As a child, Maria Luisa Jimenez Edwards wanted to be a missionary. It held an indescribable allure for her, an intrinsic pull that was aching to spread the Good News of Jesus. In the pages of this book, join her as she embarks on a personal and spiritually-challenging journey to the jungles of Ecuador. It is virtually impossible to describe a missionary life meaningfully to someone who has never experienced it. She wants to encourage readers to find their own paths to follow God as others,...

As a child, Maria Luisa Jimenez Edwards wanted to be a missionary. It held an indescribable allure for her, an intrinsic pull that was aching to spread the Good News of Jesus. In the pages of this book, join her as she embarks on a personal and spiritually-challenging journey to the jungles of Ecuador. It is virtually impossible to describe a missionary life meaningfully to someone who has never experienced it. She wants to encourage readers to find their own paths to follow God as others,...

Brought up as female for fifteen years, Jon can remember feeling different from other girls since he was only five years old.But it will take years of depression, incessant bullying, self-harm and isolation before he discovers why.When Jon eventually confides to his mother that he feels like a boy, Luisa commits herself unconditionally to helping her child.For Jon, the changes that follow are his path to happiness. But for Luisa, this means coming to terms with the ...

An intimate and personal glimpse inside the mind of the former leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, through his own words...“I believe in the kindness of others, and that I must love them without fear.”—Jorge Bergoglio, Pope FrancisJorge Bergoglio was the first Latin American pope, the first Jesuit pope, and the first to take the name Francis, after Saint Francis of Assisi, the thirteenth-century friar known for his charity and kindness. He...

A down-to-earth and deeply intimate portrait of Pope Francis and his faith, based on interviews with the men and women who knew him simply as Jorge Mario BergoglioEarly on the evening of March 13, 2013, the newly elected Pope Francis stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and did something remarkable: Before he imparted his blessing to the crowd, he asked the crowd to bless him, then bowed low to receive this grace. In the days that followed,...

Nearly a decade after Spain's conquest of Mexico, the future of Christianity on the American continent was very much in doubt. Confronted with a hostile colonial government and Native Americans wary of conversion, the newly-appointed bishop-elect of Mexico wrote to tell the King of Spain that, unless there was a miracle, the continent would be lost. Between December 9 and December 12, 1531, that miracle happened, and it forever changed the future of the continent.It was then that t...

The unexpected and moving story of an American journalist who works to uncover her family’s long-buried Jewish ancestry in Spain.Raised a Catholic in California, New York Times journalist Doreen Carvajal is shocked when she discovers that her background may actually be connected to conversos in Inquisition-era Spain , Jews who were forced to renounce their faith and convert to Christianity or face torture and death. With vivid childhood memories o...

The area in and surrounding Fatima has been particularly blessed by Our Lord Jesus through our loving Mary. In Bathala, about 20 miles from Fatima, a promise was made to Mary that a great Church would be built in her honor if she would help the Portugese people win a battle against Spain, which took place on the day before the Feast of the Assumption in 1385. The splendid Basilica rises majestically towards her in Heaven as a tribute to and in thanksgiving for, the victory granted. The Chu...

The story of Oscar Romero is one of transformation, from one born of poverty, to one living comfortably within the system, to one determined to change the system. The story of Oscar Romero is one of conversion, of Paul on the road to Damascus, of a man who was blinded, and whose eyes were opened by the Lord, to see his brothers and sisters in agony and misery. The story of Oscar Romero is one of a man who committed his life to right wrongs to his flock, or die trying. The story of Oscar Ro...

It is 1596 and in Mexico the Inquisition is at its most efficient. A young man trembles in his cell as he prays for salvation, torn between the Christianity he was schooled in and his ancestral faith. What heresies will the Holy Office uncover? Can he protect his mother and sisters?He is Luis de Carvajal. His forbears had fled the Inquisition in Spain to Portugal and then from there to the New World. But the lives they try to rebuild as conversos in Mexico are jus...

It's hard to describe all the charisms of St. Martin de Porres, or cover all the gifts he received from the Lord. The more we read about him, the more we realize what a powerful instrument of God he was. He had the gifts of bilocation, healing, multiplication of food, reading men's minds, raising the dead, levitation, ecstasy, visions, inner locution; it goes on and on. Martin de Porres was one of the most powerful and yet one of the gentlest Saints in the history of our Church, and withou...

The purpose of this book is to share with whomever wants to read it, my simple spiritual journey from childhood through today.This is a journey with numerous peaks and valleys, but with no burning bushes, awesome spiritual experiences, or extraordinary miracles.I am a convinced and passionate Catholic who profoundly respects people who have chosen other Christian denominations, non-Christian religions, or no religion at all.They may be close members of my family, relatives or frien...