Thanks to our sponsors this week: Ave Maria Press, Franciscan Media, Ignatius Press, Our Sunday Visitor, Peanut Butter and Grace, Sophia Institute Press, and Word Among Us Press.
This week's giveaway:
Sacred Silence: Daily Mediations for Lent
By Phyllis Zagano (Franciscan Media)
About the book:
Phyllis Zagano explores the way both silence and stillness can help you turn your heart and mind to God in a more intentional way during Lent. She shows how important it is to detach ourselves from the busyness of everyday life to find stillness and silence—even if only for a few minutes of prayer each day. Each day’s meditation contains:
• The lectionary readings for the day
• A brief quote from one of the readings
• A meditation
• A prayer, or grace, for the day
40 Days, 40 Ways: A New Look at Lent
By Marcellino D'Ambrosio (Servant Books)
About the book:
Move beyond the typical “giving something up” and take a fresh look at Lent. Marcellino D’Ambrosio offers forty ideas, activities, and devotions designed to strengthen your spiritual life and help Catholics get the most out of Lent. Each idea is accompanied by a short reflection expanding its deeper spiritual meaning and a challenge to help you incorporate that idea in practical ways.
Some of the forty ways are:
• Get up earlier and spend your first fifteen minutes of the day thanking God for the gift of life and offering your day to him
• Find a biography of a saint you like and read it during Lent
• Pray each day for the intentions and health of the Holy Father
• While driving, turn off the radio and use your time to listen to a Catholic radio program or CD
• Spend thirty minutes in Eucharistic Adoration during the day
The Joyful Spirit of Padre Pio: Stories, Letters, and Prayers
By Patricia Treece (Servant Books)
About the book:
One of the most popular and beloved saints of the twentieth century, Padre Pio was a man of contrasts. His supernaturally based joyful spirit existed mysteriously alongside heavier emotions, including spiritual desolation. Truly, the joy of the Lord characterized his entire life.
This new compilation contains selections from popular titles, breathing new life into classic offerings and creating a devotional with short, inspirational entries. Readers will be delighted by:
- Stories from Padre Pio’s life
- Excerpts from his letters and other writings
- Prayers that reflect the spirit of Padre Pio
Attractively packaged in a portable size, The Joyful Spirit of Padre Pio is designed to appeal to both men and women. This hardcover book would make the perfect gift for a loved one.
Joyful Witness: How to Be an Extraordinary Catholic
By Randy Hain (Servant Books)
About the book:
You want others to know the peace you’ve discovered as a Catholic, and you want to have an impact for good in the lives of others. But how? Can a busy, ordinary person really make a difference? Hain shares creative ways you can live your faith and share it with others—often with extraordinary results.
Joyful Witness introduces you to real Catholics who have decided to follow God down some surprising paths. You’ll be inspired to be extraordinary, too!
A Catholic Gardener’s Spiritual Almanac: Cultivating Your Faith Throughout the Year
By Margaret Rose Realy (Ave Maria Press)
About the book:
A Catholic Gardener’s Spiritual Almanac is the first book to offer gardeners spiritual resources and creative projects that connect a love of gardening with their Catholic faith. Margaret Realy, master gardener, retreat leader, and writer, presents this spiritual companion that follows the natural and liturgical seasons and offers gardening tips and easy-to-do projects for each month of the year.
A Catholic Gardener’s Spiritual Almanac explores the riches of the Catholic spiritual tradition in conjunction with all things gardening. Realy offers meditations and scripture passages on a spiritual theme for each month, reflections on the liturgical seasons and feasts, and delightful stories of saints who have special relevance to gardening. Readers also will discover the connection between the conversion of St. Paul and the canna seed, how the flight into Egypt was saved by a miraculous growth of seed, and the many miracles that made St. Brigid patroness of farmers.
Additionally, there are creative ideas for garden design, practical tips and techniques, suggestions on unique plants, and a table of biblical plants. Gardeners at any level of proficiency and dedication will be enchanted by what they find in this extraordinary book.
Could You Not Watch with Me One Hour? How to Cultivate a Deeper Relationship with the Lord through Eucharistic Adoration
By Fr. Florian Racine (Ignatius Press)
About the book:
Fr. Florian Racine offers us a beautiful formation guide on Eucharistic adoration that will help us to practice it in all its depth, and with a missionary perspective.
God has made himself particularly close to mankind in Jesus his Son. The redemptive Incarnation of his Son is how God reconciles mankind with himself. The memorial of the Passover of Christ is therefore at the heart of our relationship with God. In the Blessed Sacrament, the resurrected Jesus is really present and acting; he draws all mankind into his filial relationship with the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, following the plan of God, Catholics put the Eucharist at the heart of their lives, and take time to adore Jesus in the Holy Sacrament. The adorer wants to abide within the dynamic life of the Eucharist, just as he desires that the Eucharist transform his whole life. Adoration and Eucharistic life transform believers into the image of Christ.
The author invites us on an itinerary, a journey of faith, in fifty-two stages—as many as the weeks in a year. He starts by showing how the Word of God is made present in the Eucharist, and then he invites us to mature in faith and to be transformed by a greater communion with Christ.
Meditations for Lent
By (Sophia Institute Press)
About the book:
Lent is hard, and it's so frustrating when we lose focus and surrender to our weaknesses time and time again. That's why all the great saints encouraged meditation as a sure-fire way to place yourself in God's presence and grow closer to Him. Through meditation, we take our eyes off ourselves, and we walk faithfully in the hands of God.
There is no better time to begin—or to renew—the habit of meditation than during the Season of Lent. If you want to combine the spiritual benefits of a holy Lent with the bountiful harvest that regular meditation brings, then your soul is crying for Meditations for Lent. These brief but powerful meditations are collected from the voluminous writings of 17th Century Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet.
Bishop Bossuet is considered to be among the best homilists in the history of the Church, and his great piety and eloquent writings have been cherished by Catholics for hundreds of years.Now they're available to you in English, for the very first time! In these pages, Bishop Bossuet will take you on a stunning inner pilgrimage to an unforgettable encounter with Jesus' tender love for you as he freely gave His life for you on the Cross.
Each meditation is short, and it is a robust complement to the daily readings at Mass during the Lenten season. Read Meditations for Lent and you won't arrive at Easter Mass distracted, exhausted, and frazzled, having neglected your sacrifices and your ordinary prayers, too. Instead, you'll find yourself walking joyfully into church, ready and eager to adore the resurrected King.
And your soul will be what it should be: a fit dwelling place for the Redeemer.
What Jesus Saw from the Cross
By A. G. Sertillanges (Sophia Institute Press)
About the book:
Never has there been spiritual reading as powerful as What Jesus Saw from the Cross, the book that will intensify your love of Jesus by burning the events of His Passion into your memory and imagination.
Written early in this century by Rev. A. G. Sertillanges, a priest who lived in Jerusalem, this acclaimed devotional classic gives you vivid and dramatic details not included in the Gospel: With Jesus, you'll be jostled by crowds as you enter Jerusalem, choke on the dust of the narrow streets, experience the exotic oriental smells of the city at festival time, share the Last Supper with the disciples, stare into the face of Jesus' accusers, and be there as He dies on the Cross.
Do you remember when Jesus begged His disciples to "watch one hour" with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane? With this book, you can watch not just one but many hours with Jesus.
Read it slowly and prayerfully. The vivid details and the gripping narrative will soon take over: you'll find yourself engaged in a personal retreat, an interior pilgrimage, and a profound meditation on the love and sufferings of Jesus on the Cross.
The Illuminated Rosary: The Joyful Mysteries
Edited by Jerry Windley-Daoust (Peanut Butter & Grace Books)
About the book:
The Joyful Mysteries illuminates the joyful mysteries of the rosary in sixty works of sacred art—one for each bead—to help readers pray the rosary more meditatively:
- Each two-page spread includes a work of art on one page, and the words of the appropriate prayer on the opposite page.
- A string of “beads” at the bottom of the text marks progress through each decade.
- Each decade opens with a beautiful Scripture-based introduction to one of the joyful mysteries (the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, and Finding of Jesus) as well as suggested prayer intentions.
The Joyful Mysteries is perfect for children just learning to pray the rosary. Younger children can turn the page after each Our Father and Hail Mary, and older children can use the text on each page to help them lead the rosary and memorize the prayers.
The pages of The Joyful Mysteries feature the work of classical artists ranging from anonymous manuscript illuminators to such greats as Rembrandt, Rafael, Jordaens, Fra Angelico, and more. Selected works by contemporary artists round out The Joyful Mysteries, inviting readers to a deeper appreciation of the mysteries of the life of Christ.
The Joyful Mysteries is part of The Illuminated Rosary series
Becoming a Parish of Intentional Disciples
Edited by Sherry A. Weddell (Our Sunday Visitor)
About the book:
In her first book, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus, Sherry Weddell, cofounder of the Catherine of Siena Institute, captured the attention of Catholics across the globe as she uncovered the life-changing power that accompanies the conscious decision to follow Jesus as his disciple.
Now, in the groundbreaking Becoming a Parish of Intentional Disciples, she has gathered together experienced leaders and collaborators whose exceptional field-tested wisdom and enthusiasm for transforming Catholic parishes into centers of discipleship and apostolic outreach is both inspiring and practical.
The authors consider:
- The role of intercessory prayer in parish transformation
- How "fireside chats" can help a pastor connect with his parishioners and call them to personal discipleship and mission
- The co-responsibility of lay people andpastors in the work of making disciples
- The revolutionary impact of a discipleship approach to youth ministry
- How one parish successfully fostered a culture of intentional discipleship, and much more
As Sherry asks in her own chapter, "Are we willing to answer the call and pay the price necessary to become a new generation of saints through which God can do extraordinary things in our time?"
The Inward Path to God: A Prayer Journey with St. Teresa of Avila
By Wayne Simsic (Word Among Us Press)
About the book:
It’s been five hundred years since the birth of the great saint and doctor of the Church Teresa of Avila, yet her words and wisdom still have the power to leap across the barriers of time and culture.
In this book, author and retreat master Wayne Simsic introduces St. Teresa's map for the journey of prayer as outlined in her masterpiece The Interior Castle. First, Simsic invites the reader to focus on two fundamental themes for Teresa: turning inward and growing in the virtues of charity, detachment, and humility, which she considered essential for prayer. Then he describes the life of prayer as it unfolds in the dwellings of the interior castle. As readers move with Teresa into the deeper dimensions of life and love, they will discover their own path of prayer.
About the Author
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