WHAT'S NEW IN OUR LIBRARY:

1.   33 Days to Merciful Love by Fr. Michael Gaitley
     The stirring sequel to Father Michael Gaitley's 33 Days to Morning Glory -- published just in time for the Jubilee Year of Mercy!
   
   
2.   A Devotional Journey into the Mass by Christopher Carstens

If you're unhappy because the Mass has become for you routine or even boring and tedious these pages are for you. They teach you eight simple ways to make your every Mass a joyful time of piety and intense devotion.

Explaining the spiritual meanings behind the signs and symbols, words and actions of the Mass, author Christopher Carstens teaches you spiritually-enriching ways to enter the church building, make the Sign of the Cross, pray the Opening Prayer, listen to the Readings, prepare your soul at the Offertory, participate in the Eucharistic Prayer, receive Communion, and even respond to the Dismissal.

Soon with the help of author Carstens wise suggestions you will be surprised to find each Eucharistic Celebration a fountain of peace for you, a profound refreshment for your soul.

Among other things you'll learn from these pages:

• The meaning of the "sacramental principle": if you don't understand it, then Mass is almost surely flat for you
• How each element of the Liturgy has a sacramental quality about it, and can be for you a grace-filled encounter with Jesus
• How to transform your prayers at Mass into a conversation with God
• Why silence both within the liturgy and outside of it is a necessary element of that conversation with God
• There's a proper spiritual way to make the Sign of the Cross (do you know what it is?)
• How the Creed can be for you the highpoint of the Liturgy of the Word
• Why, during the collection, you should also explicitly offer Christ your heart
• The best way in the Mass to participate in Jesus' saving work: do you know what it is?
• What you should desire in order to receive the Eucharist most efficaciously (and what that desire presupposes in you)
• Coming and going through the church doors: what, each time, it should mean for you spiritually

Plus, at the end of each chapter, a list of action items for the next time you go to Mass, and much, much more to awaken in you the bright spirit of joyful devotion that we are all called to have at Mass

3.       Living the Sacraments by Joe Paprocki

Too many Catholics view the sacraments as isolated rites of passage disconnected from daily living, hoops to jump through, rather than as gateways to fulfilling lives centered on a spiritual relationship with God. Such a misunderstanding distances Catholics from the heart of their spiritual vitality and renders the Church less relevant to their experience.

In his friendly, practical, and accessible style, best-selling author and master teacher Joe Paprocki opens up this critical aspect of Catholic life in Living the Sacraments. He presents the sacraments as a spiritual path. Their power and grace open our hearts to ongoing encounter with God. By inviting readers to delve into the mystery of God’s self-revelation through the sacraments, by teaching the essence of each sacrament without being overbearing, and by inviting readers to reflect the divine image of God, Paprocki shows us that the sacraments allow us to experience God’s presence in Church rites and through ordinary, tangible experiences. We can, and should, celebrate the sacraments—but we are transformed as we live them.

4.       A Mother’s Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul by Holly Pierlot

On January 1, 2000, Holly Pierlot pounded her fist on the kitchen table and yelled at her husband, “I can’t take it anymore!”

Motherhood and homeschooling had overwhelmed her. The house was dirty, the laundry undone. Holly felt frustrated, discouraged, and alone. She couldn’t find time to snuggle and have fun with her five children or to go out with her husband. Yes, she loved Philip and she did love God, but she had come to resent Philip’s freedom and she almost never found time for prayer.

Today, everything’s better.

Holly still homeschools, but the house is cleaner, she gets more done, and the kids are happier. There’s less stress, less strife, and less housework. Holly’s been healed of past wounds that troubled her soul and her marriage. Best of all, she spends at least an hour each day in prayer and time each evening with Philip.

Holly brought about these changes with what she calls her Mother’s Rule of Life, a pattern for living that combines the spiritual wisdom of the monastery with the practical wisdom of motherhood.

Holly’s Rule is not just another set of schedules; it’s a way for Christian mothers to answer God’s call to holiness.

With the help of your own Rule, you can get control of your own household, grow closer to God, come to love your husband more, and raise up good Christian children. In these wise and practical pages, Holly shows you how.

Do you want to be a better wife and mother? To have more order in your life? To grow in union with God? Are you desperate yet?

With your own Mother’s Rule of Life, you’ll transform motherhood and its burdens into the joyful vocation it’s meant to be. Learn from Holly Pierlot how to craft a Rule that’s right for you and your family. Then use that Rule to help God draw you, your husband, and each of your children into Heaven!

5.       Doors in the Walls of the World by Peter Kreeft

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." — Hamlet

After William Shakespeare's Horatio sees the ghost of Hamlet's father, and scarcely believes his own eyes, Hamlet tells him that there is more to reality than he can know or imagine, including ghosts.

Hamlet's statement suggests that the walls of the material world, which we perceive with our senses and analyze with our intellects, have doors that open into the More beyond them. Philosopher Peter Kreeft explains in this book that the More includes "The Absolute Good, Platonic Forms, God, gods, angels, spirits, ghosts, souls, Brahman, Rta (the Hindu ontological basis for cosmological karma), Nirvana, Tao, 'the will of Heaven', The Meaning of It All, Something that deserves a capital letter."

With razor-sharp reasoning and irrepressible joy, Kreeft helps us to find the doors in the walls of the world. Drawing on history, physical science, psychology, religion, philosophy, literature, and art, he invites us to welcome what lies on the other side of these doors, and to begin living the life of Heaven in the here and now.

6.       The Handbook of Spiritual Perfection by Philip E. Dion, C.M.

Here's help for everyone who makes good resolutions, but who has trouble keeping them. According to the author, Fr. Philip E. Dion, your problem is probably not that you're too weak to be good - God gives everyone the help he needs to conquer sin. Rather, you may be struggling because you aren't taking full advantage of the many spiritual means that God has made available to help you live a truly holy life. That's why Fr. Dion wrote The Handbook of Spiritual Perfection - to show you simple ways that you can, by God's grace, start keeping your resolutions once and for all.

In a word, this wise book explains how God has provided you with everything you need to overcome your faults and, indeed, to be perfect! Fr. Dion gives you practical methods for using God's gifts profitably and intelligently. He shows you how to motivate yourself to grow in holiness, how to pray more deeply than you may ever have before, how to identify and root out your predominant fault (and your other faults), how to make your Confessions more fruitful, how to abandon yourself to God's will, and much more.

Above all, Fr. Dion reveals how you can integrate his sensible and deeply spiritual advice into your daily life, so that at every moment you'll be giving glory to God and reaping the peace and happiness that come from serving Him.