General

"The Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions" explores a wealth of customs and traditions celebrated by Catholic families all over the world, including every liturgical season; Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time...

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CAUGHT SPEECHLESS or nervous when someone asked you to open with a prayer? If so, these 150 prayers will help you to begin or end a meeting, a class, a community event, or any other type of gathering. The prayers touch on ten themes essential to Christian life, and each prayer may be adapted to your unique needs. Each of the prayers includes a passage from the Bible. This feature adds an important dimension to prayer: not only do those praying direct their attention to God, but they also proclaim God’s word. The themes of the prayers are as follows: 1. Ask and Receive 2. Be Reconciled 3. Listen, and Speak Truth 4. Love Is the Key 5. Make Room for Hope 6. Offer Thank and Praise 7. Seek Wisdom 8. Servant Leadership 9. Set Our Eyes on Faith 10. Take Courage Carl Koch is an editor for Saint Mary’s Press. He is also the author of, among other books, the original 150 Opening and Closing Prayers, Creating a Christian Lifestyle, and A Popular History of the Catholic Church. ..

Discerning Disciples Listening for God's Voice in Christian Initiatiion Author Donna Steffen. This volume is an invaluable reference for sponsors and other guides who journey with RCIA candidates. It describes the decision-making process and how people have experienced it...

HeartPeace is written with great compassion…While Dick Gilbert shares the national bereavement circuit of lectures and training with a host of national figures, he shares more than just the facts and figures about ‘grief talk.’ He is a modern day disciple of the healing process; he is a believer that there is more power in that which lifts up than anything that could weigh us down. - Dr. Patrick Del Zoppo, clinical thanatologist and national leader in bereavement ministry HeartPeace is like having an open-ended discussion with a compassionate and brilliant clergyperson where we reap a harvest of redemptive insight, solace, and inspiration. What a pilgrimage from suffering to hop and healing! - Earl Grollman, rabbi and author of living When a Loved One Has Died Whether you’re mad at God or not, this gentle book will give you a new perspective on the peace that can soften the pain of grief. A gracious clarification of the difference between “religion” ..

These 30 services offer ministers to the sick, both professional and volunteer, a convenient and simple way to celebrate prayer and ritual experiences for residents in nursing homes and assisted care facilities and for elderly hospital patients. They can be used with two or three people or with thirty, depending on the situation in each facility. Services include prayers, hymns and songs, sung responses, petitions, litanies, scripture readings, and a great variety of ritual responses, including blessings with water and oil, the blessing of throats, and praying the rosary. Service titles include: Festival of Lights; Psalm Prayers for the weeks of Lent; Come, Spirit, Come; New Year’s Day; Feast of St. Blaise; Blessing of St. Joseph’s Table, and memorial Service. Clear directions and materials needed are included with every service. ..

Linda Schubert is a former member of the pastoral advisory board of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the Diocese of San Jose, California, actively involved in writing, workshops and prayer ministry...

Continuing the tradition of centuries, The Divine Office is the Catholic liturgy for morning prayer, prayer during the day, and evening prayer, for every day of the year. Volume Two of the Divine Office covers the period from Lent to Pentecost, and includes all the prayers, as well as readings. This edition comes in an attractive binding with ribbon marker. The Divine Office is the official text for the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, as well as various countries across Africa and Asia...

"Let Us Pray" was first published in 1987 as a compendium of prayers covering a number of concerns for which people wish to pray. It proved so popular, that after a distribution of over 25,000 it was decided after a few years to update and publish it again...

Handbook for Today's Catholic, popular for decades, is now even more valuable. This revised and updated edition includes a new introduction, the current list of the Holy Days of Obligation observed in the United States, the prayer for vocations favored by Pope John Paul II, a new section on how to prepare for a sick call, and much more. Handbook for Today's Catholic, Revised Edition, retains all the features of the previous edition presented in easy-to-understand language, with content divided into the following four sections: Beliefs, Practices, Prayers, and Living the Faith...

The extraordinary story of how,among the Masai in Tanzania, an American missioner "rediscovers" the gospel message. Dear Bishop,...Suddenley I feel the urgent need to cast aside all theoories and discussions, all efforts at strategy and simply go to these people and do the work among them for whcich I came to Africa...... just go and talk to them about God and the Christian message. Outside of this, I have no theory, or plan, no strategy, no gimmick, no idea of what will come...I feel rather naked. I will begin as soon as possible.. Vincent Donovan, a Spiritan priest, spent seventeen years in Tanzania before returning to ministry in the United States. He died in 2000..

Loss can take many forms: a missing assignment, the loss of a friend, an accident, and the loss of a parent. One of the most difficult and delicate things a cate-chist has to do is be present to a teen during times of loss... ..

Marriage failure, divorce and remarriage have become ingrained features of western society and affect every person and every marriage. Andrew Cornes draws upon his profound Bible knowledge and wide pastoral experience to tackle 99 Questions About Divorce & Remarriage. They include: -When can it be right for a Christian to separate? -Does God permit me to remarry? -How does God view my second marriage? -How can I learn to forgive? Christ can support marriages that have almost collapsed. He can forge a new fulfilling life for the person devastated by separation and divorce, and can bring positive hope where there seemed only anger and contempt. This book is a popular version of the author’s Divorce and Remarriage, which received wide praise: ‘Indispensable reading for everybody who is anxious to develop a Christian mind on these topics. It is thorough, clear, faithful, realistic and passionate.’ - REV. DR JOHN STOTT ‘The hard questions and difficult cases are not dodged and Scripture i..

A shorter version of the Morning and Evening Prayer, in a handy format, suitable for anyone wanting to pray regularly on their own or in a group setting. Shorter Morning and Evening Prayer is part of the Divine Office range, and is an edited version of Morning and Evening Prayer. It is designed specifically for people who want to pray alone and are seeking a regular, structured cycle of prayer. Being just the bare bones of the Divine Office, it will not be as daunting for the novice reader to get to grips with. As the user's prayer life matures, they then have the foundation to allow them to move on to the fuller Divine Office. It includes the same four-week cycle of the fuller Office with Psalms, Scripture Readings and Intercessions...

Decisions, decisions - we have to make hundreds of them every day! And, as the range of choices we make increases, so too does the accompanying stress... This handy book seeks to make the process more fruitful, more focused and less stressful. It uses a few simple tools that combine the wisdom of ancient spiritual traditions with the common sense of the 21st century and looks at questions such as: * How do we decide what choices to focus on? * How do we learn to be true to ourselves? * How do we implement our choices? * Can we change course if we get things wrong? Through offering suggestions - not rules - and short, accessible chunks of text, Margaret Silf encourages us to trust our own hearts and minds...

What is prayer? Why do we do it - or wish we could do it? How do we begin to turn the deepest stirrings inside us into the words and the silences of prayer? When we pray, who are we praying to? Where should we pray? Is prayer just as effective and real on the bus or at work as it is in church? Is prayer for the bad days as well as the good days? These are just some of the questions Margaret Silf explores in this handy book. Written in short chunks of text for the reader to dip in and out of, this book encourages the reader to begin to find their own answers to these questions. Publishing at the same time as On Making Choices by the same author...

Mary is honored under many titles and in many images. But perhaps none is as famous and beloved around the world as the beautiful icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. There is rich symbolism in each element contained in that painting. Have you ever looked closely at the face of Mary, her hands, or the hands of the child Jesus? This unique set of novena prayers considers nine different aspects found within this portrait of the Madonna and Child, and offers a guided meditation with prayers for each of the nine elements. Meditative Novena To Our Mother of Perpetual Help is a beautiful deluxe pamphlet with full-color illustrations that will not only help you understand and appreciate the beloved icon, but will also deepen your devotion to Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help...