Download or read book The Noonday Devil written by Jean-Charles Nault and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2015-11-11 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The noonday devil is the demon of acedia, the vice also known as sloth. The word “sloth”, however, can be misleading, for acedia is not laziness; in fact it can manifest as busyness or activism. Rather, acedia is a gloomy combination of weariness, sadness, and a lack of purposefulness. It robs a person of his capacity for joy and leaves him feeling empty, or void of meaning Abbot Nault says that acedia is the most oppressive of demons. Although its name harkens back to antiquity and the Middle Ages, and seems to have been largely forgotten, acedia is experienced by countless modern people who describe their condition as depression, melancholy, burn-out, or even mid-life crisis. He begins his study of acedia by tracing the wisdom of the Church on the subject from the Desert Fathers to Saint Thomas Aquinas. He shows how acedia afflicts persons in all states of life— priests, religious, and married or single laymen. He details not only the symptoms and effects of acedia, but also remedies for it.

Download or read book Hidden in God written by Bonnie Thurston and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2016-03-25 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Spirituality & Practice 2016 Award Winner." Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916) was a complex man. Born into French aristocracy, he floundered as a military officer, but rediscovered his Catholic heritage and eventually lived voluntarily as an impoverished priest/hermit in the Sahara Desert in Algeria. Foucauld wanted to emulate the hidden life of Jesus in Nazareth and in doing so, left a spiritual legacy that attracted such figures as Dorothy Day and author, poet, and spiritual director Bonnie Thurston. Published in celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of Charles de Foucauld’s death on December 1, 1916, Hidden in God highlights the profound conversion that led Foucauld to embrace the life of a hermit in the Sahara, where he was eventually murdered by a band of marauders. Foucauld’s legacy is an enduring spiritual vision: believe in God, you should live for God and make him your reason for living. Drawing from his letters and journals, Bonnie Thurston explores how the hidden life of Nazareth brings the grace of great closeness to Jesus; the gift of the desert is the grace of complete dependence on God; and the grace of public life is the practice of charity and self-giving. Thurston adeptly demonstrates how these three locations are metaphors for states of spiritual life and ministry and how each one brings both a challenge and a danger. Words of wisdom from Foucauld, as well as questions to ponder and biblical texts to explore conclude each chapter. Thurston shares how she became enamored with Foucauld for the passionate way he lived his ideals without regard for recognition or success. “I’ve fallen in love with a dead Frenchman who was a hermit,” she admitted to a friend. Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, also was attracted to Foucauld’s desert spirituality and wrote to Thomas Merton and others about Foucauld’s spiritual influence.

Download or read book Of Beetles and Angels written by Mawi Asgedom and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2008-10-23 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Read the remarkable true story of a young boy's journey from civil war in east Africa to a refugee camp in Sudan, to a childhood on welfare in an affluent American suburb, and eventually to a full-tuition scholarship at Harvard University. Following his father's advice to "treat all people-even the most unsightly beetles-as though they were angels sent from heaven," Mawi overcomes the challenges of language barriers, cultural differences, racial prejudice, and financial disadvantage to build a fulfilling, successful life for himself in his new home. Of Beetles and Angels is at once a harrowing survival story and a compelling examination of the refugee experience. With hundreds of thousands of copies sold since its initial publication, and as a frequent selection as one book/one school/one community reads, this unforgettable memoir continues to touch and inspire readers. This special expanded fifteenth anniversary edition includes a new introduction and afterword from the author, a discussion guide, and more.

Download or read book The Rainbow of Sorrow written by Fulton J Sheen and published by . This book was released on 2023-11-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World-renowned evangelist and New York Times best-selling author Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen presents a collection of engaging sermons, encouraging the reader to understand the mystery of suffering and sorrow in the world today. Throughout this series of sermons, Archbishop Sheen will provide some valuable insights as to why sometimes, the innocent have to suffer. Using the Seven Last Words spoken by Jesus from the Cross on Calvary as a backdrop, Sheen will address the topics of pain and suffering using his inimitable writing style, with immediacy, yet conveying joy and comfort in the subject matter. These meditations on the Seven Last Words correlated to the mystery of pain and suffering make no pretence to absoluteness. The Words are not necessarily related to the struggles we face but they do make convenient points of illustrations. TABLE OF CONTENTS UNJUST SUFFERING - "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." PAIN - "This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." SUFFERING OF THE INNOCENT - "Woman, behold thy son! (Son) Behold thy mother!" GOD AND THE SOUL - "My God! My God! Why hast Thou hast abandoned Me?" THE NEED OF ZEAL - "I thirst." A PLANNED UNIVERSE - "It is finished." ETERNAL FREEDOM - "Father, into Thy Hands, I commend My Spirit." This book has one main aim and that is to awaken an appreciation of the Passion of Our Lord and to hopefully incite in the reader a better understanding of pain and suffering. If it does that in but one soul its publication has been justified. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was a man for all seasons. Over his lifetime, he spent himself for souls, transforming lives with the clear teaching of the truths of Christ and His Church through his books, his radio addresses, his lectures, his television series, and his many newspaper columns. The topics of this much-sought-after lecturer ranged from the social concerns of the day to matters of faith and morals. With an easy and personable manner, Sheen could strike up a conversation on just about any subject, making numerous friends as well as converts. During the 1930s and '40s, Fulton Sheen was the featured speaker on The Catholic Hour radio broadcast, and millions of listeners heard his radio addresses each week. His topics ranged from politics and the economy to philosophy and man's eternal pursuit of happiness. Along with his weekly radio program, Sheen wrote dozens of books and pamphlets. One can safely say that through his writings, thousands of people changed their perspective about God and the Church. Sheen was quoted as saying, "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be." Possessing a burning zeal to dispel the myths about Our Lord and His Church, Sheen gave a series of powerful presentations on Christ's Passion and His seven last words from the Cross. As a Scripture scholar, Archbishop Sheen knew full well the power contained in preaching Christ crucified. With St. Paul, he could say, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). Given their importance and the impact they had on society, it seemed appropriate to reintroduce these reflections once again on the rainbow of sorrow.

Download or read book Arriving at Amen written by Leah Libresco and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2012, media outlets from CNN to EWTN announced that Leah Libresco, a gifted young intellectual, columnist, and prolific blogger on the Atheist channel on Patheos, was converting to Catholicism. In Arriving at Amen, Libresco uses the rigorous rationality that defined her Atheism to tell the story behind that very personal journey and to describe the seven forms of Catholic prayer that guided her to embrace a joyful life of faith. As a Yale graduate, Libresco launched her writing career by blogging about science, literature, mathematics, and morality from a distinctively secular perspective. Over time, encounters with friends and associates caused her to concede the reasonableness of belief in God in theory, though not yet in practice. In Arriving at Amen, Libresco uniquely describes the second part of her spiritual journey, in which she encountered God through seven classic Catholic forms of prayer—Liturgy of the Hours, lectio divina, examen, intercessory prayer, the Rosary, confession, and the Mass. Examining each practice through the intellectual lens of literature, math, and art, Libresco reveals unexpected glimpses of beauty and truth in the Catholic Church that will be appreciated by the curious and convinced alike.

Download or read book The Shattering of Loneliness written by Erik Varden and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-09-20 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The experience of loneliness is as universal as hunger or thirst. Because it affects us more intimately, we are less inclined to speak of it. But who has not known its gnawing ache? The fear of loneliness causes anguish. It prompts reckless deeds. To this, every age has borne witness. No voice is more insidious than the one that whispers in our ear: 'You are irredeemably alone, no light will pierce your darkness.' The fundamental statement of Christianity is to convict that voice of lying. The Christian condition unfolds within the certainty that ultimate reality, the source of all that is, is a personal reality of communion, no metaphysical abstraction. Men and women, made 'in the image and likeness' of God, bear the mark of that original communion stamped on their being. When our souls and bodies cry out for Another, it is not a sign of sickness, but of health. A labour of potential joy is announced. We are reminded of what we have it in us to become. That our labour may be fruitful, Scripture repeatedly exhorts us to 'remember'. The remembrance enjoined is partly introspective and existential, partly historical, for the God who took flesh to redeem our loneliness leaves traces in history. This book examines six facets of Christian remembrance, complementing biblical exegesis with readings from literature, ancient and modern. It aims to be an essay in theology. At the same time, it proposes a grounded reflection on what it means to be a human being.

Download or read book Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks written by August Turak and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: August Turak is a successful entrepreneur, corporate executive, and award-winning author who attributes much of his success to living and working alongside the Trappist monks of Mepkin Abbey for seventeen years. As a frequent monastic guest, he learned firsthand from the monks as they grew an incredibly successful portfolio of businesses. Service and selflessness are at the heart of the 1,500-year-old monastic tradition's remarkable business success. It is an ancient though immensely relevant economic model that preserves what is positive and productive about capitalism while transcending its ethical limitations and internal contradictions. Combining vivid case studies from his thirty-year business career with intimate portraits of the monks at work, Turak shows how Trappist principles can be successfully applied to a variety of secular business settings and to our personal lives as well. He demonstrates that monks and people like Warren Buffett are wildly successful not despite their high principles but because of them. Turak also introduces other "transformational organizations" that share the crucial monastic business strategies so critical for success.

Download or read book Monastic Practices written by Charles Cummings and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2015-12-07 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For three decades, Monastic Practices has been a valued resource for English-speaking aspirants to monastic life. In this revised edition, updated and expanded, Charles Cummings, OCSO, explores the common practices of the monastic life in order to rediscover them as viable means of leading persons to a deeper encounter with God. How do monks and nuns occupy themselves throughout the day? Have they modernized their lifestyle or is it still cluttered with medieval customs? Could any of the monastic practices be of use to those outside the monastery? A certain wisdom is necessary to know how to use such practices and how to give oneself to them until they lead one to God. After long monastic experience, Cummings shows us how the ordinary things we do constitute our path to God. In the art of living life, he argues, we are always beginners, searching for God through our concrete circumstances and actions.

Download or read book No End to the Search written by Mark Plaiss and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2017-07-27 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A monastery is not just for monks. Laypeople enjoy visiting monasteries and learning from the women and men who live there. The silence of the monastery is a retreat from the clatter and bluster of city and suburb. In No End to the Search Mark Plaiss, married with a wife, children, and grandchildren, writes of his visits to various monasteries while striving to delve into the experience and meaning of monasticism. What is behind that wall? What is the appeal of monastic life? To what degree can such a life be lived by persons who are married, and why would they wish to do so? This book explores the relationship between the vowed life of monks and the life of laypersons who are unable to live such vows but desire to share just a sliver of it.

Download or read book Can You Drink the Cup written by Henri J. M. Nouwen and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last book published before Henri Nouwen's death in 1996, Can You Drink the Cup? has been translated into ten languages and sold more than 140,000 copies. Exploring the deep spiritual impact of the question Jesus asked his friends James and John, Nouwen reflects upon the metaphor of the cup, using the images of holding, lifting, and drinking to articulate the basics of the spiritual life. Written with the profound insight and clarity characteristic of his numerous best-selling books, Nouwen's deeply perceptive exploration of Jesus' challenging question has the power to pierce your heart, expand your spiritual horizons, and radically change your life.

Download or read book Steps Toward Inner Peace written by Peace Pilgrim and published by Friends of Peace PIlgrim. This book was released on 1996 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Church of Spies written by Mark Riebling and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The heart-pounding history of how Pope Pius XII -- often labeled "Hitler's Pope" -- was in fact an anti-Nazi spymaster, plotting against the Third Reich during World War II. The Vatican's silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope." But a key part of the story has remained untold. Pope Pius in fact ran the world's largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he sent birthday cards to Hitler -- while secretly plotting to kill him. He skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis. Under his leadership the Vatican spy ring actively plotted against the Third Reich. Told with heart-pounding suspense and drawing on secret transcripts and unsealed files by an acclaimed author, Church of Spies throws open the Vatican's doors to reveal some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy. Riebling reveals here how the world's greatest moral institution met the greatest moral crisis in history.

Download or read book Spirituality of Saint Paul The written by Frank J. Matera and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recognizing that we can’t actually imitate Christ, St. Paul calls us to use him as a model and imitate him in his conformity to the paschal mystery.

Download or read book The Art of Training Your Dog How to Gently Teach Good Behavior Using an E Collar written by Monks of New Skete and published by The Countryman Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fully train your dog in just six weeks with this revolutionary new method. The Monks of New Skete, long-time breeders of German shepherds and renowned trainers of all breeds and mixes, have codeveloped a successful new training technique. They and Marc Goldberg, who pioneered the approach, offer you and your canine companion a way forward using a game-changing tool: the invisible leash or electronic collar. Now in paperback, The Art of Training Your Dog presents their compassionate, efficient system along with helpful advice on choosing the best collar. At the right moment, using a light touch—that many humans can’t even feel—strategically refocuses your dog’s attention. This method helps you create effortless teaching moments that tie into your dog’s pack instincts and help strengthen your bond with your dog. In as little as six weeks, your pup can master good leash manners; obey basic commands, such as sit, down, and stay; stop problematic behaviors; and play safely off leash with consistent recall.

Download or read book Centering Prayers written by Peter Traben Haas and published by Paraclete Press. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Centering Prayers is a collection of inspired prayers crafted as brief preludes or postludes to periods of personal, contemplative prayer. Each radiates God’s love. Tailored for the seasons and months of the year, they integrate a spiritual theology with certain mystical depth. You will want to read them slowly and pray them quietly, one day at a time. "In Daily Companion, Peter Haas offers intimate prayers that rest on the deep rooted tradition of his faith. His vulnerability and longing lead you to your own journey. His fearless asking: Strengthen me in love. Draw me into your life, draw you to deeper places. He acknowledges, You are the shadow that crosses near in the silence of prayer. Praying these prayers with Haas becomes a daily chant reminiscent of those in monasteries the world over, kneeling in prayer in the silent hours before dawn." Paula D'Arcy Author of Gift of the Red Bird, Waking Up to This Day

Download or read book The Girl in the Road written by Monica Byrne and published by Crown. This book was released on 2014-05-20 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A debut that Neil Gaiman calls “Glorious. . . . So sharp, so focused and so human.” The Girl in the Road describes a future that is culturally lush and emotionally wrenching. Monica Byrne bursts on to the literary scene with an extraordinary vision of the future. In a world where global power has shifted east and revolution is brewing, two women embark on vastly different journeys—each harrowing and urgent and wholly unexpected. When Meena finds snakebites on her chest, her worst fears are realized: someone is after her and she must flee India. As she plots her exit, she learns of the Trail, an energy-harvesting bridge spanning the Arabian Sea that has become a refuge for itinerant vagabonds and loners on the run. This is her salvation. Slipping out in the cover of night, with a knapsack full of supplies including a pozit GPS, a scroll reader, and a sealable waterproof pod, she sets off for Ethiopia, the place of her birth. Meanwhile, Mariama, a young girl in Africa, is forced to flee her home. She joins up with a caravan of misfits heading across the Sahara. She is taken in by Yemaya, a beautiful and enigmatic woman who becomes her protector and confidante. They are trying to reach Addis Abba, Ethiopia, a metropolis swirling with radical politics and rich culture. But Mariama will find a city far different than she ever expected—romantic, turbulent, and dangerous. As one heads east and the other west, Meena and Mariama’s fates are linked in ways that are mysterious and shocking to the core. Written with stunning clarity, deep emotion, and a futuristic flair, The Girl in the Road is an artistic feat of the first order: vividly imagined, artfully told, and profoundly moving.

Download or read book Marian Apparitions in Ireland written by Brian Nugent and published by Brian Nugent. This book was released on 2015-03-07 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to describe and map the numerous Marian apparition sites around Ireland from the late 19th to the end of the 20th century. Beginning with an introduction on modern private revelation, by Peter Bannister, it includes chapters on Louise Lateau, Knock, Mount Melleray Grotto, Ballinspittle, Inchigeelagh, Denis O'Leary, Padraig Caughey and much more.