Showing results by narrator "Kevin OBrien" in All Categories

Best-selling novelist Michael O’Brien returns to the theme of people of faith striving to find their way through a societal collapse during the rise of new dimensions of totalitarianism. Set in the near future, all of North America is plunged into crisis as basic communications and other services suddenly and inexplicably fail. As the tension mounts, a disparate group of people come together from several directions, apparently by coincidence. Many of them are strangers to each other, and some are very young—whom their parents and guardians call “our pied piper children.

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.

Do you doubt? Do you suffer? Are you anxious about the trials of life? Father de Caussade offers the one sure solution to any spiritual difficulty: Abandon yourself entirely to God by embracing the duties of your station in life. With wisdom and gentleness he teaches how to practice complete submission to the will of God in every situation, whether we are beginners or seasoned travelers on the way of perfection. True abandonment, he explains, is a trusting, peaceful, and childlike surrender to the guidance of grace.

There's a multitude of Lenten meditation books but only one that's packed with the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas. Journey through Lent with the Church's greatest philosopher-theologian. This unrivaled spiritual master will guide you in encountering Our Lord and experiencing the type of fruitful Lent that he often experienced. You will relish this magnificent treasury of sixty-three of Aquinas's Scripture-based sermons specially selected for the holy season.

Dr. Whitfield is looking forward to a sabbatical year of peace and quiet, gardening in his backyard, and tinkering with what he calls his latest "unpublishable book". As the year begins, he is drawn by a series of seeming coincidences into involvement with a group of characters from across Europe, including a family that has been the target of assassination attempts by unknown powers. During his journey to Romania, the situation in which he finds himself becomes more sinister than it first seemed.

In Saints Who Saw Hell, you’ll find the scriptural witness to the reality of hell, including the warnings of Jesus, the prophets, and the Apostles.

Saint John the Baptist: Priest, Prophet, and Martyr shows how, through Divine Providence, one man was uniquely destined to pave the way for the coming of Christ. In a world steeped in darkness, St. John emerged as a beacon of light, challenging the Pharisees and Sadducees and pointing those around him to “make straight the way of the Lord.

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.

Father Thomas Dubay is one of the most popular and respected retreat masters and spiritual directors in the US. As in his other popular writings, Dubay’s style is profound and meditative, yet clear and readable. He gives an overview of the spiritual life and journey for anyone seeking to grow in the love of God and neighbor. An expert on the teachings and writings of the two great mystical doctors of prayer and the spiritual life, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, Dubay gives solid, practical advice for a deepening moral and spiritual conversion, and a radical growth in holiness.

With gripping detail and firsthand accounts that sound like a novel, renowned author Warren Carroll unveils the events that led up to the divine intervention in which Our Lady of Guadalupe was sent to an Aztec, known now as St. Juan Diego. Here is the untold story of the faith and valor of the Spanish as they encounter an early Aztec culture marked by an immorality and an idolatry of epic proportions, along with the hardships they endured in the face of unspeakable cruelty.

The war is on. The Devil plots to defeat you. Meet some battle-tested warriors who fight at your side. Satan is real. He's a formidable foe who wants to snatch us away from God, and the thought of doing battle with him can seem daunting. Even so, the saints who have gone before us have engaged the Devil, armed with the power of Christ and emerged victorious! These fellow warriors in heaven now fight on our behalf.

Walk closely with the Virgin Mary this Lent and let her apparitions and messages guide your daily steps toward Easter. This book offers you a Marian roadmap through each week’s theme, showing you how to deepen your prayer, trust, and conversion. Find new peace as you learn to listen for God’s voice, pray for healing, embrace the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows, and carry your crosses with Mary’s help — ready to rejoice with her in Christ’s Resurrection.

TO DIE WELL, ONE MUST FIRST LEARN how to live well. In this timeless guide, St. Robert Bellarmine offers a clear and orderly path to preparing the soul for its final passage: the daily practice of virtue, the discipline of prayer, and fidelity to the sacraments. Dear Listener, in this comforting book, you will find instruction in detachment from earthly goods, counsel on cultivating sobriety, justice, and piety, and encouragement to embrace fasting, almsgiving, and works of mercy.

In his latest book, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski argues that ever since the new liturgical books following the Second Vatican Council came into force, Roman Catholic faithful have suffered the effects of a hasty and far-reaching reform permeated with nominalism, voluntarism, Protestantism, rationalism, antiquarianism, hyperpapalism, and other modern errors. Man is not master over divine liturgy, Dr. Kwasniewski emphasizes; rather, all of us are called to be stewards of the sacred, from the lowest-ranking layman to the pope himself.

"Francis, go and build up my house, which thou seest, is falling into ruin." To fulfill this command of Our Lord, St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) began by restoring physical churches and continued by building up the spiritual church in souls. Francis' humility, purity, and true joy inspired many to conversion and a deeper faith.

Island of the World is the story of a child born in 1933 into the turbulent world of the Balkans and tracing his life into the third millennium. The central character is Josip Lasta, the son of an impoverished school teacher in a remote village high in the mountains of the Bosnian interior. As the novel begins, World War II is underway and the entire region of Yugoslavia is torn by conflicting factions: German and Italian occupying armies, and the rebel forces that resist them the fascist Ustashe, Serb nationalist Chetniks, and Communist Partisans.

By the Rivers of Babylon presents the early life of the prophet Ezekiel, from his childhood to his service in the Temple to the Babylonian Captivity, where he was enslaved among the exiles along the River Chebar.

Prayer is essential to the life of faith. In this superb book, based on Pope Benedict's weekly teaching, he examines the foundational principles of the life of prayer. Believers of various backgrounds and experience in prayer-from beginners to spiritually advanced-will be enriched by this spiritual masterpiece.

It is of vital importance that each individual soul recover this lost sense of sin and to begin the struggle to conquer the deadly sins that threaten his or her salvation. The Manual for Conquering Deadly Sin will help you do just that in your own life. As Fr. Kolinski makes clear, the truest medicine is found in the sacramental life of the church. But, in addition to the graces found in frequent confession and reception of the Eucharist, the Manual for Conquering Deadly Sin will be an indispensable aid in your fight.

This seminal text continues to be a cornerstone of Christian theology, offering timeless insights into the nature of God, sin, justice, and salvation. A must-listen for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the theological underpinnings of Christianity.