99 Poems, a bunch of odd pictures, and 3 downside-up songs. These twenty years of lines tell of one vocation in progress still by the grace of our patient God. Except for random thoughts while running, really jogging, I rarely thought of poetry and put not a poem on paper since some Christmas lines in the second grade. Introduced to journaling, and asked to write a psalm, "a song to God" a habit settled in and then a second. When a writer advised that a poem is a thing that ought be read out loud, editing became intense joy. A seminary teacher more than once described a priest's life as being...

Forty Penances for Spiritual Exercise: Living the Great Gift of Mercy, is a collection of popular penances arranged by a parish priest for faith-sharing groups meeting over six weeks, or for an individual reader seeking more creative ways to pray. They include 10 psalms, 22 other scripture passages, a walk to search for beauty, un-telling a lie, remembering one's baptism, a freely done tithe, the immensity and absurdity of sin, 72 tools of the spiritual craft, naming my cross, what's missing, anger the Jesus way, Saint Benedict's 12 steps to humility, the song that makes me say "yes ," the...

Hinge Hours For Christmas is a meditation rendering of Psalms (63), Canticles (14), Scripture Readings on the Christian Life (40), and traditional songs from the public domain (36), arranged for the two "hinge hours" of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer for the cycle of the Season of Christmas. Designed by a parish priest as a straightforward introduction to praying the Liturgy of the Hours, the Hinge Hours can also be used for private prayer and meditation by veterans of the breviary. Stephen Joseph Wolf is a parish priest in Nashville who spends most Mondays in silence and solitude writing...

Being Spouses: from Celibate Observation is for personal pondering or couples or in groups of 5 to 15 people. Stephen Joseph Wolf, the author, is a parish priest and spiritual director in Nashville, Tennessee. The six chapters are Marriage Sacramentality, The Domestic Church, Permanence, Fidelity, Children, and Intimacy. There are 6 songs using traditional melodies and 18 scripture suggestions. Charts include Stages of a Relationship, a 44-month chapter-a-day Bible reading plan, Human Needs, and a Feelings Vocabulary. For more information visit www.idjc.org.

A Jesus Breviary is full of meditation renderings of scripture passages on the love of God, the person of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Christian life. A "breviary" is a portable prayerbook, usually with psalms, canticles, songs, scripture readings, and prayers. This volume is a compilation of a series: 31 Days of God's Love-Call is from Hebrew scriptures to help sit with God saying "I love you" for as long as we can stand it. 31 Days of Jesus Incarnate is about that many who lived in the first third of what we now call the first century in Nazareth near the Sea of Galilee, who we...

This is the POCKET EDITION. What do you hear when you read God's word in the Bible? I hear a very long love letter. The Bible as a whole can be read in this simple message from God: "I made you, I know you, and I love you." This can be a message of great consolation. If I am aware of not living as if God loves me, it can nudge as a challenge, not to be better to earn God's love, but a reminder of my desire to live a fidelity response to God's complete love for me. It has been an honor to journey with many good folks in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola in At-Home Retreats and...

This is a POCKET EDITION. 31 Days of Jesus Sayings is a collection of 180 fragments attributed to Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, that one parish priest has found helpful in praying while walking in the woods or on a treadmill or other torture device or driving here and there or rocking in a chair like a hungry old bear. They can be meditated on as if a vitamin, choosing one from five or so to breathe with through the day, as a way to meet Jesus, on the search for a healing word of consolation or a challenge from the Savior, as a doorway into the gospel...