Church Life
Showing all 14 results
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Faith That Dares To Speak
$24.95Add to cartThe Catholic Church at the dawn of the twenty-first century is arguably the last feudal system in the West. Once the feudal structure of the church is recognized, the bishops’ response to the clergy abuse crisis comes into focus. Bishops and other church authorities reacted to the scandal the only way their feudal culture allowed–with secrecy, denial, and a no holds barred effort to protect the reputation, authority, and resources of the institution. While tragic, and in many cases reprehensible, their response was consistent with the way feudal systems function.
In Faith That Dares to Speak, Donald Cozzens addresses the laity’s role in challenging a feudal church to embrace accountability and transparency and to bring light where there is now darkness. Awakened to their dignity and responsibility as full, equal, and adult members of the church, lay Catholics in North America are finding their voice and daring to speak to church authorities long accustomed to deferential obedience and compliance.
Church life, Cozzens believes, will never be quite the same.
The current crisis in the Church, while profoundly disturbing and troubling, offers possibilities for a renewed and revitalized Church. In Faith That Dares to Speak, Cozzens underscores the critical need for laity and clergy to speak honestly and courageously to church authorities. He addresses the obstacles to faithful speech as well as the spiritual and moral foundations of mature, adult conversation and commitment. The current crisis in the Church, while profoundly disturbing and troubling, offers possibilities for a renewed and revitalized Church. In Faith That Dares to Speak, Cozzens underscores the critical need for laity and clergy to speak honestly and courageously to church authorities. He addresses the obstacles to faithful speech as well as the spiritual and moral foundations of mature, adult conversation and commitment.
Chapters include “The Courage to Speak,” “The Humility to Listen,” “Love That Dares to Question,” “The Liberation of the Laity,” “Voice of the Faithful,” and “Contemplative Conversation.”
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Book Of The Elders
$49.95Add to cartIn the early part of the fourth century, a few Christians, mostly men and some women, began to withdraw from “the world” to retreat into the desert, there to practice their new religion more seriously. The person who aspired to “renounce the world” first had to find an “elder,” a person who would accept him as a disciple and apprentice. To his elder (whom he would address as abba–father) the neophyte owed complete obedience; from his abba, he would receive provisions (as it were) for the road to virtue. In addition to the abba’s own example of living, there was the verbal teaching of the elders in sayings and tales, setting out the theory and practice of the eremitic life.
In due course, these sayings (or apophthegmata) were written down and, later, collected and codified. The earliest attempts to codify tales and sayings are now lost. As the collection grew, they were first organized alphabetically, according to the name of the abba who spoke them, in a major collection known as the Apophthegmata Patrum Alphabetica. A supplementary collection, the Anonymous Apophthegmata, followed. Later, both collections were combined and arranged systematically rather than alphabetically. This collection was created sometime between 500 and 575 and later went through a couple of major revisions, the second of which appeared sometime before 970.
This second revision was published in an excellent new critical edition, with a French translation, in 1993. Now, in The Book of the Elders, John Wortley offers an English translation of this collection, based entirely on the Greek of that text.
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Catholic Traditions And Treasures
$19.95Add to cartNew converts and cradle Catholics alike are often perplexed by the myriad of devotions, traditions, practices, and beliefs that the Catholic Church has accumulated over the past twenty centuries. Why pray to St. Anthony to find something lost? Why keep a St. Christopher medal in your car? Or why bury a statue of St. Joseph – upside down! – in your yard when selling your house?
In Helen Hoffner’s lovingly-illustrated, encyclopedic Catholic Treasures and Traditions, you’ll find succinct – and sometimes amusing – answers to these and hundreds of other questions. This delightful book explains the origin and nature of most of the common traditions of the Catholic Faith, as well as the source and meaning of many of the quaint and obscure ones.
From Forty Hours to First Fridays and from Holy Hours to Holy Days, you’ll find in these pages an informative, delightful compendium of the Catholic way of life, including information about:
Novenas * Penance * Prayers for the Dead * First Fridays * Votive Candles * Religious Medals * St. Francis Statues * Bathtub Madonnas * Holy Cards * Crucifixes * House Blessings * Prayer Corners * Advent Calendars * Jesse Trees * Marian Apparitions * Vestments * Icons * Divine Mercy * The Sacred Heart * The Liturgical Year * Holy Days * Religious Orders * The Holy See * The Roman Curia * The Divine Office * Holy Oils * Genuflecting * Relics * Stations of the Cross * The Sacraments * The Angelus * Litanies * Patron Saints
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Church Faith Future
$19.95Add to cartIn this challenging but hopeful new book, Church, Faith, Future: What We Face, What We Can Do, Father Louis J. Cameli renders a carefully composed portrait of the church in North America today. Drawing on philosophy, history, cultural analysis, and sociology, he offers a sobering picture of where church and faith stand in our society and where they seem to be headed. Identifying several possible ways forward, Fr. Cameli points out the way he sees as the most promising and most faithful to Catholic tradition.
In a fascinating afterword to the book, Archbishop Blase Cupich enters into dialogue with Fr. Cameli s thinking, describing how the Archdiocese of Chicago has begun to address the issues and the directions indicated. -
Ministry Of Discernment
$24.95Add to cartBoth the faithful and bishops are called to learn and to teach. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the faithful of the local church witness to the apostolic tradition with their lives, and so are teachers. Learning to receive and respond to the sense of the faithful is an essential way the bishop grows in his personal ability to teach the church’s faith in authentic and meaningful ways. How is the bishop’s ministry of discernment formed by spirituality, and what structures strengthen it? Ignatian spirituality and the structures of discernment in the Society of Jesus model ways for bishops to cultivate discernment as a spiritual habit and provide insight for renovating diocesan structures to incorporate discerning dialogue with the faithful. In A Ministry of Discernment, Amanda Osheim moves from ecclesiological theory to imagining spiritual practices and church structures in the hope of contributing not only to the academic conversation about the sensus fidelium but also to the ways the church practically lives out our response to the Holy Spirit.
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Humble Confidence : Spiritual And Pastoral Guidance From Karl Rahner
$19.95Add to cartThe influential German Jesuit theologian, Karl Rahner (1904-84), famously claimed that the more scientific theology is the more spiritually and pastorally relevant it will be. This book attempts to demonstrate the truth of this claim by drawing together resources scattered throughout Rahner’s voluminous writings in order to make his wisdom more available for people seeking a deeper spirituality and a more effective pastoral ministry. The book also provides summaries of Rahner’s main ideas on anthropology, God, Christ, and the Church, with an emphasis on their practical significance. Finally, it serves as a response to those critics who claim that Rahner is passe by emphasizing the power of his theology to illumine contemporary issues with the light of the Gospel.
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When The Church Was Young
$22.99Add to cartIf the word trinity isn’t in Scripture, why is it such an important part of our faith?
And if the Bible can be interpreted in many ways, how do we know what to make of it? And who decided what should be in the Bible anyway?
The Church Fathers provide the answers. These brilliant, embattled, and sometimes eccentric men defined the biblical canon, hammered out the Creed, and gave us our understanding of sacraments and salvation. It is they who preserved for us the rich legacy of the early Church.
D’Ambrosio dusts off the dry theology and brings you the exciting stories and great heroes such as Ambrose, Augustine, Basil, Athanasius, Chrysostom, and Jerome. This page-turner will inspire and challenge you with the lives and insights of these seminal teachers from when the Church was young.
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Future Church : How Ten Trends Are Revolutionizing The Catholic Church
$20.00Add to cartOne of the world’s foremost religion journalists offers an unexpected and provocative look at where the Catholic Church is headed-and what the changes will mean for all of us.
What will the Catholic Church be like in 100 years? Will there be a woman pope? Will dioceses throughout the United States and the rest of the world go bankrupt from years of scandal? In THE FUTURE CHURCH, John L. Allen puts forth the ten trends he believes will transform the Church into the twenty-second century. From the influence of Catholics in Africa, Asia, and Latin America on doctrine and practices to the impact of multinational organizations on local and ethical standards, Allen delves into the impact of globalization on the Roman Catholic Church and argues that it must rethink fundamental issues, policies, and ways of doing business. Allen shows that over the next century, the Church will have to respond to changes within the institution itself and in the world as a whole whether it is contending with biotechnical advances-including cloning and genetic enhancement-the aging Catholic population, or expanding the roles of the laity.
Like Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat, THE FUTURE CHURCH establishes a new framework for meeting the challenges of a changing world.
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Clericalism : The Death Of Priesthood
$21.95Add to cartSearching for answers in the midst of the sexual abuse crisis in the church, many blamed the “clerical culture.” But what exactly is this clerical culture? We may know it when we see it, but how can we–whether clergy or laypeople–go about dismantling it and putting in place a new, healthy culture? George Wilson has spent decades working with organizations to help them discover, and often recover, their foundational calling. He is also a Jesuit priest engaged in the lives of congregations. In Clericalism: The Death of Priesthood he brings together both capacities and gives his sense of the challenges facing the church. As members of the church, Wilson maintains, we are all responsible for creating a clerical culture. And we are also responsible for that culture’s transformation. Clericalism aids this transformation by helping us examine some underlying attitudes that create and preserve destructive relationships between ordained and laity. After looking at the crisis and establishing where we are now, this book challenges us with concrete suggestions for changing behaviors. We are lay and ordained, but all baptized into the royal priesthood of 1 Peter 2: 9, all called to spread the Gospel and do the work of God’s love in the world. Ultimately, this is a hopeful book, looking for the restoration of a genuine priesthood, free of clericalism, in which we become truly united in Christ.
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Passing From Self To God
$29.95Add to cartIn this book an experienced spiritual master provides an intensive directed retreat. Readers may read and digest at their own pace, savoring the author’s contagious enthusiasm for the monastic way and the medieval monks who formed this distinctive contemplative tradition.
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Surprised By Canon Law
$11.99Add to cartFrom time to time, all Catholics have them: nagging questions about church life, often prompted by some personal encounter or challenging situation:
Is a layperson allowed to preach a homily?
Is a pastor required to report to someone regarding parish finances or is he on his own?
It seems like the parish council is running your parish. Does it have the authority to do so?
Must a child be baptized in a church, or may the baptism take place at home?Surprised By Canon Law tackles these and many other questions, all of which have been formally addressed by the Roman Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law. The Code – the internal legal system that governs the church’s day-to-day workings – deals with far-flung concerns of interest to the person-in-the-pew.
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Season Of Ash And Fire
$20.99Add to cartIn addition to prayers and liturgies for Ash Wednesday through Ascension Day, this book includes suggested themes and symbols for the Sundays of Lent, daily Scripture readings for Lent and the fifty Days of Easter, household prayers for Lent and Easter, and an order for Lenten study groups. A Selected Scripture Index is included. This book has been designed for ease of use in both thematic and lectionary-based worship services.
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Church : Community For The Kingdom
$30.00Add to cart1. Jesus And The Church
2. The Church In The Teaching Of Vatican II
3. The Meaning Of “Church” In The Teaching Of Vatican II
4. The Church In The Context Of The Kingdom
5. Emergence Of A World Church
6. The Use Of Models In Ecclesiology
7. Two Models For The Future Church
8. Mission Of The Church
222 PagesAdditional Info
Draws on the best contemporary and classical understandings of the Kingdom of God as the key to the church’s self-understanding and mission. Integrating missiology and ecclesiology in a vision of a church in mission made up of all the world’s people, Fuellenbach explores the church’s life as worshiping community, as communion, as Body of Christ working to make the world reflect Kingdom values.
