Inspiration

The word family brings to mind thoughts of joy, sacrifice, affection, hardship, and humor. Yet it is love that defines what it means to be a family, and it is this same love that gives a family their purpose. In bearing witness to the mystery of the love of Christ, the family becomes the domestic sanctuary of the Church. Amazing Grace for Families contains 101 stories of faith, hope, and inspiration. Some are sorrowful, others are humorous, but all will inspire you and your family to grow in love for each other as you fulfill your roles in the domestic church.

In Amazing Grace for Families, you will meet:

A mother who sacrificed her own ability to walk to save the lives of her children.

A little boy, named Markie, who brought his family closer together after learning that he had a near-terminal disease.

A young man who, after being inspired by a PBS series, led his entire family from atheism to Christianity.

A little boy who found an early vocation by mistaking the word pre-school for priest-school.

Amazing Grace for Mothers will lift your heart and send your spirit soaring. You will laugh, you will cry, but most of all you will refresh your mothering through stories of love, inspiration, miracles, and God's amazing grace. This collection of 101 stories will bring you the warmth and support of other women, all dedicated to the same glorious role-motherhood.

Break free from patterns of negative thinking with the help of Joyce Meyer's New York Times bestselling classic, offering readers the chance to change their lives and live freely and confidently in God's truth.

Our outward behavior is only a reflection of our inner thoughts. Broken relationships, harmful habits, and low self-worth do not align with the life God wants for you. Instead, the Enemy has been strategically telling you lies that are meant to leave you hopeless and stuck. This way of thinking did not happen overnight, but instead through years of wrong--and often unaware--patterns of toxic thoughts.

Begin renewing your mind with bestselling author and Bible teach Joyce Meyer. She will equip you with practical examples and life-changing truths that will help you recognize damaging thoughts and stop them from influencing you. Whether you struggle with worry or defeat, you can find freedom to start living victoriously today. When you know what God says about you, you can have confidence in Him and the incredible life He wants you to lead.

No matter what stage of life you're in, now is the time to take control of your mind. Stop making plans for second-best and start living the life God intends for you.

Winner of a 2018 Catholic Press Association Award: Sacraments. (First Place).

How can Christians grow spiritually in the midst of our sinfulness? How can we transform our lives in a way that allows us to share in the resurrection of Jesus?

God has already given us the perfect solution--the sacraments.

Whether it is the wound of past hurts, the strain in our relationships, or the stress of daily life, we all need to be comforted and made whole by Christ. In this follow-up to his bestselling Be Healed, Bob Schuchts explains how the sacraments can fuel your emotional and spiritual healing and bring you closer to God.

Based on more than thirty-five years of experience as a therapist and decades spent in parish ministry, Schuchts demonstrates how each of the seven sacraments can be a life-changing encounter with Christ, communicated through the power of the Holy Spirit. He pairs each healing sacrament with one of the seven deadly wounds that emanated from original sin in the Garden of Eden. We perpetuate and deepen those wounds each time we sin, but the sacraments are God's remedy for sin. They give us a way to restore us to wholeness in Christ.

In Be Transformed, You'll discover how each sacrament can help you heal from wounds that can impede your relationships and sense of self-worth. With Schuchts's help, you'll learn how:

Baptism makes us beloved children of God, healing our wounds of rejection

Holy Communion heals our wounds of abandonment by inviting us to share in Jesus' abiding presence

Confirmation overcomes our powerlessness through the power of the Holy Spirit

Holy Orders heals wounds of confusion and disorder by re-establishing God's authority in our lives

In marriage, God's faithful love heals wounds of fear and mistrust

Reconciliation restores purity and releases us from shame

Anointing of the Sick provides enduring hope to overcome our hopelessness

Be Transformed offers all of the tools you need for a fresh understanding of the sacraments, including reflection questions, scripture meditations, prayers, and inspiring stories. You'll come away hungry for the sacraments in a way you never knew possible.

These 101 positive powerful stories from Catholics of all ages will offer hope, deepen faith, and spread love.

Living Catholic Faith is not only a book about "living the faith" but also about a faith that is living. Whether you are a cradle Catholic or a convert; lay, clergy, or religious; simply curious or struggling; these 101 stories will deepen your faith and hope in God. A great gift for Confirmation, RCIA, graduations, weddings, new parents, and holidays!

People of all ages and religious experiences share humorous, poignant, faith-filled true stories about:

Catholicism as part of daily modern life

fun stories of growing up Catholic

serious stories of sacraments and miracles

God's unconditional love

the role the Church plays in personal and professional lives

renewing and affirming your faith

Making good decisions are among the most difficult challenges in life. In Discernment: The Art of Choosing Well, readers will find a comprehensive guide to making choices, either individually or in groups. It is based on the time-tested spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the sixteenth-century founder of the Jesuits who developed a systemic way of considering and making choices.

The author, a renowned teacher of Ignatian spirituality, leads readers on a journey of self-reflection, focusing on the process of discernment rather than on the particular problem at hand.

Paperback

Ever notice that common sense isn't so common anymore? Each time we check our news feeds or turn on the TV, it seems the world is getting wackier. Right is wrong, wrong is right, up is down, and the only thing that's unacceptable is refusing to accept that anything and everything under the sun is . . . acceptable.

We desperately need a return to basic common sense, and Rosie Posie, a "street-smart theologian" from Jersey City, is just the person we need to help restore it. In this wise and heartwarming book, Rosie's daughter, syndicated talk-show host Teresa Tomeo, shares her top-ten list of unforgettable "Rosieisms" to help you and your loved ones live a sensible, well-grounded, godly life. As Tomeo notes, these real-life stories are simple, direct, and yes, sometimes very funny, but oh-so applicable to everyday life.

Refreshingly, Rosie speaks her mind and has precious little "tolerance." You will find that her practical advice will help you cultivate virtue in your life. You will learn to "nevva [never] get too big for those britches" and to "awfa [offer] it up" and put things "at the foot of the Crawse [Cross]." You'll come to see how your sacrifices help others in ways you may not have considered. And through Rosie's life and example, you'll come to appreciate the value of your sufferings, big or small, and how they benefit you and your loved ones. You will also learn:

How "go ride your bike!" relates to health (and it's not what you think).

Ways to always see the glass as half full

A bit of wisdom that Tomeo learned from both her mother and the Rolling Stones

How round-trip guilt trips can be a good thing

Why you should listen to your mother and "keep smiling"

Tomeo's memories provide rollicking humor and Catholic wisdom from the quintessential Italian mother. She also provides spiritual resources for self-reflection from the Catechism, Scripture, and the saints to help you grow in grace-filled living. Best of all, you will see the miracles of God's love in Tomeo's family and the maternal intercession of Our Lady in their lives. In the words of Rosie, "Rememba, the Blessed Mutha is watching you!"

Sometimes discernment seems complicated, and we struggle to "be still" to listen to God's voice. Following the death of his spiritual director, St. Alphonsus Liguori penned timeless advice in a letter to one of his spiritual daughters, and it became the famous work titled Uniformity with God's Will. Now Dan Burke breaks open St. Alphonsus's eighteenth-century classic for you. He intersperses relevant explanations and insights within the text of this great saint and includes reflection questions for each chapter.

St. Alphonsus explains, "We should most confidently abandon ourselves to all the dispositions of divine providence, since they are for our own good." In page after page, Burke shows you how the "wind and waves" can help you ascend to union with God. You will discover:

The "paralyzing cocktail" we drink when we reject God's will

When good works are displeasing to God (Can you guess?)

Three prayers that will assist you in directing all things to God's will

Two ways we can know God's love and hear His voice

Two life-altering spiritual disciplines according to St. Teresa of Ávila

How humiliation, adversity, and trials can bring freedom, healing, and salvation (You will be shocked!)

Liguori intersperses fascinating real-life examples from the saints to assist you in remaining steadfast amid afflictions. He explains three temptations that confront us and how to resist them, along with four practices of uniformity to God's will and a surefire way to unite your sufferings to Christ's sufferings.

You will acquire tips on what to do during periods of aridity or desolation. Above all, you will discover how to enjoy peace of heart in all circumstances and foster loving conversation with God. By learning how to entrust yourself fully to God's holy will, you will experience His divine embrace and the fulfillment of your deepest desires.

A "What Next?" section helps you take practical steps in doing God's will. Burke also provides a summary of the Paradigm of Ascent, which provides often hidden but foundational insights and practices necessary to live out Liguori's wisdom and to know the peace promised by God. In addition, he provides a simple action plan to implement these fruitful practices in your life.

Winner of a 2020 Catholic Press Association book award (second place, gender issues-inclusion in the Church).

Is it possible to be both a Catholic and a feminist? Claire Swinarski, writer and creator of The Catholic Feminist podcast, believes it is: "I'm a feminist for the same reason I'm bold and honest and sometimes ragey: because Jesus was all of those things."

In Girl, Arise!, Swinarski reconciles the two identities by demonstrating the strength and abilities women have to share with the Body of Christ, the importance of women throughout the history of the faith, and how the love you experience through Christ and the Church can change you and the world around you.

In Girl, Arise!: A Catholic Feminist's Invitation to Live Boldly, Love Your Faith, and Change the World Swinarski points out that while both "feminism" and "Catholicism" can mean different things to different people, both feminists and Catholics desire to make the world a better, fairer place. And she shows that by treating women with dignity equal to that of men--by calling them his friends and teaching them--Jesus acted as a feminist as well.

With humor and sass, Swinarski addresses her frustration with the traditional concerns churches ascribe to women, as shown by the many talks directed at women focused on marriage and modesty rather than social justice. But she pinpoints the areas where modern feminism goes too far, arguing against abortion and exploring what it means to serve others rather than focus on our own needs first.

Swinarski also tells the stories of holy women--including Vashti in the book of Esther, Sts. Thérèse of Lisieux and Joan of Arc, Mary Magdalene, and the Blessed Virgin Mary--to show how their faith influenced their actions, even when those actions went against traditional norms and roles of women.

You will be empowered to embrace your God-given abilities as you follow the women who have gone before you in faith who--by announcing Christ to his disciples, believing in God's promises, and being faithful in hardship--changed the world.

In Hope Always, Kris Frank, a popular Catholic speaker and youth minister, offers his down-to-earth and personal reflections on hope and how this crucial but often-misunderstood virtue can change our perspective on life's difficulties. Sharing stories from his own life, along with Scripture passages and theological commentary solidly grounded in Church teaching, Frank teaches by example, demonstrating how the practice of hope can help any person, in any state of life, and in any situation.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - OVER 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD

Heaven is even more amazing than you've ever imagined




All of us long to know what life after death will be like. Bestselling author John Burke is no exception.

In Imagine Heaven, he compares more than one hundred gripping stories of near-death experiences (NDEs) to what Scripture says about our biggest questions of Heaven, including:

● Will I be myself?
● Will I see friends and loved ones?
● What will Heaven look like?
● What will we do forever?
● What about children and pets?






Burke shows how the common experiences shared by thousands of near-death survivors--including doctors, college professors, bank presidents, people of all ages and cultures, and even blind people--point to the exhilarating picture of Heaven promised in the Bible.

This thrilling journey into the afterlife will make you feel like you've been there, forever changing the way you view the life to come--and the way you live your life today.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

What do you do when God's timing seems questionable, his lack of intervention hurtful, and his promises doubtful? Lysa TerKeurst unveils her heart amid shattering circumstances, inviting you to live assured when life doesn't turn out like you expected.

Life often looks so very different than we hoped or expected. Some events may simply catch us off guard for a season, but others shatter us completely. We feel disappointed and disillusioned at best and overwhelmed and hopeless at worst. We quietly start to wonder about the reality of God's goodness and why he allows us to suffer and experience grief and loss.

Lysa TerKeurst understands this deeply. But after many tears, godly counseling, and prayerful seeking, she's also discovered that our disappointments can be the divine appointments our souls need to radically encounter God. In It's Not Supposed to Be This Way, Lysa invites us into her own journey of faith and, with grit, vulnerability, and honest humor, helps us to:

Stop being pulled into the anxiety of disappointment by discovering how to better process unmet expectations and other painful situations.

Train ourselves to recognize the three strategies of the enemy, so we can stand strong and persevere through unsettling relationships and uncertain outcomes.

Discover the secret of being steadfast and not panicking when God actually does give us more than we can handle.

Shift our suspicion that God is cruel or unfair to the biblical assurance that God is protecting and preparing us.

Know how to encourage a friend and help her navigate hard realities with real help from God's truth, the Bible.

Look for additional biblically based resources and devotionals from Lysa:

Good Boundaries and Goodbyes

Forgiving What You Can't Forget

Uninvited

You're Going to Make It

Embraced

Seeing Beautiful Again

On May 31, 1999, Rachel Muha experienced a mother's worst nightmare. Her youngest son, Brian, and his friend Aaron Land were taken by force on a journey of about 20 miles, spanning three states, that ended in torture and death. They were roommates and students at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and the murders shocked the campus and the wider community.

Even before her son's body was found, Rachel publicly forgave her son's killers. It was a life-changing moment, not just for her but for everyone who heard her powerful act of forgiveness and love. Rachel has continued to choose mercy and forgiveness every day since then, now leading a ministry that serves inner-city children in the hope that they won't choose the same life that Brian's murderers did.

Legacy of Mercy tells the story of raising and losing a son; the story of forgiving his murderers; and the story of a mother responding to her son's death not with vengeance or self-pity, but with love and a desire to serve others in need.

Fr. Jonathan Morris Calls Us to Be the Light of the World

In 1945, Father James Keller saw a world at war, the beginnings of the cold war, and divisions at home.

He was a man who believed that against all odds one person could make a difference - so he started a grass-roots movement called The Christophers - literally "Christbearers" - in the belief that each individual has a role in bringing hope and change to a troubled world.

And the response was staggering. The world was hungry for the message, and embraced Fr. Keller's motto:

"IT IS BETTER TO LIGHT ONE CANDLE THAN TO CURSE THE DARKNESS."

In 2014, the world is just as dangerous and chaotic, and in many ways far more insidious than in Fr. Keller's day. No one knows the extent of this crisis better than Father Jonathan Morris, popular author and FOX news analyst.

Here, in his new book Light in the Darkness, Fr. Johnathan brings you eight of the core teachings of Fr. Keller, along with his own insights, showing us how they relate to us today.

A Sense of Purpose

The Power of Love

Sharing the Faith

The Witness of Life

Pray Always

Becoming Like Christ

Living as a Christian

Trusting God

Fr. Jonathan believes that now is the time for each of us to realize our own roles, and become "Christophers" in the world we live in today.

It is said that children learn what they live. But children also teach the adults in their lives lessons on subjects such as unconditional love, self-sacrifice, self-forgetfulness, patience and more. The ordinary way an adult learns these things from his or her children is by caring for them.

Every parent knows that. But some extraordinary children seem sent by God to teach us about the -big questions- such as life, death, suffering, and the existence of God. The children in this book, all of whom suffered terribly during their short lives, bore witness to God's love and an understanding of the meaning of suffering and -what to do with it- that belied their years. And their teaching was not limited to their immediate family: Everyone with whom they came into contact, from doctors and nurses, to major political figures and popes to family friends and other children, was profoundly affected by the encounter.

This book will make you cry, yes, but the tears will be mixed with something akin to joy at the beauty of the short lives of Brendan, Margaret, and Audrey, and awe at the grace and dignity with which they bore their crosses, lived and enjoyed this life, and ultimately left it to be with the God they all loved. In this time in which there is so much despair and sadness, and in this world in which we are so frequently reminded that it can truly be a -vale of tears, - let the Littlest Suffering Souls remind you that this present life is not all there is; let the Littlest Suffering Souls point you to heaven and to Christ.