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

Joseph M. Scheidler has fought for the unborn since the Supreme Court allowed abortion on demand with its 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton rulings. He was the target of a lawsuit brought by the National Organization for Women under federal racketeering laws. Found guilty in 1998, Scheidler triumphed twice in appeals before the Supreme Court in 2003 and again in 2006.

The "Rule" of St. Benedict was written in the sixth century by the father of monastic life, St. Benedict himself. It towers in the great tradition of Christian Monasticism. Its leading characteristics are its wonderful discretion, moderation, and keen insight into the capabilities and weaknesses of human nature. Here is a common sense approach to arranging life so that Christian spirituality and virtue can be lived out in any community settings - monastic or familial.

In these 15 moving essays, LA Times bestselling author Greg Olear explores how the literary wisdom of George Orwell, Charles Dickens, Milan Kundera, Dorothy Thompson, and other poets, novelists, screenwriters, journalists, critics, and historians can help us live through the Trump Redux, without sacrificing joy or losing hope.

There’s so much noise. Everything can seem like a distraction. Distraction, in fact, seems like it is our oxygen. When was the last time you saw people talking on an elevator? We seem to plug in everywhere. We don’t even look up from our earphones and screens, never mind find time for silence. Our hearts need quiet. How are we ever going to pray otherwise? How could we ever possibly know God’s love and will—and the truth about ourselves and the world—without resting in him?

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.

This publication is the first translation into English of a Latin work, entitled Libellus de Corona Virginis, or The Little Book on the Crown of the Virgin. Traditionally, it has been ascribed to St. Ildephonsus of Toledo, a great monk, abbot, and bishop of the 7th century. St. Ildephonsus contributed powerfully to the dissemination of the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Our Lady in Western Europe, and to the popularization of fervent Marian devotion in Spain.

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.

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.

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.

Lovely short anecdotes from the lives of the saints, showing us in a warm, encouraging, and inspiring way the importance of prayer and the ease with which we can all derive great benefits therefrom, without yet being saints ourselves. Covers the meaning of the basic Catholic prayers; plus, the Mysteries of the Rosary and the wonders of the Mass. Written for all and all should listen to it.

Is the Great Reset the scheme of a vast global elite to control the lives of ordinary people or a well-intentioned but dangerously misguided approach to correct systemic ills? In The Greater Reset, Greaney and Brohawn trace the historical, religious, political, and economic roots of humanity’s perilous condition and how returning to God-given, universal principles of natural law, with equal access to the institutions of the common good, can help build a more just, liberating, prosperous, and hopeful future for every person.

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.

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.

The Blessed Sacrament is the great "open secret" of the Catholic Church—the great truth that Jesus Christ is in the Tabernacle and is accessible to all who believe in Him. But this truth is not immediately obvious, and thus it is not really appreciated as it should be. The Blessed Sacrament: God with Us is a call to all Catholics to appreciate and love Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for in that perpetual miracle is all the wealth of His love, and our "Heaven" on Earth.

In the United States, the Prosperity Gospel’s tenets, spread widely by many Protestant preachers, have crept into the Catholic Church. Where did the “Prosperity” Gospel come from? And how has it embedded itself so deeply in this country? In this book, Thomas Storck demonstrates the deep roots that the unrestrained desire for gain has in this country. He argues that the exclusion of serious religious discourse from American public life has led to the public square being emptied of all transcendence, reducing every aspect of social life to material gain.

In A Year with the Popes, award-winning author Fr. Jeffrey Kirby gives an original exposition of the nobility and enduring power of the papacy. This manual feels like an engaging parade through the history of the papacy, showing its biblical foundations in Sacred Scripture and providing portions of Saint Peter’s own letters from the New Testament, before pivoting to recount the twists and turns of the papal ministry and the various men who have served as successors of Saint Peter.

A historical fiction based in the 1920s. The protagonist, named Eugene "Jack" Brewer, is a mulatto man who had an unfortunate mishap with a white sheriff, during which a woman was killed in the crossfire. Jack fled north to Chicago and was labeled a fugitive in Mississippi. Once in Chicago he was able to pass himself off as white, but he always had the fear of being caught. Jack was also related to the ex-governor of Mississippi, Earl Leroy Brewer.

In The Synodal Pope: The True Story of the Theology and Politics of Pope Francis, Jean-Pierre Moreau traces the history and theological development of Pope Francis from his upbringing in Argentina and formation by the liberationist Jesuits. Moreau, a keen observer of liberation theology, many of whose leading figures he personally met when he was a special correspondent for the Figaro-Magazine in the 1980s, has made a close study of the personal and intellectual itinerary of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, described by his closest supporters as professing the “theology of the people.”

Chaos seems to be everywhere in and around the kingdom of Coloré. Talk of strange men and insane beasts occupies the speech from silver-tongued bard's tales to the gossip and banter in local pubs. Animals seem spooked, livestock is left mutilated, people are missing, and an overall ill omen hovers in the air. Yet, despite that, all seems so normal for Ephraim and Jules Ravenwood amid the mundane chores and predictable daily grind of being the oldest son and daughter of a farming family near the sleepy town of Crestfalls.

Actor and comedian Kevin O'Brien performs Mark Twain's classic—and delivers four lectures analyzing the brilliance of this great American novel.