidence. In this multiple award-winning book, the reader will explore: The common naturalistic explanations for NDEs. Evidence that NDEs point to God and heaven. The results of 35 years of research into NDEs by doctors and other professionals, fully documented for those who want to study further. A comparison of NDEs with Christian teachings. Recommendations of key books, researchers, and publications for further study. "Can we survive death? Is there a God or a heaven? Miller provides the discerning reader with ample reason to think that the answer to these all-important questions is 'yes'." - Dr. Peter Schaefer, Senior Research Psychologist, Department of Defense

    And more than helping you find your way out, this book will help you find your way through that place.

    This new book takes another approach, another angle: why Lino is on his way to sainthood. Often hilarious, but always with a point, Saint focuses on God’s grace in Lino’s life and shows how even a sinner like him can look forward to being a saint. As Lino himself puts it: “Instead of stories of small triumphs and many failures, this is a book to encourage you in your own triumphs. To realize you might not be as big a sinner as you think. And that with God's help, you might just become a saint.” Picking up where Sinner left off, Saint points the way to our end goal—holiness and sainthood—and does so in a way that entertains as well as inspires.The audio edition of this book can be downloaded via Audible.