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Langley offers comfort and encouragement to those struggling with recent loss or grief, helping them find language for complex emotions, and open their hearts through poetry.
Send My Roots Rain is a companion full of stories—sometimes wry and funny, always observant and accepting—for letting grief unfold and teach us. Langley invites a keen awareness that the passage through grief is the navigation of a narrow strait, requiring patience, skill, and worthy companions. These poems can be those companions on the journey.
Langley has carefully selected 60 poems and arranged them in a meaningful arc, beginning with the shock of early grief, leading through a sensitive exploration of a new inner space. She introduces each section, encouraging the ongoing embrace of the healing power of poems, writing, and entry into the grieving process. Each poem is followed by a brief meditation and quotation, with questions for contemplation, journaling, or group discussion.

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The poems in Dreaming of Stones are about what endures: hope and desire, changing seasons, wild places, love, and the wisdom of mystics. Inspired by the poet’s time living in Ireland these readings invite you into deeper ways of seeing the world. They have an incantational quality. Drawing on her commitment as a Benedictine oblate, the poems arise out of a practice of sitting in silence and lectio divina, in which life becomes the holy text. No stranger to poetry, Paintner’s bestselling spirituality titles have often included poems. In this first exclusively poetic collection, she writes with a contemplative heart about kinship with nature, ancestral connections, intimacy, the landscape, the unfolding nature of time, and Christian mystics. It can be read for reflection to spark the heart and to offer solace and inspiration in difficult times. Breath This breathing in is a miracle, this breathing out, release, this breathing in a welcome to the unseen gifts which sustain me each moment, this breathing out a sweet sigh, a bow to my mortality, this breathing in a holy yes to life, this breathing out a sacred no to all that causes me to clench and grasp, this breathing in is a revelation, this breathing out, freedom.

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People from all faiths and none at all find in the prayers of the mystical traditions expressions that speak to their deepest needs. Whether appealing for knowledge, seeking a sense of the love of God, or about asceticism, questions and doubts, or contemplation and action, each of these prayers (from Christian and other religious tradition sources) are vibrantly alive. Rooted in classic sources, each prayer in Essential Mystic Prayers is important, especially now, in the 21st century. This book collects some of the most beautiful of these prayers.
In flame of sunrise bathe my mind, that when I wake, clear-eyed may be my soul’s desire. —Fiona Macleod, Scotland, 19th century
How should the God who made heaven and earth come into me? Is there any room in me for you, my Lord, my God? —St. Augustine, Africa, 5th century Praise be to Thee, Most Supreme God, Thy Beauty do we worship, to Thee do we give willing surrender. – from Sufi morning prayers

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“May the Lord grant us all the hope of being saints.”
Pope Francis recently shared this prayer with the world – and that includes kids. You, too, can become a saint. You just have to open your heart and let God help you.
This book introduces you to a saint every day – people like you who made the choice to love Jesus and give their lives to him. These stories, prayers, and suggestions for becoming holy are designed with your needs and your life in mind. Once you get underway toward sainthood, you should go ahead and reveal these examples and teachings to the adults around you, too. We all need this!

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Luci Shaw is now 90 years old. The author of more than 35 collections of poetry and creative non-fiction over the last five decades, she describes her dedication to this art as a burden to “speak into a culture that finds it hard to listen.” This collection of new poems – all composed over the last two years – is in many ways the culmination of a stunning career. The joy and responsibility of the poet is to focus on particulars within the universe, finding fragments of meaning that speak to the imagination. Ordinary things may reveal the extraordinary for those willing to take time to investigate and ponder. In this fresh collection of poems, Luci Shaw practices the art of seeing, and then writing what she sees, realizing that beauty is often focused in the Eye of the Beholder. Eye of the Beholder is meant to awaken in readers awareness of the extraordinary in the ordinary. They will find in this collection a focus for meditation and be excited into their own imaginative writing.

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Love, loss, and the memory of an otherworldly encounter haunt the days and nights of a Pennsylvania dairy farmer. Barely old enough to vote when he loses his parents in an accident and inherits the family farm, Jess Hazel struggles to find meaning in the life he has always loved. Unable to shake the memory of a strange light he has seen hovering on the mountain peak above his valley home, he embarks on a pilgrimage, a halting inner odyssey riddled with fits and false starts. Like the creek which cuts through the Allegheny foothills of its Western Pennsylvania setting, hope runs through every chapter of this novel. The beauty of the story lies in the unlikely people Jess encounters along the way, transmitters of a grace which at first hounds, then quietly eludes. Through events both tragic and joyous, Jess is led on a journey of self-discovery through ancestral sin, unexpected love, loss, holiness, compassion, forgiveness and redemption.

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“Jean Vanier is a living saint.” —James Martin, SJ In April 2008, Jean Vanier led a simple retreat in Nyahururu, Kenya, a place recently shattered by violence between people, and bloodshed. People there were shaken. With frequent reference to the Gospel of John, this book comprises the talks that Vanier gave:
What Are You Looking For? The Cry of the Poor The Feast Is Ready To Live in Unity Be Open Encountering the Other The Washing of the Feet
“We all want to be noticed and loved by those who are famous, beautiful, and admired. To be loved by them gives us a good feeling. But to be loved by the poor, by those with disabilities, by those who have no place with the famous, the beautiful, and the admired, is the real place where unconditional love and healing will find us. How do we come to that practically in our lives? In this book, Jean Vanier gives us both a vision and a map. This is vintage Vanier.” —Ronald Rolheiser, author of The Holy Longing and Bruised and Wounded
"His powerful message and practice of love has the potential to change the world." —Jennifer Simpson, granddaughter of Sir John Templeton, announcing award of the 2015 Templeton Prize to Vanier
"Jean Vanier brings you in touch with a place inside yourself that few people have reached." —Henri J. M. Nouwen
"He opens our eyes and touches our hearts in speaking to us about the Savior." —Rev. Rawley Myers, author, Daily Reflections with Jesus
"The witness and teachings of Jean Vanier have never been so necessary." —Michael W. Higgins, author, Jean Vanier: Logician of the Heart

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The poor will always be with you, Jesus said – but that doesn’t mean Christians have ever figured out how to be with the poor.
Pope Francis has emphasized a vision of a “Church that is poor and for the poor.” But growing economic inequality continues to spread across the globe. This book takes a fresh look at the role of churches, and individual Christians, in relating to poverty and the poor among them. A strong focus is placed on the biblical and theological roots of the Church’s commitment to care for the poor.
At times praised as a virtue and blessed as a condition, poverty easily confuses us, and we are often left doing little to nothing to make a difference with and for the poor. As a social evil and a burden, poverty has elicited many kinds of reactions among the followers of Christ. It is time for Christians to figure out what to do about it.
Contributors include Pope Francis, Pheme Perkins, Sandra M. Schneider, and Thomas Massaro SJ.
“This book provides a wonderful, provocative theological framework for those of us who minister among our most vulnerable sisters and brothers. For anyone who regularly looks into the eyes of suffering, this book offers context, hope, and inspiration.”
—DONNA MARKHAM, OP, President and CEO, Catholic Charities USA
“The authors challenge us to see, hear, and think differently about the meanings of poverty, and to love passionately those whom Jesus loved—the poor.” —PROFESSOR M. SHAWN COPELAND, author of Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being
“As a good Franciscan, Ken Himes knows poverty from the inside and has taught well his student Conor Kelly. Here they draw together rich resources that call all of us to the poverty we need, and to resist needless poverty. This book is an ideal resource for conversation.” —THOMAS H. GROOME, author of What Makes Us Catholic, Sharing Faith, and many other books
Published in cooperation with the Church in the 21st Century Center, Boston College

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The various crises we experience in society and culture today, at their root, reveal a spiritual problem: a profound lack of meaning. The mystical truths revealed in scripture can surely help.
With Be Still and Listen it is possible to explore the contemplative dimensions of the Bible, either on your own or in a group setting, as you perhaps never have before.
Part One, “Entering the Desert,” introduces the reader to principles of awareness, deep listening, and contemplation as essential for “hearing” what Scripture has to say. Part Two details the importance of mystery and struggle in the process of healing from any past or present wounds. And Part Three explores the “undivided heart” that is possible when we come to know God in silence and stillness.
“Amos Smith’s unique voice is rooted in his long-term centering prayer practice and his international background. Be Still and Listen is a trumpet call to the inner treasures of contemporary Christian mysticism.” —RICHARD ROHR, author of Falling Upward
“In a lively, accessible, and masterful style Amos Smith unveils the mystical foundations of Christianity and the spiritual wealth found in Scripture.” – KYRIACOS MARKIDES, author of The Mountain of Silence
“Be Still and Listen promises to be a refreshing companion to your spiritual journey, helping you to deepen your capacity for presence of being, assisting you to live in the here and now, and guiding you along the mystical path with Christ.” —PHILEENA HEUERTZ, author of Pilgrimage of a Soul
“Amos Smith’s mystical writing builds bridges between Eastern and Western Christianity.” —ABBA YOHANNES, Ethiopian Orthodox monk

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A creative way to pray – across faith traditions – made new for all who seek a more intimate experience with God. Lushly illustrated.
Divided into three parts, the first part of Bead by Bead takes a historical look at prayer beads across centuries and cultures. Part Two showcases opportunities for heart/mind/body ways to “pray the beads without the beads,” including activities that are whimsical, ordinary, and spirited, to inspire readers to create their own. The book concludes with an invitation to contemplate one’s own life as a rosary. Readers are encouraged to draw their own set of prayer beads and, with discernment and prayer, label each bead. They then can keep and literally hold their life in their hands in prayer, gratitude, and awe.