Showing titles in Catholicism

Sparkling with intelligence and Boston University professor Peter Kreeft's trademark humor, You Can Understand the Bible will transform dry study into spiritually satisfying adventures in God's word. Regardless of how you approached—or didn't approach—the Bible before, you'll come away with a new appreciation of its depth and meaning. Kreeft also provides practical guidance for praying the scriptures every day, allowing the listener to delve into the messages of scripture in a manner that will surprise, delight, and reward.

Only two years after Pope Pius IX’s election in 1846 had triggered great popular enthusiasm across Italy, the pope found himself a virtual prisoner in his own palace. The revolutions that swept through Europe and shook Rome threatened to end the popes’ thousand-year reign over the Papal States, if not the papacy itself. The resulting drama was rife with treachery, tragedy, and international power politics. David Kertzer, one of the world’s foremost experts on the history of Italy and the Vatican, brings this pivotal moment vividly to life.

In what is one of the most impressive and authoritative books on the Catholic Mass, Bishop Schneider reestablishes what Catholics have known for centuries but have forgotten today: that the Mass is the highest form of Christian prayer. You'll come to understand why the rubrics are vital to preserving the authenticity of the liturgy, and you'll learn why architecture, music, sacred art, and even incense are vital symbols that direct our attention to Heaven.

In a tiny, dilapidated trailer in northeastern Oregon, a young woman saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in an ordinary landscape painting hanging on her bedroom wall. After being met with skepticism from the local parish, the matter was officially placed "under investigation" by the Catholic diocese. Investigative journalist Randall Sullivan wanted to know how, exactly, one might conduct the official inquiry into such an incident, so he set off to interview theologians, historians, and postulators.

Ni los más calificados escritores, historiadores, geógrafos, arqueólogos, astrónomos, teólogos y exegetas del mundo, hubieran logrado realizar una reconstrucción y descripción de la vida de la Santísima Virgen María más impactante, detallada y perfecta que la presentada por la extraordinaria vidente Ana Catalina Emmerick, por medio de sus místicas visiones. Ana Catalina, fue una humilde monja alemana, estigmatizada, de la orden agustina que vivió en siglo XVIII. El Papa Juan Pablo II la beatificó en el 2004. Según ella, fue predestinada por Dios para ser dotada de dones ...

Pope John Paul II, as part of his effort to improve Catholic-Jewish relations, himself called for a clear-eyed historical investigation into any possible link between the Church and the Holocaust. An important sign of his commitment was the decision to allow the distinguished historian David I. Kertzer, a specialist in Italian history, to be one of the first scholars given access to long-sealed Vatican archives. The result is a book filled with shocking revelations.

After 2,000 years of flawed history, here at last is a biography of Mary Magdalene that draws her out of the shadows of history and restores her to her rightful place of importance within Christianity. Throughout history, she has been both revered and reviled, a woman who has taken on many forms - witch, whore, the incarnation of the eternal feminine, and the devoted companion (and perhaps even wife) of Jesus. In this brilliant new biography, Bruce Chilton, a renowned biblical scholar, offers the first complete and authoritative portrait of this fascinating woman. His descriptions of who Mary was and what she did challenge the male-dominated history of Christianity familiar to most listeners.

Parents of any age or at any stage can cultivate the same virtues in prayer that Saint Monica discovered during her long wait for God's answer for her child. This devotion includes eighteen contemporary reflections, meditations taken from the writings of Saint Augustine, and prayers adapted from the liturgy and other ancient sources.

Pope Benedict XVI will go down in Church history as one of the greatest popes. In this heartfelt defense of Pope Benedict’s words and works, a tribute to his life and legacy and an homage to his sanity and sanctity, Joseph Pearce’s biography provides an unforgettable encounter with this great historical figure.

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 18th-century classic for you. He intersperses relevant explanations and insights within the text of this great saint and includes reflection questions for each chapter.

Against the backdrop of a catastrophic pandemic that has spared nothing and altered everything, this remarkable document is a cry from the heart of a pastor to all peoples to see beyond their differences and to grow together to build a new and peaceful world. Pope Francis addresses his renewed call to universal fraternity to all people of good will, regardless of their religious convictions.

For more than 25 years John Thavis held one of the most fascinating journalistic jobs in the world: reporting on the inner workings of the Vatican. His daily exposure to the power, politics, and personalities in the seat of Roman Catholicism gave him a unique, behind-the-scenes perspective on an institution that is far less monolithic and unified than it first appears. Thavis reveals Vatican City as a place where Curia cardinals fight private wars, scandals threaten to undermine papal authority, and reverence for the past is continually upended by the practical considerations of modern life.

The world hates the Church that Jesus founded, just as He said it would (John 15:18). It reviles her doctrines, mocks her moral teachings and invents lies about her history. In every age, but especially in our modern day, historians and political powers have distorted the facts about her past (or just made up novel falsehoods from scratch) to make the Church, and the civilization it fostered, seem corrupt, backward, or simply evil.

Developing the virtue of humility and faithfully endeavoring to practice it is necessary for our salvation. Many times in Sacred Scripture, Our Lord admonishes the proud, elevates the humble, and reminds us that we must become like children to enter into the kingdom of God. Pope Leo XIII, the oldest reigning pope, composed the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel and wrote many encyclicals on the Church’s social teaching and the Rosary.

"Creía que ya había pensado todo lo que necesitaba pensar con respecto al amor, cuando el sermón de Henry Drummond cayó en mis manos. A partir del momento en que leí las palabras de este libro, e intenté poner en práctica sus enseñanzas, mi vida cambió mucho." (Paulo Coelho) "Aunque hable las lenguas de los hombres y de los ángeles, si no tuviera Amor, sería como el bronce que suena, o como el címbalo que tañe."

This book paraphrases 86 of Pope John Paul II's talks on the theology of the body in easy-to-understand English.

Since Pope Benedict XV1 died he has had a remarkably good press. Indeed many have argued that there is a natural evolution between Pope Benedict`s mission and that of his successor Pope Francis. Here for the first time are assembled a collection of Pope Benedict`s most important public speeches and addresses. Dubbed and dismissed by many as an unrepentant traditionalist, we now see a man of profound intelligence and wisdom on matters relating not just to religion but to what is not termed ` The Common Good`.

In this powerful audiobook by the acclaimed spiritual leader and best-selling writer, one he calls his "most important", he analyzes the profound spiritual, moral, and political crisis in the contemporary world. He says that he "considers that the decadence of our time has all the faces of mortal peril." His finding is simple: Our world is on the brink of the abyss.

During his years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, well-known Vatican prelate Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger has given three in-depth interviews. The first two interviews have become best selling books: The Ratzinger Report and Salt of the Earth. Because of the tremendous reception those books received, the Cardinal agreed to do another interview with journalist Peter Seewald, who had done the very popular Salt of the Earth interview. This third in-depth interview addresses deep questions of faith and the living of that faith in the modern world.

In his first Encyclical, Pope Benedict helps to clarify the meaning of love. He examines the nature of various kinds of love—human love and divine love, eros, friendship, and charity. He writes beautifully and inspirationally of how man was made for love by the God who is love, the God who became one of us out of love—Jesus Christ.