An Indispensable Resource for Pastoral Agents Responding to the need for resources to set up, sponsor, and lead retreats, Planning and Implementing Retreats: A Parish Handbook provides an array of simple yet creative tools to achieve a successful outcome. This book is a practical, time-saving guide for those who are involved in designing experiences to enhance people's spiritual lives--in parishes especially, but also in hospitals, campus ministries or other locales where Christian adults gather for spiritual formation. At the heart of this resource are five planning and design strategies for...

In this helpful and insightful book, Nicki Verploegen delves into the two thousand years of history of the Catholic Church in order to unfold the development of spiritualities in Christianity. From a historical background, she explores how four distinct types of Christian spirituality evolved and rose to prominence in its religious, social, and political environments: monasticism, mendicancy, apostolic ministry, and missionary life. All of them became "schools" of spiritual formation which gave rise to the development of numerous religious communities. This book is also an exploration of...

Description: Have you ever wondered what the difference between the Franciscans and Jesuits is? Have you been curious about how a monk's life differs from a missionary's and about the origins of these traditions? This book explores how four distinct types of spirituality evolved in Christianity over the centuries as a response to various needs in different eras. These all became ""schools"" of spiritual formation. This book introduces monasticism, mendicancy, apostolic ministry, and missionary life as umbrella categories out of which many religious communities formed. It explores thirteen of...