LITMIR.BIZ

Living the Mass presents the Holy Eucharist as the paschal mystery, the three divine Persons give themselves to us in love through the Mass as the ongoing work of redemption, and God is calling us to participate in that great work. We can live the Mass in everyday life by professing Christ, growing in virtue, overcoming sinful tendencies, increasing in knowledge of God, and exercising faith, hope, and love.
This book shows how the Mass is the source and summit of the Christian life, showing God's self-giving love for us by what God has done and is doing for us, encouraging the reader to imitate that love in response throughout their life.
"Read this account of a contemplative of Our Lady of Gethsemani gazing on the gift of the Holy Eucharist. Seeing the «self-giving love» of Jesus, Brother Christopher moves the reader from gratitude to conversion to joy." – Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, Archbishop of Louisville

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"What is all this contemplative prayer people are talking about these days? I never heard anything about that back in my parish. Is this really part of the Christian tradition or some New Age import from Buddhism or some other -ism?" The question came from a young man in college seriously considering a priestly vocation. The answer was a series of letters of spiritual direction that dealt – often radically – with Christian prayer both in general and then more intensively in its contemplative dimension. Those letters have been edited, re-written, expanded, and polished into Letters to Jacob: Mostly About Contemplative Prayer (with a nod to C.S. Lewis) – a rare look at the contemplative life from the inside!
"At last! A discussion of prayer – by an expert – that corrects errors, some of which are 500 or more years old. It does it gently, meaningfully, and above all, usefully. And all of this is done in the wondrous prose of Fr. John-Julian, OJN, steeped as he is in the great English Mystics." – Rev. E. Perren Hayes, retired priest, Biblical scholar
"John-Julian has spent a lifetime advising souls, and writes about prayer in a way that may be surprising – even unsettling – at first….This little book is perfect for those who don't understand why educated people of the 21st century continue to pray, and is a deep well of wisdom for those that do." – Royce D. Miller, Oblate of the Order of Julian of Norwich

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With inspiring stories of devotion, protection, healing, compassion, and faith, Faithfully Yours explores why we love animals so much. You will meet: A schnauzer that rescued his owner after a devastating lighting strike. A 40-foot whale that shocked her rescuers when she helped to save a baby whale trapped in a fishing net. A miniature horse that guides a blind teacher. A cat that comforts stressed-out college students.
As well as people who love animals in extraordinary ways: The dog trainer who transformed an unwanted shelter dog into a Broadway star. The man who became a voice for the humane treatment of farm animals. The woman who gave up everything to help street dogs and, in turn, learned lessons of trust and love.
Faithfully Yours will warm your heart and enhance your appreciation of God's wonderful creation. For anyone who's ever loved, and known the love of, a special animal.

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Danielle Shroyer went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land at a time when she was tired of wordy prayers. She entered a church intending to pray only silently, focusing on the feeling of the place and God’s presence within it. What happened instead was that the Lord’s Prayer bubbled up, simple, open, and profound. Thus began a rhythm that lasted for two weeks of pilgrimage, as she traveled from place to place, each important for understanding the life of Jesus, praying the Lord’s Prayer again and again. The rich intersection of place, Bible, and prayer, deeply rooted in faith, provide the reader with an experience far beyond a simple tour of the Holy Land. It creates an atmosphere in which Jesus comes alive.

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Sir Wyvern Pugilist’s long-awaited guide is a must-read for every Dragon Slayer or Dragon-Slayer-to-be. He guides reader through the stories of the Ancient Manual (a/k/a the “Bible”) and eventually shines a brilliant light on the treasures hidden deep within. He answers your questions about the dragons, and why we’re here with them, and where to find rescue from their deathly clutches. Read his manual alongside the Ancient Manual—and you will never be the same. This book tells bible stories in an exciting and new way, inspiring kids of all ages to go deeper in understanding the bible.
As a young man, Wyvern Pugilist joined the secret order of Dragon Slayers, through which he continues to fight the murderous beasts and labors to train a new generation to do the same. He is also the author of Dragon Slayers, aided by popular children’s book author, Joyce Denham (Patrick: Saint of Ireland and others).
"Sir Wyvern Pugilist is a masterful storyteller…and this is the greatest story ever told. It will inspire you to be a great dragon slayer." —Dr. John R. Wood, Author of Ordinary Lives Extraordinary Mission
"This book is fun but serious, like G. K. Chesterton. Kids will learn a lot about the Bible and its message. I also expect it will be read-aloud by many families." —Tim Stafford, senior writer for Christianity Today and author of The Adam Quest
"Never have I been so impressed by a book that is steeped in religion and intended for young readers. Secrets of the Ancient Manual Revealed is a masterpiece written by a gifted author who clearly knows the secret of how to make the sacred teachings of the Bible come alive in a most meaningful and captivating manner. Highly recommended for Dragon Slayers of all ages!" —William C. Hammond, author of the Cutler Family Chronicles
"Hurray, Sir Wyvern Pugilist is back! The sequel to Dragon Slayers has arrived in Secrets of the Ancient Manual: Revealed! A much anticipated sequel to Dragon Slayers! You will not want to put this manual down once you pick it up! But, be warned some of the Dragons that were introduced to you in Dragon Slayers, will try to invade your mind and warn you to not read it…But, read you MUST! —On This Rock Christian Books & Gifts, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

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Winner’s original Mudhouse Sabbath has sold 45,000 copies, been translated into three languages, and spawned a successful video study series. After her conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity, Winner found that her life was indelibly marked by the rich traditions and spiritual practices of Judaism. She here presents eleven Jewish practices that can transform the way Christians view the world and God, including attentive eating, mourning, candle-lighting, and Sabbath-keeping. Since first publishing the book, Lauren has earned her MDiv and PhD, and become an Episcopal priest. Her thought has deepened and developed. This new Study Edition incorporates the complete original text plus primary texts from Jewish and Christian sources, and new material on each of the eleven topics. The result is a powerful work for Christians wanting to explore in depth and understand the Jewish origins of Christianity.
“At a time when we are so aware of the differences between Judaism and Christianity, Lauren Winner’s book on what we can learn from each other is so refreshingly welcome.”—Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

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Imagine that prayer could be like savoring a fine French meal—a flow of engaging courses featuring creative recipes, infusing all your senses, and enticing a return for more. Is it possible? Yes! David Brazzeal stirs together a love of French dining and his innovative prayer practices with a dash of international adventure to concoct an inspiring, reinvigorating prayer experience. Fun, yet profound, from confession to meditation, from observing to lamenting to praising, this book is full of practical ideas. Some can be used immediately; others take a lifetime to master. Some can be used with groups, while others work well throughout the day.
Brazzeal (Now Paul, He was a Servant) has written a cookbook for prayer—literally. After a first section that likens learning to pray to learning to cook and also notes the importance of food in the Bible, the author, who lives in Paris, divides the book into sections. Instead of soups, salads, sides, main courses, and desserts, these sections cover different types of prayer, such as thanksgiving, confessing, and asking, complete with “recipes.” Thus “praising” prayers, which are likened to hors d’oeuvre, contain “recipes” that call for praying by writing down all the verbs in Psalm 147 or by creating a physical movement that opens you to God. Likewise, recipes for “blessing” prayers include visualizing a friend in a setting that represents well-being and joy. The book’s voice is exuberant and the cookbook idea clever and appealing. Rather than a tome to be read and forgotten, the volume is formatted as a resource to keep handy, maybe even among cookbooks. The book might benefit from less autobiography and even more recipes, but it’s still a delectable read, supplemented by tasty quotes from Christian sages. —Publishers Weekly
“Pray like a gourmet—I love the metaphor. I know what it means to have been preoccupied by excellent food and wine. I have also learned to apply that strong desire to my personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to be nourished and sustained, even to the point of resilience. I shall keep this series of “tasteful disciplines” close at hand and consume them daily as I hunger and thirst after his righteousness.” —Graham Kerr, The Galloping Gourmet
“Pray Like a Gourmet is the gentlest, most readable, kindest guide to prayer one could ever hope to explore. Reading through its storied pages, one goes from ‘I never thought of that before’ to ‘I could do that’ to ‘I want to do that’ and back again. This one is an adventure for the believing heart.” —Phyllis Tickle, compiler, The Divine Hours
“If I were a beginning cook, I would want a guide who was experienced, flexible, enthusiastic, and sensitive to the questions and insecurities of an absolute beginner. And if I were a beginner in prayer, I would want David Brazzeal to be my teacher. Even as someone who has prayed for most of my life, I found Pray Like a Gourmet to be nourishing, delicious, and delightful.” —Brian D. McLaren, author and speaker (brianmclaren.net)
“From the moment you read the Menu, – oops, my error! Let's start again. From the moment you read the Table of Contents, Pray Like A Gourmet becomes a banquet for the soul and for the spirit. Since when has prayer been such a mouth-watering, taste-bud awakening experience? Like food and wine, artisan bread and spring-fed water, prayer in its' multiple forms is to be savored as it feeds our inner beings. Prayer is the place of communion and of life-giving union with God. No room for deprivation here. Come and most heartily feast!” —Pierre LeBel, author and teacher, Member of the Canadian Leadership Team and the NA Cities Leadership Team for YWAM.

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Professor and scholar, teacher of poets and poetry and convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, Donald Sheehan wrote these wide-ranging essays with a common commitment to understanding the ways in which the ruining oppositions of our experience can be held within the disciplines of lyric art—held “until God Himself can be seen in the ruins . . . and overwhelmingly and gratefully loved.” That is what Sheehan means by “the grace of incorruption.”
Part One weaves together themes from Sheehan’s life and pilgrimages; the spiritual art of Orthodox Saints Gregory of Nyssa, Isaac and Ephraim of Syria, and others; the literary art of Dostoevsky, Frost, Salinger, and contemporary poets including Jane Kenyon; and the philosophy of René Girard—examining the nature of penitence, prayer, personhood, freedom, depression, and the right relationship to the earth. Part Two delves into the poetics of The Psalms, especially LXX 118: a “poetics of resurrection.”
“I am dead certain that my response to this volume will chime with those of others whose work is held up to the light in The Grace of Incorruption. In one beautiful sentence after another, we must share the uncanny sense of never having understood our own hearts—not until we saw them reflected in the great heart (and mind) of this nonpareil commentator. Don Sheehan did not merely understand poetry; it was part and parcel of his own great soul." —Sydney Lea, Vermont Poet Laureate
“This was a very difficult book for me to read, as—now and again—my own tears blinded me to the page, and my own sobbing shook the papers in my hands. That is to say that Donald Sheehan’s journey—through both brokenness and beauty—to a deep and healing calm is at once personal and universal. With a poet’s visionary prose, a scholar’s acuity, and a pilgrim’s devotion, Donald Sheehan offers his reader access to the profound, compelling stillness at the heart of all things. He proves an exceedingly good guide along the way.”—Scott Cairns, author of Slow Pilgrim: Collected Poems
“In this beautiful book, Dostoyevsky, Orthodox liturgy, and Holy Fathers ancient and modern converse with Shakespeare, Frost, Salinger, Jane Kenyon and René Girard, sharing insight into such realities as memory, violence, depression, stillness, self-emptying love, personhood, and ‘the anthropology of the Cross.’ This conversation, a ‘spiritual ecumenism’ effected in art, gathers finally round the heart and source of all tradition of poetry and prayer in Christian East and West alike: the Psalms of David.
Orthodox Christian contributions to Anglophone poetry and poetics are few. Don Sheehan was not only a fine interpreter of poetry, but a poet himself, working in the medium of prose. The philosopher Malebranche famously wrote that ‘attentiveness is the natural prayer of the soul,’ and the Orthodox liturgy bids us continually to ‘be attentive.’ The essays in this volume capture that spirit of loving attentiveness – never lacking in form – for which Don ardently strove, and which characterized his approach to art, to other people, and to God.”—Fr. Matthew Baker, Fordham University

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Drawing from Scripture, church history, and the author's own ministry experiences among those who live on the margins, Vulnerable Faith bridges the often enormous gap between the conceptual ideal of faithfulness we talk about in church and a genuine, practical, radical obedience to Jesus.
"This book is an invitation to radical faithfulness found in willing vulnerability. Jamie Arpin- Ricci guides readers through a process of transformation, which exposes our pretense and promises new life through and beyond the cross of Christ.” —Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking
"The urgency of the invitation to each of us in Vulnerable Faith cannot be ignored. In a world of terror and hatred, of protection and retaliation, it is a bold and important reminder to Christians of the radical nature of our witness as followers of Jesus. He is the Word made flesh, the vulnerable incarnation of God's love for each and every one of us." —Jean Vanier, from the foreword
"In Vulnerable Faith the life of St. Patrick meets the spirituality of the Twelve Steps. It is a surprising, potent and challenging combination, one that Jamie Arpin-Ricci uses to profound effect in setting before us a vision of Christian community characterized by loving vulnerability, sacrificial generosity and a radical welcome of the stranger into the Shalom of God's Kingdom. An inspiring and life-changing book." —Richard Beck, author Unclean and Slavery of Death
"If you are intrigued by the life of early Celtic leader St. Patrick, and if you see a need for transformation in your own life, Vulnerable Faith is your invitation to take some time to explore what greater faithfulness in the people of God might look like. Jamie juxtaposes the life of St. Patrick with lessons learned from AA’s Twelve Steps in a way that is refreshing and challenging. This is not for the faint-hearted but for those who want to take steps deeper into the love of God. I loved it, was inspired by it and recommend it to all who take their faith seriously.” —Christine Sine, author of Return to Our Senses
"Using an array of examples that is both wide and deep, Jamie Arpin-Ricci draws us into a very deep place. This place of questions, trembling, fear, hope, faith, is at the heart of our vulnerability. It is in this very place that we most intimately find God and one another"—Fran Rossi Szpylczyn, Catholic blogger, contributed to Homilists for the Homeless
"Jamie is an expert storyteller who with compassion and imagination seamlessly weaves together the old and the new, the saint and the sinner, the practical wisdom of the 12 Steps with the timeless wisdom of the Scriptures. But his greatest feat in Vulnerable Faith is showing how transformative spirituality can be woven into the context of restorative community, where it belongs. Using the life of Saint Patrick as his guide, Jamie paves a way for all of us – on our own and in community – to approach a vulnerability worthy of our redemption. Vulnerable Faith is a primer on authentic community, a personal devotional book, and an insightful look into the human heart, all in one" —Amy Hollingsworth, author of The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers and Runaway Radical
"Jamie Arpin-Ricci knows only too well that spiritual growth and transformation are the result of God’s grace. In 'Vulnerable Faith', he masterfully shows how the 12 Steps help facilitate an openness to God with the life of St. Patrick as our guiding example. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in teaching that has stood the test of time."—Albert Haase, O.F.M., author of Catching Fire, Becoming Flame: A Guide for Spiritual Transformation
"In Vulnerable Faith, Jamie Arpin-Ricci has found a unique way to blend the life struggles of St Patrick to help us restore our own dilemma of neglected discipleship. Referencing the 12 Steps model, the reality of Patrick's life and the need for Christ in our own lives slowly unfolds into an understanding of how Christ fulfills shalom in all the areas of our lives. We all need this book".—Randy Woodley, author of Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision
"Vulnerable Faith is a wonderfully creative exploration of missional life that draws from the story of St. Patrick as well as contemporary culture. The artful retelling of the story of St. Patrick is done with imagination and care. Each chapter's installment of the story of the beloved saint is followed by theological reflection that probes and prods the reader toward holiness. This book is a fine resource for clergy, congregations, and missional communities."—Elaine Heath, author We Were the Least of These
"In this age of self-reliance and faux invincibility, the spiritual discipline of vulnerability is a rare thing indeed. Gently and yet provocatively, Jamie Arpin-Ricci uses the life and teaching of St Patrick to show us that it is only through accepting our common weakness, our brokenness and our unequivocal need for grace that we can find the opportunity for fullness of life and true freedom." —Michael Frost, author of Incarnate
"With creativity, skill, vulnerability, and insight Jamie Arpin-Ricci reintroduces readers to the risk of Christian faith, the hope of prophetic witness, and the true reward of costly grace for our time. St. Patrick and the tenets of the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous serve as new and inspiring companions as Arpin-Ricci guides us along the path toward renewing our commitment to be missionary disciples of Christ.” —Daniel P. Horan OFM, author, The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton

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The Bible is ancient, enigmatic, and from a culture vastly different from our own. That’s why most of us find it hard to read. So how can we understand its importance in the church, and how can it enrich our lives? Central to lectio divina is the conviction that to read the Bible faithfully and prayerfully is to learn an ancient art—by entering into dialogue with the God who speaks to each of us through the biblical page. Enzo Bianchi touches on the essentials of the history of lectio, from the brilliant thinker Origen in the third century to the development of historical criticism in the modern era. He explains how to do lectio and how to understand and implement its four "moments”—lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio. This is not simply a book about how to approach the Bible, because Scripture ultimately wants to lead us beyond itself, to the truth and mystery of Christ that can never be captured fully in the written word.
"With his deep biblical wisdom, Bianchi is able to explore the whole Christian tradition of prayerful reading. St. Benedict mandates at least two hours of lectio divina a day for his monks, which is a considerable challenge for the modern person. But with Enzo as our guide, we can do it!” —Terrence G. Kardong, osb, editor of American Benedictine Review
"Enzo Bianchi was born in Castel Boglione, Piedmont, Italy, in 1943. In 1965, after graduating from the University of Turin, he founded an ecumenical monastic community—the Bose Community—of which he is still the prior. Friar Bianchi is a well-known author of books on lectio divina and the spiritual life, which have been translated into many languages. He has dedicated himself to the search for spirituality capable of giving life to Christians today and furthering communion among all people. The Bose Community now numbers over eighty brothers and sisters of various Christian traditions, and receives thousands of visitors annually.
Enzo Bianchi is one of the most significant Christian voices in Europe. He shows what can be achieved by an immersion in Scripture that involves both intellect and imagination alike, and—in common with all the most serious Christian voices of our day—he cannot be labeled as a partisan "liberal” or «traditionalist.” He offers exactly what the monastic voice at its truest has always offered: a way into the heart of our ecclesial and social questions that is honest, patient, and sensitive. His is a perspective that the English-speaking Christian world should welcome enthusiastically.» —Rowan Williams, Magdalene College, Cambridge
"I hope that these pages may be heard as a simple yet faithful echo of my personal experience, my community’s path and my journey with the church. For years, I have broken the bread of the Word for the brothers and sisters in my community. Much of what I say here comes from that experience. It also comes from many years of preaching the Word to listeners from all walks of life. I would like to see this book ultimately as no more than a small gesture of gratitude to those witnesses of the Word whom the Lord has allowed me to meet, those «martyrs” of faith who have found ways to express all the richness of the Gospel in their lives. Only those people who put God’s Word into practice have really heard it. They are the ones who truly understand the biblical text, because they obey without delay the word Christ never tires of speaking to us. The sequential sancti evangelii for today—today’s Gospel—is not the product of brilliant scholarly research. It is the life and witness of God’s holy people, those who are faithful disciples of the Word made flesh, their Lord.» —Enzo Bianchi

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