Inside, you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation. You’re a world – everything is hidden in you.” –Hildegard of Bingen She was a Benedictine abbess, artist, composer, dietician, naturalist, poet, travelling preacher, mystic, and political consultant. She was a self-doubter with acute certainty in a merciful and mysterious God; a gifted healer who suffered from illness her whole life. Meet the incomparable Hildegard of Bingen. Nourishing, challenging, and idea-bursting, her writings will stir and awaken your soul. This essential reader captures the vibrant spirit and intelligence of Hildegard with selections from her songs, theological texts, liturgical music, and letters. Combined with an introduction to Hildegard’s life and era, a map of Hildegard’s Germany, chronology, and a thorough bibliography/discography, Hildegard of Bingen provides the ideal introduction to the thought of this fascinating medieval mystic.

    The problem with these libraries is that they contain books that are generally written by professionals for their peers. Where the Hell Is God? combines the best of the professional's insights with the author's own experience and insights to speculate on how believers can make sense of their Christian faith when experiencing tragedy and suffering. Starting with a very personal story of the author's sister being left a quadriplegic from a car accident twenty years ago, Where the Hell Is God? gently leads the reader through some "take-home" messages that are sane, sound, and practical. Among these messages are: God does not directly send pain, suffering, and disease. God does not punish us; God does not send accidents to teach us things, though we can learn from them; and God does not will earthquakes, floods, droughts, or other natural disasters. This concise, accessible, and experience-based book will help people who are suffering as well as those who minister to them and their families.

    In this easy to read booklet, you'll find 37 one-minute teachings on how to explain and defend Catholic teaching.

    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.

    But if you are like the rest of us, every day presents a mountain of to-do items, jobs to go to, errands to run, projects to complete, meals to cook, children to raise... You forge ahead and get it done, but you know that things aren’t as they should be. Even when you check every item off your daily list, you still feel as though something meaningful and essential is missing from the very center of your life.   Spiritual director and writer Becky Eldredge has felt that same longing, and she knows what people are missing—a relationship with God through prayer. In Busy Lives & Restless Souls, Eldredge interprets principles of Ignatian spirituality in a fresh way to equip us with prayer tools that are accessible and practical within the relentless realities of our daily routines. Just as important, she shows us how we can bring our relationship with God to life by becoming what St. Ignatius called “contemplatives in action.” For all who sense that there is a missing peace in their lives, Busy Lives &Restless Souls will help them find it—right where they are.

    He collects key passages and offers incisive commentary, making Confessions accessible to any reader who is both intellectually curious and spiritually hungry.The Confessions is a dramatic personal narrative of a soul choosing between eternal life and death, an exploration of the timeless questions great minds have been asking for millennia, and a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God. I Burned for Your Peace is not a scholarly work but an unpacking of the riches found in Augustine's text. It is existential, personal, and devotional, as well as warm, witty, and thought-provoking. With Kreeft to guide them, readers of the Confessions can overhear and understand the intimate conversation between a towering intellect and the God whose peace he at last humbly accepts.

    The modern world generates so much noise, he says, that seeking moments of silence has become both harder and more necessary than ever before.Silence is the indispensable doorway to the divine, explains the cardinal in this profound conversation with Nicolas Diat. Within the hushed and hallowed walls of the La Grande Chartreux, the famous Carthusian monastery in the French Alps, Cardinal Sarah addresses the following questions: Can those who do not know silence ever attain truth, beauty, or love?  Do not wisdom, artistic vision, and devotion spring from silence, where the voice of God is heard in the depths of the human heart?After the international success of God or Nothing, Cardinal Sarah seeks to restore to silence its place of honor and importance. "Silence is more important than any other human work," he says, "for it expresses God. The true revolution comes from silence; it leads us toward God and others so as to place ourselves humbly and generously at their service."

    A book that has and continues to move hearts.

    Beautiful, bold commissioned woodcuts by Annika Nelson and her mother Gertrud Mueller Nelson help us meditate on the passion and death of Christ and to see how Christ is among us—often in unexpected places. Also available in Spanish, the booklet is ideal for personal or parish-wide use during the Lenten observance of the Stations of the Cross.

    During his forty years of leadership, Rabbi Schneerson transformed Chabad into a global movement marked by extensive outreach activities and a closeknit network of emissaries stationed around the world. His passionate devotion to education, social change, and acts of charity and kindness inspired countless people to embrace spirituality in their daily lives.In My Rebbe, celebrated author and thinker Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz shares his firsthand account of this extraordinary individual who shaped the landscape of twentieth-century religious life. Written with the admiration of a close disciple and the nuanced perceptiveness of a scholar, this biography-memoir inspires us to think about our own missions and aspirations for a better world.

    Used in many colleges as an introduction to the saint. Beautiful translation and story from the French edition.

    In this book, she recounts something of what she learned and experienced while carrying on this work. It will be of interest and encouragement to those working in similar circumstances.

    Review"Beautifully written, deeply perceptive." -- Los Angeles Times "An absolutely fascinating book." --The Washington Post

    With the encouragement of Pope John Paul II and the help of documentation (some unpublished) given to him by the Vatican, Frossard chronicles the dramatic and moving life of this Polish Franciscan who volunteered to die in place of a fellow prisoner in Auschwitz.While his heroic martyr's death is well known, Frossard shows how Kolbe's whole life was one of extraordinary generosity in devotion to his ideal of "love without limits." Kolbe was that rare combination of mystic, intellectual genius, theologian, and down-to-earth practicality. His tremendous creative energies (despite constant bouts of tuberculosis and less than one lung) enhanced the lives of all those who knew him, the millions who read his publications, and the countless persons inspired by his example. Forget Not Love reveals the interesting and impressive details of Kolbe's childhood, vision of Mary, brilliance in his studies, his founding of the largest monastery in the world (700 Franciscans), massive printing apostolate, missionary journeys to Japan, and his final act of love in Auschwitz. Frossard has captured the heart of the man whom Pope John Paul II declared "the patron saint of this difficult century."

    Using everyday language to explain difficult theological concepts, Teresa of Avila compares the contemplative life to a castle with seven chambers. Tracing the passage of the soul through each successive chamber, she draws a powerful picture of the path toward spiritual perfection. It is the most sublime and mature of Teresa's works, offering profound and inspiring reflections on such subjects as self-knowledge, humility, detachment, and suffering.One of the most celebrated works on mystical theology in existence, as timely today as when St. Teresa of Avila wrote it centuries ago, this is a treasury of unforgettable maxims on self-knowledge and fulfillment.