Showing results by narrator "Kevin O’Brien" in All Categories

Monasticism distills the essence of Catholic spirituality for all time and for all Christians. The Foundations of Western Monasticism concentrates on three of the finest Christian texts available and will provide both first-time and advanced listeners with an essential review of Christian monasticism and the foundational principles of Catholic prayer life, spiritual combat, contemplation, and communal living.

St. Joseph obtains favors of any kind, but particularly in family problems, financial needs, purity, dangers, work, housing and a happy death. He is the universal patron - whatever our petition is, you can pray to St. Joseph with confidence. He was the foster father of Jesus Christ on earth, and Jesus still obeys his requests in heaven! God chose St. Joseph over all other men to represent the fatherhood of God himself in the Holy Family.

The sacrament of Matrimony is under diabolical attack. While it is easy to blame the outside world for the demise of marriage, we must look at what has been happening inside the Church. The number of marriages have dwindled over the past five decades and annulments have skyrocketed. Many in Church leadership have been indifferent to these alarming trends and to marriage itself. Matrimony is rarely referenced during homilies, pre-Cana programs are often disastrous, and seminaries spend little time studying the sacrament of Matrimony.

Oliver Ryan is a handsome and charismatic success story. He lives in the suburbs with his wife, Alice, who illustrates his award-winning children's books and gives him her unstinting devotion. Their life together is one of enviable privilege and ease - enviable until, one evening after supper, Oliver attacks Alice and beats her into a coma. In the aftermath, as everyone tries to make sense of his astonishing act of savagery, Oliver tells his story. So do those whose paths he has crossed over five decades. What unfolds is a story of shame, envy, breathtaking deception and masterful manipulation.

Mainstay author Fr. Paul O'Sullivan offers in The Wonders of the Mass an astounding guide to the meaning and reality of the sacred liturgy, quoting the saints and our Lord (via revelations to mystics). There is no capacity in which Fr. O'Sullivan fails to extol the Mass—for truly, because it is Jesus himself present in the Sacrament, we may offer the same praise to the Mass as to God.

On October 13, 1917, just before the great "Miracle of the Sun" was manifested to some 70,000 spectators at Fatima, Portugal, there appeared to the three child-visionaries an unusual scene. To the right of the sun, they saw the Blessed Virgin Mary robed in white with a blue mantle. Standing to the left of the sun was St. Joseph holding the Child Jesus, both blessing the world.

In this riveting biography, author Bret Thoman accomplishes what few biographers have. He pierces the inner life of Francis, revealing his deepest passions, his unquenchable love for poverty, and his unshakable grip on the core of the Gospel. The life of Francis, so often festooned with spectacle and miracle, is in reality the story of a soul yearning for God in every moment and glimpsing his presence in all creation.

Selections from St. Alphonsus' writings covering virtually every aspect of Hell. This book shows it exists, describes its torments, proves it is eternal, demonstrates it is not unjust, and answers a host of questions. Best short antidote for today's irreligion that we know.

Join Father Paul Pearson of the Oratory as he guides you on a spiritual journey through one of the great classics of Christian literature, Dante’s Purgatorio. Purgatory is the least understood of the three possible “destinations” when we die (though unlike Heaven or Hell it is not an eternal one) and is mysterious to many Christians and even to many Catholics today. As he did in his first volume in the Spiritual Direction from Dante trilogy, Avoiding the Inferno, Father Pearson adroitly draws out the great spiritual insights hidden in The Divine Comedy.

In the school of Mary, says St. John Paul II, we are "led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love". Mary - refuge of sinners, help of the sick, cause of our joy - is the model for all believers. The Manual for Marian Devotion will deepen your relationship with Mary and, in doing so, draw you closer to her son. Use it to nourish your love of Mary with the scriptures and stories of the saints, and turn to its prayers throughout the day.

Authored by renowned Scottish Archbishop George Hay (1729–1811), this work, pulled from Bishop Hay’s The Devout Christian, examines our three chief enemies - the flesh, the world, and the devil - and how they conspire together to threaten our salvation. In this succinct text, Bishop Hay provides a field map to knowing your enemies, and learning how to defeat them.

Stephen LaPointe believed in Jesus. For him, the Bible was the only sufficient, firm foundation for his life. He wanted to obey God in all things, and had given up a career to become an ordained minister. He loved to preach the Word and knew that one day he would stand before God, accountable for everything he preached.

In Spiritual Direction from Dante: Yearning for Paradise, the Oratorian Father Paul Pearson provides a detailed but accessible spiritual commentary on the last volume of Dante’s masterpiece, Divine Comedy. Fr. Pearson takes listeners step-by-step through the text, explaining the spiritual lessons Dante intends his listeners to learn. These lessons are particularly important, both in Dante’s day and in our own, due to the watered-down image of heavenly bliss the world offers us.

On a balmy day in April 1863, Union Colonel Abel D. Streight, at the head of a brigade of federal infantry, set out on a 220-mile ride to destroy the Western and Atlantic railroad at Rome, Georgia. The most fascinating thing about the raid is that Streight's brigade of four infantry regiments, almost 1,800 soldiers, was mounted on mules, a huge problem in itself; few of his men had ever ridden a horse, let alone a mule.

As a kid, I was forced to go to Church every Sunday. In my senior year of high school, I gave up faith and religion altogether and embraced being agnostic. I sought the American dream by cofounding a software company and pursued money, fitness, and success, but none of that ever satisfied or gave me peace. Why Be Catholic? is not exactly my journey, but it is the journey of the Church. This book will help you make sense of the logical and historical realities that reveal how and why the Catholic Church is who She says She is.

St. Joseph obtains favors of any kind, but particularly in family problems, financial needs, purity, dangers, work, housing and a happy death. He is the universal patron - whatever your petition is, you can pray to St. Joseph with confidence. He was the foster father of Jesus Christ on earth, and Jesus still obeys his requests in heaven!

After nearly losing his life to an assassin, Stephen LaPointe resigned from his pastorate as a Congregational minister. He made this radical decision as the result of a crisis of truth. This decision had many immediate ramifications for his vocation, his career, and most significantly for his marriage and family. Now, a year later, no one knows where he is. He has disappeared. Out of love, as well as remorse, several people - an old friend, his estranged wife, and a potential enemy - set out separately to find him.

Meet young José and his friend Trino as the war breaks out in their hometown of Sahuayo. Follow José through his own struggles as the violence escalates, up to his joining the Cristero army in 1927 to fight for freedom of religion. Captured by government forces, José refused to deny his faith in exchange for his freedom.

Amidst the backdrop of World War II, the great Fulton Sheen wrote Preface to Religion, his first book published after the war ended. As the world was recovering from death, destruction, and despair, Sheen’s timely work tackles the most salient questions pertaining to happiness and sanity.

In the face of a world crisis, which is manifestly deeper than one can imagine, many are inclined to ask: “Has Christianity failed?” Fulton Sheen’s Thinking Life Through seeks to answer this critical question.