Healing/health

For anyone who thinks that comfort is equivalent to pity and that it is only priceless to those who need an emotional crutch, best-selling author Warren Wiersbe applies the words of the prophet Isaiah to prove that God's comfort is no such thing. The word comfort actually translates "to repent" in Hebrew; our English translation, however, adds another dimension to the word since it originated from two Latin words meaning "with strength."

With definitions and insights like this, the "pastor of pastors" and phenomenal author Warren Wiersbe continues to enliven the Scriptures as he weaves the words of Isaiah with historical explanations and thought-provoking questions for every chapter, creating a study guide that can be used in personal Bible study or with a group. With over 4 million copies of his "Be" series alone in circulation, he is a man who has given his life to a deep examination of the Word of God, to communicating it in such a way that the masses see its relevance for today.

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:

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.

Recent events have shown again how suicide touches all of us -- often when we least expect it. But how to unpack the grief that follows such a painful, and often stigmatized, death? Ron Rolheiser can help.

When someone is stricken with cancer, one of three things can happen: Doctors treat the disease and cure it; professionals can't cure the disease but can control it so that the person suffering can live with the disease for the rest of his or her life; or the cancer can be of a kind that cannot be treated and all the medicine and treatments in the world are powerless - the person dies.

Emotional depression leading to suicide can work the same way. Sometimes a person can be treated so that, in effect, they are cured; sometimes they can't ever really be cured, but can be treated in a way that they can live with the disease for their whole life; and sometimes, just as with certain kinds of cancer, the disease is untreatable, unstoppable, and no intervention by anyone or anything can halt its advance - it eventually kills the person and there is nothing anyone can do. Thus, Ronald Rolheiser begins this small, powerful book.

With chapters also on "Removing the Taboo," "Despair as Weakness Rather than Sin," "Reclaiming the Memory of Our Loved One," and "The Pain of the Ones Left Behind," Fr. Rolheiser offers hope and a new way of understanding death by suicide.

In The Catholic Guide to Loneliness, Dr. Kevin Vost-- prolific author, lecturer, and veteran Catholic psychologist-- offers a comprehensive guide to loneliness affording men and women the deepest possible answers to the pain of loneliness.

Rooted in ancient philosophical and Biblical wisdom, and buttressed by modern theory and research, these pages bring you to an understanding of the root causes of loneliness and teach you remedies-- secular and religious.

This resource does not promise a universal cure to the pain of loneliness. It does, however, provide the wisdom-- old and new-- to unveil how our loneliness may be aggravated by our sins and shortcomings, and how if our loneliness is indeed unavoidable, we may bear it gracefully, indeed, even joyfully and with much fruit for the salvation of neighbor and ourselves.

Conscious Contact with God is a new paraphrase of the Psalms that reflects the experience of addiction and living in recovery. It will speak powerfully to anyone who shares those experiences and struggles to find God present in the midst of them. Ideal for personal prayer, reflection, and meditation, as well as for praying and reflecting in groups, these thoughtful and inspiring texts are rich in the vocabulary and vision of the Twelve Steps.

This new resource fills a gap that has unfortunately existed until now for anyone addicted to alcohol, drugs, food, sex, or other substances or experiences. Here they will find compassion, understanding, and strength.

"Where was God when I begged him not to let me take that next drink?"

How can a Christian cope with the guilt of actions committed "while under the influence"?

"How can I resume my role as an active church member and face a congregation who knows what I was like when I was drinking?"

In the search for answers to these troubling questions, the recovering alcoholic receives a great deal of spiritual input but has often had a difficult time finding specifically Christian literature to supplement the recovery program.

In response to that very real and urgent need, Rev. Carl Nelson has prepared this devotional resource for the recovering alcoholic Christian. Based on the Twelve Step program used by Alcoholics Anonymous, each daily and nightly devotion includes a Prayer, Meditation, Life Example (based on composites of recovering alcoholics whom the author has known), and a Scripture Study, making these devotions ideal for incorporation into any recovering alcoholic's daily recovery program -- and particularly useful to those who hunger for the presence of Christ in their daily struggles.

Carl Nelson is pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Painesville, Ohio. He is a graduate of Concordia College, Portland, Oregon, and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.

This revised and expanded edition of Forgiveness: A Catholic Approach will equip and inspire you to move toward forgiving those who have hurt you. With the power of God's grace, you can work through the process of forgiveness and find freedom in Christ.

This book teaches all about forgiveness: what forgiveness is and what it isn't; how to forgive and why. It addresses questions that Catholics grapple with today more than ever before: forgiving the Church; working with anger; forgiving when we can't reconcile; forgiving and not condoning behavior; and how forgiveness doesn't mean we forget, but helps us remember differently.

Filled with many vignettes of contemporary transgressions that have been transformed through acts of forgiveness-including situations of domestic violence, the Rwandan genocide, and the attacks of September 11, 2001-author Scott Hurd insightfully includes a chapter on Forgiving the Church, which many believers will find helpful as we continue to struggle with the revelations of sexual abuse by clergy and its cover-up.

Hurd's Forgiveness: A Catholic Approach faithfully reveals the many misunderstood dimensions of forgiveness: it's not something to be earned, forced, or deadline-driven. Forgiving is a decision, a process, and often a lifelong journey.

This is a guide on how we can free ourselves from the many debilitating influences that can take a stronghold in our lives, from fear and addiction to oppressive evil spirits.

Though fear is a natural emotion, and addictions are forms of illness, nevertheless the devil can exploit them in order to lead people towards sin and away from God. Written from his personal experience of dealing with his own fears and anxieties, his research into the various forms of addiction that can ruin lives and his own encounters with evil through his work as an exorcist, Fr Collins offers practical advice on how to overcome these afflictions.

While Fr Collins says possession is a very rare occurrence, he is regularly contacted by people who in their own minds believe - rightly or wrongly - that they're afflicted by an evil spirit. This book hopes to offer support for people in this situation who feel they have no one to turn to for help, or for those seeking to help.

Grief touches all of our lives, but it does not have to paralyze us with fear or inaction. God allows suffering because He knows how powerful it can be to our spiritual lives and to helping us fully embrace His love and mercy. In this insightful and practical book, you'll learn how to live a life of redemptive suffering that will draw you through grief into a state of tenacity, meaning, holiness, and joy.

Author Jeannie Ewing is no stranger to suffering. Her family has long struggled with bipolar disorder and depression, and her baby daughter was born with a rare genetic disorder that caused her bones to prematurely fuse together. Despite the many layers of sadness, loss, confusion, and anger, Jeannie responded to God's calling and transformed her life into one with profound purpose and joy.

Combining her training in psychology and counseling with real-life examples, Jeannie will show you that there is much life to be lived in the midst of loss.