Spiritual Perfection I

Amazing Grace for Those Who Suffer
by Jeff Cavins & Matthew Pinto

$12.99 - 275 pages - Soft Cover 
Catholic Word

        Amazing Grace for Those Who Suffer is the most compelling collection of stories of hope and healing you will ever read.  These true stories will make you laugh, make you cry, and show you the power of God's healing grace.
     Are you experiencing sorrow and trouble in your life?  You are not alone.  Others have been where you are.  More importantly, Jesus has been there, and He can transform your challenges - big or small - into new life.
     Discover these stories and seven more in these grace-filled pages:
     At 6:00 A.M., their daughter left for her paper route.  They never saw her alive again.  Mike and Kathie Clarey suffered the worst trauma any parent can endure.  Their beloved eleven-year-old daughter was brutally murdered.  Yet in the midst of their pain, they experienced God's amazing grace.  And while the suffering didn't go away, it became a source of deep peace as Our Lord brought good out of evil.
     She had a fairy-tale life that became a horror story.  But God's grace eventually prevailed.  Debbie Harding lived a glamorous life as a model and New England Patriots cheerleader.  But then the nightmare began.  As her husband struggled to escape his drug addiction, Debbie turened to her faith for strength.  She would need it:  Her life would come crashing down the night she discovered a lump in her breast.

Christian Self-Mastery
by Basil Maturin

$15.95 - 224 pages - Soft Cover 
Sophia Institute Press

      Enjoy true freedom in Christ through the art of self-mastery! This is the book you need for those times in your life when even your most strenuous efforts to follow Christ end in frustration.  Christian Self-Mastery explains why following Him can sometimes be so difficult - and how you can start now to make progress even in the most vexing areas of your life.
     Author Basil Maturin insists that no matter how hard you're trying now, you can have a better relationship with God and greater self-mastery - if you follow these simple steps to getting your passions in check and improving your self-knowledge.
     With a keenly practical eye, Maturin reveals the two things you must know in order to make any progress at all in your spiritual life and gives you a carefully measured program to do so.  He even explains why it's dangerous for you to try to adopt a large number of spiritual disciplines all at once.
     Maturin details solid ways you can distinguish true self-discipline from its counterfeits - and outlines two ways you can avoid self-deception when you look at yourself.  (You'll probably be surprised at who you really are!)  You'll also discover how to avoid the common mistakes people make when they try to change their habits and live for God.  Best of all, Maturin shows why self-control and self-denial are not morbid and gloomy, but hopeful and even joyful - when undertaken properly

Hidden Power of Kindness
by Lawrence G. Lovasik

$17.95 - 246 pages - Soft Cover 
Sophia Institute Press
  Dare to transform your world with KINDNESS!

     You're almost certainly not as kind as you ought to be - and your relationships with God and those you love may be suffering as a result.  Probably you just can't find the time - and can't ever seem to develop the patience - that you need in order to be consistently kind amidst the irritations that afflict you daily.  That's why The Hidden Power of Kindness is such a godsend.
     You'll learn how to be kinder, even in difficult circumstances.  There's nothing complicated or magical about learning to be kinder; it just takes greater attention to the things that you do and how you do them.  These pages show you how to become more aware of even your most offhand daily actions.  You'll find simple, step-by-step, and spiritually crucial directios for how to overcome the habitual unkindnesses that creep - undetected - into the behavior of even the most careful souls.
     If you want to make progress in the spiritual life, you can't afford to miss the bracing insights in this handbook for souls who yearn to be kinder.  They'll give you years of solid help in overcoming sin so that finally, you'll live more fully with others and more fruitfully in God's love.

His Cross in Your Life
by Bertrand Weaver

$9.95 -112  pages -Soft  Cover 
Catholic Answers

       Suffering is a fact of life for everyone.  If severe suffering is a fact of life for you, then read this book - slowly and carefully.  Its theme will be relevant until the end of time because until the end of time the cross of Christ will be planted on the horizon of the world and each generation will be called on to answer a crucial question: Was that Man on the Cross mistaken, or are we mistaken if we ignore his message?  In these pages you will find an abundance of practical help with your sufferings and sound advice on what to do when the hand of the Lord touches you.
     "It is not possible to live in this life and not have suffering.  As Catherine of Siena said, the issue is not to suffer to not to suffer but rather to suffer with Christ or to suffer in isolation and loneliness.  Those who seek to flee suffering simply find it in another form.  Those who learn to embrace the cross and their suffering find a peace and joy that truly the world cannot give.  This book helps us to find life, hopeand strength in suffering.  If we wish to live a serious Christian life we, too, have to ponder the "secret" of the cross and learn how to imitate and participate in its power and profound love.  We owe a debt of gratitude to Catholic Answers for bringing back into print Fr. Weaver's book on the cross." Ralph Martin -  Renewal Ministries

Holiness for Housewives
by Hubert Van Zeller

$10.95  - 94 pages - Soft Cover 
Sophia Institute Press

 How to find God amid the dishes, the diapers, and the dirty laundry.
     This unique spiritual guide will help you grow holier and more prayerful as you perform the most menial household chores - not in spite of those chores, but in the midst of them.
     Written especially for women in charge of households, Holiness for Housewives will help you better understand and respect your vocation as a housewife - and discover in it your own God-given path to sanctity.
     These pages will show you how to:
 
  •   Find meaning in even the most boring work
  •   Pray in the midst of a bustling household
  •   Bear the stress of those long days in which the work never seems to end
  •    Develop a greater awareness of God's presence - even amid the diapers and the dirty dishes
  •    Learn to rely more on your will and less on emotions, when life seems to be an endless round of drudgery
  •     Handle your burdens and sorrows with prayers that are especially fashioned for housewives
    		•

    How Firm a Foundation
    by Marcus Grodi

    $14.99 - 532 pages - Soft Cover 
    Catholic Word

    		      Stephen LaPointe believed in Jesus.  For him, the Bible was the only sufficient, firm foundation for his life.  He wanted to obey God in all things, and had given up a career to become an ordained minister.  He loved to preach the Word and knew that one day he would stand before God, accountable for everything he preached.  But there was one problem:  How could he be certain that what he was preaching was true?
         Sara LaPointe never wanted this role, but she loved Stephen.  So, through his encouragement and tutelage, she had become both an enthusiastic Evangelical and an effective pastor's wife - at least in the eyes of the congregation.  But would the gnawing guilt of a past mistake - a mistake she would never reveal to her husband - ever let her go?
         "I cannot praise this novel enough...It is fiction for grown-ups, the sort of book that might literally change the direction of one's life.  Perhaps, indeed, it should come with a warning: Read but Beware.  You might never be the same again!" -  Joseph Pearce,  author of Literary Converts

     

    How to Love God and Keep His Commandments
    by Charles J. Quadrupani

    $14.95 - 125 pages - Soft Cover 
    Ignatius Press

    		      These pages are for souls who long to give themselves to God, and who even know what must be done to be holy, but who just can't manage to break free of worldly habits.  In other words, these pages are for everyday folks like you and me.  They'll help you banish yor discouragement and grow in the peace of God as you struggle to love Him and to keep His commandments.
         How?  Not by diluting Christ's call to holiness, but by showing you how He wants you to deal with the inevitable frustrations and false expectations that trouble you as you try hard to be good.
  • Do distrations in prayer leave you feeling far from God?  These pages will show you how to view such problems as an opporunity God is sending you to glimpse his abundant mercy.
  • Have you grown hopeless and spiritually dull because of long struggles with a persistent temptation or a sinful habit?  Here you'll learn how to conquer that fault and to overcome the self-condemnation that the Devil sends along with it.
  • Do you feel guilty because you don't feel sorry for your sins?  You'll gain valuable advice about how to regard such feelings.

    •      On these and countless other topics, you'll get wise spiritual direction that will clear your head and keep you securely within the love of God.  You'll soon be growing holier, right where you are!