From the spoiling of this relationship followed the decay of the entire family, and almost overnight, our once pro-life culture became pro-lifestyle, embracing everything that felt good. Sixty million abortions later, women aren’t showing signs of health, happiness, and fulfillment. Increased numbers of divorce, depression, anxiety, sexually transmitted disease, and drug abuse all point to the reality that women aren’t happier, just more medicated.  Huge cultural shifts led to a rethinking of womanhood, but could there be more behind it than just culture, politics, and rhetoric? Building off the scriptural foundations of the anti-Christ, Carrie Gress makes an in-depth investigation into the idea of an anti-Mary—as a spirit, not an individual—that has plagued the West since the ’60s. Misleading generations of women, this anti-Marian spirit has led to the toxic femininity that has destroyed the lives of countless men, women, and children. Also in The Anti-Mary Exposed: How radical feminism is connected to the errors of Russia, spoken of by Our Lady of Fatima.The involvement and influence of the goddess movement and the occult. The influence of “female” demons, such as Lilith and Jezebel.The repulsive underbelly of radical feminism’s chief architects.A look at the matriarchy, a cabal of elite women committed to abortion, who control the thinking of most women through media, politics, Hollywood, fashion, and universities.  The antidote to the anti-Mary is, of course, Mary, the Mother of God, known widely as the most powerful woman in the world and the source of the belief that women ought to be treated with dignity. She is a beacon of all the virtues and qualities—purity, humility, kindness, beauty—that oppose this sinister force that has cast its spell upon so many women. Mary’s influence is unparalleled by any woman in history. She is the perfect model of Christian femininity, who desires to be a spiritual mother to us all, leading us to her Son, and to the fulfillment of our heart’s deepest desires.

    Perhaps nothing has changed life for so many, so fast, as the severing of sex and procreation. But what has been the result?This ground-breaking book by noted essayist and author Mary Eberstadt contends that sexual freedom has paradoxically produced widespread discontent. Drawing on sociologists Pitirim Sorokin, Carle Zimmerman, and others; philosopher G.E.M. Anscombe and novelist Tom Wolfe; and a host of feminists, food writers, musicians, and other voices from across today's popular culture, Eberstadt makes her contrarian case with an impressive array of evidence. Her chapters range across academic disciplines and include supporting evidence from contemporary literature and music, women's studies, college memoirs, dietary guides, advertisements, television shows, and films.Adam and Eve after the Pill examines as no book has before the seismic social changes caused by the sexual revolution. In examining human behavior in the post-liberation world, Eberstadt provocatively asks: Is food the new sex? Is pornography the new tobacco?Adam and Eve after the Pill will change the way readers view the paradoxical impact of the sexual revolution on ideas, morals, and humanity itself.

    In a series of imaginative "dialogues", Sal the Seeker and Chris the Christian deal with the profound mysteries of the Gospel. The result is a book that is both engaging and profound, a book that leads readers to initial faith--or to deeper faith. The stakes in these dialogues are high. Christianity is God's marriage proposal to the soul, says Kreeft, and the answer must be "yes" or "no". We can evade the claims of Jesus Christ for a while, but death brings evasion to an end. It is wiser to look at Christianity honestly now. Yes or No? shows the truth of Jesus' promise that those who sincerely seek the truth shall find it. It is a road map for those who are honestly seeking the truth and a source of greater faith for those how have already found God. It presents the full challenge of the gospel in a way modern men and women can understand. "Lots of writers have the gift of irony, or humor, or logic, or common sense. Very few combine all these gifts in one talent and put it at the service of truth. Peter Kreeft is simply the best, the most engaging, Christian apologist at work today, and this book is another example of a master craftsman at his peak." - Francis X. Maier, Editor, National Catholic Register "An apologetical work which is orthodox in content, appealing in approach, and covers all the fundamental bases of Christianity. Ideal for Catholic high school or college, RCIA, or simply as a refresher." - Fr. Peter Stravinskas , Editor, The Catholic Answer "Kreeft calls this book an alarm clock to wake up the indifferent - it's more like a cannon blast. The reader ignores its arguments at his peril." - Karl Keating,  Author, Catholicism and

    As the youngest-ever op-ed columnist for The New York Times and the author of the critically acclaimed books Privilege and Grand New Party, Ross Douthat has emerged as one of the most provocative and influential voices of his generation. Now he offers a masterful and hard-hitting account of how American Christianity has gone off the rails — and why it threatens to take American society with it.In a story that moves from the 1950s to the age of Obama, Douthat brilliantly charts traditional Christianity’s decline from a vigorous, mainstream, and bipartisan faith — which acted as a “vital center” and the moral force behind the Civil Rights movement — through the culture wars of the 1960s and 1970s down to the polarizing debates of the present day. He argues that Christianity’s place in American life has increasingly been taken over, not by atheism, but by heresy: Debased versions of Christian faith that breed hubris, greed, and self-absorption. Ranging from Glenn Beck to Eat Pray Love, Joel Osteen to The Da Vinci Code, Oprah Winfrey to Sarah Palin, Douthat explores how the prosperity gospel’s mantra of “pray and grow rich”; a cult of self-esteem that reduces God to a life coach; and the warring political religions of left and right have crippled the country’s ability to confront our most pressing challenges, and accelerated American decline.His urgent call for a revival of traditional Christianity is sure to generate controversy, and it will be vital reading for all those concerned about the imperiled American future.

    Is it possible to be both a Catholic and a feminist? Claire Swinarski, writer and creator of The Catholic Feminist podcast, believes it is: “I’m a feminist for the same reason I’m bold and honest and sometimes ragey: because Jesus was all of those things.”In Girl, Arise!, Swinarski reconciles the two identities by demonstrating the strength and abilities women have to share with the Body of Christ, the importance of women throughout the history of the faith, and how the love you experience through Christ and the Church can change you and the world around you.In Girl, Arise!:A Catholic Feminist’s Invitation to Live Boldly, Love Your Faith, and Change the World Swinarski points out that while both “feminism” and “Catholicism” can mean different things to different people, both feminists and Catholics desire to make the world a better, fairer place. And she shows that by treating women with dignity equal to that of men—by calling them his friends and teaching them—Jesus acted as a feminist as well.With humor and sass, Swinarski addresses her frustration with the traditional concerns churches ascribe to women, as shown by the many talks directed at women focused on marriage and modesty rather than social justice. But she pinpoints the areas where modern feminism goes too far, arguing against abortion and exploring what it means to serve others rather than focus on our own needs first.Swinarski also tells the stories of holy women—including Vashti in the book of Esther, Sts. Thérèse of Lisieux and Joan of Arc, Mary Magdalene, and the Blessed Virgin Mary—to show how their faith influenced their actions, even when those actions went against traditional norms and roles of women.You will be empowered to embrace your God-given abilities as you follow the women who have gone before you in faith who—by announcing Christ to his disciples, believing in God’s promises, and being faithful in hardship—changed the world.

    During a time when American nuns are under attack from the very institution to which they pledge, these sisters offer inspiring, provocative counterstories that are sure to spark debate.Overthrowing our popular perception of nuns as killjoy schoolmarms content to live in the annals of nostalgia, Piazza defines them instead as the most vigorous catalysts of change in an otherwise constricting patriarchy.

    A perfect way to live Lent to the full this year - Lent is a time to refocus our hearts and revive our love of the Lord and one another.A Companion for the Forty Days of Lent, featuring original meditations on the Gospel reading of each day by fifteen gifted authors.Each issue of the Lenten Companion is never the same as the last and contains these one-of-a-kind extras that you won’t find anywhere else:- Inspiring reflections from some of the most gifted Catholic writers for each day- Faith-filled essays- Prayers, poetry, and devotions- Meditations for the Way of the Cross- A treasury of spiritual insights

    Now, the story continues… Thomas Travis had always thought the toughest streets in the ghettos of Atlanta were next door to hell. But he didn’t know just how close they were until the threat of racial violence sent him fleeing down the stairs of an abandoned building…only to fall headlong into a tortured realm of fire and ice, the place of the damned. The only chance of escape was to trust the strange elderly woman who met him there and insisted on being his guide. She claimed to know the way out, but it would lead through all the terrifying circles of divine judgment, each one deeper and more tormenting than the last. In the lowest pit, the Lord of Darkness himself lay in wait. Thomas had lived a godless life, and now there was hell to pay. If his soul could be purged on the journey, he just might make it. But the odds were against him. In hell, the only guarantee is justice…and the only way out is down. About the AuthorPAUL THIGPEN, PhD, is an award-winning journalist and the best-selling author of more than twenty-five books, including A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints, Blood of the Martyrs, and Seed of the Church. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University and also holds a doctorate in historical theology from Emory University.

    Pope Clement XI and Benedict XIV gave like decisions.

    After her parents' divorce, she rejected her family's Islamic faith and became an atheist. During her stormy adolescence, she tried to convince a Christian missionary that there is no God but was converted to Christ instead.Her winding path through the riddles of God was not over, however. While attending a Turkish university and serving as a Christian youth minister, Derya began to compare the teachings of Protestantism and Catholicism, and during her doctoral studies in England, she entered the Catholic Church. Ultimately, she ended up in the United States, where she has become a citizen and has settled down to raise a family.Derya's story provides a window into both Islam and modernity. It shows that the grace and the mercy of God know no bounds.  Rather, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ reaches souls in the most unlikely places.

    Many critics complained of the book because it merely criticised current philosophies without offering any alternative philosophy. This book is an attempt to answer the challenge. It is the purpose of the writer to attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian Faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it. The book is therefore arranged upon the positive principle of a riddle and its answer. It deals first with all the writer's own solitary and sincere speculations and then with the startling style in which they were all suddenly satisfied by the Christian Theology. The writer regards it as amounting to a convincing creed. But if it is not that it is at least a repeated and surprising coincidence.

    She died in that city in 1510.Her fame outside her native city is connected with the publication in 1551 of the book known in English as the Life and Doctrine of Saint Catherine of Genoa.[3]She and her teaching were the subject of Baron Friedrich von Hügel's classic work The Mystical Element of Religion (1908).

    Is it even possible that the teachings of a 2,000 year old religion are still relevant for today's toughest issues?Nine such Catholic women varying widely in age, occupation and experience share personal stories of how they struggled toward the realization that the demands of their faith actually set them free. Their stories full of honesty, but ultimately hope --shed new light and new clarity on women's continued attraction to the Catholic faith.

    Pieper shows that the Greeks understood and valued leisure, as did the medieval Europeans. He points out that religion can be born only in leisure - a leisure that allows time for the contemplation of the nature of God. Leisure has been, and always will be, the first foundation of any culture.He maintains that our bourgeois world of total labor has vanquished leisure, and issues a startling warning: Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for nonactivity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture - and ourselves.These astonishing essays contradict all our pragmatic and puritanical conceptions about labor and leisure; Josef Pieper demolishes the twentieth-century cult of "work" as he predicts its destructive consequences.

    Thérèse of Lisieux, Teresa of Avila, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, and Mother Teresa—who wouldn't want these women as friends and guides? Lively, determined, devout but never passive, they were all straight-shooters with an abundance of common sense. They were also deeply in love with God, clinging to him with a tenacity that freed them to do the impossible. Using the Great Commandment as her guide, Gina Loehr focuses on how each of these women lived out one particular aspect of the command to love God with heart, mind, and soul and neighbor as self. Practical tips offer suggestions on how to be like the Teresas and points for reflection drive the lessons home. These friends of God will help you become, as they were, expert in living out Christ's perfect law of loveThe audio edition of this book can be downloaded via Audible.