Few events have been as impactful on the present-day circumstances of the Catholic Church as the Italian Unification. Pope Pius IX led the Church through a time of massive change in the political climates of Europe, ushering in the increase in visibility of the pope. Pius IX led the world in his strong attack against Modernism, and the increasingly secular cultures and economic systems which were engulfing the world.-Print ed.

This book looks at how the use of story can capture and embody our spiritual experiences, whether human or divine. It is a collection of meditations on how God initiates all experiences and how we respond to God's initiative through our relationship with the Divine One. The stories challenge us to reflect more deeply on how we encounter the Spirit in our religious traditions as well as in the personal experiences of our lives.Paperback

Award-winning author and storyteller, John Shea shares a poetic word of hope to help us “make it” this Christmas season.Whether your “it” is the overwhelming pressure to get it all done, the task of just getting through it, or simply being present this holiday season, award-winning author John Shea urges us to slow down during the rush of the season and open our hearts and minds to how the Spirit is calling us to renewal.By focusing on theological, scriptur...

Storyteller and theologian John Shea provides a unique commentary that's ideal for preaching, teaching, or simply meditating on the Gospels. His writing is poignant and conversational making this book a valuable tool for professional ministers, as well as for Christians who reflect on the Gospels for personal spiritual growth.Shea draws readers into the people and situations that Jesus encountered in ways that are evocative and inspirational. The resource is based on both the Catho...

Saint John's Gospel ends with the words, "But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written" (John 21:25). This very popular book by master storyteller John Shea picks up where the Gospel of John leaves off. Inside its pages are stories that Christians tell, a few of the worlds they inhabit, invitations that lure them, and decisions that face them.Paperba...

The Lord’s Prayer accompanies the lives of Christians. When we are happy or sad, when we eagerly wait for a child to be born or silently keep watch as an elder dies, alone in the woods or together in liturgy, filled with gratitude or emptied by grief, driven to praise or dragged to repent, the Our Father finds its way to our lips.To Dare the Our Father recognizes and respects these experiences but it envisions praying the prayer as a more sustained and challenging undertak...

2006 Catholic Press Association Award Winner!With a goal of transcendent awareness, John Shea presents this commentary on the Sunday Gospel readings for those who are drawn to the spiritual wisdom of the Gospels. Ideal for Christian preachers and teachers, and Christians who meditate on the Gospels, Shea's book takes a literary-spiritual approach. He analyzes the mindsets of characters and how Jesus complimented, critiqued, praised these mindsets, to inspire medita...

Christmas is unavoidable. But if it is going to happen for us, we need to take time. We need to slow down and do something out of the ordinary, something that has to do with the spiritual meaning of the feast and the season. Reading the Christmas poems of Seeing Haloes is one way of doing this. John Shea hopes that each poem strikes a chord and brings us into memories we may have forgotten and present experiences we may have overlooked. When this happens, the Spirit arrives to ill...

Six New Yorkers are sick with a mysterious virus that attacks the brain.Experts suspect a tiny culprit: mosquitoes! Then birds start dropping dead. Scientists think that the outbreaks are related. But how?High-interest topics, real stories, engaging design, and astonishing photos are the building blocks of the XBooks, a new series of books designed to engage and motivate reluctant and enthusiastic readers alike. How can a bite from a pet prairie dog cause a...

With a goal of transcendent awareness, John Shea presents this commentary on the Sunday Gospel readings for those who are drawn to the spiritual wisdom of the Gospels. Ideal for Christian preachers and teachers, and Christians who meditate on the Gospels, Shea's book takes a literary-spiritual approach. He analyzes the mindsets of characters and how Jesus complimented, critiqued, praised these mindsets, to inspire meditation, reflection, and spiritual development. On Earth as It Is in ...

In this true crime memoir, a former member of the Irish mob under Whitey Bulger details his criminal exploits in 1980s and '90s Boston.An ice-cold enforcer with a red-hot temper, John "Red" Shea was already a top lieutenant in the South Boston Irish mob at the young age of twenty-one, a protégé of the notorious Irish godfather James "Whitey" Bulger. Brutal and ruthlessly ambitious—a loan shark, money launderer, and multimillion-dollar narcotics kingpin—Shea was at t...

In Stone Tools in Human Evolution, John J. Shea argues that over the last three million years hominins' technological strategies shifted from occasional tool use, much like that seen among living non-human primates, to a uniquely human pattern of obligatory tool use. Examining how the lithic archaeological record changed over the course of human evolution, he compares tool use by living humans and non-human primates and predicts how the archaeological stone tool evidence should have change...