In front of twenty-five horrified pupils, thirty-two-year-old Charles Roberts ordered the boys and the teacher to leave. After tying the legs of the ten remaining girls, Roberts prepared to shoot them execution with an automatic rifle and four hundred rounds of ammunition that he brought for the task. The oldest hostage, a thirteen-year-old, begged Roberts to "shoot me first and let the little ones go." Refusing her offer, he opened fire on all of them, killing five and leaving the others critically wounded. He then shot himself as police stormed the building. His motivation? "I'm angry at God for taking my little daughter," he told the children before the massacre. The story captured the attention of broadcast and print media in the United States and around the world. By Tuesday morning some fifty television crews had clogged the small village of Nickel Mines, staying for five days until the killer and the killed were buried. The blood was barely dry on the schoolhouse floor when Amish parents brought words of forgiveness to the family of the one who had slain their children.The outside world was incredulous that such forgiveness could be offered so quickly for such a heinous crime. Of the hundreds of media queries that the authors received about the shooting, questions about forgiveness rose to the top. Forgiveness, in fact, eclipsed the tragic story, trumping the violence and arresting the world's attention.Within a week of the murders, Amish forgiveness was a central theme in more than 2,400 news stories around the world. The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, NBC Nightly News, CBS Morning News, Larry King Live, Fox News, Oprah, and dozens of other media outlets heralded the forgiving Amish. From the Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates) to Australian television, international media were opining on Amish forgiveness. Three weeks after the shooting, "Amish forgiveness" had appeared in 2,900 news stories worldwide and on 534,000 web sites.Fresh from the funerals where they had buried their own children, grieving Amish families accounted for half of the seventy-five people who attended the killer's burial. Roberts' widow was deeply moved by their presence as Amish families greeted her and her three children. The forgiveness went beyond talk and graveside presence: the Amish also supported a fund for the shooter's family.AMISH GRACE explores the many questions this story raises about the religious beliefs and habits that led the Amish to forgive so quickly. It looks at the ties between forgiveness and membership in a cloistered communal society and ask if Amish practices parallel or diverge from other religious and secular notions of forgiveness. It will also address the matter of why forgiveness became news. "All the religions teach it," mused an observer, "but no one does it like the Amish." Regardless of the cultural seedbed that nourished this story, the surprising act of Amish forgiveness begs for a deeper exploration. How could the Amish do this? What did this act mean to them? And how might their witness prove useful to the rest of us?

    They seek counseling, practice confession, and pursue God-centered lives, yet still these genuine believers feel hopeless in finding freedom. Could they be under the influence of evil spirits? Yes, says author Neal Lozano. In Unbound, he reveals Satan's strategies and the sneaky "entrance points" Satan finds to get a toehold in a Christian's life. He helps readers acknowledge the doors they may have opened to evil influence, and shows them how to close those doors and walk in God's freedom and abundance. Lozano's focus on God and his work in the believer's life, not on intimidating aspects of evil spirits, gives this book a balanced and hopeful tone. Because deliverance is part of the ongoing, glorious work of the Holy Spirit, Unbound outlines a plan for tapping into the potent power of the gospel. It also offers guidance on how pastors, counselors, and laity can pray for others who are still bound by evil and help them to gain victory.

    They are all amazing characters who manage to carry a deep knowledge of their chosen species within a distinctly quirky shell. Other animals making an appearance include otters , house sparrows, robins , owls, bats, badgers, dolphins, toads, dragonflies, moths, foxes and adders.Hugh Warwick, animal enthusiast and hedgehog fanatic, writes a series of affectionate and quirky homages to the animals of the British Isles, composed of fieldwork and interviews with the people who love and conserve them.

    Bernadette's thoughts, advice, sayings, and prayers through the touching words of her spiritual diary, notes, and letters to friends and family.After receiving the visions of Our Lady at the grotto in Lourdes, Bernadette eventually became a religious sister as a member of the Sisters of Charity. She lived a life of simplicity, charity, suffering and deep holiness, dying at the age of 35. When she was canonized a saint, her body was found to be incorrupt.In these beautiful writings of St. Bernadette, we learn the secrets of her holiness and happiness. Though she suffered greatly throughout her life, the heroic response of this humble, self-effacing nun transformed excruciating suffering into spiritual fruitfulness. Her letters and writings serve as a model for others passing through their own trials. Her writings reveal and intimate and profound love for God and neighbor. Anyone pursuing a deeper spiritual life will appreciate knowing Bernadette as she truly was, and the inspiring spiritual works of wisdom she offers to us all.

    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

    In his work traveling the world for FOX News and in his parish work in New York City, Father Jonathan could not understand why people were choosing the vague and sometimes harmful advice of the self-help gurus and ignoring the tested and true help the Christian faith offers. He discovered that part of the problem was packaging: people thought the church dealt only in sin and guilt and not help and healing. But what if we reframed God's good news in the same terms as the self-help world? Morris argues that self-help can only take you so far; what we need is God-help. God Wants You Happy offers a life-long spiritual program that teaches you how to open yourself up to God's loving presence in order to become everything he created you to be—joyful, flourishing men and women. In other words, God wants you to be happy. Illuminated with biblical passages and filled with case studies and exercises, God Wants You Happy helps you to: Open your mind and heart to the all-loving God who wants to help and empower you Work through the Faith-Hope-Love Cure to rid yourself of self-destructive and self-limiting habits while forming new habits for receiving grace, forgiveness, acceptance, and love Tap into the natural mechanisms of self-improvement God has already put within you Discover your divine mission A lifetime of happiness is at your fingertips and the Creator of the universe wants to help you achieve it.

    Rita is known as the \"Saint of the Impossible\" because of her amazing answers to prayers, as well as the remarkable events of her own life. Desirous of being a nun, she instead obeyed her parents and married. Her husband was cruel, and caused her much suffering, to which she responded with love and prayers and eventually converted him. After the death of her husband and two sons, Rita was able to enter a convent, where she devoted herself to prayer and penance. She abandoned herself totally to God, diminishing herself as He increased in her. An inspiring story of a soul completely resigned to God\'s will. 132 pgs, PB

    Impressing people wasn't helping him connect with anyone. He'd built a life of public isolation, yet he dreamed of meaningful relationships. So at forty years old he made a scary decision: to be himself no matter what it cost.Scary Close is an audiobook about the risk involved in choosing to impress fewer people and connect with more, about the freedom that comes when we stop acting and start loving. It is a story about knocking down old walls to create a healthy mind, a strong family, and a satisfying career. And it all feels like a conversation with the best kind of friend: smart, funny, true, important.Scary Close is Donald Miller at his best.

    She fell in love with the silence, and in this profound, frank memoir she describes how she explored this new love, searching for silence and solitude.

    

    What unites figures as diverse as James Joyce, Caravaggio, John Milton, the architect of Chartres, Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the later Bob Dylan is a peculiar and distinctive take on things, a style, a way, which flows finally from Jesus of Nazareth. Origen remarked that holiness is seeing with the eyes of Christ. Teilhard de Chardin said, with great passion, that his mission as a Christian thinker was to help people see. And Thomas Aquinas said that the ultimate goal of the Christian life is a ‘beatific vision,’ an act of seeing. This book is about coming to vision through Christ.” — Robert Barron, from the Prelude

    But how can we accomplish that?In this thoughtful volume and with his warm, accessible style, author Robert L. Millet shares poignant stories and fresh scriptural and doctrinal insights to help us feel our Savior's love and realize that He stands ready to assist us in coming to know Him.The author's heartwarming reflections on what it means to worship Christ and to trust in Him and in His grace renew in us a desire to stay focused on our Savior through all the ups and downs of daily life. Insights into how much Christ loves us and how He can lift us up to where He is strengthen our commitments to Him.Throughout, the author conveys his deep witness of the essential truth that eternal life consists of knowing God and His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.Coming to Know Christ invites us to experience what it means to know our Lord-not just know about Him but how to come to know Him, our Savior and our Redeemer.Robert L. Millet is Abraham O. Smoot University Professor and professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. He taught with LDS Seminaries and Institutes before joining the BYU faculty in 1983.He has served in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Satins as a bishop, stake president, temple worker, and member of the Church Materials Evaluation Committee. He is a popular speaker and prolific writer who recent books include Talking with God, Men of Valor, Men of Influence, Are We There Yet? and When a Child Wanders. He is a coauthor of the landmark volume LDS Beliefs: A Doctrinal Reference.

    Chad Ripperger, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, Fr. Jose Antonio Fortea, Fr. Gary Thomas, among others, and packages it into an approachable and intriguing book that conveys, to today’s Catholics, critical insights into the activity of the diabolical and spiritual warfare tactics with which we must be familiar. These exorcists pull their teachings from the sacred traditions of our Faith, the teachings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, the wisdom of exorcists under whom they were trained, and their own extensive experience in the realm of spiritual warfare, deliverance, and exorcisms. The purpose of this book is to help enlighten Catholics to the spiritual war in which we all find ourselves. Not only is this battle real, but the Church knows it well, and has provided both wisdom and weapons, teachings and sacramentals, to enable Catholics to fight in this battle into which they have all been drafted, and be victorious. “The devil prowls like a roaring lion, seeking to devour,” as St. Peter says. These exorcists face this devil, and the many demons who fell with him, as a central part of their spiritual ministry. Let them teach you what they know and impart to you those things that will aid you most in your spiritual life. Allow yourself to be instructed by spiritual masters that you may learn the manner in which the devil attacks you, the weapons you have at your disposal, and the means to find healing for the wounds you have suffered in your life. Know your enemy. Know his tactics. Know his motives. Know his nature. Know his origin. Know his goal. Know his language. Know his network. Know his strengths. Know his weaknesses. Once this knowledge is obtained, you can more effectively predict your enemy’s behavior, recognize his traps, use the proper preventative measures against him, and drive him away when he persists. Book now has the nihil obstat. Visit our store at www.TheRetreatBox.com for special sales. Sign up there on our email list. Follow us at www.TheSlayingDragonsBook.com for news, commentary, and publications on the topic of spiritual warfare.

    Bailey examines the life and ministry of Jesus with attention to the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, Jesus' relationship to women, and especially Jesus' parables. Through it all, Bailey employs his trademark expertise as a master of Middle Eastern culture to lead you into a deeper understanding of the person and significance of Jesus within his own cultural context. With a sure but gentle hand, Bailey lifts away the obscuring layers of modern Western interpretation to reveal Jesus in the light of his actual historical and cultural setting. This entirely new material from the pen of Ken Bailey is a must-have for any student of the New Testament. If you have benefited from Bailey's work over the years, this book will be a welcome and indispensable addition to your library. If you are unfamiliar with Bailey's work, this book will introduce you to a very old yet entirely new way of understanding Jesus.

    S. Lewis Signature Classics series.C.S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—contemplates the essence of love and how it works in our daily lives in one of his most famous works of nonfiction. Lewis examines four varieties of human love: affection, the most basic form; friendship, the rarest and perhaps most insightful; Eros, passionate love; charity, the greatest and least selfish. Throughout this compassionate and reasoned study, he encourages readers to open themselves to all forms of love—the key to understanding that brings us closer to God.