Cuts through the foggy religious thinking rampant today! Impr. 204 pgs, PB

    Paul O'Sullivan provides a wonderful little handbook of easy ways to bypass Purgatory so that we can go straight to Heaven when we die. This book forms a perfect companion to Fr. O'Sullivan's famous Read Me or Rue It, on helping the Holy Souls in Purgatory and receiving from them in return signal favors.The author maintains it is God's holy Will that everyone avoid Purgatory, for nobody goes there except for faults which he could have avoided. Moreover, he shows that if we just aim for Purgatory, we may unfortunately find ourselves in Hell; whereas, the best way to avoid Hell is to aim to be perfectly prepared for Heaven when we die. And Fr. O'Sullivan shows how to achieve this.He maintains that every day most people blindly pass by all sorts of opportunities to earn "gold for Heaven." But rather than calling for heroic measures, he tells us: If we are afraid to do much, let us do many little things. And he gives numerous examples and suggestions.Although very brief and easy to read, How to Avoid Purgatory is actually a treasure map showing us how to gain the most from this life and at the same time obtain the greatest possible rewards in Heaven.

    Raised in a Christian family, and aware of attractions to other boys at age six, Mattson's life was marked by constant turmoil between his faith in God and his sexual attractions. Finding the conflict between his sexual desires and the teachings of his church too great, he assumed he was gay, turned his back on God, and began a relationship with another man. Yet freedom and happiness remained elusive until he discovered Christ and his true identity.In this frank memoir, Mattson chronicles his journey to and from a gay identity, finding peace in his true identity, as a man, made in the image and likeness of God. Part autobiography, part philosophy of life, and part a practical guide in living chastely, the book draws lessons from Mattson's search for inner freedom and integrity, sharing wisdom from his failures and successes. His lifelong search for happiness and peace comes full circle in his realization that, above all else, what is true about him is that he is a beloved son of God, loved into existence by God, created for happiness in this life and the next. Mattson's book is for anyone who has ever wondered who he is, why he is here, and, in the face of suffering, where to find joy, happiness, and the peace that surpasses all understanding.

    Getting so tall and mature. Why, you can barely recognize yourself from just a few short months ago-back when you were so young. Your body is changing. Changes can be scary. Especially for girls, and, gosh, it can be confusing." Nope. No way. That's not this book. This is NOT your mother's coming-of-age manual. In the comedic likes of Chelsea Handler, author Jen Ashton breaks sex-education tradition and begins her hilariously endearing journey to womanhood with stories of growing up a tomboy in Middle America, circa the 1980's. Packed with iconic pop culture, nostalgic geekery, and a healthy dose of self-deprecation, Ashton foregoes the conventional route of learning how to be a lady and dives right in, enlisting the help of Cosmo, Hustler and her anal-loving housekeeper. Forget dancing around the dutiful explanations passed on from generation to generation-tales of 'the red curse' and 'your changing body.' Ashton's rites of passage are chock-full of unique life lessons learned the extracurricular way. From bodily functions to breast enlargement, pregnancy prevention to purgatory, learn the real facts of life as only she can describe them. If you're lucky, you might even discover the answer to the age-old question: Do Girls Poop? If you thought your journey through puberty was rough, be prepared to finally feel normal. Girls Don't Poop is a jaw-dropping, side-splitting adventure of one clueless tomboy's quest to figure out women, so that she could inevitably become one.

    It begins with historical and cross-cultural explorations, then addresses the large questions of embodiment, gender, and sexuality, and finally delineates the justice framework for sexual ethics. Though" Just Love"'s particular focus is Christian sexual ethics, Farley's framework is broad enough to have relevance for multiple traditions. Also covered are specific issues in sexual ethics, including same-sex relationships, marriage and family, divorce and second marriage, celibacy, and sex and its negativities.

    But today, as our culture’s moral center continues to fly apart and with every form of deviance publicly aired and celebrated, we have no choice but to equip our kids to understand and to own the truth about such issues. In Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today’s Tough Moral Issues, Leila Miller and Trent Horn give parents (guardians and teachers, too!) crucial tools and techniques to form children with the understanding they need—appropriate to their age and maturity level—to meet the world’s challenges. Their secret lies in an approach that begins not with the Bible or Church teaching but with the natural law. In kid-friendly ways, Miller (Primal Loss) and Horn (Persuasive Pro-Life) help you communicate how the right way to live is rooted in the way we’re made. God’s design for human nature is a blueprint or owner’s manual for moral living that any child can grasp through reason and apply to modern controversies over sex, marriage, life… and the quest for human fulfillment. Topics covered include: • Sex Outside of Marriage • Same-Sex Marriage • Divorce • Contraception • Abortion • Reproductive Technologies • Modesty • Pornography • Transgenderism • Homosexuality Silence can no longer be an option. If we’re not teaching our children how to understand tough moral issues, then the world will.

    How did the women’s movement, which fought for equal opportunity for women in education and the workplace, and the sexual revolution, which reduced women to ambitious sex objects, become so united?In Subverted, Sue Ellen Browder documents for the first time how it all happened, in her own life and in the life of an entire country. Trained at the University of Missouri School of Journalism to be an investigative journalist, Browder unwittingly betrayed her true calling and became a propagandist for sexual liberation. As a long-time freelance writer for Cosmopolitan magazine, she wrote pieces meant to soft-sell unmarried sex, contraception, and abortion as the single woman’s path to personal fulfillment. She did not realize until much later that propagandists higher and cleverer than herself were influencing her thinking and her personal choices as they subverted the women’s movement.The thirst for truth, integrity, and justice for women that led Browder into journalism in the first place eventually led her to find forgiveness and freedom in the place she least expected to find them. Her in-depth research, her probing analysis, and her honest self-reflection set the record straight and illumine a way forward for others who have suffered from the unholy alliance between the women’s movement and the sexual revolution.

    It does not train young people to form a relationship but rather to form a series of relationships, hardening themselves to all but the current one. Recreational dating encourages emotional attachments without covenantal fences and makes a joke of a father's authority. The disrespect children have for their fathers in this area is an echo of the disrespect fathers have for their own office. Biblical courtship provides a wonderful freedom. It involves familial wisdom and godly protection. Grounded upon the involved authority of the father, courtship delights in its public connection to the lives of families. Sexual purity is a great inheritance for a marriage, and part of a father's job is to guarantee and protect that heritage. Biblical courtship is a humble affront to the sterility of modern relationships. And as a new generation rejoices in this ancient wisdom, the current waves of broken relationships will begin to recede.

    We know that with Jesus life becomes richer."-Pope Francis, The Joy of the GospelIn her first book, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus, Sherry Weddell, cofounder of the Catherine of Siena Institute, captured the attention of Catholics across the globe as she uncovered the life-changing power that accompanies the conscious decision to follow Jesus as his disciple.Now, in the groundbreaking Becoming a Parish of Intentional Disciples, she has gathered together experienced leaders and collaborators whose exceptional field-tested wisdom and enthusiasm for transforming Catholic parishes into centers of discipleship and apostolic outreach is both inspiring and practical.The authors consider: The role of intercessory prayer in parish transformation How "fireside chats" can help a pastor connect with his parishioners and call them to personal discipleship and mission The co-responsibility of lay people andpastors in the work of making disciples The revolutionary impact of a discipleship approach to youth ministry How one parish successfully fostered a culture of intentional discipleship, and much more As Sherry asks in her own chapter, "Are we willing to answer the call and pay the price necessary to become a new generation of saints through which God can do extraordinary things in our time?"

    Blanchard’s 2011 five-hundred mile pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago—hiking from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France over the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles in Spain, and then westward across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostella.For over a millennium, Christians have made this pilgrimage to the cathedral in Santiago, where the remains of St. James the apostle are entombed. Today, this journey is known as a European Cultural Itinerary, attracting people from around the world. In 2011, more than 183,000 people completed the pilgrimage; 44% of these pilgrims were women.Though Women of the Way is about Jane’s journey on the Camino de Santiago (also known as “The Way”) and discussions with women she met on the pilgrimage, this is not a “chic” book. It is about embracing the Camino, the personal changes, and the beauty and appeal of the most popular of all the pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela, the Camino Frances. — Discover why people from around the world walk the Camino. — Learn how to prepare for the Camino, about the daily rituals in long-distance walking, and the camaraderie shared among these modern-day pilgrims. — Visualize the beauty of northern Spain through Jane’s vivid descriptions. — Understand why so many people embrace the Camino.“An articulate, well-observed and thoughtful look at walking the Camino.” ~ Adam Nathan“I felt as though I, too, was a pilgrim as I saw the beautiful landscapes Jane described, felt the tiredness she experienced, enjoyed the food along with her, laughed and cried with her.” ~ Elizabeth Chandler“My husband, John (62), and I are reading your book while we prepare to walk the Camino in May of 2013. We are loving it! I like your honesty and factual approach. Your descriptions have caused us to laugh and almost cry at times. Thank you! We are reading a little each day and John reminds me to bring the book in the car or to bed. The spirit of the Camino is already appearing in our relationship as we prepare. I can see a change and it is wonderful!” ~ Kim Todaro

    Brown was an event of major historical importance. Not only is the story revealed in Immodest Acts that of the rise and fall of a powerful woman in a church community and a record of the life of a religious visionary, it is also the earliest documentation of lesbianism in modern Western history. Born of well-to-do parents, Benedetta Carlini entered the convent at the age of nine. At twenty-three, she began to have visions of both a religious and erotic nature. Benedetta was elected abbess due largely to these visions, but later aroused suspicions by claiming to have had supernatural contacts with Christ. During the course of an investigation, church authorities not only found that she had faked her visions and stigmata, but uncovered evidence of a lesbian affair with another nun, Bartolomeo. The story of the relationship between the two nuns and of Benedetta's fall from an abbess to an outcast is revealed in surprisingly candid archival documents and retold here with a fine sense of drama.

    Peter Abélard paints an absorbing portrait of monastic and scholastic life in twelfth-century Paris, while also recounting the circumstances and consequences of one of history’s most famous love stories--his doomed romance with Heloise.Considered the founder of the University of Paris, Abélard was instrumental in promoting the use of the dialectical method in Western education. He regarded theology as the "handmaiden" of knowledge and believed that through reason, people could attain a greater knowledge of God. "By doubting," he declared, "we come to inquire, and by inquiry we arrive at truth." Abélard's tendency to leave questions open for discussion made him a target for frequent charges of heresy, and all his works were eventually included in the church's Index of Forbidden Books. Unfortunately, Abélard’s reputation as a philosopher is often overshadowed by his renown as a lover.In addition to its value as a scholarly treatise, The Story of My Misfortunes offers the rare opportunity to observe a legendary romance from the point of view of one of its participants.

    Paul exhorts us to “pray without ceasing” — a beautiful goal that sounds daunting, even impossible. But wait! These pages break open an authoritative, time-tested method that countless laymen still use today to pray with constancy and thereby soar to the heights of holiness. It’s called the Liturgy of the Hours. Also known as the Divine Office or the breviary, the Liturgy of the Hours is an important vehicle for advancing in the spiritual life — a step that any serious Catholic, with the help of Fr. Timothy Gallagher, can take today. Relying on insights from popes and saints, as well as on his five decades’ experience praying the Liturgy of the Hours, Fr. Gallagher opens your eyes to this spiritual treasury and shows you how, by means of its sanctifying rhythm, it will help you progress on your spiritual journey. Soon, you will be among the multitude of Catholics who pray the Hours daily and are richly blessed by the flow of graces these prayers yield. From the wise Fr. Gallagher, you’ll learn: • The basic elements of the Liturgy of the Hours • How to incorporate them into your day, no matter how busy it may be • How the Hours will revitalize your daily prayers and prevent them from becoming routine • How they will extend the graces you obtain at Mass into your entire day • How praying the Hours with your family will link you more intimately to each other—and to the universal Church If you’re looking to invigorate your prayer life and draw closer to Our Lord in friendship and holy contemplation, discover the Liturgy of the Hours.

    Real friendship always includes a third person, the Lord Jesus.