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.

    John Paul II and St. Teresa of Avila as your guides, these pages will show you how to transform the rote recitation of prayer into a profound worship of Christ, drawing your hearts to bow in awe before the Triune God whom the Rosary reveals to us. You’ll learn how to place every moment of your life before His throne, seeing in them the mystery of the Incarnation.You’ll learn the difference between contemplation and meditation, and how these great saints approached the reading of sacred writings not as a mere intellectual exercise, but as a prayer. You’ll learn how to enrich your vocal prayer, and how the Rosary can unite vocal prayer and mental prayer in a way that can lift your heart to the heights of contemplation.To look upon the face of Christ is the task of every follower of Christ, and there is no better way to contemplate life of Christ than through the Rosary. Read these pages, and you’ll soon follow in the footsteps of St. Teresa of Ávila and Pope St. John Paul II, finding in the Rosary a meeting point with God that becomes your first taste of a deeper union with Him.

    As a mother of seven, she knows we don t just need to be told what kind of women we should be. We need some help getting there.Drawing from her own experience of balancing marriage, motherhood, and work inside and outside the home, Lisa helps you uncover the key to living a busy life with inner calm. What's the secret? Identifying key priorities, and doing first what matters most. With humor and wisdom, Lisa will help you: Stop striving and rest in God's unconditional love. Experience new hope in your marriage. Reach your child's heart. Create clarity in a cluttered home. Find friendships that go below the surface and satisfy. Discover your passion and purpose. Once in awhile, things may seem as if they re under control, but we want to walk with purpose regardless of our circumstances. God wants us to daily experience the joy and contentment that comes from knowing we have given our all to what he considers most important. The abundant and purposeful life we were created to live is just around the corner.

    The first work, The Philosophy of Jesus (St. Augustine’s Press, 2007), explored philosophy in light of Jesus, rather than the other way around. The present work investigates the reception Jesus received both in His lifetime and continuously to the present time, not only from His enemies, but from His friends, a reception of shock, astonishment, even disgust.   Perhaps a few remarks from the book best explains it:The point of the book: The point of the title: Imagine a storm has downed a telephone wire so that everyone who touches it is shocked in every cell of his body. Well, the storm of God’s crazy love has “downed” (incarnated) Jesus, and everyone who touches this “live wire” is shocked in every cell of his soul. The question of the book: Why is “Jesus” the most non-neutral, the most controversial, the most embarrassing name in the world? Why is talking about Jesus like talking about sex? This whole book is really about a single movie line, the greatest line in the greatest movie in history. Bet you know what it is. Jesus-Shock is about the Real Presence of Christ in the Gospels and in the Eucharist. It is not about the theology of the Real Presence, but about the experience of Him there, and about the experience of everyone in the Gospels who met Him. What was the bitterest controversy of the Protestant Reformation, both between Protestants and Catholics and between different Protestant denominations, the one that had both sides calling the other not just heretics but devils?     Answer: It was not Justification by Faith, the hallmark of the Reformation, even though that question is about nothing less momentous than how to be saved, how to get to Heaven. It was not the relation between religion and politics, even though that was a matter of life or death (literally, on battlefields and at guillotines and hangings) and not just a matter of truth or falsity, or of good or evil. It was not about the sufficiency of the Bible, or the corruption in the Church, or the relation between the Bible and the Church. It was not about the Pope, and the governance of the Church. It was not about Mary or saints or angels or Purgatory. It was not about the Incarnation or the Trinity or the Atonement. It was about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Jesus-Shock, in addressing this controversy forcefully and faithfully, shows the reasons why to this day the name of “Jesus” stirs up controversy, even revulsion, in polite society. In the true spirit of ecumenism, it also points the way toward a true rapprochement among His modern-day disciples.

    In this brand new release, best-selling author Beth Moore confronts the hard questions of faith and faithfulness, and offers warnings to Christians to safeguard themselves and others against Satan's attacks.

    They desire to give their lives to Christ and turn away from sin—but without a concrete plan, they quickly fall back into old habits. Featuring daily reflections and resolutions, this forty-day detox provides a practical "cleanse" for those who want to purify themselves from the poisoned dating culture and live a life of authentic freedom, respect, and love.Inside you'll find:Compelling and clear explanations of "God's plans for love, dating, and sex"Hopeful true-life stories of people who have successfully moved from desiring chastity to actually living itPractical tools, habits, and strategies to live more virtuously with joy and freedom

    In the Gospels there are few people who understand love for Jesus as well as Mary Magdalene, which is the reason she is a prophetess of eucharistic love.This work is an extended meditation on the life of Saint Mary Magdalene, known as the "Apostle to the Apostles" because the Risen Christ appeared to her first and then sent her to announce the Resurrection to the apostles. Based on the biblical texts traditionally associated with Mary Magdalene, this book helps readers to learn from her inspiring example and to enter more deeply into adoration of Jesus Christ truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.In telling the story of Mary Magdalene's profound conversion after the Lord had to expel seven demons from her soul, this book shows how she is a shining witness to the transforming power of an encounter with Jesus Christ. Mary Magdalene is the perfect model for those who have experienced the redeeming love of Christ and who seek to deepen their devotion to him and to the Eucharist.

    I don’t know Jesus anywhere near as well as I would like to know him. The desire is there, but life gets in the way. There are times when I seem to be making great progress, and other times when I wonder if I know him at all. But I always arrive back at the same inspiring and haunting idea: If there is one person that we should each get to know in a deeply personal way, it is Jesus – the carpenter from Nazareth, the itinerant preacher, the Son of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Lamb of God, the new Adam, the Messiah, the Alpha and the Omega, the Chosen One, the Light of the World, the God-Man who wants good things for us more than we want them for ourselves, the healer of our souls.

    Peter’s Square. What is it about music?  Consider what happens when you chance upon your favorite song on the radio.  What emotions does it stir?  What season of your life does it zoom you back to?  Now, imagine if you can hear the greatest song ever written.  To what heavenly places would it lift you? The Bible actually claims to contain the song of all songs: the boldly erotic Song of Songs.  Here, as countless saints attest, we discover that sexual love provides the mystical key enabling us to enter into everlasting union with God.  Heaven’s Song takes you there.  With profound insight, Christopher West guides you through the “unabridged” version of John Paul II’s talks on the erotic poetry of the Song of Songs and the great spiritual contest surrounding the marriage of Tobias and Sarah.  If you are already familiar with the Theology of the Body, you will delight in this new material. If not, this book serves as a superb introduction to John Paul’s revolutionary teaching and is certain to whet your appetite for more. In this book, intended for married, single and celibate alike, you will discover: What makes the Song of Songs the “authentic soundtrack” of Christianity What’s at the root of the sexual chaos in our culture and how to find peace in the midst of it Why there is a violent spiritual attack on marriages today and how to be victorious over it How to live an integrated sexual life as a path to union with God The “secret” of Mary (according to St. Louis de Montfort) in living an embodied spirituality Real-life stories of men and

    He doesn’t just remind us how every disciple is called on mission to share the love and truth of Jesus Christ. He gives us practical ways to do this in our ordinary daily lives. Experience the transformation for which we all long—through Making Missionary Disciples. “Making Missionary Disciples is a small book … like a mustard seed or a grain of wheat; when these are planted in the earth they reveal a surprising explosive force … [It] shows us Jesus’ methods of evangelization.” Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops “… these pages will be of great help for all those who are engaged in the service for the new evangelization, which is so urgent and needed in our times.” Archbishop Rino Fisichella, -President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization “This groundbreaking book gives us an inside look at the process of forming disciples from the founder of one of the most powerful Catholic missionary organizations in the world.” Jennifer Fulwiler, SiriusXM radio host

    Drawing on real-life stories that will have women laughing and crying in commiseration, Jackie explains how to avoid common dating pitfalls and find A Man Worth Fighting For.

    One of his few writings, the booklet also includes many pictures of Blessed Padre Pio from throughout his ministry. Padre Pio's beautiful and descriptive manner of writing provide a wonderful spiritual insight into that last night of Jesus' human life.

    St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Therese of Lisieux will show you five vital steps you need to take to be holy. You can read Five Lessons from the Carmelite Saints That Will Change Your Life in one sitting, then reflect on its teachings for a lifetime. Now includes the Introduction from Connie Rossini's full-length book, Trusting God with St. Therese!

    Through the author's honest (and sometimes funny) examination of these sins in her own life, as well as Church teaching, she gives us the tools to kick these bad habits before they kick us.

    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.