Pastoral Helps
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Welcoming The Word In Year B
$19.95Add to cartIn this collection of weekly reflections on the Sunday Lectionary for Year B, Verna Holyhead draws us into the inspired texts of both the Old and New Testaments. Through a rich tapestry of literary forms, historical contributions, and life experiences, Holyhead gives us surprising perspectives and carefully constructed contexts, which are sure to enrich our appreciation for the Word of God. In addition to following St. Benedict’s admonition to glean a harvest by attending mindfully to the pages and passages of the inspired books of the Old and New Testaments, Holyhead generously layers her commentary with insights distilled from the Rule itself.
As a sourcebook for pastoral ministry or a reference for personal or communal reflection, this volume will assist believers who desire to engage more deeply with the Word.
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Ancient Future Worship (Reprinted)
$23.00Add to cartWith the many models of worship available, choosing a style to worship God can be a bit overwhelming. Is it better to go with traditional or contemporary models? Christians may find themselves asking how early believers worshiped and whether they can provide insight into how we should praise God today.
Rooted in historical models and patristic church studies, Ancient-Future Worship examines how early Christian worship models can be applied to the postmodern church. Pastors and church leaders, as well as younger evangelical and emerging church groups, will find this last book in the respected Ancient-Future series an invaluable resource for authentic worship.
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Celebrating The Eucharist
$32.95Add to cartIn this first new Eucharistic customary in nearly 20 years, Patrick Malloy, an Episcopal priest and liturgical scholar, presents a clear, illustrated guide for the presider and other leaders of liturgy, contemporary in approach but based on ancient and classic principles of celebration.
Like it predecessors, the 1979 Book of Common Prayer is long on telling the Church what to say, and short on telling it what to do. This leaves those with “choreograph” prayer book liturgies with a complex task and a powerful influence over the faith of the Church. The author begins with a concise theology of the liturgy that underpins all of his specific directives in the book.
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Behold Your Mother
$15.95Add to cartThe best-selling author of the influential Joy of Priesthood has assembled fascinating reflections from nine esteemed fellow priests who share how their devotion to the Blessed Mother has supported their life and ministry.
Though overlooked in recent times, devotion to the Blessed Mother has long been a foundational part of priestly spirituality. Behold Your Mother seeks to renew this practice for both younger clergy and those with years of priestly life. From stories of childhood devotion to the Blessed Mother to personal encounters with some of the great spiritual figures from recent times, these essays have both a personal and practical character that priests-and the laity as well-will deeply appreciate.
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Life And Work Of A Priest
$19.95Add to cartA famous, former vicar and now ‘jobbing’ bishop deftly illustrates how the glory of God, the pain of the world, and the renewal of the Church underpin the priest’s many roles, including spiritual explorer, friendly irritant, creative leader, and mature risk-taker.
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Tested In Every Way
$16.95Add to cartIn recent years, the Catholic priesthood in the United States has suffered numerous trials, from ever-diminishing numbers to the humiliations of the clerical sexual-abuse crisis. And, yet, by virtually every statistical measure, Catholic priests remain among the happiest of men. In Tested in Every Way, Christopher Ruddy examines this paradox, drawing on the insights of the “Priest in the Church” conference convened by the Catholic Common Ground Initiative. Ruddy moves beyond the cultural and theological impasses that paralyze the church and its mission to give us a vision of the priesthood that is both honest and hopeful.
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Relentless Widow Luke Year C
$39.95Add to cartStoryteller and theologian John Shea provides a unique commentary that’s ideal for preaching, teaching, or simply meditating on the Gospels. His writing is poignant and conversational making this book a valuable tool for professional ministers, as well as for Christians who reflect on the Gospels for personal spiritual growth.
Shea draws readers into the people and situations that Jesus encountered in ways that are evocative and inspirational. The resource is based on both the Catholic Lectionary for Mass and the Revised Common Lectionary, making is accessible across Christian denominations.
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Preaching The Lectionary Third Edition
$49.95Add to cartThis third edition of Preaching the Lectionary will appeal to homilists and others who have a ministerial or preparatory role in the Sunday liturgy. Written with the needs of the active pastor, homilist, and liturgist in mind, it offers brief, technical discussions balanced with practical insights and reflections. This new edition of a classic approach to the Lectionary has been updated to reflect the thinking of a wide range of biblical scholars and theologians.
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Way Of Silent Love
$15.95Add to cartIt is a rare occurrence for the Order’s wisdom to be shared with the outside world, but this book does exactly that.
The theme of this first volume of conferences is the Beatitudes, and the apparent contradictions they contain are shown to offer a radical freedom to those who respond to the call to live wholly in Christ. An important message of the book is that this call is not restricted to those who have a vocation to the monastic life, but to all Christians: ‘The Christian is not a separate species of human being, but what each person is called to be. And the monk is not a separate species of Christian. He tries to be what each Christian ought to be. Conformity to Christ in faith, hope, and love, this is holiness, and each person is called to this holiness.”
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Call Of Silent Love
$18.95Add to cartA vocation is an extremely mysterious reality. The call of God is not something extrinsic; it penetrates to the most intimate centre of the heart. We are what we are on account of this call.
The Call of Silent Love is a profound and eloquent examination of the twin themes of vocation and discernment in which the father-master speaks about the nature of a calling, and the internal and external struggles, the discernment of spirits and the overall framework in which we live our lives.
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Wound Of Love
$17.95Add to cartWhat is Carthusian life really like? What actually goes on in a Charterhouse? Is the Order’s ancient mixture of carefully regulated solitary and community life a hoepless harking back to the Middle Ages, or is it relevant to modern lifestyles and problems? If any book can answer these questions, it is The Wound of Love. It provides background information on the Carthusian Order, including letters from St Bruno, its founder, and a reflection on Bruno’s continuing significance today. The many concerns of Carthusian life are evident here: solitude, fraternal love, prayer, monastic vows, work and lirturgy, and each is tackled with great honesty, wit and wisdom. This book is testimony to how much there is to be learned about life ‘in’ the world from the Carthusians’ standpoint ‘outside’ it. While the Carthusian call to find God always and everywhere is essentially the same vocation as that of all Christians, there is an intensity about the monastic life which distils the message and makes it more fiery, more compelling. This book will prove a bracing brew for all those who would sample it. Other books of Carthusian spirituality published by Gracewing include The Call of Silent Love, The Prayer of Love and Silence, and They Speak by Silences.
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Voices Of Repentance
$12.95Add to cartThis book offers busy pastors a complete package of thematically related resources for Lenten preaching and worship. With services for each week in Lent plus Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday, as well as a Good Friday tenebrae service, Voices Of Repentance provides everything needed to create compelling worship throughout the Lenten season, either for a midweek series or for regular Sunday services. Each week’s resources feature a monologue sermon that tells the story of someone who sought redemption in the baptismal waters of the Jordan. These spiritual contemplations view the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion from a unique perspective — that of everyday people who lived through them. Each service also includes a children’s object lesson and a convenient order of worship.
Monologues feature these characters:
* John the Baptist
* a Pharisee
* a Sadducee
* a well-dressed man
* a well-fed woman
* a tax collector
* a Roman soldier -
Wounded For Us
$10.95Add to cartBy focusing on the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf — and powerfully linking it to our lives today — this comprehensive resource offers a compelling approach to observing Lent that truly prepares worshipers to experience Easter’s new hope, new possibilities, and new life. Based on the ancient tradition of the five wounds of Christ, Wounded For Us identifies places where we find ourselves hurting, then connects them to one of the wounds Jesus suffered and explores how Christ’s resurrection offers reconciliation and healing.
Wounded For Us draws an imaginative analogy between Jesus’ wounds and these areas in our lives where we are wounded:
* Head (crown of thorns) — our thoughts
* Side (piercing) — our spirit and emotions
* Back (scourging) — our hopes and dreams
* Hands (nails) — our relationships
* Feet (nails) — our actionsWith sermon and worship material for Ash Wednesday, the Sundays in Lent, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, Wounded For Us provides a complete package with everything needed for developing meaningful, thematically unified services throughout the Lenten season. Each sermon suggests an action plan that applies the “cure” of the gospel to our wounds, and reproducible outlines that help the congregation focus on the main themes are also included.
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Lent Holy Week Easter And The Great 50 Days
$19.95Add to cartThis long-awaited companion volume to Howard E. Galley’s classic The Ceremonies of the Eucharist provides clergy, liturgical assistants, and altar guild members with clear, step-by-step guidance for the liturgies of Lent and Easter. In addition to background material for the traditions and theology of each season, Mitchell includes specific preparations and instructions for each liturgy of the paschal cycle-Ash Wednesday through Pentecost-as well as Tenebrae, the Way of the Cross, the Vigil of Pentecost, the liturgies of the catechumenate, and the chrism mass. He also provides helpful ideas for how the often complex liturgies of these seasons can be done simply and well by small congregations.
Based on the liturgies of The Book of Common Prayer and the latest edition of The Book of Occasional Services, this ceremonial guide also draws on the paschal liturgies of other Anglican traditions, including those in Canada’s Book of Alternative Services.
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Small Christian Communities
$23.00Add to cartHow can churches in America, modeling the oldest Christian communities, renew themselves form within? They can look to examples of thriving small Christian communities within their own country and throughout the world. This inspiring book shows what is happening now across six continents to give pastors and lay leaders of every denomination encouragement through useable examples from their counterparts around the world.
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Priesthood Of The Faithful
$29.95Add to cartThe New Testament describes the baptized as a “holy priesthood” and “a priestly people.” Vatican II clearly taught that the baptized become “a holy priesthood.” Their personal fidelity and lives led in loving obedience to the Gospel become “spiritual sacrifices” offered along with the body of the Lord in the Eucharist. The Priesthood of the Faithful explores this key doctrine of Christian faith and examines its significance for the spiritual growth and revitalization of the church. It focuses on the prophetic, pastoral, and priestly roles of the faithful with the aim of helping people experience their own lives as the fruitful blossoming of Christ’s grace in the world.
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Eating With The Bridegroom Mark Year B
$29.95Add to cartWith a goal of transcendent awareness, John Shea presents this commentary on the Sunday Gospel readings for those who are drawn to the spiritual wisdom of the Gospels. Ideal for Christian preachers and teachers, and Christians who meditate on the Gospels, Shea’s book takes a literary-spiritual approach. He analyzes the mindsets of characters and how Jesus complimented, critiqued, praised these mindsets, to inspire meditation, reflection, and spiritual development. On Earth as It Is in Heaven, Year A is the first book of a four-volume set, The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers. This set is a Lectionary-based resource that references both Roman Catholic and Revised Common Lectionaries, making it useful and interesting to various Christian denominations. A Scripture index makes Shea’s insightful reflections accessible for personal reflection on the Gospel texts as well as other uses outside of liturgical preparation. With wisdom relevant to our contemporary world, The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers: On Earth as It Is in Heaven will find its way to the top of your resource list.
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Hunger For The Word Year B
$19.95Add to cartWe have all experienced hunger, whether it’s a need for spiritual guidance or physical nutrition. Our hunger for God’s Word can benefit those needing material sustenance. God’s Word calls us to nourish the physically hungry and poor, just as it nourishes our faith and sustains us in our struggle for justice.
Hunger for the Word explores the Lectionary with a focus on anti-hunger advocacy, social activism, and political issues affecting marginalized people. Using insights, images, and stories from pastors, professors, and lay people who are active in anti-hunger campaigns, this ecumenical book offers devotional connections to inequality issues, as well as themes to help in our struggle to understand and eliminate injustice. Hunger for the Word: Year B, edited by Larry Hollar of Bread for the World, brings concern for hunger and fairness into our daily religious life.
With weekly sermon/homily reflections, Hunger for the Word is an invaluable resource for pastors, liturgical ministers and those interested in justice-oriented Bible study and spiritual growth. Also includes suggestions for musical worship, and ideas for children’s sermons to help spread God’s Word of activism, compassion, and integrity throughout the congregation.
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Hey Joseph
$12.95Add to cartCreate stimulating, family-oriented Lenten worship that captivates the imagination with this engaging “dramily” series. Six humorous sketches, interwoven with brief homilies highlighting key points, update the familiar Old Testament story of Joseph and his brothers for contemporary audiences ? providing an instructive and entertaining resource for midweek programs. Additional messages and dramas for Holy Week and Easter Sunday shift the focus to Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection.
By touching on such universal experiences as family squabbles, sibling rivalry, parental favoritism, jealousy, hatred, false accusations, reconciliation, trust, and healing, Hey Joseph! is certain to resonate with the people in the pews. It offers pastors, worship leaders, and drama groups a thematically unified total package that’s flexible and easy to adapt for any size church. A complete list of simple props is included, along with helpful illustrations for constructing “Joseph’s Granary,” which may be stocked with food donations for local pantries. -
On Earth As It Is In Heaven Matthew Year A
$29.95Add to cartWith a goal of transcendent awareness, John Shea presents this commentary on the Sunday Gospel readings for those who are drawn to the spiritual wisdom of the Gospels. Ideal for Christian preachers and teachers, and Christians who meditate on the Gospels, Shea’s book takes a literary-spiritual approach. He analyzes the mindsets of characters and how Jesus complimented, critiqued, praised these mindsets, to inspire meditation, reflection, and spiritual development. On Earth as It Is in Heaven, Year A is the first book of a four-volume set, The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers. This set is a Lectionary-based resource that references both Roman Catholic and Revised Common Lectionaries, making it useful and interesting to various Christian denominations. A Scripture index makes Shea’s insightful reflections accessible for personal reflection on the Gospel texts as well as other uses outside of liturgical preparation. With wisdom relevant to our contemporary world, The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers: On Earth as It Is in Heaven will find its way to the top of your resource list.
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When You Teach At A Catholic School
$8.99Add to cartTeachers in Catholic schools are called to do more than instruct in a particular subject area. You are called to witness to the Catholic faith and to ready your students to be socially active and responsible, moral, literate, and to reflect Christian values in daily life in and out of the classroom.
Dunlap provides inspiration and practical tips for teachers who want to share their faith insight into the ministry of teaching – for teachers, school staff and administration, and parent-teacher organizations.
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Visions And Healing In The Acts Of The Apostles
$14.95Add to cartTrances, visions, healing miracles: permeating the biblical records are these altered states of consciousness, through which some early Christians experienced God. Today’s rituals and liturgies are related to those experiences, which have become significant elements in the Christian tradition and mysticism. Pilch uses cultural anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, and medical anthropology to interpret these past events, and to explore the contemporary liturgical potential of this new understanding. Backed with solid, scientific insights, this interdisciplinary book will help the reader gain appreciation of our ancestors’ faith and the power of Scripture and liturgy.
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Hearing The Word Of God Year A
$15.95Add to cartThe commentaries on the Lectionary readings in Hearing the Word of God are an attempt not only to hear the Word of God in Scripture but also to suggest ways that the Sunday readings might continue to nurture faith and life. Inevitably they reflect the time in which they were first written-as a popular weekly column in America from November 2000 to Advent 2001.
Hearing the Word of God includes Scripture readings for the Sunday, followed by a reflection on the reading, and concludes with “Praying with Scripture,” a series of questions and meditations to guide readers in making a personal application of the reflection.
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Cultural World Of The Prophets Year A The First Reading
$19.95Add to cartPreachers and liturgy planners will find The Cultural World of the Prophets a companion to John Pilch’s The Cultural World of Jesus Sunday by Sunday series and The Cultural World of the Apostles series. Each essay offers historical, literary, and Eastern Mediterranean cultural information about the first reading and responsorial psalm of the liturgy of each Sunday.
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Hunger For The Word Year A
$19.95Add to cartWe have all experienced hunger, whether it’s a need for spiritual guidance or physical nutrition. Our hunger for God’s Word can benefit those needing material sustenance. God’s Word calls us to nourish the physically hungry and poor, just as it nourishes our faith and sustains us in our struggle for justice.
Hunger for the Word explores the Lectionary with a focus on anti-hunger advocacy, social activism, and political issues affecting marginalized people. Using insights, images, and stories from pastors, professors and lay people who are active in anti-hunger campaigns, this ecumenical book offers devotional connections to inequality issues, as well as themes to help in our struggle to understand and eliminate injustice. Hunger for the Word, edited by Larry Hollar of Bread for the World, brings concern for hunger and fairness into our daily religious life.
With weekly sermon/homily reflections, Hunger for the Word is an invaluable resource for pastors, liturgical ministers and those interested in justice-oriented Bible study and spiritual growth. Also includes suggestions for musical worship, and ideas for children’s sermons to help spread God’s Word of activism, compassion, and integrity throughout the congregation.
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Lay Leaders Of Worship
$11.95Add to cartAs the reliance on lay ministers increases, the study of the lay leader becomes crucial. In Lay Leaders of Worship, Kathleen H. Brown explores the possibilities and requirements for lay ministers by incorporating personal experience, Scripture, and expert studies. Brown describes the ministerial identity of a lay leader of worship in terms of authority, spirituality, skills, and relationships. Practical suggestions for the spiritual formation and growth of a lay leader of worship are also provided.
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Read The Way You Talk
$14.95Add to cartThis book offers instruction for lectors. It presents guidelines for making oral reading meaningful and believable. Three lessons give detailed instructions in eighteen different areas including parallelism, repetition, and pronunciation. Special guidance is provided for using inflection and stressing words. With practice, readers who share the Word of God with others can react as naturally as they speak while they become comfortable with their audience, sure of what they are saying, and confident their message is important. Part 1, “The Word of God in Human Speech,” explains why the readings need to be spoken in conversational tone. Part 2, “Rule for Reading Like Talk,” is divided into lessons and contains rules, explanations of techniques, and examples. This book is a useful resource for lectors, deacons, priests, and leaders who instruct lectors and seminarians.
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Dancing The Sacraments
$17.95Add to cartThe sacraments of baptism and communion are foundational acts of the Christian faith — in addition to affirming God’s grace, they have the power to transform us in the living presence of the Almighty. Elaine Ward believes that the sacraments also “enable us to become aware of the holy.” Dancing The Sacraments is an extensive collection of 20 complete worship services that will help congregations experience the holiness in these rituals.
Each thematically unified service provides the framework for a celebration of communion or baptism, and includes:
* a sermon
* a children’s message (with brief talking points to reinforce the theme)
* scripture readings
* hymns
* a complete set of prayers
There’s also original poetry, plus an informative discussion of ways to help children understand the symbolism of the sacraments, including suggestions for specific activities. Renew the power and potency of your baptism and communion services — Dancing The Sacraments gives you a wealth of inventive material for observing them with awe and reverence.
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Paradise Restored
$12.95Add to cart“Children’s time” — a brief lesson specifically targeted for preschool and elementary age youngsters — is an important part of the Sunday morning worship service in many churches today. But many of those who are called upon to provide these lessons feel too intimidated to write their own material. Pastors, children’s ministry leaders, and Sunday school teachers who need fresh, exciting messages that captivate their young people will find that this collection of easy-to-prepare lessons is just what the doctor ordered.
Geared toward the typical age range of the “children’s time” audience — toddlerhood to age 13 — Ping-Pong Words is a valuable resource for anyone who presents children’s sermons or devotionals. Each of the 31 lessons is scripture-based and runs 3-5 minutes in length, and many include demonstrations using simple visual aids such as ping-pong balls, family pictures, a flashlight, and clothespins to illustrate common precepts in ways that clearly communicate God’s Word to young ears, eyes, and hearts. The lessons are flexible, and can be incorporated into a variety of churches and ecumenical settings. Appropriate for Sunday school, worship services, religious schools and day care programs, Bible clubs, and anywhere else where young people gather to learn about God, this volume is certain to earn a trusted place on the bookshelf.
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Dateline Jerusalem : Dramatic Dialogue Sermons For Lent
$8.95Add to cartYou’ll feel like you are right on the scene viewing the events of Holy Week as this innovative series presents the familiar story of Jesus’ death and resurrection in a novel, engaging, and entirely modern way. In a television-style interview format, six witnesses share their point of view in up-to-date language and references — making each personage more accessible to contemporary congregations.
Dateline: Jerusalem is a flexible resource that can be used in many different settings: during Lenten worship services, as part of a Christian education curriculum, or for a youth program. Scripture lessons accompany each script, and a character summary provides further insight into the personality of each interviewee. Easy to produce with a minimum of staging, these dialogues provide a fresh, engaging approach to the timeless story.
Characters interviewed are:
* Pontius Pilate
* Caiaphas
* Peter
* Mary Magdalene
* John
* the Centurion -
Violence Of Love
$23.00Add to cartThese selections from the sermons and writings of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador share the message of a holy prophet of modern times.
Three short years transformed Archbishop Oscar Romero from a conservative defender of the status quo into one of the church’s most outspoken voices of the oppressed. Though silenced by an assassin’s bullet, his spirit–and the challenge of his life–lives on. He was beatified by Pope Francis in 2015.
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Work Of The People
$17.95Add to cartThe word “liturgy” literally means “the work of the people” — so the active participation of everyone in the congregation should be the goal of Christian worship. Designed to help you attain that sense of full partnership, The Work Of The People provides you with a full year’s worth of eloquent resources for thoughtful, reverent services. It’s a comprehensive collection of liturgical prayers and readings for 52 Sundays, with each week’s material based on a common subject (Freedom, Hospitality, Peace, and Stewardship are just a few examples). Written in everyday language that connects them to our daily lives, the prayers are conceived for congregational reading (either responsively or in unison) — and their thematic unity will lead to reflection and insight in addition to praise and celebration.
The components for each week include:
* call to worship
* invocation
* call to confession
* prayer of confession
* words of assurance
* Psalm reading
* offering sentences
* prayer of dedication
* benediction
* scripture references (as possible texts for homilies based on the theme) -
Handbook For Childrens Liturgy
$21.00Add to cartThis is one of a series of handbooks designed to help lay people play a greater part in the life of the Church. In many parishes it Is usual to find men and women reading at Mass, administering Communion, organizing the children’s liturgy, even leading services in the absence of a priest, For all these tasks and other roles that the laity now plays, the Serving the Church series offers not only practical advice, but in-depth teaching that aims to create a deeper, more spiritual understanding of the Catholic faith. A Handbook for Children’s Liturgy offers a complete guide on how to make the ministry of the Word meaningful, memorable and enjoyable for children of all ages. Whether there are a large number of children in your parish or only a very few, its down-to-earth advice and ready-to-go ideas are applicable whatever the local circumstances. Help Is given on all practical aspects of this vital ministry: what kind of person makes a good minister of the Word, how to build a team to work with children, how to plan a children’s liturgy, ideas for Masses where children remain present throughout. Sample liturgies complete with photocopiable artwork are also included. The nurture of children in the Christian faith is one of the greatest responsibilities and for all.
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Hearing The Word Of God Year C
$19.95Add to cartThe commentaries on the Lectionary readings in Hearing the Word of God are an attempt not only to hear the Word of God in Scripture but also to suggest ways that the Sunday readings might continue to nurture faith and life. Inevitably they reflect the time in which they were first written-as a popular weekly column in America from November 2000 to Advent 2001.
Hearing the Word of God includes Scripture readings for the Sunday, followed by a reflection on the reading, and concludes with “Praying with Scripture,” a series of questions and meditations to guide readers in making a personal application of the reflection.
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50 Years In A Jealous Marriage
$16.95Add to cartAn honest story of one man’s life in the Roman Catholic priesthood. This is a book that challenges all of those on either side who claim to have a corner on the Truth.
Through this candid and challenging look at celibacy, Father James Lex provides a compelling and emotional portrait of the Roman Catholic priesthood at the dawn of the vocation’s third millennium.
A lifetime struggle with celibacy is a lifetime struggle to stay whole inside a jealous marriage. As with any marriage, Lex’s has been a creative interplay of weakness and strength, of finding and asserting power, and of knowing how and when to submit. This book is the story of any of America’s more than 46,000 active and more than 20,000 inactive priests. It is a book about learning the rules and unlearning them….about learning to love and to let go…about forgiveness and yearning…about the choices people make everyday. Fifty Years in a Jealous Marriage chronicles a transformation — the transformation of a young, naive, eager to please, seminarian into a mature and surprisingly sane, truly catholic, Roman Catholic priest.
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Bless This Day
$17.95Add to cartContaining 150 selections intended for use with children in first through fifth grade, BLESS THIS DAY provides prayer-starters speaking to childrens’ experience of God, written in language that children will understand and appreciate. Equally suitable for a teacher or catechist to read aloud to younger children or by a student in the upper grades, BLESS THIS DAY offers a wide range of simple prayers within the themes of: Everyday Prayers
Prayers for Others
Prayers to be Caring People
Gospel Prayers
Prayers of Praise for Creation
Blessing Prayer
Prayers to Honor Saints
Prayers for Special Times
Psalm Prayers
Prayers for the Seasons of the Church Year For teachers and catechists wanting to begin classes in a prayerful manner, BLESS THIS DAY will be an enduring, valued resource. -
Hearing The Word Of God Year B
$15.95Add to cartDuring the four decades since Vatican II the Catholic community has been transformed into a Bible reading, Bible praying church which continues to attract new or renewed members. Hearing the Word of God contributes to the Gospel in its liturgical context by offering ideas and perspectives that are useful for preaching or in personal prayer and reflection.
The commentaries on the lectionary readings in Hearing the Word of God first appeared as a popular weekly column in America, covering Cycle B. Since some of the Sundays in the Cycle were displaced by particular feasts, reflections on these Sundays have also been added.
Hearing the Word of God includes Scripture readings for the Sunday, followed by a reflection on the reading and concludes with “Praying with Scripture,” a series of questions and meditations to guide readers in making a personal application of the reflection.
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1st Five Years Of The Priesthood
$24.95Add to cartReports indicate that many newly ordained men were feeling demoralized and some were resigning. The accounts raised many questions. How widespread is the problem? What difficulties are the recently ordained priests facing? Is the problem due to changes in lay attitudes or to changes in the ordained themselves? Is the situation different from what it was ten or twenty years ago? This book is a collaborative work of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils and the Life Cycle Institute of The Catholic University of America that considers this phenomenon. It explores the experience of early priesthood and is based on a pilot survey of two groups–recently ordained priests active in service and those who have resigned. The research team minimized interpretative work on the findings and engaged credible voices in American Catholic life to write commentaries on the implications of the findings. The First Five Years of the Priesthood includes both the research findings and commentaries.
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Cultural World Of The Apostles Year B The Second Reading
$19.95Add to cartPreachers and liturgy planners will find this book a companion to John Pilch’s previous series, The Cultural World of Jesus. Each essay offers brief historical and literary information on the second (or middle) reading assigned for the Sundays in the three-year lectionary cycle. Suggestions for cross-cultural comparisons with Western culture and links with the gospel for each Sunday encourage readers to explore pastoral applications to modern life. The second readings were intended to be an independent, semi-continuous reading of the letters attributed to Paul and James, with selections from Peter and the book of Revelation. In this book, Pilch explains that, because the readings were shortened, their brevity has deprived readers of sufficient context to interpret the text-segment in a responsible way. To help people make sense of such high-context documents, Pilch provides a broader literary context for each reading.
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Ministry At The Margins
$28.00Add to cart1. Movement And Mission
2. Meaning And Communication
3. Sense And Nonsense
4. Merging Agendas
5. Proclaiming Good News
6. Gift-Exchange And The Gospel
7. A Place For Strangers
8. Missionary As Stranger
193 PagesAdditional Info
These pages are for those who seek to realize the potential of their Baptism. This demands the centrifugal movement of lives, but its authenticity is not simply measured by geography. The movement is explicitly to the other (ethnically, religiously, economically or otherwise disadvantaged or exploited: the poor), and it serves to proclaim, explicitly or implicitly, by word or witness, the Good New of Jesus Christ and the pomise of the Realm of God. As Gustavo Gutierrez once said provocatively, the aim of mission is ” to convince the poor that God loves them.” -
Transforming Self And Community
$26.95Add to cartBoth spiritual direction and pastoral counseling tend to be partially responsive to client needs and expectations. Many of the theories underlying the practice of spiritual direction and pastoral counseling are based more on psychology than spirituality. They minimize or exclude character and moral concerns and may even unintentionally foster individualism and spiritual narcissism. Transforming Self and Community offers an approach to spiritual direction and pastoral counseling that is holistic, that integrates spiritual and moral constructs with the psychological and emphasizes all aspects of transformation, including social transformation.
The integrative approach in Transforming Self and Community provides psychological, spiritual, and moral perspectives for understanding and assisting individuals with their spiritual journey of development. It describes and illustrates clinically useful guidelines for the practice of spiritual direction and pastoral counseling. It includes case studies as well as figures, tables, and charts that highlight and summarize main text points.
Transforming Self and Community is primarily for professionals who practice, teach, or are learning how to do spiritual direction or pastoral counseling. Nevertheless, spiritual seekers, clients, or prospective clients of spiritual direction or pastoral counseling will also find this book enlightening.
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Preaching To The Hungers Of The Heart
$24.95Add to cartPreaching to the Hungers of the Heart is about words, most particularly it is a book about the Word, the living Word of God, found in the Scriptures, and embodied once and for all in the person of Jesus, the Word made flesh.
In Preaching to the Hungers of the Heart Fr. James Wallace offers a nuanced consideration of the homily as nourishment. He focuses on three common liturgical contexts: feasts of the Lord, feasts of Mary and the saints, and the sacramental rites. He relates the preaching that occurs within each area to one of the heart’s basic hungers: for wholeness (the great feasts of the Lord), for guidance (feasts of Mary and the saints), and for meaning (various rites). He also addresses the spirituality of the preacher as it is worked out in the process of preparation.For preachers and students in schools of ministry who are preparing to preach Preaching to the Hungers of the Heart will serve as a useful tool to help satisfy the hunger to preach the Gospel. It includes homilies that provide excellent starting points for preachers looking for ideas.
Chapter one considers the image of feeding God’s people with the Word of God. Chapter two, considering the innermost hunger of the human person, looks to the preaching that takes place on the great feasts of the Lord and how such preaching can nourish the hunger for wholeness. Chapter three returns to the hunger for meaning already mentioned and extends to the other sacramental celebrations the homily’s capacity to meet this hunger, including those addressed by the various sacramental celebrations of the Church such as baptisms, wedding, funerals, rites of reconciliation, and anointing of the sick. Chapters four and five present the homily as responding to the hunger to belong. The final chapter considers one other hunger of the heart, unique to the preacher, referred to by John Paul II as a “hunger to preach the gospel” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, no. 28).
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Understanding Student Affairs At Catholic Colleges And Universities
$29.95Add to cartIn response to the growing concern over nurturing Catholic identity at Catholic colleges and universities and an outcome of the Lilly-funded Institute for Student Affairs at Catholic Colleges and Universities (ISACC), this book is the first of its kind to focus not only on student affairs in Catholic higher education but on lay men and women who received training at secular institutions. An essential book for administrators, staff, and faculty at Catholic institutions of higher learning.
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Ambrose Of Milans Method Of Mystagogical Preaching
$34.95Add to cartMystagogy, or sustained reflection on baptism and the Eucharist, is the method of postbaptismal catechesis used in the R.C.I.A. In Ambrose of Milan’s Method of Mystagogical Preaching, Craig Satterlee provides a method of mystagogical preaching for today’s Church by looking at the sermons of Ambrose of Milan. Confronted by a culture that increasingly cannot be counted on to reinforce the Christian faith or participate in the formation of Christians, the Church today questions the nature of the connection between Word and Sacrament, and liturgy and mission. In addressing these same questions, the catechumenate of the early Church took seriously that they lived in a culture at odds with the faith, particularly the period of mystagogy which is characterized by sermons that probe the rites of initiation. Their biblical importance for Christian life, continues to hold great potential for the Church today. However, it remains largely undefined. By asking such questions as, what did Ambrose do and how did Ambrose do it? Satterlee explains that the best way to learn to preach mystagogically is by using a fourth-century mystagogue as our guide. In chapter one Satterlee establishes the need for mystagogy. Chapter two lays out the historical context of Ambrose and his church. Chapters three through eight are a series of six historical studies on Ambrose and his church that correspond to the components of a homiletic method. Chapter nine proposes a method of mystagogy for the contemporary church based on Ambrose’s preaching. A brief biography of Saint Ambrose, history of the church of Milan, and a look at patristic exegesis are also included.
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Priesthood And Society (Revised)
$23.00Add to cart“This text on the nature of priesthood draws equally on scripture, tradition and the complexities of modern life to explore the ways that priests become “”walking sacraments””, acting and living out the truth they represent. Focusing on the spiritual disciplines that nurture priestly life, the wisdom of shared ministry and the value of increased lay involvement, the book presents a vision of the Christian ministry that is more concerned with serving the whole of society than in maintaining church attendence.”
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Shadows To Sunrise
$19.95Add to cartAre you looking for fresh, vibrant material for Holy Week worship? Do you want your congregation to experience the unforgettable drama of Jesus’ suffering, so that they more fully appreciate the celebration and joy of Easter? If so, then you’ll want this anthology that provides several innovative choices for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter sunrise worship. Copying privileges are included for all six segments.
Beyond The Shadows combines communion with gradually extinguished candlelight to create a moving Maundy Thursday tenebrae experience. As each part of the Passion story unfolds, more candles are snuffed out, and the service concludes in total darkness. By reminding us that the Light of the World came to us, yet was engulfed in total darkness as his life slipped away, Beyond The Shadows focuses worshipers’ attention on the coming resurrection, and how that brightness contrasts with the darkness of the crucifixion.
When The Son’s Light Failed is a poignant Good Friday dramatization that imagines the presence at the crucifixion of many women whose lives were profoundly affected by Jesus. The women all share their stories with each other as they witness our Lord’s ultimate sacrifice. It’s a moving portrayal which reminds us that Jesus’ ministry touched the lives of everyone.
The tenebrae service Choices At The Cross explores some of the choices faced by those involved in the events of Christ’s Passion — ones of far greater magnitude than what we often face on a daily basis. Choices At The Cross emphasizes that the most important decision we ultimately face is our response to the question posed by Pilate: “What shall I do, then, with Jesus, who is called Christ?”
Based on John’s account of Christ’s passion, Good Friday Readings, Meditations, And Prayers is a series of seven brief contemplations and prayers that can form the basis for a remarkably effective Good Friday service or be used for personal devotional reading during Lent. Filled with vivid imagery, the meditations make the scriptures come alive while relating them to contemporary life.
Good Friday: I Was There is a stark, gripping Good Friday worship experience which confronts us with the powers of darkness and destruction which were responsible for Christ’s crucifixion. Brief monologues from seven shadowy personae (Doubt, Sorrow, Fear, Shame, Agony, Hate, and Death) dramatically recall how our Lord suffered as he took the sins of humanity upon himself.
Designed as a co
