How Big Is Your God?: The Freedom to Experience the Divine


Paul Coutinho - 2007
    To help us on our way, Coutinho introduces us to people in various world religions—from Hindu friends to Buddhist teachers to St. Ignatius of Loyola—who have shaped his spiritual life and made possible his deep, personal relationship with God.

The Final Confrontation


Ralph Martin - 2015
    John Paul II said, “We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced…the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the Antichrist. The confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence. It is, therefore, in God’s Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously...” In this booklet, Ralph Martin takes a look at what Scripture says about the final confrontation and the work of the Evil One. He exposes the lies of the enemy and the truth about Divine Mercy. He also identifies what we must do to face the present trials with courage.

Fear Is a Choice: Tackling Life's Challenges with Dignity, Faith, and Determination


James Conner - 2020
    Then, in the first game of his junior year, disaster struck in the form of a torn MCL. During rehab, James’s health continued to inexplicably deteriorate until a chest X-ray and biopsy confirmed the unthinkable: a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Suddenly, it wasn’t just the dream of an NFL career that was in jeopardy; it was James’s life. Yet when he shared the news of his diagnosis publicly, James rallied family, friends, and fans, with his message of hope and courage: “Fear is a choice. I choose not to fear cancer.” In just ten words, James defined his own journey on his own terms and refused to back down from one of the most dreaded diseases known to man. Drawing strength from his faith in God and the support of his community and loved ones, James underwent treatment but continued to practice with his team despite the intense physical toll of chemotherapy. He was declared cancer-free within a year. Returning to the field in 2016, he finished his college career with a record-breaking 3,733 rushing yards and 56 touchdowns. Entering the NFL draft early, his success continued. Selected in the third round by the Pittsburgh Steelers, he quickly became one of the most beloved rookies in the league.  In Fear is a Choice, James candidly shares his experiences during his battle with cancer and beyond, encouraging readers and illustrating the spiritual truths and personal principles that got him through his darkest days. Conner’s warm, intimate, and inspiring story offers wisdom and advice for anyone who has faced adversity or the loss their dreams—and everyone who wants to learn how to tackle life’s problems with dignity, faith, and determination.

Hiking the Camino: 500 Miles With Jesus


Dave Pivonka - 2009
    Whatever happened to planes, trains and automobiles? But Father Dave Pivonka knew that the Camino—the ancient pilgrim path to the tomb of Saint James the Apostle in Santiago—offered an opportunity to focus on God in the stripped-down environment typical of the religious journey known as a pilgrimage. Father Dave takes you along with him, eager to show that God wants to take care of you whether or not you can see down the road or, if tired and sore, you're tempted to quit. His Camino hike holds real lessons for your own life's journey.

Where the Soul Hungers: One Doctor’s Journey from Atheism to Faith


Samuel Morris Brown - 2021
    Brown was an atheist from an early age and proud of it. Yet, by his own account, God became an undeniable presence in his life. Now a faithful Latter-day Saint, this practicing research physician narrates some of the waypoints on his journey into believing and belonging. Some are dramatic—his wife’s cancer diagnosis or working in a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic—while many are simple yet profound: being mistaken for a homeless person while a student at Harvard, growing to like little children and opera, and learning to bake cookies for others. With gentle, self-critical humor and a generous regard for those who have accompanied him on his way, Brown’s book is an offer to walk with you a while on your own journey of faith.

Heaven Starts Now: Becoming a Saint Day by Day


John Riccardo - 2016
    John Riccardo helps us dive into the Scriptures so that we can apply them to our daily lives. In his inspiring and incisive way, Fr. Riccardo addresses the obstacles we all face in becoming mature disciples. How do we learn to forgive? How do we combat fear and understand suffering? How do we worship the Lord, love others as Christ loves us, and fully surrender our lives to God? If you've enjoyed Fr. Riccardo's gifts of teaching and preaching through his broadcasts and podcasts, this book is for you!

Furrow


Josemaría Escrivá - 1986
    Josemaría’s rich interior life and extensive experience as a pastor. Aphoristic and perfect for meditation, Furrow was written in order to encourage and ease personal prayer. These 1000 points for spiritual reflection are directed toward the whole human person: body and soul, nature and grace. With the skillful hand of an experienced and holy priest, St. Josemaría interweaves the divine and human and helps you see how to bring them into harmony in your own life.

Lives of the Saints: For Every Day in the Year


Alban Butler - 1750
    A Saint or two for each day of the calendar. Great for a daily meditation; each life is followed by a "lesson" from the life to help us apply the virtues of the Saint to ourselves. Great for the entire family. Includes famous Saints since Fr. Butler's time; all recounted in the same beautiful, reverent spirit that was his.

Josiah's Fire: Autism Stole His Words, God Gave Him a Voice


Tahni Cullen - 2016
    The diagnosis: Autism Spectrum Disorder. In their attempts to see Josiah recover and regain speech, the Cullens underwent overwhelming physical, emotional, and financial struggles. While other kids around him improved, Josiah only got worse. Five years later, Josiah, who had not been formally taught to read or write, suddenly began to type on his iPad profound paragraphs about God, science, history, business, music, strangers, and heaven. Josiah’s eye-opening visions, heavenly encounters, and supernatural experiences forced his family out of their comfort zone and predictable theology, catapulting them into a mind-blowing love-encounter with Jesus.Find hope in hardship.Catch a fresh glimpse of heaven.Learn to hear and trust God’s voice.Identify the roles of Father, Son, and Spirit.Be aware of the workings of angels, and much more! Follow a trail of truth into Josiah’s mysterious world, and see why his family and friends can no longer stay silent.

Return to the Big Fancy: A Riotous Descent Into the Depths of Customer, Corporate, and Coworker Hell


Freeman Hall - 2012
    But instead of fame and fortune, he found himself stuck behind a wall of script-killing rewrites, unable to make a living.In Return to the Big Fancy, Freeman shares his wildly entertaining journey back through the fiery gates of Retail Hell. He thought he had seen it all in his day, but with the bar set higher than ever before, employees are now graciously bowing before Corporate as they climb over fellow salespeople, and even friends, to earn enough transactions and commissions to actually survive. As he learns more of the wretchedness that has befallen the sales floor, he realizes that The Big Fancy has its customers and its employees on a short leash. But leave it to Freeman and the threat of disappearing commissions to rally the retail slaves and show Corporate who's really in charge!

Paul: A Biography


N.T. Wright - 2018
    T. Wright offers a radical look at the apostle Paul, illuminating the humanity and remarkable achievements of this intellectual who invented Christian theology—transforming a faith and changing the world.For centuries, Paul, the apostle who "saw the light on the Road to Damascus" and made a miraculous conversion from zealous Pharisee persecutor to devoted follower of Christ, has been one of the church’s most widely cited saints. While his influence on Christianity has been profound, N. T. Wright argues that Bible scholars and pastors have focused so much attention on Paul’s letters and theology that they have too often overlooked the essence of the man’s life and the extreme unlikelihood of what he achieved.To Wright, "The problem is that Paul is central to any understanding of earliest Christianity, yet Paul was a Jew; for many generations Christians of all kinds have struggled to put this together." Wright contends that our knowledge of Paul and appreciation for his legacy cannot be complete without an understanding of his Jewish heritage. Giving us a thoughtful, in-depth exploration of the human and intellectual drama that shaped Paul, Wright provides greater clarity of the apostle’s writings, thoughts, and ideas and helps us see them in a fresh, innovative way.Paul is a compelling modern biography that reveals the apostle’s greater role in Christian history—as an inventor of new paradigms for how we understand Jesus and what he accomplished—and celebrates his stature as one of the most effective and influential intellectuals in human history.

A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith


Timothy Egan - 2019
    He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity, exploring one of the biggest stories of our time: the collapse of religion in the world that it created. Egan sets out along the Via Francigena, once the major medieval trail leading the devout to Rome, and makes his way overland via the alpine peaks and small mountain towns of France, Switzerland and Italy. The goal: walking to St. Peter's Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium.Making his way through a landscape laced with some of the most important shrines to the faith, Egan finds a modern Canterbury Tale in the chapel where Queen Bertha introduced Christianity to pagan Britain; parses the supernatural in a French town built on miracles; and journeys to the oldest abbey in the Western world, founded in 515 and home to continuous prayer over the 1,500 years that have followed. He is accompanied by a quirky cast of fellow pilgrims and by some of the towering figures of the faith--Joan of Arc, Henry VIII, Martin Luther.A thrilling journey, a family story, and a revealing history, A Pilgrimage to Eternity looks for our future in its search for God.One of Oprah's Must-Read Books of Fall 2019

Confessions


Augustine of Hippo
    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.

Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads


Chris Lowney - 2013
    The writing is lucid, vivid, inviting, and rich. It’s a major achievement. I strongly recommend it to any Christian in a leadership role.”  - Joseph Tetlow, SJFrom choosing to live in a simple apartment instead of the papal palace to washing the feet of men and women in a youth detention center, Pope Francis’s actions contradict behaviors expected of a modern leader. Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit seminarian turned Managing Director for JP Morgan & Co., shows how the pope’s words and deeds reveal spiritual principles that have prepared him to lead the Church and influence our world—a rapidly-changing world that requires leaders who value the human need for love, inspiration, and meaning. Drawing on interviews with people who knew him as Father Jorge Bergoglio, SJ, Lowney challenges assumptions about what it takes to be a great leader. In so doing, he reveals the “other-centered” leadership style of a man whose passion is to be with people rather than set apart. Lowney offers a stirring vision of leadership to which we can all aspire in our communities, churches, companies, and families.

Joan of Arc


Mark Twain - 1896
    And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none." --Mark Twain