A New Harmony: The Spirit, the Earth, and the Human Soul


J. Philip Newell - 2011
    PhilipNewell emphasized the Celtic view of the oneness of creationand humanity as expressed through Christ. In that poetic treatmentof the wisdom of Celtic spirituality, Newell pointed the way to amore peaceful, harmonious, integrated Christianity. A New Harmonytakes the next step forward in emphasizing the need to overcomedivisions and find common ground and to reclaim the best of ancientChristian spirituality and a more holistic, natural way of thinkingabout faith.Offers a view of spirituality rooted in ancient insights thatincludes and extends beyond ChristianityPresents the case for the need for "a new harmony" that is bothmystical and relationalThe author J. Philip Newell is a well-known expert on CelticChristianity and the author of the acclaimed Listening for theHeartbeat of God.

Great Lent: A School of Repentance Its Meaning for Orthodox Christians


Alexander Schmemann - 2011
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Dance, Stand, Run: The God-Inspired Moves of a Woman on Holy Ground


Jess Connelly - 2017
    But it's not cheap—true grace compels us to change. That’s where holiness comes in.Beloved writer, speaker, and bestselling coauthor of Wild and Free Jess Connolly will be the first to admit that not long ago, like many women, she grasped grace but she had forgotten holiness. Dance, Stand, Run charts her discovery that holiness was never meant to be a shaming reminder of what we “should” be doing, but rather a profound privilege of becoming more like Christ. That’s when we start to change the world, rather than being changed by it.Dance, Stand, Run is an invitation to the daughters of God to step into the movements of abundant life: dancing in grace, standing firm in holiness, and running on mission. Through story and study, Jess casts a fresh vision for how to live into your identity as a holy daughter of God, how to break free of cheap grace and empty rule-keeping, and finally, how to live out your holy influence with confidence before a watching world. Spoiler alert: it’s a beautiful thing.For anyone longing to take their place in what God is doing in the world, Dance, Stand, Run will rally your strength, refresh your purpose, and energize your faith in a God who calls us to be like Him.

Prayers Plainly Spoken


Stanley Hauerwas - 1999
    Originally prayed in Stanley Hauerwas's divinity school classroom on a variety of occasions, this collection of prayers not only displays an invigorating faith but demonstrates how Christians today can pray with all the passion of the ancient psalmists.

Francis of Assisi in His Own Words: The Essential Writings


Jon M. Sweeney - 2013
    Biographies will only take you so far. It's impossible to truly understand Francis of Assisi without reading his own words. A scholar and lover of Francis, Sweeney has added six writings to his bestselling compilation, additional texts that we're most certain came from Francis himself. Now, short writings such as "The Form of Life He Wished for Clare," "The Sermon to the Birds," and "The Source of True Joy," combine with Francis's Rules, letters, messages, songs, praises, canticles, and final spiritual Testament in a most ideal introduction to the saint. An expanded introduction and notes add historical and theological context.

Seasons of Your Heart: Prayers and Reflections, Revised and Expanded


Macrina Wiederkehr - 1991
    Using biblical passages, poetry, and excerpts from her journal, Wiederkehr provides meditative ideas and prayers as "postures" for realizing and approaching the holy in our daily lives.These reflections and prayers, then, have grown out of a daily listening to God in the changing seasons of my spiritual life, "writes the author. "These reflections have grown out of my conviction that our God is not some Almighty Being beyond us, but a Mystery within."

Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age


Richard Beck - 2021
    Increasing numbers of us don't believe in God anymore. We don't expect miracles. We've grown up and left those fairytales behind, culturally and personally.Yet five hundred years ago the world was very much enchanted. It was a world where God existed and the devil was real. It was a world full of angels and demons. It was a world of holy wells and magical eels. But since the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Enlightenment, the world, in the West at least, has become increasingly disenchanted.While this might be taken as evidence of a crisis of belief, Richard Beck argues it's actually a crisis of attention. God hasn't gone anywhere, but we've lost our capacity to see God.The rising tide of disenchantment has profoundly changed our religious imaginations and led to a loss of the holy expectation that we can be interrupted by the sacred and divine. But it doesn't have to be this way. With attention and an intentional and cultivated capacity to experience God as a living, vital presence in our lives, Hunting Magic Eels, shows us, we can cultivate an enchanted faith in a skeptical age.

Proverbs: Wisdom from Above (The Passion Translation)


Brian Simmons - 2013
    ²Within these sayings will be found The revelation of wisdom and the impartation of spiritual understanding. Use them as keys to unlock the treasures of true knowledge. The book of Proverbs is packed with incredible secrets of wisdom that awaken our hearts! We can expect a download of heavenly insights into our destinies, relationships, careers, finances, and every other aspect of our lives. Loaded with footnotes that clarify the sacred text, this translation will unfold the meaning of the proverbs written by King Solomon. The gift of wisdom from above is given by a generous Father who is ready to fill our hearts with all that we need to succeed in life and reign in Christ. Solomon was supernaturally infused with God s wisdom, and when God writes a book, it is more than meets the eye! A greater understanding awaits us as we read Proverbs: Wisdom from Above.

Water Witchcraft: Magic and Lore from the Celtic Tradition


Annwyn Avalon - 2019
    The water magic and lore in this book focuses on the Celtic tradition, but draws on other water magic traditions as well, and features rainwater, as well as lakes, rivers, oceans, canals, swamps, and other watery locations, together with the folk and magical customs that have been and are still practiced at these places. The book teaches the reader how to set up a water altar at home, how to connect with water spirits, and how to gather or create water witch tools. Readers are encouraged to visit local water sites but will also find an abundance of material to perform at home. Included are practical examples, visualizations, and exercises so any reader can start to take up spell work and establish their spiritual connection to water.

Hearing God Through the Year: The Gospel from Everywhere to Everyone


Dallas Willard - 2004
    The second half of this conversation is so important--and so difficult. How do we hear God? In these daily devotionals Dallas Willard helps us understand how we can know the voice of God and act on it. Each day you'll read Scripture on this topic and find suggestions for prayer, journaling and reflection to draw you into God's presence. You may be surprised--and even transformed--by what you discover."

A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee


Henri J.M. Nouwen - 1981
    In his continuing search for a deeper understanding of the spiritual life, Henri Nouwen traveled twice to the Trappist monastery in the Genesee Valley of upstate New York. His first visit inspired The Genesee Diary, a moving account of his daily experiences and of contemporary monastic life. When he returned five years later, the familiar, comfortable daily rhythms of the contemplative life led him to concentrate his attention on meditation. He disciplined himself to write a prayer each day, an endeavor that became this extraordinary book.In these daily prayers, Father Nouwen confronts his own inner chaos as he tries to create a space in his heart where God can dwell. Powerful, searching, and painfully honest, Nouwen's prayers, confessions, and petitions point to the final goal of all spiritual life: to live unceasingly in the presence of God. Like The Wounded Healer and The Return of the Prodigal Son, A Cry for Mercy is filled with freshness and insight. It speaks directly to the contemporary Christian's need for a meaningful spirituality, a disciplined inner life, and a real sense of the divine presence in everyday life.

The Kind of Brave You Wanted to Be: Prose Prayers and Cheerful Chants against the Dark


Brian Doyle - 2016
    Brian Doyle’s The Kind of Brave You Wanted to Be is a book of cadenced notes on the swirl of miracle and the holy of attentiveness; a book about children and birds, love and grief and everything alive, which is to say all prayers.

We Don’t Know What’s Going to Happen and That’s Okay: Living in Holy Uncertainty


John Mark Comer - 2020
    

The Path of Celtic Prayer: An Ancient Way to Everyday Joy


Calvin Miller - 2007
    "Long ago," Calvin Miller writes, "when the Celts built their own rustic kingdom of God in what would later be the British Isles, their fervor in prayer washed their world in a vital revival." In uncertain and dangerous days of high infant-mortality rates, leprosy and plagues, the Celts breathed candid prayers out of the reality of their lives: Desperate prayers for protection. Praise for the God who was king over all creation. Honest prayers of confession. In these pages, Miller introduces us to six types of Celtic prayer that can connect us to God more deeply by helping us pray out of the circumstances and uncertainties of our own life. "This book proposes a kind of prayer that can end our amputated feelings of separateness from God," says Miller. What was true for the Celts is still true for us: "Hunger for Christ keeps us talking to God till our separation is swallowed up in our unending togetherness with him." As rich as the faith they describe, these pages lead us on an ancient path that gives guidance for present and future prayers, until the day the Celts longed for, when all separation is gone and we live forever in the presence of God.

Sawfish


Rick Chesler - 2016
    Mason Rayman is experimenting with gigantism in sea creatures when he accidentally creates a monstrously large sawfish. When it grows so big he can no longer keep it in his Miami lab, he is preparing to have it destroyed when he learns he is being terminated from his position. By way of revenge, he dumps the oversized shark relative into the ocean, where it soon roams out of control, slaughtering bathers at nearby trendy South Beach.Dr. Rayman doesn't let on that it's his fish responsible for the killings, but someone knows what he did, and she's blackmailing him. He plays along for a while but then decides she needs to be eliminated. Breaking into a lab at his former workplace, he deliberately creates more monster sawfish and releases them into the local waters.Rayman then attempts to get his job back by stepping forward as the expert on how to stop the scourge of gigantic predators now ravaging swimmers and water sports enthusiasts on South Florida beaches. But his blackmailer will not let up, leading to an ultimate confrontation between woman and beast, and finally, woman and man.