Biographies
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All My Eyes See
$28.00Add to cartFather William Hart McNichols is widely known as one of the world’s most gifted living religious artists and iconographers. A former Jesuit and student of the famed Franciscan iconographer Robert Lentz, Fr. Bill’s icons have been honored with exhibitions in major U.S. cities and the subject of a full-length documentary. Recently his years of ministry to the dying during the AIDS crisis in New York City were the focus of a podcast, and later a book, by journalist Michael O’Laughlin.
Through interviews with writer and theologian Chris Pramuk, Fr. Bill shares the moving story of his early loneliness and sense of being set apart for some purpose–a purpose realized in his twin vocations as priest and artist. From early childhood, his art expressed his inner life, with special attention to the beauty of the world, the vulnerability of children, and God’s compassionate solidarity with those who suffer. During his AIDS ministry, this took new focus with such works as his “AIDS Crucifixion.” Later, after apprenticeship with iconographer Robert Lentz, he began a new life, producing hundreds of icons of Christ, Mary, the saints, and many holy people of our time.
More than a catalog of an artist’s work All My Eyes See is a deep journey into the heart of a great spiritual teacher.
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From Union Square To Rome
$22.00Add to cartPreface by Robert Ellsberg
With a New Foreword by
Pope Francis
“‘Praise God’ is the title of this letter. For when human beings claim to take God’s place, they become their own worst enemies.”
In Laudato Si’, his historic encyclical of 2015,Pope Francis firmly established ecological concerns as central to the agenda of Catholic Social Teaching. Along with a spiritual framework on care for creation, he outlined such issues as climate change, biodiversity, and the peril facing our oceans, and offered a comprehensive guide to integral ecology.
Now, comes a shorter but even more urgent call: Laudate Deum, which focuses specifically on the climate crisis. As Erin Lothes Biviano writes in her introduction, Pope Francis here writes as a prophet, priest, poet, and most of all “a pastor, deeply concerned for people throughout the world, and above all for the poor.” Disappointed that not enough has been done in the intervening years, Francis addresses the irreversible effects of increasing global temperatures, the decrease in ice sheets, and other signs of the times. He critiques the “technocratic paradigm,” the ongoing addiction to a fossil-fuel economy, and the “weaknesses of international politics,” while leveling particular criticism at those who sow resistance and confusion.
With selections in this edition from Laudato Si’ that focus on pastoral, theological, and spiritual themes, Laudate Deum is a call to face the preeminent crisis of our times and to draw on all our spiritual wisdom, scientific knowledge, and political will to meet the challenge.
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Father Ed : The Story Of Bill W’s Spiritual Sponsor
$30.00Add to cartFather Ed is the first biography of Father Edward Dowling, SJ (1898-1960), whose guidance transformed Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson’s life and deepened the spirituality of the twelve-step movement. Trained as a journalist, Dowling was always drawn to those who were suffering–a sympathy enhanced by his own crippling infirmities–which led him to embrace the A.A. approach to healing in community. Father Ed is a portrait of the kind of priest Pope Francis has extolled as a “shepherd with the smell of the sheep.”
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Son Of An Unknown Father
$15.95Add to cartSon of an Unknown Father is a story about Martin de Porres. It opens a window on the culture of the New World in the sixteenth century and explores the spiritual growth of a black man who experienced and transcended racism from childhood to adulthood, often by bringing his pain to Jesus on the cross. It brings the reader from Martin’s life as a young child, experiencing the rejection of his white father who was not in a lawful relationship with his mother, through the years spent with his father when he re-entered his life, to fifteen-year-old Martin entering the Dominican Convent in Lima as a donado, or servant, and the years spent there, healing the sick and ministering to the poor, until his death.
The final section, ‘Life After Death, ‘ traces the obstacles overcome by the church in the New World in bringing a reputedly holy Dominican to beatification on October 9, 1837, and canonization on May 6, 1962. The final chapter of the book explores how St. Martin de Porres, who lived in the sixteenth century, is indeed a saint for our time.
Son of an Unknown Father outlines the life of a sixteenth-century saint that is sure to awaken the interest of young readers. It includes themes of concern to contemporary youth: racial identity, racism, bullying, and classism. The author imagines how life would have been for Martin de Porres, who serves God in an unfair, troubled world, and presents images that will move and inspire the reader.
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No Guilty Bystander
$30.00Add to cartThomas Gumbleton, retired Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, has long served as an outstanding voice and witness for peace and justice in the Catholic Church. From his early opposition to the Vietnam war, his work on the Bishops’ historic pastoral on nuclear weapons, to his peacemaking missions and solidarity with marginalized communities around the globe, and his promotion of reform and renewal in the church, he has offered a prophetic model of faithful discipleship.
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Ukraine Diary
$20.00Add to cart“As we reflected on our experience in Ukraine, I felt a deep desire to stay faithful to the Ukrainian people and to keep choosing not just for the individual poor, who need support, but also for the country that is so clearly marginalized in the family of nations.”
In 1993-94, Henri Nouwen, the Dutch-born priest and spiritual writer, made two trips to recently-independent Ukraine. There he led retreats, observed the resurgence of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and connected with local communities working with handicapped adults. These trips were deeply significant to Nouwen. And yet the full meaning of his observations may only now become clear.
With extraordinary prescience, Henri identified in Ukraine certain spiritual and moral qualities struggling to assert themselves–exactly the qualities, almost thirty years later, that the Ukrainian people have mobilized in their struggle for freedom and independence. He found a people hungry for hope and healing, in need of the life-giving message he most wanted to share: that we are all “beloved of God,” and that God’s love meets us where we are most hurt, weak, and vulnerable.
Read today, Nouwen’s previously unpublished work is like a time capsule, a message from the past with special meaning for today. In an introduction by Borys Gudziak, Archbishop-Metropolitan for the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, he notes: “This modest, seemingly simple book about a visit to a distant land is in fact a subtle tale of how encounter genuinely and radically changes the lives of people.” In his moving afterword, Nouwen’s brother Laurent Nouwen describes how for twenty-five years after Henri’s death he continued an outreach of solidarity and service to the people of Ukraine through the Henri Nouwen Foundation.
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Jesus In The Hands Of Buddha
$24.95Add to cartJesus in the Hands of Buddha is an enthralling memoir of Father Shigeto Oshida, a man who was at once a Japanese Zen Buddhist master and a Catholic Dominican priest. Guided by the hand of God and the Buddha dharma, he became the founder and director of the Takamori Hermitage in the Japanese Alps, a place where pilgrims have been drawn for decades. He was a unique pioneer in the encounter between religions East to West who felt he was led to the Catholic faith and the priesthood by a trick of God. Overwhelmed by the weight of European-styled Catholic culture inundating the Catholic Church in Japan, Oshida received permission from his superiors to strike out on his own and listen to the voice of God while remaining a Dominican priest and Zen master, thus becoming both hermit and healer in a community of pilgrims-the sick, the poor, and the disenchanted from around the world.
Through this encounter with Shigeto Oshida’s life and works, and awakening to his oneness of being a Catholic priest and Buddhist monk, readers are invited to enter their own journey to Jesus in the hands of Buddha. The unifying thread of this new horizon is grace-the unmitigated gift of divine love that permeates individuals, events, and locations and makes them holy. -
Francis : The Journey And The Dream (Anniversary)
$19.99Add to cartIn 1972, a young Franciscan friar named Murray Bodo wrote a unique book about the life of St. Francis of Assisi.
Francis: The Journey and the Dream offered readers a unique combination of lyrical prose and brief, absorbing vignettes that inspired hundreds of thousands of people all over the world to contemplate the life of the famous saint and see him in a new way.
Fifty years and over 200,000 copies later, this book still captivates people everywhere, and Fr. Bodo is still writing about St. Francis and the Franciscan way of life. His poetic style continues to draw readers in, and he himself continues to gaze in wonder at the saint who worked nearly his entire life to rebuild the church.
This special anniversary edition includes a new preface in which Fr. Bodo reflects on a half century spent immersed in the Franciscan way.
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Gratitude And Grit
$16.99Add to cartGratitude and Grit tells the startling story of the simple friar whose loving concern for everyday people dramatically transformed thousands of lives. A warm, straightforward account of Casey’s life from someone who knew him personally, this book is a testament to the fact that God is present in even the most unlikely places.
Detroit in the first half of the twentieth century was a place of industry, a place of hard work, grit, and determination-an unexpected place to find miracles. But God does some of his best work in unexpected places, and so Detroit became home to one of the Church’s most gentle and humble souls, a Capuchin Franciscan now known as Blessed Solanus Casey. From his simple cell at the monastery where he worked as doorkeeper, Casey’s ministry of spiritual counsel and divine healing captivated the Motor City-and eventually, the world.
This reissue of Meet Solanus Casey: Miracle Worker and Spiritual Counselor includes a new foreword from Edward Foley, OFM Cap, vice postulator for the cause of Solanus Casey’s canonization. -
Pastoral Dynamo : From The Perspective Of Saint John Neumann
$12.99Add to cartImagined in the first person and accompanied by excerpts from letters written by Saint John Neumann, the story of a poor immigrant reaches worlds beyond his Bohemian birthplace. From an early age he knew that missionary work in North America was his calling.
In less than 20 years as a Redemptorist priest in the new, young country he served the North American Province, was ordained Bishop of Philadelphia, and laid the foundation for the Catholic school system in the United States. All across the northeastern U.S., Bishop Neumann oversaw the establishment churches, parishes, and schools as the population expanded rapidly. The first Sisters of St. Francis professed their vows before the bishop to begin their medical and educational ministries that still serve the needs of others.
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Eyes Of Compassion
$20.00Add to cartIn the mid-1960s, Thich Nhat Hanh was a little-known Vietnamese Zen monk, touring the United States on behalf of the cause of peace in his homeland. Jim Forest, a Catholic peacemaker, was asked to accompany him on his speaking engagements. From there emerged a friendship over many decades, in which Jim learned through conversations and daily life about Nhat Hanh’s spiritual teachings on mindfulness and the inner peace that is necessary for promoting world peace. Over the years Thich Nhat Hanh became one of the most influential and revered spiritual teachers in the world. Jim Forest’s intimate portrait, which includes photos and other illustrations, is a unique introduction to a modern spiritual master and his teachings.
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Light Of Assisi
$16.99Add to cartWhile weaving together Clare’s story and Francis’s story, Margaret Carney draws special attention to Clare’s significant contribution to the Franciscan world in the many years following Francis’s death. Far from merely reflecting Francis’s light, Clare had her own charism, “a gift bestowed by the Spirit of the Lord and given to her in a fullness and forcefulness that was hers alone.”
This book will introduce St. Clare of Assisi to those who do not know her and those who wish to know her better. It leads the reader from Clare’s birth to her death. While taking account of modern scholarship, Sr. Margaret Carney tells the story of this medieval woman in a way readers today can understand.
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Nicholas Black Elk
$19.95Add to cartServant of God Nicholas Black Elk (1863 – 1950)’s legacy is popularly celebrated for his fascinating spiritual life. How could one man, one deeply spiritual man, serve as both a traditional Oglala Lakota medicine man and a Roman Catholic catechist and mystic? How did these two spiritual and cultural identities enrich his prayer life? How did his commitment to God, understood through his Lakota and Catholic communities, shape his understanding of how to be in the world?
But, to fully understand the depth of Black Elk’s life-long spiritual quest requires a deep appreciation of his life story. He witnessed devastation on the battlefields of Little Bighorn and the Massacre at Wounded Knee, but also extravagance while performing for Queen Victoria as a member of “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show. Widowed by his first wife, he later shared a home with his second wife and their eight children. Black Elk’s spiritual visions granted him wisdom and healing insight as a child, yet he grew progressively physically blind in his adult years. These stories, and countless more, offer insight into this extraordinary man whose cause for canonization is now underway at the Vatican.
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Inside The Cloistered Life
$15.95Add to cartThis gem of a book is essential reading for anyone interested in knowing the hidden details of life in Carmel — “the powerhouse of prayer.” Sr. Marie, a young novice, addressed this revealing series of letters to her parents and family about her life in the Carmelite convent. Her letters provide a treasure trove of timeless information about the lives of these spiritual warriors from the moment they rise early in the morning to their praise of God at the end of each rich, joy-filled day working for His glory and souls.
In her letters, Sr. Marie answers all of her family’s questions in an endearing, conversational way and explains all aspects of her new life as a Carmelite nun. Her profound reflections and the down-to-earth, often humorous stories she tells will enable you to taste the Carmelites’ life-giving vocation and discover how you can imitate their devotion in your own daily life. As you journey on this “retreat,” you will also learn about:
*Adventures in the lives of the Sisters
*Fascinating customs that will enrich your Faith
*Awe-inspiring celebrations for Christmas, Easter, and every season
*The history behind devotion to the Child Jesus, the Scapular, and the Carmelite Order
*Sacred traditions, prayers, and maxims to live by
*Types of sacrifices Carmelites offer for souls in the worldA diocesan priest described the Sisters as “priests’ silent partners in saving souls — silent partners in the eyes of the world but atomic blasts at the foot of God’s throne.” Through their secret sacrifices and love, you will see how the Sisters of Carmel aid in the redemption of the world. Above all, you will be motivated to more intentionally pray and work for souls in the hidden, ordinary tasks of your own life.
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Brave Leader Big Heart
$19.95Add to cartBrave Leader, Big Heart invites young readers to meet this new saint, John Henry Newman. Far from being a distant academic, he was a happy child, a thoughtful young man, a warm friend, and an affectionate brother. With his pen, he helped start a movement that would change lives. As a Catholic priest, his courage and warmth led many to seek his guidance. His heart can still speak to hearts today.
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James Martin SJ
$16.95Add to cartFr. James Martin, SJ, is one of the most recognized Catholic priests in the United States. His book My Life with the Saints introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to many saintly heroes. More recently, Building a Bridge called the Catholic Church to more respect and compassion for the LGBT Community–and made Martin not only a friend to LGBT people but a lightning rod for some “traditionalist” Roman Catholics. His articulate and winsome personality has endeared him to millions inside and outside the Church. Now it is time to tell the story of his own life, to explore the experiences that made him the person he is today.
And there’s no better narrator for the story than Jon M. Sweeney, an award-winning and highly accomplished writer in his own right. In James Martin, SJ: In the Company of Jesus, Sweeney probes Martin’s early life, his experiences as a corporate executive, his call to religious life, his ministry and spirituality, his feelings about both the adoration and the criticism he receives from so many, and much more. Readers will come away with a much better understanding of one of today’s most interesting and influential Catholics.
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Birth Of A Dancing Star
$24.00Add to cartIn this captivating memoir Franciscan Sister Ilia Delio, theologian, ground-breaking author, and one of the most exciting thinkers on the frontiers of dialogue between religion and science, recounts the remarkable journey that took her from scientist to theologian, and from traditional cloistered nun to a leading proponent of evolution and cyborg life.
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Thea Bowman : Faithful And Free
$22.95Add to cartWith every passing year since her death in 1990, more people are recognizing Sr. Thea Bowman as one of the most inspiring figures in American Catholic history. This granddaughter of slaves became Catholic on her own initiative at the age of nine. As a Franciscan sister, she lived a wide-ranging ministry of joy, music, and justice.
Now Fr. Maurice Nutt offers a new biography of Sr. Thea that introduces her and sheds new light on who she was. Drawing on careful research and the insights of people who were close to her, Nutt explores her personality, her passion, her mission, and her prayer. He captures Thea Bowman as she was: an unapologetically African American woman, a religious sister who deeply loved God and the people to whom she ministered through teaching, preaching, and singing, and who embraced the blessing of her ancestry, the wisdom of the “old folks,” and a passion for justice and equality for all God’s children.
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Rosemary Nyirumbe : Sewing Hope In Uganda
$14.95Add to cartSister Rosemary Nyirumbe’s 62 years of life provide a powerful testament to God’s presence, love, and hope amidst unimaginable violence. Throughout these many years, her native Uganda and southern Sudan (now South Sudan) have suffered the devastating effects of war and military clashes. Children, as the most vulnerable population, have suffered the most–being orphaned, kidnapped, forced to become child soldiers and sex-slaves. In Rosemary Nyirumbe: Sewing Hope in Uganda, Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda brings to light Sister Rosemary’s vocation of loving presence to these youth in the midst of this cultural and societal obliteration.
As a Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for over 45 years, Sister Rosemary, even at great risk to herself, continues to minister to children enduring the violence around them, teaching practical skills, while helping them to heal, forgive, and hope. Her work taking in girls escaping captivity by Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has earned her international recognition. She has been named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World,” is the subject of the book Sewing Hope, and an award-winning documentary by the same name narrated by Academy Award winning actor Forest Whitaker. She received the United Nations Women’s Impact Award and has been named a CNN Hero.
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No Turning Back 10th Anniversary Edition (Anniversary)
$16.95Add to cartA classic witness of Christian conversion, No Turning Back by Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, celebrates its 10th anniversary. For the past 10 years, the story of Donald Calloway’s journey from runaway teen to Marian priest has touched the hearts and changed the lives of thousands of people. Now, in this 10th anniversary edition of No Turning Back, the Very Rev. Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, looks back on the past decade in a new introduction to this Christian classic, a perennially powerful witness to the transforming grace of God and the Blessed Mother’s love for her children. His witness proves a key truth of our faith: Between Jesus, the Divine Mercy, and Mary, the Mother of Mercy, there’s no reason to give up hope on anyone, no matter how far they are from God.
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Paul Farmer : Servant To The Poor
$14.95Add to cartBill Gates has called Paul Farmer one of the most amazing people he has ever met. CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta says that “if pure altruism exists in humans, it probably looks a lot like Dr. Paul Farmer.”
In Paul Farmer, Servant to the Poor, Jennie Weiss Block introduces readers to this physician and medical anthropologist of international stature whose Catholic faith has driven him to work untiringly to make a preferential option for the poor in health care. Farmer, with his colleagues at Harvard University and Partners in Health, has been instrumental in bringing the fruits of modern medicine to millions of the poorest people in the world, in places like Haiti, Rwanda, Peru, Russia, Malawi, and West Africa during the recent Ebola crisis. Challenging the conventional wisdom of global health experts, Dr. Farmer has shown it is possible to deliver high-quality medical care on a large scale to settings of great poverty and to build communities around the globe where good health and hope prevail.
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Saint Oscar Romero
$15.99Add to cartKerry Walters explores the Salvadoran archbishop’s journey from carpenter’s son through his early priesthood, his selection as a “safe” bishop who wouldn’t rock the government boat, to his transformation into someone who proclaimed the truth of the Gospel so unswervingly that it led to his assassination.
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Elemental Life : Mystery And Mercy In The Work Of Father Matthew Kelty OCSO
$21.95Add to cartFather Matthew Kelty was an especially beloved monk at the historic Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. Perhaps best known as Thomas Merton’s colleague and confessor in the year prior to Merton’s death, Father Matthew was also an enormously gifted spiritual writer in his own right, one whose homilies at Gethsemani attracted a wide following. This is the first book-length study of Matthew Kelty’s life in relation to his spiritual writings and his profound reflections on the virtues of the monastic life in the modern age.
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Augustus Tolton : The Church Is The True Liberator
$14.95Add to cartFather Augustus Tolton was the first identified black American ordained to the priesthood in the United States. He was born into slavery and escaped to freedom with his mother and siblings under harrowing circumstances. Throughout his life he displayed a great devotion to the Lord and the Catholic faith despite facing racism within the Church at nearly every turn. Still, he felt and preached that the Catholic Church’s teaching that all people are children of God regardless of race made it the true church for African Americans in the United States following the Civil War. In Augustus Tolton, Joyce Duriga brings to light his quiet witness as a challenge to prejudices and narrow-mindedness that can keep us insulated from the universal diversity of the kingdom of God.
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Calvary Road : One Man’s Journey From Judaism To Calvary
$16.95Add to cartCassock Media LLC
What do Billy Dee Williams, celebrated Americana artist Norman Rockwell, and famed comedian Jimmy Durante have to do with one man’s journey from Judaism to the Cross? Everything! So pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit down with this book, block out all distractions and prepare to be amazed by how Jesus touched Marty’s life! -
Bishop Of The Abandoned Tabernacle
$11.95Add to cartSt. Manuel felt called to the priesthood at the age of 12. After his ordination in 1901, he was sent to preach at a church which he found to be unclean and abandoned. There, praying before a Tabernacle covered in dust and cobwebs, with torn altar cloths and oil dripping onto the floor from the sanctuary lamp, he decided to dedicate his life to providing for Jesus’ needs in the Tabernacle. This poor, abandoned Tabernacle taught the young priest more about the Love of Jesus than his years of theological study. It marked his entire life from that moment. He dedicated himself until his death to spreading devotion to the Eucharist, proclaiming these words which he would go on to choose for his epitaph: “Jesus is here! He is here! Do not abandon Him!” This saintly bishop will help you to receive Holy Communion more fervently and to love Jesus more deeply in Eucharistic Adoration. This book will awaken you to a new experience of Our Lord – that you may see, hear, love, and console “Love who is not loved.”
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Paul 6th : Pilgrim Pope
$14.95Add to cartPope Paul VI (1963-78) was one of the most important and influential pontiffs of the twentieth century. After serving thirty-four years in the Roman Curia and eight as archbishop of Milan, he was elected to succeed the enormously popular John XXIII in 1963. In this engaging biography, Michael Collins examines this deeply spiritual man who is remembered as a reformer, evangelizer, unifier, and the very first pilgrim pope.
Pope Paul VI began his papacy with a series of international journeys, the first of such a scale undertaken by any pontiff before him. These brought him face-to-face with modern life throughout the globe and the challenge of making the Christian message relevant in a secular world. Paul VI is regarded for his efforts to reduce poverty in the developing world, improve educational and health standards, and foster better relations between Catholics and Orthodox and Reformed Christians. He was beatified in 2014 by Pope Francis.
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Richard Rohr : Essential Teachings On Love
$22.00Add to cartDrawn from the many books, writings, and interviews by Richard Rohr, one of the most popular spiritual writers today, this collections introduces many of the teachings for which he has become known, all organized around the central theme of Love.
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Rutilio Grande : A Table For All
$14.95Add to cartIn Rutilio Grande: A Table for All, veteran journalist Rhina Guidos explores the inspiring life and ministry of the Salvadoran priest whose killing changed the church in El Salvador and the life of his close friend, the country’s most prominent church member, Archbishop Oscar Romero.
Born in a rural and poor hamlet surrounded by sugarcane fields in El Salvador, Grande went on to study in Europe and Latin America as a member of the Society of Jesus. Though he found himself in the comfort of academia, he gave it up to return to the periphery of the rural world and its people. Inspired by teachings of the Second Vatican Council and a major bishops’ meeting in Medellin, Colombia, he and a team set out to teach the poor to read, to stand up for their rights, and to call out injustices perpetrated by the government.Grande’s brutal 1977 assassination in a shower of gunfire marked the first notorious killing of a Catholic Church member during El Salvador’s civil conflict, but made him one in a long line of El Salvador’s Catholic martyrs.
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Staritsa : The Spiritual Motherhood Of Catherine Doherty
$27.00Add to cartBoth groundbreaking and readable, this book examines a neglected gift, spiritual motherhood, and traces Catherine Doherty’s development as a staritsa, or spiritual mother in the Russian-Eastern tradition. Of particular interest are chapters dealing with Catherine’s exercise of spiritual motherhood for priests and laity alike.
Previously unpublished letters of spiritual direction between Catherine and her major spiritual directors offer the reader a privileged glimpse into the soul of this Servant of God and her spiritual children, as she grows in her vocation as staritsa. A spiritual mother who lived her love of the Church with a passionate and pastoral heart, Catherine de Hueck Doherty will inspire readers who care deeply for the life of the Mystical Body of Christ-the Church.
This is a book that can easily be shared and used for priestly convocations, women’s retreats, days of recollection, and self-reflection, pondering not only Catherine’s life, but the question, “How can I, too, carry the Spirit of God in my life and work?”
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Saint Of The Day
$21.99Add to cartFor more than forty years, Saint of the Day has been a trusted guide, and this latest edition continues the tradition. Newly added saints and blesseds include Oscar Romero, Marie of the Incarnation, Francois de Laval, Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, Stanley Rother, Pope Paul VI, and Solanus Casey.
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Dorothy Day : The World Will Be Saved By Beauty – An Intimate Portrait Of M
$18.00Add to cartDorothy Day (1897-1980) was a prominent Catholic, writer, social activist, and co-founder of a movement dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. Her life has been documented through her own writings as well as the work of historians, theologians, and academics. What has been missing until now is a more personal account from the point of view of someone who knew her well. Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty is a frank and reflective, heartfelt and humorous portrayal written by her granddaughter, Kate Hennessy. Dorothy Day, writes Hennessy, is an unusual candidate for sainthood. Before her conversion, she lived what she called a “disorderly life,” during which she had an abortion and then gave birth to a child out of wedlock. After her conversion, she was both an obedient servant and a rigorous challenger of the Church. She was a prolific writer whose books are still in print and widely read. Although compassionate, Hennessy shows Day to be driven, dogmatic, loving, as well as judgmental, in particular with her only daughter, Tamar. She was also full of humor and laughter and could light up any room she entered. An undisputed radical heroine, called “a saint for the occupy era” by The New Yorker, Day’s story unfolds against a backdrop of New York City from the 1910s to the 1980s and world events spanning from World War I to Vietnam. This thoroughly researched and intimate biography.
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Shahbaz Bhatti : Martyr Of The Suffering Church
$14.95Add to cartWhen Shahbaz Bhatti, the lone Christian in Pakistan’s cabinet and a determined campaigner for the rights of Christians and members of other faiths was killed, his Taliban-affiliated assassins probably hoped it would be the end of his influence. Instead, Bhatti’s stature has only grown after death, and today he looms as a martyr and patron saint for persecuted Christians everywhere. His riveting life, from devoted altar boy in an overwhelming Muslim nation to human rights campaigner, from politician and government minister to martyr, is one of the great Christian dramas of our time, and as long as Christians are at risk anywhere in the world, Shahbaz Bhatti will be a source of inspiration and hope.This book traces the evolution of a martyr, from his roots in a traditionally Catholic village in the Punjab region of Pakistan through his awakening as an activist and political leader. It also explores the possibility that Bhatti may one day be declared a saint of the Catholic Church. It’s a story that deserves to be told, everywhere and always, until it’s part of the common heritage of Christianity and all humanity.
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Saint Columban : His Life Rule And Legacy
$29.95Add to cartColumban: His Rule and His Movement contains a new English translation of a commentary on the entire Rule of Columban. Columban was a sixth-century Irish monk who compiled a written rule of life for the three monasteries he founded in France: Anegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines. This volume also includes the first English translation of the Regula cuiusdam Patris ad Virgines, or the Rule of Walbert, compiled by the seventh-century Count Walbert from various earlier rules designed for women, including those of Columban, Benedict, Cassian, and Basil. This book begins with an extensive introduction to the history of Columban and his monks, as well as various indices and notes, which will be of interest to students and enthusiasts of monastic studies.
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8 Whopping Lies And Other Stories Of Bruised Grace
$19.99Add to cartThis is a guided tour through the mind of one of the most acclaimed voices in contemporary Catholic writing. Brian Doyle effortlessly connects the everyday with the inexpressible and consistently marries searingly honest prose with interruptions of humor and humanity.
These essays bear Doyle’s trademark depth and deliver with eloquence his piercing observations on mohawks and miracles, vigils and velociraptors, syntax and scapulars, jail and jihad, and mercy beyond sense. -
Helen Prejean : Death Rows Nun
$14.95Add to cartNo person has worked more effectively toward the abolition of the death penalty in the United States than Helen Prejean, CSJ. Her best-selling book Dead Man Walking, and the hit Hollywood film adaptation in which she was played by Susan Sarandon, was a catalyst for drawing national attention to the issue. In the years since then, her continuing and often controversial work with death-row inmates has kept the issue near the forefront of national debate. She has confronted lawyers and judges, politicians and the media, to expose the indignity and injustice of the death penalty and inhumane prison conditions. In Helen Prejean: Death Row’s Nun, Joyce Duriga explores Sister Helen’s life growing up in upper-middle-class Louisiana, her growing awareness of the injustice of the death penalty, and its disproportionate targeting of the poor and minorities, and her introduction to death-row inmates Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie. Through this book, readers will witness her life’s work with victims and their families, and see how she came to understand her role in prison ministry, not only as an activist but as a champion fighting for hope and restorative justice for those facing the death penalty.
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Saint Patrick : The Man And His Works
$13.99Add to cartThe only true apostle of Ireland who more or less converted the country the single-handed? or A Christian bishop from the embattled edge of a crumbling empire? All that can really be known of Patrick comes from his authentic writings – the Confessio and the Epistola (Address to the Soldiers of Coroticus). Thomas O’Loughlin’s engaging yet scholarly reflections on these fifth-century texts lead us into a greater understanding of the mind of Patrick, the man, believer and missionary.
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Franciscan Saints
$19.99Add to cartIn The Franciscan Saints, spiritual trailblazers span the centuries from Francis and Clare to Solanus Casey and Mychal Judge, with representatives from every walk of life and corner of the world. Each entry features the essential biographical facts and adds the insight and depth only Ellsberg can provide. The author’s sharp eye for signs and stories of holiness in the gritty, messy real world informs his selections, making his work unique.
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Corita Kent : Gentle Revolutionary Of The Heart
$14.95Add to cartCorita Kent, an American nun and pop artist, led a life of creativity and love that took her in unexpected directions. In this engaging portrait, Sr. Rose Pacatte, FSP, offers an in-depth look at Corita Kent, gentle revolutionary of the heart, letting the beauty and truth of her life and art speak for itself.
Frances Elizabeth Kent s rise to fame coincided with some of the most socially volatile years of the twentieth century. As Sr. Mary Corita of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters, she became a nationally-respected artist though the Archbishop of her home city of Los Angeles regarded her work as blasphemous. Seeing no contradiction between the sacred and the secular, Corita designed the US Postal Service s iconic Love stamp and created the largest copyrighted work of art in the world, on a gas tank for the Boston Gas Company. These examples and more exemplify the theology and point of view of one of the twentieth century s most famous and fascinating artists.
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Heart Of Henri Nouwen
$19.95Add to cartTo commemorate the 70th anniversary of Nouwen’s birth, Crossroad issued this anthology of the best of Henri Nouwen from our list. This volume focuses on the three themes that were closest to his own heart: hope in suffering, a personal relationship with God, and living for others.
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Aelred The Peacemaker
$34.95Add to cartIn addition to being a prolific spiritual writer and the abbot of the premier Cistercian monastery in northern England, Aelred of Rievaulx somehow found the time and the stamina to travel extensively throughout the Anglo-Norman realm, acting as a mediator, a problem solver, and an adviser to kings. His career spanned the troubled years of the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda and reached its zenith during the early years of the reign of Henry II. In this work, Jean Truax focuses on the public career of Aelred of Rievaulx, placing him in his historical context, deepening the reader’s understanding of his work, and casting additional light on his underappreciated role as politician, mediator, and negotiator outside his abbey’s walls.
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Daniel Rudd : Calling A Church To Justice
$14.95Add to cartIn May of 1890, The Christian Solider, an African American newspaper, identified the Catholic priest, journalist, and activist Daniel Arthur Rudd as the greatest negro Catholic in America. Yet many Catholics today are unaware of Rudd’s efforts to bring about positive social change during the early decades of the Jim Crow era. In Daniel Rudd: Calling a Church to Justice, Gary Agee offers a compelling look at the life and work of this visionary who found inspiration in his Catholic faith to fight for the principles of liberty and justice. Born into slavery, Rudd achieved success early on as the publisher of the American Catholic Tribune, one of the most successful black newspapers of its era, and as the founder of the National Black Catholic Congress.
Even as Rudd urged his fellow black Catholics to maintain their spiritual home within the fold of the Catholic Church, he called on that same church to live up what he believed to be her cardinal teaching, “the Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man.” Rudd s hopeful spirit lives on today in the important work of the National Black Catholic Congress, as it carries forward his pursuit of social justice. -
My Battle Against Hitler
$21.00Add to cartHow does a person become Hitler’s enemy number one? Not through espionage or violence, it turns out, but by striking fearlessly at the intellectual and spiritual roots of National Socialism.
Dietrich von Hildebrand was a German Catholic thinker and teacher who devoted the full force of his intellect to breaking the deadly spell of Nazism that ensnared so many of his beloved countrymen.
His story might well have been lost to us were it not for this memoir he penned in the last decades of his life at the request of his wife, Alice von Hildebrand. In My Battle Against Hitler, covering the years from 1921 to 1938, von Hildebrand tells of the scorn and ridicule he endured for sounding the alarm when many still viewed Hitler as a positive and inevitable force. He expresses the sorrow of having to leave behind his home, friends, and family in Germany to conduct his fight against the Nazis from Austria. He recounts how he defiantly challenged Nazism in the public square, prompting the German ambassador in Vienna to describe him to Hitler as “the architect of the intellectual resistance in Austria.” And in the midst of all the danger he faced, he conveys his unwavering trust in God, even during his harrowing escape from Vienna and his desperate flight across Europe, with the Nazis always just one step behind.
Dietrich von Hildebrand belongs to the very earliest anti-Nazi resistance. His public statements led the Nazis to blacklist him already in 1921, long before the horrors of the Third Reich and more than twenty-three years before the famous assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944. His battle would culminate in the countless articles he published in Vienna, a selection of which are featured in this volume.
“It is an immense privilege,” writes editor John Henry Crosby, founder of the Hildebrand Project, “to present to the world the shining witness of one man who risked everything to follow his conscience and stand in defiance of tyranny.”
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Padre Pio : A Personal Portrait
$18.99Add to cartHe who believes in miracles has already obtained one.
A faith so powerful that he bore the stigmata. Prayer so intense that he appeared to believers all over the world. Padre Pio is one of the most intriguing and otherworldly saints of the twentieth century, but this biography has been out of print in English for more than forty years until now.
“Padre Pio,” written just a few years after his death, brings the saint s words and works to a new audience eager to learn of his mysticism and miracles.” -
Saint Teresa Of Calcutta
$15.99Add to cartThis stirring new biography tells the story of a woman who changed the world by tending to the most vulnerable. St. Teresa of Calcutta delves into the conviction behind her ministry: that both the physical and the spiritual must be addressed for humans to live as God intends. With humanizing insights into Teresa s personal struggles, St. Teresa of Calcutta is an inspiring reminder that even the holiest among us must work to find a path and that God s love follows us even into the most challenging of circumstances.”
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5 Years In Heaven
$18.00Add to cartWhat is heaven on earth? The answer lies in this true story of one young man’s journey to find hope and purpose with the help of an unlikely teacher–a compassionate and wise old nun, whom the world had long-forgotten.
By the time Harvard-educated John Schlimm turned 31 years old, he had worked with some of the biggest superstars in Nashville and served under the most powerful people in the White House. But something was missing. His life had come to a standstill, lost in a whirl of questions about belonging, faith, rejection, and purpose. He soon decides to return to his small-town roots in search of a new beginning.
Returning home, John meets 87-year-old Sister Augustine, the beguiling self-taught artist-in-residence at the ceramic shop on the sprawling grounds of the local 150-year-old convent. John is instantly bowled over by Sister’s quiet grace and vision. Before long, his weekly visits to Sister’s shop become a master’s class in the meaning of life, love, humility, and second chances. As she directed him on the road to self-discovery and salvation, John returned the favor by putting Sister Augustine on the front page of newspapers and showing his friend that her life still had one very important and unexpected final chapter yet to go.
In “Five Years in Heaven,” John shares the wisdom, humor, grace, and inspiration he experienced during his hundreds of visits with Sister Augustine. “Five Years in Heaven” reminds us that we can find love and joy in the most unlikely of places, and that the building blocks of peace and happiness are always within our reach.
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My God And My All
$16.00Add to cartThe captivating story of the world s favorite saint is now retold for a modern audience by one of the great novelists of our time.
Perhaps more than any other figure in Christian history since Jesus Christ, Saint Francis of Assisi has captured our imagination, for his is a story of extreme self-sacrifice, of love to God and man. How could this wealthy, handsome youth cast away all the advantages that were his by birth and choose instead a career of poverty and humility? How could he attract members of all strata of society to his mission? And how, when his order became established throughout Europe, could he renounce great personal power and humbly continue his life s work?
Here is Francis, from his twelfth-century boyhood to his life as a missionary roaming the very boundaries of the known world. Here too are the men and women who followed him Bernard de Quintavalle, the rich businessman; Peter Cathanii, the lawyer; Brother Giles, the farmer s son; Lady Clare; and so many others all drawn together by the personal magnetism and humble faith of their leader, all re-created by bestselling novelist Elizabeth Goudge against a rich medieval canvas.”
