A Biblical Morning & Evening Prayer Manual is a reworking of the sixth-century Christian tradition of fixed times for prayer. All entries are taken from various English translations of the Bible. Because the principal times for prayer are morning and evening, this manual is a complete handbook of biblical passages for the modern person, consisting of material taking ten to fifteen minutes to absorb before beginning the day and ten to fifteen minutes when ending the day. Through daily praye...

How well-known is the prophet Agabus? How about the prophetess Anna? Daniel? Or Deborah? Besides the prophets who have biblical books named after them, there are over eighty other prophets found in biblical literature. This book presents all the prophets and prophetesses found in the Bible. While most are named, there are a few who are known simply as “Man of God.” Among the 104 entries, readers will read and learn about Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Elijah, Elisha, and Noadiah, and E...

Every person has seen a tree and maybe planted or climbed one! In all world religions, various trees are considered sacred. Trees have the ability to help us reach wholeness if we learn their wisdom and integrate it into our lives. This abecedarian--a book whose contents are in alphabetical order--explores the spiritual growth that is possible by reflecting on the wisdom of woody plants, which help humans experience the divine. In these pages you can explore trees from Acacia to Zaqqum. Fo...

The title of this book, Shhh! The Sound of Sheer Silence: A Biblical Spirituality that Transforms, comes from the biblical narrative about the prophet Elijah experiencing God on a mountain in a sound of sheer silence. Many people seek a way of life that involves silence because it nourishes the individual spirit connected to Spirit. Developing a spirituality of silence enables the individual spirit to connect to the divine Spirit. The transformation that occurs through silence here and now...

The title of this book, Very Short Reflections--for Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, Ordinary Time and Saints--through the Liturgical Year, accurately describes its contents. Chapter 1 presents a short reflection for every day of the Advent Season. Chapter 2 does the same for every day of the Christmas season. Lent is covered in chapter 3, the Sacred Paschal Triduum in chapter 4, and the fifty days of the Easter season in chapter 5. Chapter 6 covers Ordinary Time. And chapter 7 prese...

Thousands of readers have found Fr. Mark Boyer’s The Liturgical Environment: What the Documents Say to be a useful compendium of the church’s law and guidelines on the liturgical environment. Rooted in the norm of active participation as the guiding principle for all liturgical celebration, each chapter considers the ecclesial documents that pertain to the particular objects under discussion, the theology found in the documents, and the praxis that flows from the theology. Now in ...

Almost every person has owned a pet at one time or another in life or known someone who has. In all world religions, animals serve as spirit guides; there is spirituality to animal and human dialogue. Animals have the ability to help us reach wholeness if we learn their wisdom and integrate it into our lives. This abecedarian--a book whose contents are in alphabetical order--explores the spiritual growth that is possible by reflecting on the wisdom of creatures, which serve as spirit guide...

What is Born of the Spirit is Spirit provides reflections on Scripture texts associated with (Holy) Spirit and (human) spirit. Various aspects of Spirit and spirit are explored in one-hundred-five entries. The subtitle, A Biblical Spirituality of Spirit, indicates the ways biblical authors are inspired to present imaginatively what cannot be pictured: Spirit and spirit. This book attempts to recover the spirituality of biblical stories that narrate how the Spirit connects to spirit and the...

The Folks in the Woods focuses on Mary Ann Ackerson, 1904-91, in an isolated French village located in southeast Missouri. When she was seven years old, her parents--Daly and Sarah Ackeson--died of typhoid fever on successive days in 1911. Because Missouri was not yet a state, there were no adoption procedures for Mary Ann and her two brothers and one sister. The author's maternal great-grandfather and great-grandmother, Zeno and Sarah Osia, took Mary Ann to live with them. She grew up wit...

While the complete title of this book might be clumsy, it expresses what is contained between the covers. Spiritual refers to the need to nourish the human spirit. The forty spiritual exercises in this book begin with a short Scripture passage, which illustrates the topic of the chapter, and end with a Psalm response, a few verses from a psalm that mentions the topic of the exercise. The traditional five senses--tasting, touching, hearing, seeing, and smelling--are presented by E. E. Cummi...

This book presents forty-two reflections on biblical names for God in an abecedarian (A through Z) format. The names, terms by which God is known, are not biblically exhaustive. These entries present spiritual reflections, grounded in Scripture, with Psalm responses, questions for meditation and/or journaling, and prayers designed to nourish spirituality at any time. Beginning with Abba, Alpha, and Ancient One, individual entries continue through the alphabet to Yahweh and Zion. By reflect...

Prayer, the raising of the heart to God, is the heart of the Christian life. For the author of Luke's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, prayer is the habit of being in the presence of God. One of the primary ways Jesus is characterized in Luke's Gospel is that of a pray-er. Likewise in the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles are portrayed being in God's presence. Prayer is the topic of this book; it highlights the passages where Jesus is found praying in the Gospel and where the apostles...