LITMIR.BIZ

Fruit of the Vine: A Biblical Spirituality of Wine is designed to help the reader grow in spirituality through reflecting on biblical vineyard stores, wine making, and wine as a metaphor for life. A spirituality of wine–categorized as a spirit–connects the spirit in wine to the universal spirit all share. Wine appeals to all five senses. Its bouquet can be smelled; its complexity, often compared to fruit, can be tasted; its shades of red, designating its body, can be seen as it clings to or quickly runs down the inside of a glass. One can hear the pop as the cork leaves the bottle's neck and the gurgle of the wine leaving the bottle as it is poured into a glass. Wine is a major sign of transformation in the process of growth from blossom, sunlight, and water to grapes, which are in turn broken apart, integrated into a whole, and fermented into alcohol. While the wine is aged, it undergoes even more transformation. People are transformed when they share this already multiple-times-transformed beverage. The vineyard and all it produces can reveal the divine if a person but opens his or her eyes to see.

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We are pilgrims on a journey; that means we will leave our home and move to another one at least once during our lifetime. This book is a resource for taking leave of a home, focusing primarily on the psychological and spiritual tasks of moving. Chapter 1 offers suggestions on how to take leave of one's home slowly. Chapter 2 presents occasions when one must quickly take leave of a home because of poor health, a health emergency, age, the death of a spouse, finances, a job transfer, etc. Because nature can precipitate a move, chapter 3 offers suggestions for taking leave of a home when one has been faced with such a disaster as a tornado, a flood, an earthquake, a fire, etc. Chapter 4 presents a short prayer service to be held on moving day. For every one of the entries a few verses of a Scripture text that is appropriate for the topic under consideration are given. A reflection follows. The reflection is followed by an activity, which involves the members of a family in some way. A prayer concludes the exercise.

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Prayer, the raising of the heart to God, is the heart of the Christian life. For the author of Luke's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, prayer is the habit of being in the presence of God. One of the primary ways Jesus is characterized in Luke's Gospel is that of a pray-er. Likewise in the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles are portrayed being in God's presence.
Prayer is the topic of this book; it highlights the passages where Jesus is found praying in the Gospel and where the apostles are found praying in the Acts. From the example Jesus gives in Luke's Gospel, and from the example the apostles give in the Acts of the Apostles, the reader concludes that prayer should be a part of the life of any Christian. If Jesus himself prayed–spoke and listened to God–then how can his followers do any less?
This book can be used during the Advent-Christmas Season, the Lenten Season, the Easter Season, and at any time one wants to hone his or her praying skills. This book is especially useful during the period of post-baptismal catechesis for those in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults with its focus on spiritual growth through prayer.

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Mary, the mother of Jesus, is known in the Catholic Church as Our Lady of Grace, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help, and more. Her various titles describe her various functions within the Church.
Many books on Mariology, the study or doctrine relating to the Virgin Mary, either treat the liturgical aspects or the devotional aspects of the topic. Here, they are brought together in one seamless presentation.
A good Mariology begins with a good Christology. Out of Mariology, firmly grounded in and flowing from Christology, there arise the liturgical and devotional aspects of the life of the Church. The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Litany of Loreto) summarizes the attributes of Mary of Nazareth from both liturgy and devotion. This book looks at those attributes individually and collectively, and demonstrates how they are contained in the solemnities, feasts, memorials, and optional memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary throughout the liturgical year in the Scripture texts. Where applicable, devotionals seeking Mary's intercession are included.

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Sometime around the age of fifty–or as early as forty and as late as sixty–most of us come to terms with our age. We recognize that we have lived out at least half of the time allotted to us, and that the second half may be shorter than the first! Coming to terms with our age is a process, one that usually involves denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. As we progresses through these stages, a spirituality of aging emerges. In this book, the reader is led on a quest to explore his or her own personal spirituality of aging. All the equipment–words of wisdom from the literature of the world's religions–has been gathered here. Each of the book's thirty-two exercises invites readers to reflect on a passage taken from the sacred literature of a world religion, then explore each passage for its meanings and applications through a meditative journaling question and a short prayer. While delving into the universal process of aging, the reader will be guided to discover his or her personal spirituality of aging.

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The presence of the Divine is everywhere. That is both a comfort and a challenge. We are consoled to know that God is with us, but being human we need a sign, something to touch, see, hear, taste, smell. We need something of the ordinary to name the non-touchable, invisible, unable-to-be-heard, tasteless, odorless God's presence with us. So, we employ metaphors, figures of speech which literally denote one kind of object in place of another, to suggest a likeness or analogy. In this book, the metaphors used for God come out of the Bible; they are the four elements of nature for the Greeks: wind, water, earth, and fire. Wind is a metaphor for God's Spirit. Water refers to God as the source of life. Earth, from which we are created, bears God's fingerprints and footprints. And fire reminds us of the God who purifies and draws all creation to himself. This nature spirituality book consists of four chapters–wind, water, earth, fire–each of which contains twenty, four-part exercises of prayer: a few verses from Scripture, a reflection, a journal exercise, and a concluding prayer.

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What is Born of the Spirit is Spirit provides reflections on Scripture texts associated with (Holy) Spirit and (human) spirit. Various aspects of Spirit and spirit are explored in one-hundred-five entries. The subtitle, A Biblical Spirituality of Spirit, indicates the ways biblical authors are inspired to present imaginatively what cannot be pictured: Spirit and spirit. This book attempts to recover the spirituality of biblical stories that narrate how the Spirit connects to spirit and the results of such connectivity. By exploring the use of biblical metaphors and similes we develop a spirituality of Spirit, the way human spirit is in the presence of the divine Spirit. Spirituality is Spirit connecting to spirit. It is Spirit giving birth to spirit (John 3:6).

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In Greek, the language of the New Testament, there are four words for love–agape, philia, storge, and eros–but no matter what the Greek word is, the English equivalent is always love. The most used Greek word for love in the NT is agape, the noblest word for self-sacrificial love. The second-most used word for love in the NT is philia, brotherly or sisterly affectionate love between equals. The third word for love in Greek is storge, which refers to love that is based in one's nature, such as the natural affection of parents toward children. The fourth Greek word for love is eros, which does not appear in the NT. It is the love of sexual passion, intimate love, and romantic love. Each entry in all six chapters of this book follows a five-part exercise: (1) title; (2) a short quotation from Scripture; (3) a two-paragraph reflection on the use of love in the quotation; (4) a journal/meditation question to help the reader connect the reflection to his or her own life; and (5) a short prayer. The process is an exercise in spirituality–that is, the way one is in the divine's presence.

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All Things Mary provides reflections on all Scripture texts associated with celebrations in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary during the liturgical year, in addition to biblical texts presented in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It honors the Mother of God as the exemplar of the Christian life by presenting an anthology of Marian reflections grounded in Scripture texts, litanies, and catechetical teaching about Mary. This book is designed to be used by individuals for private study and prayer and by ministers for study, prayer, and preaching. The goal of this book is to foster ordinary Marian spirituality as it flows from the Bible. An eight-part exercise is offered for each of the entries: (1) a title; (2) a footnote listing where a specific Scripture passage is used in Marian masses; (3) a text giving the notation for the biblical passage; (4) a few verses from the biblical text; (5) a two-paragraph reflection on the biblical text and its application to the Blessed Virgin Mary; (6) a second footnote identifying references to various post-Vatican II documents about Mary; (7) a journal/meditation question for personal appropriation of Mariology; and (8) a concluding prayer.

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Contemplation is a spiritual process involving long, thoughtful, steady, serious, and attentive consideration or observation in order to achieve closer unity with God and to discover and understand God's will for the contemplative. Contemplation gives rise to activity, and activity, in turn, gives rise to more contemplation. The result of contemplation is often called discernment, seeing clearly what is at first not very clear or obvious, understanding what is not immediately obvious, resulting in accuracy of spiritual perception. Divine discernment is contemplation in action; it results in insight, inspiration, and an awareness of inner truth upon which one must act. While there are countless models of contemplation leading to action, the ninth-century BCE prophets Elijah and Elisha are the examples used in this book. Both are seers, messengers, and heralds of the LORD. They appear in activity when they are needed, and they disappear into solitude and silence when they are not.

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