Therese of Lisieux. A wondrous distillation of the teachings of St. Therese of Lisieux on God's love and on confidence in Him; on humility, peace, and charity; on the Cross; and on abandonment to Providence. Learn to rest in God amid troubles, living joyfully with Him always.

    Whilst rejection and imprisonment played their part in the life of this sixteenth-century Spanish friar, John's poetry and prose reveal the beauty and power of a wondrous God. It gives us courage to believe in the possibility of change in our own lives, however unlikely or impossible this may seem. Father Iain Matthew uses this classic inspirational Christian writing as his starting point, and offers five interpretations which make its richness relevant to the modern reader.

    

    Every person, even the atheist, will admit that death is certain. Death, however, is not the last event in this life of ours. Immediately after death, we shall be judged and then again on the Day of Judgment when all humanity will know us for what we are. Too often the reality of Heaven and salvation are highlighted at the expense of the Church's teachings on Death, Judgment, Purgatory, and Hell. Yet, these important doctrines of the Church hold the truths of salvation truths that can lead us to Heaven or can pull us away from it. In these pages, Fr. Wade Menezes, EWTN television host and Assistant General of the Fathers of Mercy, shows us that God has not called us to His wrath, but to salvation. He shows us that Heaven and Hell, salvation and damnation, eternal life and eternal punishment are all complementary doctrines. They need each other to be complete and we must understand the Church's teachings on all of these doctrines in order to have a balanced view of the world. Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell these are the Four Last Things toward which we are moving each hour of the day and night. Read this book, and you'll have a firm grasp of one of the most important doctrines of Holy Mother Church that holds the truths of Heaven and our own salvation.

    —Peter preaching to the crowd after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost We tend to overlook Peter's opening words to the crowd that first Pentecost morning, to our own peril. His denial of drunkenness in the wake of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit should stop us in our tracks. What was going on here? How did the apostles experience the Holy Spirit? What was he teaching them? How was he empowering them? What does this scene in the streets of Jerusalem mean for us today? Father Raniero Cantalamessa offers pastoral advice and leads the reader through passages of Scripture and the Fathers of the Church to remind us of the incalculable power of the Spirit available to us. This spiritual "intoxication" is an infilling—through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and the action of God—that purifies us of sin, renews the heart and enlightens the mind. As St. Augustine said of the Spirit, "He found you empty and he filled you…I like this kind of intoxication. The Spirit of God is both drink and light."

    Most of us are clueless at praying. Why is that? And how come we've never done anything about it? In Confessions of a Prayer Slacker, author Diane Moody traces her own personal prayer journey with a touch of humor and a healthy dose of transparency. ''I want my readers to stop the merry-go-round of prayerlessness, quit acting like a bunch of spiritual babies, and get serious about this thing called prayer. Without it, we'll never experience the warm, one-on-one relationship God desires to have with each one of us.''

    

    Padre Pio was and is a man of hope. Throughout his life, in the midst of the most difficult trials, he always looked to the future with a spirit of optimism, faith, and love." In this intimate biography, you will see the results of this humble Capuchin's prayers and discover for yourself the Source of his great hope. A Servant Book.

    We’re experiencing a worldwide crisis of attention in which information overwhelms us, corrodes true communion with others, and leaves us anxious, unsettled, bored, isolated, and lonely. These pages provide the time-tested antidote that enables you to regain an ordered and peaceful mind in a technologically advanced world. Drawing on the wisdom of the world’s greatest thinkers, including Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas, these pages help you identify – and show you how to cultivate – the qualities of character you need to survive in our media-saturated environment. This book offers a calm, measured, yet forthright and effective approach to regaining interior peace. Here you’ll find no argument for retreat from the modern world; instead these pages provide you with a practical guide to recovering self-mastery and interior peace through wise choices and ordered activity in the midst of the world’s communication chaos. Are you increasingly frustrated and perplexed in this digital age? Do you yearn for a mind that is more focused and a soul able to put down that IPhone and simply rejoice in the good and the true? It’s not hard to do. The saints and the wise can show you how; this book makes their counsel available to you.

    This biography, written by his close spiritual disciple Elder Isaac and universally recognized as the most authoritative account of his life, has been reprinted numerous times in numerous languages. The life and virtues of the elder are exhaustively and accurately sketched in profound simplicity, revealing the spiritual brilliance which shone forth from his heart, enveloping on all who drew near. In part one, we are led step by step through the development of a contemporary saint: from his origins in Cappadocia and early spiritual zeal, through his monastic beginnings in the monastery and ascetic struggles on Athos and Sinai, to his outpouring of spiritual consolation to his fellow man and his blessed repose in the Lord. In part two, we are presented with the full spectrum of his spiritual personality: his virtues, way of life, spiritual gifts, self-offering and teaching. The life of Elder Paisios of Mount Athos resembles a garden adorned with countless flowers in bloom, radiant and colourful, beautiful to the eyes of man's spiritual heart, letting off an otherworldly aroma of holiness. The reader is invited to enter into his life and words, to "lay aside all earthly cares", to see life from the divine perspective, to understand the mystery of the Gospel by standing under, submitting and entrusting oneself to experience and wisdom this God-bearing Holy Father.

    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.

    Christians and non-Christians alike have joined in praising it as a notable successor in the meditative tradition of St. John of the Cross, The Cloud of Unknowing, and the medieval mystics, while others have compared Merton's reflections with those of Thoreau. New Seeds of Contemplation seeks to awaken the dormant inner depths of the spirit so long neglected by Western man, to nurture a deeply contemplative and mystical dimension in our lives. For Merton, "Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the soil of freedom, spontaneity and love."

    It is a reflection of the profound spiritual experience and elevated theological reflection of its author, St. John of Kronstadt. Appropriate both for beginners in the spiritual life and for those more experienced, no one can come away from reading this work without profit. This is the kind of book you will return to time and time again. Appropriate, relevant, and edifying reading for all Christians.

    This meditation on the spiritual life has inspired readers from Thomas More and St. Ignatius Loyola to Thomas Merton and Pope John Paul I. Written by the Augustinian monk Thomas à Kempis between 1420 and 1427, it contains clear instructions for renouncing wordly vanities and locating eternal truths. No book has more explicitly and movingly described the Christian ideal:

    Sharing inspiring stories from his own experiences as a prayer circle maker, Batterson will help readers uncover their heart's deepest desires and God-given dreams and unleash them through the kind of audacious prayer that God delights to answer.