Explore how Anglican traditions enrich Episcopal worship.With its great heritage from English mystics, the Episcopal Church has been “spiritual” since before it was trendy, and modern Episcopalians have been in the forefront of exploring practices beyond Anglican boundaries. Yet, perhaps only rarely do they grasp the implications of the theology embedded in these practices or in the liturgies of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, which has shaped Episcopalians in this...

Helps develop the pastoral skills needed for hearing confessions.Although the sacramental Rite of Reconciliation is included in many Anglican prayer books, nothing has been written expressly Anglicans since the 1980s that focuses on the pastoral skills required for this ministry. This book combines and passes on the teaching, coaching, skill development, and accumulated pastoral wisdom that has not been widely accessible or well integrated into clergy training....

What distinguishes Christian ministry from other helping professions? While many books tell clergy how to run a capital campaign, handle conflict, and lead a vestry, this book helps pastors, chaplains, and lay professionals appreciate the spiritual depth of their calling and reminds them that Christian ministry is Christs ministry working through them.

As the world grows increasingly complex, human beings need more, not less, good counsel for Christian living. This book reaches into the treasury of Anglican spirituality and draws out pearls of wisdom for today's needs. The Anglican tradition has shown an abiding concern for a holy living that leads to a holy dying. Spiritual Counsel in the Anglican Tradition offers earnest, practical devotion to inspire and to instruct the Christian pilgrim in the path of discipleship. Here readers will ...

**A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEARFrom the New York Times-bestselling author of The Cloister Walk, a book about Christianity, spirituality, and rediscovered faith.**Struggling with her return to the Christian church after many years away, Kathleen Norris found it was the language of Christianity that most distanced her from faith. Words like "judgment," "faith," "dogma," "salvation," "sinner"—even "Christ"—formed what she called her "scar...

Broken families, abortion, AIDS, Internet pornography, sexual abuse scandals, homosexual marriage, our Church and our world are in the midst of a profound sexual crisis. Is there a way out? For such a time as this have we been given St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Based on the words of Jesus, St. John Paul II’s famous reflections on the body and sex take us to the root of the modern crisis and chart the path to an authentic sexual liberation. Yet the late Pope’s d...

The place "where God happens," according to Rowan Williams's striking new reading of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, is between each other. It's a truth that we of the twenty-first century most urgently need to learn in order to heal the experience of alienation that has become endemic to our age, and these odd and appealing ancient figures, surprisingly, hold keys to this healing.The fourth-century Christian hermits of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine understood the truth of C...

In the Prologue of his Rule, St. Benedict maps out the road that leads to heaven; he lays the foundation for life in a community that seeks God. The themes that are present throughout the Rule - obedience, humility, prayer, fear of the Lord, eternal life - are grounded in the Prologue.By reflecting on the Prologue one verse at a time, Michael Casey, OCSO, delves into the richness of meaning that can be found in Benedict's words. These reflections, first given as talks and made avai...

Here is a practical, pastoral book for all Catholic Christians--laity as well as clergy--to foster renewed understanding and practive of the sacrement of reconciliation. The most thorough and informative handbook of its kind, Reconciliation is at once informative, intstructive, and pastorally sound.The author presents a detailed and fascinating historical overview of sin and confession from biblical times to the present; a theological analysis of the evolution and meaning o...

The Bible’s command to “rejoice continually” seems impossible and, frankly, unreasonable. Yet despite the apparent difficulty in fulfilling this commandment, Gregory Forster argues that Calvinism holds the key—namely that “real Calvinism is all about joy.”Forster passionately holds to this belief, and systematically demonstrates it by addressing popular misconceptions of what Calvinism is and is not. Dismantling negative expressions of Calvinist theology, Forster positively reitera...

According to Henri Nouwen, the bestselling spiritual writer, every Christian is a minister—trying to live his life in the light of the Gospel. Creative Ministry is a thoughtful examination of the various complex tasks that are part of that way of life.Separate chapters treat each of the five areas that Nouwen considers the primary responsibilities of the minister: teaching, preaching, counseling, organizing, and celebrating. He shows how these main functions are inextricably tied ...

In Living the Beatitudes, you are invited to drink from the fountain of holiness and re-discover the mystery of Grace and the peace of living life in the Spirit. The beatitudes are a path that is right in front of us if only we would move from our fears and allow the spirit to guide us.Best-selling author J. Brian Bransfield helps you re-invigorate your spirituality by offering a life-giving practice and understanding of the Catholic faith.