Pastoral Helps
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Final Days Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$15.99Add to cartThis Lent ponder the themes of justice, poverty, freedom, and love. The Leader Guide contains discussion questions and session plans for a six-week study of The Final Days by Matt Rawle. It includes opening and closing prayers, optional activities, and session goals for each week and is designed to be used with the book and DVD. The four New Testament Gospels aren’t the same story, but they offer the same Resurrection hope. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John devote most of their story detailing Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem, all highlighting Jesus’ triumphant entry into the city, the suffering and humiliation of the cross, and the empty tomb come Sunday morning, but the stories they tell aren’t quite the same. Each Gospel offers a different lens through which we understand Jesus’ Passion. One portrait reveals Jesus to be in control, while another emphasizes his suffering. In one story Jesus offers hope to the thief on the cross, and in another Jesus only receives derision. These different perspectives aren’t a reason to dismiss the Gospels; rather the reveal an abundant, diverse, and complementary picture of God’s work in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
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Final Days : A Lenten Journey Through The Gospels
$17.99Add to cartThis Lent ponder the themes of justice, poverty, freedom, and love. The four New Testament Gospels aren’t the same story, but they offer the same Resurrection hope. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John devote most of their story detailing Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem, all highlighting Jesus’ triumphant entry into the city, the suffering and humiliation of the cross, and the empty tomb come Sunday morning, but the stories they tell aren’t quite the same. Each Gospel offers a different lens through which we understand Jesus’ Passion. One portrait reveals Jesus to be in control, while another emphasizes his suffering. In one story Jesus offers hope to the thief on the cross, and in another Jesus only receives derision. These different perspectives aren’t a reason to dismiss the Gospels; rather the reveal an abundant, diverse, and complementary picture of God’s work in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Other components for the study include a leader guide, and teaching video are available.
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Message Of Jesus (Large Type)
$20.99Add to cartA fresh encounter with the words of Jesus.
More than 3 billion people claim to follow Jesus. But aside from a few verses, how many actually know what he taught? In fact, much of what people think Jesus taught, he never said. In this six-week study, pastor and best-selling author Adam Hamilton explores six of the most important themes in Jesus’s teachings, why they matter, and how they speak to us today. The book will explore Jesus’s preaching on the Kingdom of God, the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, the “I am” sayings in John, and more. Jesus’s message is not only life-changing, but world-changing. Join Adam Hamilton in studying The Message of Jesus: Words That Changed the World. Other components for the study include a leader guide, teaching videos, and sermons and worship.
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Message Of Jesus Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$15.99Add to cartA fresh encounter with the words of Jesus.
This Leader Guide contains everything needed to facilitate a 6-week study on The Message of Jesus, by Adam Hamilton. Helps include opening prayers, summaries, discussion questions and more. More than 3 billion people claim to follow Jesus. But aside from a few verses, how many actually know what he taught? In fact, much of what people think Jesus taught, he never said. In this six-week study, pastor and best-selling author Adam Hamilton explores six of the most important themes in Jesus’s teachings, why they matter, and how they speak to us today. The book will explore Jesus’s preaching on the Kingdom of God, the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, the “I am” sayings in John, and more. Jesus’s message is not only life-changing, but world-changing. Join Adam Hamilton in studying The Message of Jesus: Words That Changed the World. Other components for the study include a leader guide, and teaching video are available.
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Message Of Jesus
$19.99Add to cartA fresh encounter with the words of Jesus.
More than 3 billion people claim to follow Jesus. But aside from a few verses, how many actually know what he taught? In fact, much of what people think Jesus taught, he never said. In this six-week study, pastor and best-selling author Adam Hamilton explores six of the most important themes in Jesus’s teachings, why they matter, and how they speak to us today. The book will explore Jesus’s preaching on the Kingdom of God, the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, the “I am” sayings in John, and more. Jesus’s message is not only life-changing, but world-changing. Join Adam Hamilton in studying The Message of Jesus: Words That Changed the World. Other components for the study include a leader guide, teaching videos, and sermons and worship.
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Sanctuary For Lent 2025 Pkg Of 10
$14.99Add to cartA Convenient and Affordable Lenten devotional for the entire church.
The Sanctuary for Lent 2025 contains brief readings for each day in Lent, from Ash Wednesday through Easter Day, including a suggested Scripture, a short devotion, and a short prayer or practice-all based on the Revised Common Lectionary. This annual favorite helps readers faithfully journey through Lent as they prepare to experience the joy of the Resurrection. Along with being a great congregational resource, it is an excellent gift for family, friends, and those your congregation connects with through outreach.
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Theology And Catholic Higher Education
$30.00Add to cart“Our problem in Catholic higher education is bigger than the collapse of ecclesial credibility, bigger than the behavior of the bishops, bigger than the waning interest in theological studies, and bigger than politics.” Massimo Faggioli
Many Catholic universities in the United States have put their Catholic mission at risk by either ceding to secular neoliberal values or by doubling down on reactionary Catholic tribalism. Student enrollment declines as some schools market themselves no differently than secular colleges. Other, conversely, neo-traditionalist Catholic colleges ally themselves with regressive elements of the Church. Both trends, Faggioli says, reflect a dismantling of Vatican II’s vision for Catholic education.
Scrutinizing this crisis in detail, Massimo Faggioli reviews the snowballing changes in Catholic higher education, advocating for a renewed incarnational and sacramental Catholic educational philosophy that rejects accommodation to secular technocracy as well as Catholic tribalism in order to embody the inclusive, socially conscious values of the Catholic tradition as expressed in the theology of Vatican II.
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Changing Face Of Catholicism
$22.95Add to cart“As Pope Francis stresses the importance of dialogue, accompaniment, and engagement, Hater articulates practical questions inviting us to discern proactive, prophetic initiatives for implementing these ideas. This is the pathway forward for nurturing a new way of being Church…. We are reminded throughout the book that ‘we live in a new world, and the future Church demands new modes of presence and interpersonal communication.'”
?from the foreword -
33 Days To Morning Glory
$24.95Add to cartThe international bestseller 33 Days to Morning Glory returns in a new expanded study edition designed specifically for group retreats. Supplementing the original text of 33 Days to Morning Glory are thought-provoking questions for each day to answer and discuss in a group setting. This new volume also provides exclusive access to retreat videos posted on DivineMercyPlus.org, to enrich the consecration experience and encourage group discussion. Using 33 Days to Morning Glory: Group Retreat & Study Guide, readers will discover in a nurturing group setting that belonging completely to Mary is the quickest, easiest, and surest way to Jesus.
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Meeting Jesus At The Table
$17.00Add to cartThe Gospels are full of stories of Jesus sharing meals with disciples, friends, even tax collectors and Pharisees. Whether multiplying bread to feed a whole crowd, relaxing with his inner circle, or telling curious elites stories about even greater banquets, Jesus imparts wisdom as he shares the wine and grants forgiveness as he distributes the fish. This eight-chapter resource provides biblical insights along with thought-provoking queries regarding our own time, such as whom should we invite to Sunday dinner and who is left out and left behind in our culture today.
Illustrations by artist Kevin Burns complement each chapter and invite further meditation on the Gospel story and its meaning for our lives.
Each chapter includes questions for small group discussion or personal reflection. A guide for church leaders offers suggestions for preaching this book as a sermon series and incorporating food-related outreach and hospitality efforts.
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Handbook For Catholic Preaching
$44.95Add to cartWhile admitting particular parameters and priorities for Roman Catholic preachers, this volume was intentionally envisioned as a handbook for “catholic” preaching in the broadest and most universal sense of that term. Cosponsored by the Catholic Academy of Liturgy, the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics, and the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, it covers the role of the Scriptures in preaching, the challenges of preaching in a digital age, sermonizing in an interfaith context, and the need for a liberative and prophetic word that cuts across denominations and even faith traditions. Intended to aid those who teach or direct the preaching arts, the design and writing style of this book are particularly calibrated to graduate students in ministerial studies. Every article is a self-contained overview of a particular historical period, genre of preaching, homiletic theory, or contemporary issue. This more encyclopedic approach-devoid of footnotes, yet supported by pertinent bibliography and an extensive index-provides a sufficiently rich yet thoroughly accessible gateway to major facets of the preaching arts at this stage of the twenty-first century.
General Editor: Edward FoleyAssociate Editors: Catherine Vincie, Richard N. FragomeniContributors: Herbert Anderson, John F. Baldovin, Alden Lee Bass, Dianne Bergant, Stephen Bevans, Robert Bireley, John Carr, Anthony Collamati, Michael E. Connors, Guerric DeBona, Frank DeSiano, William T. Ditewig, Con Foley, Edward Foley, Richard N. Fragomeni, Ann M. Garrido, Gregory Heille, Lucy Lind Hogan, Patrick R. Lagges, David J. Lose, Barbara K. Lundblad, Ricky Manalo, Robert F. Morneau, Carolyn Muessig, vanThanh Nguyen, Mary Margaret Pazdan, Patricia Parachini, Jorge Presmanes, Craig Alan Satterlee, Catherine Vincie, Richard Vosko, James A. Wallace, Margaret Moers Wenig, Alex Zenthoefer
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Finding Jesus In The Psalms Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$15.99Add to cartA meaningful encounter with Jesus and the Psalms through the season of Lent with Barb Roose.
In this six-session study, Bible study author Barb Roose guides the reader through a meaningful encounter with the Psalms through the season of Lent. Combining an interpretation of the psalms with prayerful engagement, the study moves through the familiar words of Psalm 23 toward the painful cries of Psalm 22 uttered by Jesus on the cross. The study includes invitations to pray the Psalms and develop new prayer practices in the context of Lent. Additional components for this six-week study include a book and DVD/Video Sessions featuring Barb Roose.
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Breaking Open The Word Year A
$17.99Add to cartBreaking Open the Word assists leaders of adult and teen Christian initiation, as well as Bible study groups, to “break open” and explore the word of God proclaimed in the Sunday liturgy. The pastoral commentary and reflection questions by Biblical scholar Mary Katharine Deeley facilitate meditation and discussion, bringing Scripture alive and making it relevant to today.
Breaking Open the Word can be used on its own or in combination with Liguori Publications’ Journey of Faith RCIA program. Each liturgy is cross-referenced to a Journey of Faith lesson, enabling a Lectionary-based approach to catechesis for Christian initiation.
Separate volumes of Breaking Open the Wordare available for each year of the three-year liturgical cycle, and each includes additional materials for use during Lent and the Easter Triduum.
Each volume of Breaking Open the Word features:
*The lectionary readings for all Sundays of the liturgical year, Advent through the Feast of Christ the King
*Readings for the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent for use when the Scrutinies are celebrated with the Elect
*The lectionary readings for the Easter Triduum
*The lectionary readings for those occasional Sunday feasts that supersede Ordinary Time celebrations
*Scripture commentary for each Sunday’s Lectionary readings
*Discussion questions for every set of readings
*A cross-reference linking each Sunday’s Lectionary readings to the Journey of Faith catechetical lessons
*A collection of brief gathering prayers and dismissal prayers for each phase of the initiation process
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4 Ways Forward
$19.95Add to cartAn increasingly post-Christian world is forcing parishes to re-envision how they “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). Pastors and lay leadership must pivot to building up mission-first parishes, equipped to proclaim the Gospel to those who have not heard it — all while the numbers of practicing Catholics fall with increasing speed.
Parish leaders are hungry for programs and resources to help them address these challenges. The problem is that no single model or program can suit every parish, and leaders are bogged down with options, many of which offer no clear goals or methods. In Four Ways Forward, Susan Windley-Daoust, theologian and director of missionary discipleship for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in southern Minnesota, provides a roadmap to pastors and parish staff to make sense of it all.
In order to become an apostolic parish, there are four effective models to choose from, each built on a distinct, necessary insight and method in the art of conversion:
1. Radical hospitality and proclamation
2. The practice of spiritual multiplication
3. Organizational mission (re)focus
4. Highlighting divine signs and wonders in our midstEvery fruitful, joyful, evangelizing parish should embrace the insights and methods of at least three of the four models. This book not only describes each model, giving examples of how it is being used in parishes today, but also offers a practical blueprint toward crafting a response to the post-Christian world, including notes on spiritual roadblocks that can get in the way.
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Sermons On The Song Of Songs Volume 2
$29.95Add to cartTaking up Saint Bernard’s unfinished sermon-commentary, Gilbert ruminates on verse 3:1-5:10 in forty-eight sermons, leaving the task to be finished by John of Ford.
This volume contains sermons 16 through 32.To encounter a person who makes holiness attractive is an enviable experience. Such a person was Gilbert of Hoyland, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Swineshead in Lincolnshire, a friend of Aelred of Rievaulx, and the continuator of the sermons on the Song of Songs begun by Bernard of Clairvaux.
When the great saint of Clairvaux died in 1153, his sermon commentary had reached only the first four verses of chapter three of the Canticle. Gilbert took up the task, but left the commentary unfinished at his death. It was brought to completion by another English abbot, John of Ford.
Those who know and admire Bernard’s eloquence and contemplative insight will enjoy making the acquaintance of his successors. While conscious of continuing Bernard’s work and remaining true to his spirit, they infused their sermons with their own personalities and shared their own rich experiences of God. As Lawrence C. Braceland says in his introduction to this first English translation of Gilbert’s work, ‘Gilbert is an experience. He has found the Beloved.’
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What We Believe
$15.95Add to cartDiscover the Amazing Riches of the Catholic Faith
What is the Catholic Church all about? What does it mean to be Catholic? What do Catholics actually believe? The Catholic Church is extraordinary. Founded by Christ himself, the Catholic Church is where we encounter God in his Word, his sacraments, and his saints. The Church faithfully proclaims the fullness of faith, leaving no truth out. It proclaims the fullness of life, leaving no person out. It calls all to repent and to believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the source of all life and salvation.
Maybe you’ve been Catholic your entire life. Maybe you’re just beginning to explore the Catholic Faith. Wherever you are in your journey, you will be profoundly moved by the beauty and the richness of the Catholic Church.
Written by Marcellino D’Ambrosio and Andrew Swafford, What We Believe presents and explains the essential teachings of the Catholic Faith in a readable, approachable way. In it you will discover:
*What Catholics truly believe*Who Catholics are and how we are called to live
*The blessings of Creation, redemption, and newness of life in the Holy Spirit
*The profound gift of the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of our Faith
*How to imitate Christ through prayer, through personal conversion, and through love for others.
*And more!
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Sermons On The Final Verses Of The Song Of Songs Volume I
$29.95Add to cartIn completing the sermon-commentary begun by Bernard and continued by Gilbert of Hoyland, John ’emerges as a lively and original commentator, writing sensitively from a deep experience of the spiritual and monastic life. Carrying on where his great predecessors, including Saint Bernard, left off, John knows grace and its counterpart humility, are central to all Christian spirituality; he also has an exceptionally keen awareness of the church as a body whose members share in each other’s treasures and rejoice in each other’s blessings’.
This volume contains sermons 1 through 14.
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Witness At The Cross
$17.99Add to cartExperience Holy Friday from the perspective of those who watched Jesus die: Mary his mother; the Beloved Disciple from the Gospel of John; Mary Magdalene and the other women from Galilee; the two men, usually identified as thieves, crucified with Jesus; the centurion and the soldiers; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Jews and Romans, friends and strangers, the powerful and the powerless, the hopeful and the despairing.
In Witness at the Cross, Amy-Jill Levine shows how the people at the cross each have distinct roles to play in the Gospels. For each, Jesus has a particular meaning and message, and from each, we learn how those meanings and messages cross the centuries to any who would come to the cross today.
Additional components for a six-week study include a DVD featuring Dr. Levine and a comprehensive Leader Guide.
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What Makes Education Catholic
$24.00Add to cartThe award-winning author of What Makes Us Catholic provides a history of Catholic education: its spiritual roots, from the historical Jesus to the Didache, to Augustine and Aquinas to Merici and Ward, and shows how these foundations ensure that Catholic schools, deliver the education they promise.
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Art Of Preaching
$34.95Add to cartThe growing awareness of the importance of preaching is a sign of our times. In the past decades, conscious that a renewal of preaching is essential for a renewed evangelization, many seminaries have implemented homiletic courses. However, there is still a real limitation of good and systematic resources in order to learn the theological depth and practical elements of the art of preaching.
The Art of Preaching: A Theological and Practical Primer aims to fill that gap. It explores the theological understanding of the homily, lessons from classical and contemporary rhetoric, the relevance of preaching for the life of the Church, highlighting recent teachings of the Magisterium, and it presents the incarnation as the foundation for preaching, understood as an essential aspect of the priestly life and mission.
This primer also offers a simple and effective method for the preparation and delivery of homilies, illustrating this by the example of brilliant preachers and exploring the idea of preaching as locus theologicus, i.e., the privileged place for the exercise of theology today. It is in deepening in the value and importance of preaching that theology can be renewed as a living and essential part of the daily life of priests. Seeing the homily not as a burden but as an occasion to fulfill the priestly identity will offer the opportunity to embrace the preparation for preaching as a key for unity among the many tasks and demands of pastoral life. In the homily prayer, study, and work come together.
The Art of Preaching will also provide a selection of homilies from the great preachers of the Church, organized chronologically, with brief introductions and commentaries that highlight what those homilies teach us for our preaching today. Only learning from the best preachers can we hope to preach effectively in our times.
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Encountering Jesus In The New Testament Student Edition (Student/Study Guide)
$30.95Add to cartEncountering Jesus in the New Testament is an excellent introduction to the New Testament. It is an ideal textbook for Catholic high school students taking a scripture survey course.
“Who is Jesus of Nazareth?”
“Who is the person people of faith call ‘Christ. the Son of God?”These questions form the central focus of Encountering Jesus in the New Testament. The text provides a scriptural and ecclesial foundation to answer the question of why Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It explores how the New Testament offers evidence and faith testimony to the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Encountering Jesus in the New Testament is a combination of Christology-a complete study of the person and the divinity of Jesus Christ-with an overview of the books of the New Testament.
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Divine Renovation Beyond The Parish
$21.95Add to cartBeyond the Parish is Fr. James Mallon’s answer to, “Now what?” With the crises in Catholic churches throughout the world, parish renewal can be a discouraging task. But with decades of experience behind him, Fr. Mallon wants to encourage you to pray, to trust, and to take the necessary steps to see your parish and your diocese fully equipped to fulfill God’s mission for the Church today. It’s not too late–renewal has often happened in times of crises, and this time is no exception!
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Sermons On The Christian Year Volume 2
$34.95Add to cartIsaac of Stella was an English-born Cistercian who studied in the schools before entering monastic life and becoming abbot of Stella in 1147. His liturgical sermons inject a speculative philosophical inquisitiveness into imaginative meditations on scenes from Scripture. This present volume includes sermons 27-55, along with three fragments. In these sermons, while treating biblical passages corresponding to the major feasts of the Christian calendar, Isaac tackles weighty dogmatic issues such as predestination, the problem of evil, and Christ’s two natures.
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After Suicide : There’s Still Hope For Them And You
$16.95Add to cartAddressing the hard issue of suicide honestly and pastorally, Fr. Chris Alar, MIC, draws from the teaching of the Church, the message of Divine Mercy, and his own experience of losing his grandmother to suicide in order to offer readers two key forms of hope. There’s hope for the salvation of those who’ve died by their own hand, and there’s hope for the healing of those whom they’ve left behind.
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Unlocking Your Parish
$19.95Add to cartCan Catholic parishes become communities of missionary disciples that bear lasting fruit? If so, what does it take to move them in that direction?
Through his years as pastor of Saint Benedict Parish in Halifax, Canada, Fr. James Mallon discovered that the answer to the first question was a resounding yes! Tailored for Catholics, Alpha played a key role in the transformation of the parish he pastored.
Unlocking Your Parish aims to provide insight into what Alpha can do to help any Catholic parish become a vibrant, mission-focused community.
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Vision For Conversion
$16.95Add to cartYou said yes to coordinating the RCIA in your parish. You knew it was going to be a big commitment and require a lot of your time. But it turned out to be much bigger and more complex than you ever imagined. The more you learned about those asking to become Catholic, the more you realized that “the way we’ve always done it” just isn’t going to work anymore if you want to form lifelong disciples. Something has to change. Leisa Anslinger, a veteran of RCIA leadership and parish planning, knows how to help communities develop a vision, navigate change, and bring out the best in their leaders and parishioners. In A Vision for Conversion: Eight Steps to Radically Change Your RCIA Process, Leisa walks you through the eight most effective ways to move your parish RCIA process from maintenance-mode into a true conversion journey that inspires seekers to lifelong discipleship. Whether you’re an RCIA veteran or just getting started, this book will be your companion and guide as you plan for the change your parish needs to initiate seekers into Christ.
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Rites Of Passage
$29.95Add to cartRites of Passage is a much-needed, practical homiletic resource for priests and deacons who preach Christian baptisms, weddings, and funerals. The three authors, a religious priest, a diocesan priest, and a permanent deacon, draw from the scriptural and liturgical resources available to the preacher for these three important ritual moments to suggest ways to build an effective homily. This book will serve as a helpful and engaging resource for priests and deacons in parish life and as a blessing to the faithful.
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Shouting Joy To The Storm Cycle C
$15.95Add to cartHow are we to respond when the violent storm of change rolls into our lives?
Should we hide from the storm? Hide in the status quo?
As this volume of sermons reminds us, that is not the way of the Christ.Followers of Jesus are called to believe that our greatest treasure ought not be found in the comfort of worldly life as we make it. The Lord calls us instead to step outside and face the coming storm, as he did.
When we do, we face all manner of fears in a world that does not like its order challenged. Mockery when we follow God; poverty when we stop worshipping money; grief when we are vulnerable enough to love the oppressed.
Shouting Joy to the Storm reminds us that, just as the Father partnered with the Son to bring him through the storm of Calvary, so he will bring us through our storms. We are not in this for a mere lifetime. We are in it for the long haul.
“They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid (Ezekiel 34:28, ESV).”
Sermons include:
*Long View – The Long Haul(Luke 13:31-35)
*What Is Truth? (John 18:1-19, 42)
*Death Shall Be No More (John 13:31-35, Revelation 21:1-6) -
Backstory Preaching : Integrating Life Spirituality And Craft
$24.95Add to cartInstead of being a routine task on the checklist, what if sermon prep transformed you into the very word of God you preach? Instead of being a drain on you, what if the process itself renewed you? Instead of feeling insecure about your message, what if your skills made you confident to preach a consistently clear message of Good News, authentic to you, relevant to your listeners, holding their attention and inviting transformation? Backstory Preaching: Integrating Life, Spirituality, and Craft shows you how.
By integrating your life and spirituality with the practical skills necessary for effective preaching, you can move beyond the boredom, stress, or insecurity of preaching so it is no longer you who preach but Christ who preaches in you. By connecting with God in the midst of your sermon prep, the Gospel will be spread deeper and further. God’s joy-and yours-will be made complete.
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Christian Preaching And Worship In Multicultural Contexts
$29.95Add to cartCan Christian preaching and worship in multicultural contexts be more faithful to the Christian gospel and more meaningful and memorable to worshipers? In this book, Eunjoo Mary Kim explores this theological and liturgical concern and proposes a paradigm shift from monocultural to multicultural worship.
This volume will help preachers and worship leaders, as well as homiletics and liturgics scholars, seek theological and biblical wisdom for the practice of Christian preaching and worship in multicultural contexts.
Kim also provides homiletical and liturgical insights into this practice. By integrating this paradigm shift, ministers and worshipers can participate in a life worthy of living together in our multicultural world.
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Transcending Generations : A Field Guide To Collaboration In Church
$16.95Add to cartTranscending Generations is a guide for church leaders seeking to communicate and collaborate with adults of all ages-beyond generations. In this new guide to being and doing church, sociologist and culture critic Meredith Gould focuses on issues shared by people of faith, regardless of chronological age, psychosocial development, or generational cohort.
In short, easy-to-read chapters and with her characteristic wit, she challenges readers to think in more nuanced ways about age to remove false barriers. Readers are guided to and through practical ways to move forward together while honoring authentic differences. Chapters include questions for individual inquiry and group discussion.
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Pastors Toolbox 2
$24.95Add to cartThe remarkable success of the book A Pastor’s Toolbox: Management Skills for Parish Leadership has demonstrated that the demands of time and financial challenges continue to impact the work of today’s parish leaders. The need has become even greater for practical tools to assist in the many aspects of temporal administration, leadership, and church management. This follow-up volume provides all new information, insights, and practical tools that pastors need to handle the complexities of parish management in the twenty-first century. Sixteen contributors from across the country deliver key content that focuses on promoting excellence and best practices in the areas of management, finances, communications, and human resources development. A Pastor’s Toolbox 2 provides: leadership tools for the pastor and his team;help for working with the parish’s pastoral and finance council;intercultural competence and complex pastoring situations;suggestions for time management and effective meetings;human resources, change management, and canon law;tools for parish stewardship, communications, and Catholic schools.The book is an outgrowth of the Toolbox for Pastoral Management, a nationally recognized joint project of Leadership Roundtable and Seton Hall University.
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Light In The Darkness
$19.95Add to cartAlthough the Catholic funeral rite has not changed in the past few decades, society has. Parishes have new questions to face that their liturgical book does not consider: eulogies by family members, the final disposition of cremated remains, and the collapse of the traditional three-stage funeral liturgy. Light in the Darkness takes a fresh look at the pastoral challenges society is posing, while giving concrete suggestions for implementing the vision of the Catholic Church’s Order of Christian Funerals. The appendix includes catechetical materials for families planning a funeral and an extended commentary on all the Scripture readings for a funeral Mass.
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Wealth Wages And The Wealthy
$34.95Add to cartFulfilling what he has called a “grave responsibility,” Pope Francis has often addressed the issue of economic inequality and the use of personal, corporate, and national wealth. Francis’s teaching is rooted in the teaching of Jesus, preserved in the pages of the New Testament. The Bible has more to say about the use of wealth than it does about other moral issues of our day, yet this teaching seldom enters into the conscience of believers. In Wealth, Wages, and the Wealthy: New Testament Insight for Preachers and Teachers Fr. Raymond F. Collins redresses this issue and provides the reader with a careful examination not only of what Jesus said about wealth but also of what each of the New Testament authors wrote about the topic.
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Accompanying Discerning Integrating
$17.95Add to cartThe Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia has given rise to different interpretations. Any in-depth study of its theological conclusions will undoubtedly require time and patience. What cannot wait, however, is attending to the practical questions it has raised. After all, no one can abstain from acting: priests hearing confessions, bishops who need to give guidelines on pastoral activity to their priests, and families working in the field of pastoral care. Accompanying, Discerning, Integrating: A Handbook for the Pastoral Care of the Family According to Amoris Laetitia is intended to offer sure practical guidelines on this important matter of the Church’s pastoral activity.
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Whole Life Worship
$14.99Add to cartThis book is a continuation of the LICC series begun by Neil Hudson’s Imagine ChurchWhole-Life Worship will demonstrate that the contemporary Western Church has reached a point where our “gathered” worship is separated from our “scattered” lives outside of church. This is detrimental to the congregation’s spiritual development and their effectiveness on their “frontlines”. Church worship should be inspired and informed by our everyday experiences. It should empower and send the congregation out to continue worshipping. The book will provide patterns and resources to better connect gathered worship with the lives of the congregation beyond church meetings.The book will unpack a biblical grounding for both gathered and scattered worship. It will then identify patterns within our gathered services which help us re-make these connections. It will provide practical resources such as songs, prayers and activities which can help churches connect Sunday to the rest of the week. It will draw examples and stories from other church streams and traditions, to demonstrate how different kinds of Christian spirituality engage worshipfully with everyday life. In the second half of the book is a practical resource looking specifically at different aspects of a gathered service, and how each one can have an “outward” dimension.
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Longing To See Your Face
$13.50Add to cartThomas Scirghi, SJ, has trained priests, deacons, and lay ecclesial ministers in the art and theology of preaching for decades. In Longing to See Your Face, he makes his insights and experience accessible to a much wider udience.
Scirghi begins with a discussion of the purpose of preaching and offers a theological sounding on proclamation, taking up several descriptions of the role of the preacher in relation to the congregation. He also addresses current theological issues for the contemporary preacher. The second part of the book discusses the practical matter of preparing to preach and proposes a method of preparation by following a pattern of reflection, research, writing, and rehearsing. The third part focuses on two specific sacramental celebrations: funeral and weddings.
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Deacons Ministry Of The Word
$16.95Add to cartThe Deacon’s Ministry of the Word will offer both scriptural and theological resources, as well as strategies and approaches, for effectively communicating the word of God. The book will focus primarily on the homily-but the ideas and skills can be readily applied by deacons in any presentation in which the word of God is central, including RCIA meetings and retreat conferences. The Deacon’s Ministry series explores the three fundamental diaconal ministries identified in the teaching of Vatican II: those of the liturgy, of the word, and of charity to the people of God (Lumen Gentium 29). This series, written by three highly regarded permanent deacons, offers a rich combination of theology, spirituality, and practical and effective guidance. Deacons and those in diaconal formation, their families, the bishops and priests they work with, and the people they serve will welcome it.
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Restored Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$12.99Add to cartOften we make a mess of our lives and wonder if there is any redemption. In this six-week study, pastor and author Tom Berlin helps us see our mess through the eyes of Christ to find redemption and restoration. Using Scripture, devotional tools, and the writings of Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, St. Augustine, John Wesley, Evelyn Underhill, and others, Berlin encourages reflection and meditation through our own brokenness. Only then can we focus on the cross as the place where we truly surrender control, leave our mess, and find redemption. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the 6-week study for Lent, including session plans and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.
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Restored : Finding Redemption In Our Mess
$15.99Add to cartOften we make a mess of our lives and wonder if there is any redemption. In this book, pastor and author Tom Berlin helps us see our mess through the eyes of Christ to find redemption and restoration. Using Scripture, devotional tools, and the writings of Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, St. Augustine, John Wesley, Evelyn Underhill, and others, Berlin encourages reflection and meditation through our own brokenness. Only then can we focus on the cross as the place where we truly surrender control, leave our mess, and find redemption.
Chapters include:
This Is a Real Mess
Who Left This Mess?
Bless This Mess
No Messing Around
Address This Mess
The Message in the Mess -
3 Great Days
$16.95Add to cartAs the summit of the church’s liturgical year, the Paschal Triduum requires the energy, time, and talents of many people within the parish community. In Three Great Days, Jeremy Helmes draws on rubrics, liturgical theology, the church’s tradition, and plenty of lived experience to offer a sound guide to planning and preparing. He draws attention to rituals requiring special attention and helps you determine liturgical roles and responsibilities. He also offers templates, worksheets, planning forms, and other ready-to-use resources that any parish can use to make their liturgical preparation and evaluation easier and more effective. Whether it’s your first time preparing these liturgies, you’re looking for fresh ideas, or you just want to make sure you’re covering everything, this book will help your parish make this year’s Triduum three truly great days.
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Deepening Faith : Adult Faith Formation In The Parish
$14.95Add to cartSince the ending of Vatican II, the Church has officially published no fewer than eight major documents calling for adults to be the center of the church’s educational mission. And the Catholic faithful are calling on the church to quench their thirst for a deepening of their lived faith. They realize that the catechesis they received as children simply isn’t enough to continue in the faith as adults in the church and world; they desire a deepened faith.
In Deepening Faith, Janet Schaeffler, OP, offers a practical guide and source of encouragement to parish and diocesan committees, catechists, and adult faith formation teams. She outlines the essential foundations, methods and strategies that can support this journey for today’s adults of all ages and generations.
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Catholic Priesthood : Biblical Foundations
$23.95Add to cartDuring the time of Jesus Christ, neither he nor his apostles would have had the term “priest” applied to their mission or identity. The priesthood was exclusive to the tribe of Levi and at that time was associated primarily with their sacrificial liturgies in the temple. But with Christ’s death on the Cross, a new understanding of Christ as priest began to grow in light of his priestly self-sacrifice. The Catholic Priesthood: Biblical Foundations by Fr. Thomas Lane highlights the Scriptural evidence indicating that Christ’s intention was to establish a New Covenant priesthood that he would share with his apostles and their successors.
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Handbook For Catholic Preaching
$64.95Add to cartWhile admitting particular parameters and priorities for Roman Catholic preachers, this volume was intentionally envisioned as a handbook for “catholic” preaching in the broadest and most universal sense of that term. Cosponsored by the Catholic Academy of Liturgy, the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics, and the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, it covers the role of the Scriptures in preaching, the challenges of preaching in a digital age, sermonizing in an interfaith context, and the need for a liberative and prophetic word cut across denominations and even some faith traditions. Intended to aid those who teach or direct the preaching arts, the design and writing style of this book are particularly calibrated to graduate students in ministerial studies. Every article is a self-contained overview of a particular historical period, genre of preaching, homiletic theory, or contemporary issue. This more encyclopedic approach-devoid of footnotes, yet supported by pertinent bibliography-provides a sufficiently rich yet thoroughly accessible gateway to major facets of the preaching arts at this stage of the twenty-first century.
General Editor: Edward Foley Associate Editors: Catherine Vincie, Richard Fragomeni Contributors: Herbert Anderson, John Baldovin, Alden Lee Bass, Dianne Bergant, Stephen Bevans, Robert Bireley, John Carr, Anthony Collamati, Michael E. Connors, Guerric DeBona, Frank DeSiano, William Ditewig, Con Foley, Edward Foley, Richard N. Fragomeni, Ann Garrido, Gregory Heille, Lucy Lind Hogan, Patrick R. Lagges, David J. Lose, Barbara Lundblad, Ricky Manalo, Robert F. Morneau, Carolyn Muessig, vanThanh Nguyen, Mary Margaret Pazdan, Patricia Parachini, Jorge Presmanes, Craig Alan Satterlee, Catherine Vincie, Richard Vosko, James A. Wallace, Margaret Moers Wenig, Alex Zenthoefer
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Together For Life (Revised)
$5.99Add to cartTogether for Life has been the most trusted source for wedding planning in the Catholic Church for more than forty-five years. This new edition of Together for Life contains the new texts of the most recent translation of The Order of Celebrating Matrimony. It includes all the tools engaged couples use when meeting with a priest, deacon, or lay parish minister to plan their weddings and prepare for living the sacrament of Marriage.
Written by Msgr. Joseph Champlin (1930-2008) and first published in 1970, more than ten-million copies of Together for Life have been sold. The previous edition was updated in 2011 with the help of Rev. Peter A. Jarret, C.S.C., to include the revised liturgical texts of the third edition of the Roman Missal. The 2016 edition contains all the necessary texts from The Order of Celebrating Matrimony.
Each reading choice is accompanied by a reflection written by lay married theologians or pastoral leaders who are committed to the sacramental life of the Church. Contributors include Ann M. Garrido, Msgr. Michael Heintz, Diana Macalintal, H. Richard McCord, Geoffrey D. Miller, Tim Muldoon, Julie Hanlon Rubio, and Deacon William F. Urbine.
Together for Life includes all of the information, prayers, blessings, and readings needed to plan a wedding that will be held within Mass, without Mass, or between a Catholic and a catechumen or non-Christian. FAQs address questions couples may have about traditions such as readings, music, witnesses, and unusual circumstances.
Together for Life includes:
*Approved texts for The Order of Celebrating Matrimony and prayers from the& Roman Missal
*”The Word Brought Home,” scripture commentaries by Catholic leaders
*Catechetical commentary by Rev. Peter Jarret, C.S.C., to help couples deepen their understanding of the Church’s liturgy
*Hints for incorporating ethnic and cultural devotions and practices into a Catholic wedding
*Sample intercessions
*How-to guides to help parish ministers
*FAQ section about the celebration of Catholic weddings
The material in Together for Life is supported by TogetherforLifeOnline.com. The site includes an online selection form, Catholic wedding planning resources, and articles providing enrichment to both married and engaged couples.
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Surprise Surprise Surprise Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartBut What Of Lazarus? (John 11:1-45)
For The Glow Of It (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)
Friday (John 18:1-19:42)
Learning To Walk In The Dark And Remembering The Dark Is As Day To God (Matthew 26:14– 27:66)
Nicodemus Came By Night (John 3:1-17)Additional Info
Two voices, fourteen sermons…The lives of David and Marian Plant have been intertwined for 46 years, their mutual ministries, for even longer. Their voices were shaped by their ministry experiences that began together in shared, co-pastorate positions, and then matured into individual settled ministry positions and then again, moved into their own specialties of the last 20 years: Marian, in the teaching ministry and David in the interim and church revitalization ministry. Marian’s voice is one practiced well from a traditional setting of pulpit with written text in hand. David’s voice is one practiced in a relational style of informal conversation, often done without notes, and in back and forth dialogue with the gathered worshipers.
Their latest work, Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! provides fourteen cycle A gospel sermons for Lent/Easter. In these sermons you will see the mix of the lives of the Plants, committed to social justice, the important context of the role of the church as that which speaks for Christ, and the importance of the need for individuals to take up the challenge of living their faith more fully. There is no doubt that their mutual passions for addressing the ills befalling our culture and our world were foremost on their minds, and they could not but help influence one another’s work by virtue of their lives lived in the practice of ministry and marriage. They offer these words to you, as colleagues in ministry, even if only a sentence is valuable to you.
