Almost everyone, no matter their religious affiliations, will have his/her brush with variously shaped and delivered Christmas/Holiday and New Year greeting cards, Luke 2, gift giving from surfeit to simple, the Salvation Army bell, creches, travel delays, "Jingle Bells," stockings, tinsel, wrapping paper, wreaths, weight gain, catalogs, evergreen scent, Handel's "Messiah," lit-up roofs and yards, fir trees, fake trees, plastic Santas, mall Santas, cookies and candy, and the list goes on and on. Whatever the word evokes for you, you may never have given thought-not for a long time anyway-to...

In understanding true poverty, practicing total detachment, lacking pride and demonstrating only obedience, John epitomized the call of Jesus Christ for his followers to take up their cross and follow him, before the true meaning of his words were even understood. While Jesus himself described John the Baptist as a burning and shining lamp, John understood he was born only to direct us to the light of the Savoir. Expressing heartfelt gratitude for the sacrifice, suffering and dedication to God shown by John the Baptist, all Christians today can bask in the light of Jesus.

For a saint about whom so very little is really known, Saint Lucy has a surprisingly impressive religious pedigree. Her relics have traveled the world. Her cult extends across oceans, and every year, large numbers of Italian-Americans travel "back home" to Sicily, a land they have primarily known through an increasingly distant heritage, to participate in the great festival there in her honor. She is the bringer of light and lucidity, things which are in fact her namesakes as Lucy, or Lucia as she was known in Latin, itself means 'light'. She is also the patron of the blind, and those...

Christian Writing Decoded provides the reader with a detailed history and analysis of the most important Christian writings. The Way of Perfection (Spanish: Camino de Perfeccion) is a method for making progress in the contemplative life written by St. Teresa of Avila, the noted Discalced Carmelite nun for the members of the reformed monastery of the Order she had founded. This book provides an original analysis and summary of The Way of Perfection coupled with an appendix that includes the original text by Saint Teresa of Avila."

John XXIII was nicknamed "The Good Pope" because of his humble, loving, and open character and his gracious sense of humor. In possessing those attributes, he is viewed by many to be similar to Pope Francis today. Like Pope Francis, Pope John was wont to stroll about Rome by night and make pastoral visits to sick children and prison inmates. John's secretary, the Italian prelate Loris Capovilla, heard the news from Pope Francis himself and remarked how appropriate it was for the step to be taken by "the successor most similar" to John. Shortly before Pope John's death, the International...

A man of reason and vigorous discourse, and a renowned professor of literature and philosophy, C.S. Lewis, always "Jack" to family and friends, never shied from intellectual debate, and through his written works encouraged others to wrestle with the difficult questions of faith. A master of visual illustration and allegory, Lewis wrote with the intuitive understanding that his readers wrestled with the same questions about the Christian story, about pain, suffering, and notions of Heaven and Hell, as he himself had wrestled. He also understood that others found reason and imagination to be...

The Catholic Prayer Book is ideal for a Catholic individual who wishes to look up a prayer quickly. This book features over fifty of the most popular Catholic prayers and an introduction to Catholic prayer by Jeremiah Vallery. Enjoy an electronic database of traditional Catholic prayers for multiple occasions including Morning Prayer, Evening Prayers, Prayers at Mass, Prayers for Holy Communion, The Stations of the Cross, and more.

To write a book about Jesus is a challenging task; to live a life like Jesus' is more challenging still. Though not primarily a work of theology or of spirituality, this popular history intends to help the words and deeds of Jesus come alive for contemporary readers. In Jesus' day, he was a polarizing figure; one was either for him or against him. Today, even many who are familiar with the story of Jesus are unmoved. There are a number of reasons for this, but one of them is that we have forgotten the history of which Jesus came to be part; and we have also forgotten how we fit in. When God...