LITMIR.BIZ

This book, a primer, serves as an introduction to a devotional practice known as the Rosary: Rosary means garden of flowers or necklace of beads. The word bead comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning prayer. Thus, the rosary is a garden of prayer or a necklace of prayer. After explaining how one prays the Rosary, the author presents eighty reflections on what is known as the Mysteries of the Rosary: four sets of five mysteries, each with four options for each of the twenty mysteries. Each entry contains a Scripture verse from The Christian Bible (New Testament) that illustrates the mystery under consideration, a Celebrated notation indicating when the mystery appears on the annual liturgical calendar, a short reflection, and a suggested focus for the pray-er in making a personal application of the reflection as he or she mediates on the specific decade of the rosary. Each entry leads the pray-er down a path to deeper insight into the mystery being prayed.

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Christ Our Passover Has Been Sacrificed examines the paschal mystery as it is presented throughout the liturgical year in The Roman Missal. After offering an in-depth definition of the paschal mystery the author guides the reader through Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, and more, mining the riches of paschal mystery spirituality. Biblical accounts interpret the death and resurrection of Jesus; liturgical texts in The Roman Missal present a rich seam of spiritual truth for the reader to apply to his or her life. By remembering Jesus' death and resurrection, Roman Catholics celebrate daily dying and rising to new life. The author serves as a guide through paschal mystery spirituality, while also noting the mystical theology–reflections on experiences of God–represented by the prayers in The Roman Missal, particularly those dealing with Jesus' suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Spirit. Through reflections and meditation questions, readers are invited to name their own personally transforming mystical experiences, which connect them to God in deep levels and move them outward into the community to share spirituality.

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There are multiple names given to Jesus in the Bible. Fifty of them are presented in this book, Names for Jesus. In the ancient world, a name had a meaning; in this book's entries one can discover the meaning of a name for Jesus, which often indicates one of his functions as understood by a biblical author.
Often, both religious and spiritual people look for some reading material that will guide them through the Advent and Christmas seasons. Here is an ecumenical approach; this book is general enough for any Christian.
Each of the entries consists of five parts: 1) the name; 2) a short quotation from Scripture, which contains the name given in the title; 3) a reflection exploring the meaning of the name; 4) a journal/meditation section to help the reader make connections between the reflection and his or her own life; and 5) a short prayer.
Anyone can finish the spiritual journey of Advent and Christmas enriched for having spent time with Names for Jesus.

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He was born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., on December 31, 1943, in Roswell, New Mexico. The general public knows him better as John Denver, trained architect, international performer, a man who sings about his experiences of living, and, in doing so, reveals his spirituality. On October 12, 1997, at the age of fifty-three, Denver died in Monterey Bay, California, in a solo airplane crash. Through the lyrics of his songs on more than sixty albums, Denver reveals his spirituality, that invisible force that motivates or inspires his personal spirit and gives insight and meaning to what he did and why he did it. This book is designed to guide the reader through an analysis of John Denver's spirituality, as it is gleaned and categorized according to major and minor themes that emerge from the lyrics of his songs. The reader is invited to experience Denver's spirituality through a reflection section at the end of each chapter.

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"The glory of the LORD," a phrase used over one hundred times in the Bible, describes God's greatness and transcendence. This complex theological concept exhibits several natural elements which describe a theophany, a personification of God in the forces of nature. Thus, a theophany–the appearance of God in a visible form–is the physical manifestation of the divine presence most frequently associated with a storm. Of all the biblical accounts that illustrate the glory of the LORD, the narrative of Moses' encounter with God on Mount Sinai (Horeb) contains nineteen of the twenty-one elements that reveal the glory of the LORD: mountains, sacred numbers, God's voice, people's (person's) response, cloud, water, thunder, lightning, trumpet blast, smoke, fire, earthquake, terms of the event (covenant), sign, transformation of witnesses, altar, feast (meal), wind, light and darkness, jewels (precious stones), and dreams. Each element is examined closely using biblical texts that best illustrate it.

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Every person has seen a tree and maybe planted or climbed one! In all world religions, various trees are considered sacred. Trees have the ability to help us reach wholeness if we learn their wisdom and integrate it into our lives. This abecedarian–a book whose contents are in alphabetical order–explores the spiritual growth that is possible by reflecting on the wisdom of woody plants, which help humans experience the divine. In these pages you can explore trees from Acacia to Zaqqum. For each of the forty entries, the author presents a text identifying the tree, a reflective study, a question for journaling or personal meditation, and a concluding prayer. Some trees you may have heard about, and some may be new to you. The spiritual life is enhanced by the trees that surround and share the earth with us while also disclosing the divine to us.

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The Lent-Easter seasons cover one-fourth of the year, or 25 percent of the liturgical year. One of the many things we do as Roman Catholics is sing Lenten and Easter hymns. During Lent, we express our sorrow for sin as we pray, fast, and give alms. During Easter, we shout Alleluias at the end of many hymns to express our praise of God for having raised Christ from the dead. Thus, those who observe Lent and Easter sing religious hymns written for each season. The sounds of Lenten hymns in minor keys give way to Easter hymns in major ones.
This book presents an exercise for every day of Lent and Easter that combines the daily Scripture texts from the Lectionary for Mass with religious hymns sung during Lent and Easter. It is designed to be used by individuals for private prayer or by families for public prayer. A six-part exercise is offered for every one of the 135 entries: (1) the liturgical day, (2) the daily Scripture texts, (3) a verse from a traditional hymn, (4) a reflection, (5) a question for personal meditation, and (6) a concluding prayer.

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Almost every person has owned a pet at one time or another in life or known someone who has. In all world religions, animals serve as spirit guides; there is spirituality to animal and human dialogue. Animals have the ability to help us reach wholeness if we learn their wisdom and integrate it into our lives. This abecedarian–a book whose contents are in alphabetical order–explores the spiritual growth that is possible by reflecting on the wisdom of creatures, which serve as spirit guides in all world religions and help humans experience the divine. The author explores animal spirit guides in the Bible, The Quran, The Dhammapada, The Rig Veda, The Analects of Confucius, stories from Aesop and Grimm, and much more. In these pages you can explore bears and bees, eagles and elephants, ravens and roosters, tadpoles and turtles, and many more. For each of the thirty-two entries, the author presents a text identifying the animal spirit guide, a reflective study, a question for journaling or personal meditation, and a concluding prayer. The spiritual life can be nourished in many ways; in this book it is enhanced by animal spirit guides.

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The Roman Catholic Church issued its first, modern, one-volume Lectionary–a book of biblical texts assigned for every day of the year–in 1970 in response to the Second Vatican Council's call for a greater fare of Scripture during Mass. By the time the Lectionary was revised and published between 1998 and 2002, it had grown to four volumes. Because of the revision, many weekday celebrations of saints were assigned texts that had not been so in the 1970 Lectionary.
Because of the Lectionary's success, many other Christian denominations adopted and adapted the Lectionary to fit their own needs. Thus, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and many others began to use the Lectionary. In those churches that have weekday services, the same Scripture texts may be heard along with the same celebration of a saint. This volume provides reflections on the proper biblical passages for weekday saints. Any member of a Christian congregation marking the celebration of a saint on a weekday will find these reflections on the Scripture texts assigned to a particular saint very helpful.

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