Spirituality Catholicism

The talks on which this book was based were given at the John Main Seminar in 1998, the annual international event of the World Community for Christian Meditation. Previous presenters have included the Dalai Lama, Jean Vanier, Bede Griffiths, and William Johnston. A monk reflects on Scripture in the light of experience. He or she utters a word that startles his listeners into realizing that tradition is not a matter of second-hand experience but the living and human self-transmission of Christ to his disciples.

Sorrowful Mysteries is a detailed and extraordinarily compassionate examination of the appearance of Our Lady of Fátima, an attempt to unravel and put into perspective the lives of the three children, how this life-altering event changed them and the world they knew, and how it intersected with so many of the signal moments of the twentieth century—pandemics, revolutions, world wars, assassinations, and even skyjackings.

Little Thérèse was "the baby" of the Martin family. She was also her Papa's "Little Queen." With her Mama, her Papa and her four big sisters to love her, Thérèse could have turned out to be a very spoiled little girl. And indeed, it is true that sometimes she was cross and naughty.

Nearly a decade after Spain's conquest of Mexico, the future of Christianity on the American continent was very much in doubt. Confronted with a hostile colonial government and Native Americans wary of conversion, the newly-appointed bishop-elect of Mexico wrote to tell the King of Spain that, unless there was a miracle, the continent would be lost.

This deeply contextual biography centers on the tensions generated by the pope’s attempt to turn the Church away from power and tradition and outwards to engage humanity with God’s mercy. Through battles with corrupt bankers and worldly cardinals, in turbulent meetings and on global trips, history’s first Latin-American pope has attempted to reshape the Church to evangelize the contemporary age. At the same time, he has stirred other leaders’ deep-seated fear that the Church is capitulating to modernity.

Quel était donc le secret de Marthe Robin, cette petite paysanne qui, malade, paralysée, vivant loin de la célébrité dans une discrétion absolue pendant 60 ans, a reçu plus de 100 000 personnes...

Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a prominent Catholic, writer, social activist, and cofounder of a movement dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. Her life has been revealed 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.

For seekers of all stripes, philosophy is timeless self-care. Notre Dame philosophy professors Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko have reinvigorated this tradition in their wildly popular and influential undergraduate course “God and the Good Life,” in which they wrestle with the big questions about how to live and what makes life meaningful. Now they invite us into the classroom to work through issues like what justifies our beliefs, whether we should practice a religion and what sacrifices we should make for others....

This new work by Pope Francis illuminates the most important prayer in all of Christianity, verse by verse, in conversation with Father Marco Pozza, a theologian and a prison chaplain in Padua, Italy. Here Francis offers unprecedented insight on Jesus's most profound words, while exploring the importance of social justice, benevolence, and forgiveness, key elements of Bergoglio's papacy.

This classic work of Fr. Faber, which many consider his best, was composed to help us "serve Jesus out of love. Because once we love then everything becomes easy." Fr. Frederick William Faber CO (1814-1863) was a noted English hymn writer and theologian. He converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1845 and was ordained to priesthood in 1847.

One part biography, one part prayer book, The Life and Prayers of Saint Padre Pio is an essential for any Christian. The foundation for Padre Pio's work in the world was love. His love of God became intertwined with his love of humanity so that the two became inseparable and unwavering. Padre Pio is notable not for his erudition or even his teachings, per se, but for the man he was and the intercessor he continues to be. Pio gave himself to Christ as a spiritual victim for the souls of sinners.

The world is full of interesting people, and it has been George Weigel's good fortune to have known many such personalities in a variety of fields: politics, religion, the arts and sciences, journalism, the academy, entertainment, and sports. In this collection of reminiscences and elegies, the best-selling author of the definitive biography of Pope Saint John Paul II remembers these men and women from inside the convictions that formed them.

Il est presque devenu banal d'affirmer que l'Église catholique est en crise au Québec et en Occident. Lorsqu'on considère les abus sexuels sur mineurs, la baisse de la pratique, l'effondre­ment des vocations, la disparition des ordres religieux ou la place ambiguë des femmes, il peut sembler difficile d'espérer des jours meilleurs pour le corps du Christ. Serait-ce la fin de cette institution bimillénaire ? Et pourtant, des voix d'ici s'élèvent pour témoigner de leur espérance malgré les difficultés vécues par notre Église.

For more than half a century, the question of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) has been widely dismissed in our culture. That wasn’t always the case. Some of the best minds of the last 25 centuries in Western civilization have grappled with this mystery. In Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith, best-selling author Paul Thigpen begins with a fascinating historical survey of the public conversation about ETI, tracing the thought of prominent Catholics and others. This is a thorough guide to navigating the conversation from a faithful Catholic perspective.

St. Louis de Montfort’s classic Total Consecration to Mary has seen a strong resurgence in recent years, with Catholics around the world consecrating themselves to Our Lady. Building off this momentum, we wanted to encourage this closeness to Jesus through Mary, but with a preparation that reflected the Church’s love for St. Thomas Aquinas. In Aquinas’s writings, we found ample resources for the task. Especially in his preaching, we discovered passages detailing the graces bestowed on Mary and the role afforded her in leading us to Christ.

The resurrection from death is a strong component of the Christian faith, which the Nicene Creed, affirms stating: "We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come." The early Christian writers Irenaeus and Justin Martyr, in the second century, wrote against the widespread idea of their time that only the soul survived. In like manner, we have this later writing of St. Gregory of Nyssa (335-395 AD) which clearly articulates the position that a person is both soul and body and that Christ has promised to raise them both.

We seem to be living in an age of insanity. Crimes against born and unborn children, marriage defiled and redefined, the madness of transgenderism, the looming terror of trans-humanism...the list goes on and on. And it’s getting uglier out there every day. Everywhere you look, the culture is twisting truth into lies and lies into truth.

After a week of hearing ghostly noises, a man is visited in his home by the spirit of his mother, dead for three decades. She reproaches him for his dissolute life and begs him to have Masses said in her name. Then she lays her hand on his sleeve, leaving an indelible burn mark, and departs...

Scott Hahn has inspired millions of readers with his perceptive and unique view of Catholic theology and worship, becoming one of the most looked-to contemporary authorities in these areas. In Letter and Spirit, Hahn extends the message he began in The Lamb's Supper, offering far-reaching and profound insights into what the Bible teaches us about living the spiritual life.

In 1979 the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith withdrew Hans Kung's missio canonica. Pope Paul VI approved the censure saying, "We are obligated to declare that in his writings he fell short of integrity and the truth of the Catholic faith." Through a 1980 agreement with the Vatican, Kung is now permitted to teach, but only under secular auspices. In this acclaimed Modern Library Chronicle, Kung examines the Catholic Church through its many reformations, focusing on the people and events...