Showing results by narrator "Kevin OBrien" in All Categories

A heroic queen who shaped the course of history. Isabel of Spain led with courage during the Reconquista, reformed her nation through justice, and launched a new era by supporting Columbus’s voyages. Her bold, faith-filled reign eclipses even that of England’s Elizabeth. This is the first major English biography of Isabel in decades — scholarly, detailed, and deeply inspiring.

After the Bible, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis is the favorite book of Catholics throughout the world and has been the spiritual guide of the saints since it first appeared in 1418. And of the English editions, none can equal this inspiring translation of Bishop Richard Challoner. This book speaks to the soul of every true Christian, reminding him of the fleeting nature of earthly joy as opposed to the eternity of happiness with God.

The essentials of the Catholic Faith — clearly, comprehensively, and beautifully explained by one of the Church’s greatest thinkers! Although St. Thomas Aquinas was one of the Church’s most intellectually powerful theologians, few know that he also wrote a great deal that’s well within the reach of ordinary believers. In fact, as you’ll find in these pages, St. Thomas had a remarkable ability to communicate the Faith — including both its most complex and its simplest elements — in plain language.

Rich in humor and culture, as well as passion and love for the cause of God and of man, Milestones is the early autobiography of Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger. It tells the fascinating and inspiring story of his early family life, the years under Nazi oppression in Germany, and his part in World War II—including how as a teenager, he was forced to join the Hitler Youth and German army, from which he risked his life to flee.

Best-selling novelist Michael O’Brien returns to the theme of people of faith striving to find their way through a societal collapse during the rise of new dimensions of totalitarianism. Set in the near future, all of North America is plunged into crisis as basic communications and other services suddenly and inexplicably fail. As the tension mounts, a disparate group of people come together from several directions, apparently by coincidence. Many of them are strangers to each other, and some are very young—whom their parents and guardians call “our pied piper children.

Canadian bookseller Alex Graham is a middle-age widower whose quiet life is turned upside down when his college-age son disappears without any explanation or trace of where he has gone. With minimal resources, the father begins a long journey that takes him away from his safe and orderly world for the first time.

Here, Joseph Pearce, author of Bilbo's Journey uncovers the rich - and distinctly Christian - meaning just beneath the surface of The Lord of the Rings. Make the journey with Frodo as he makes his perilous trek from the Shire to Mordor, while Pearce expertly reveals the deeper, spiritual significance.

In his latest book, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski argues that ever since the new liturgical books following the Second Vatican Council came into force, Roman Catholic faithful have suffered the effects of a hasty and far-reaching reform permeated with nominalism, voluntarism, Protestantism, rationalism, antiquarianism, hyperpapalism, and other modern errors. Man is not master over divine liturgy, Dr. Kwasniewski emphasizes; rather, all of us are called to be stewards of the sacred, from the lowest-ranking layman to the pope himself.

The war is on. The Devil plots to defeat you. Meet some battle-tested warriors who fight at your side. Satan is real. He's a formidable foe who wants to snatch us away from God, and the thought of doing battle with him can seem daunting. Even so, the saints who have gone before us have engaged the Devil, armed with the power of Christ and emerged victorious! These fellow warriors in heaven now fight on our behalf.

Lectio Divina with the Spiritual Masters offers a transformative way to engage with Sacred Scripture through the guidance of the Saints and masters who have gone before us. Rooted in the ancient practice of Lectio Divina—a contemplative and prayerful reading of God’s Word—this approach combines enriching commentary from holy men and women with structured meditations and prompts.

In this popular abridgment of his monumental Preparation for Death, St. Alphonsus teaches the proper attitude toward Death, which is one of readiness; of always having one's "debts cleared". He cautions against letting even one day pass without reflecting on the certainty of death, the shortness of time and the length of eternity. Each chapter is a short consideration on some aspect of death, divided into three points easily understood by people in every state of life.

Ethan McQuarry is a young lighthouse keeper on a tiny island, the rugged outcropping of easternmost Cape Breton Island on the Atlantic Ocean. A man without any family, he sees himself as a silent vigilant, performing his duties courageously year after year, with an admirable sense of responsibility.

With gripping detail and firsthand accounts that sound like a novel, renowned author Warren Carroll unveils the events that led up to the divine intervention in which Our Lady of Guadalupe was sent to an Aztec, known now as St. Juan Diego. Here is the untold story of the faith and valor of the Spanish as they encounter an early Aztec culture marked by an immorality and an idolatry of epic proportions, along with the hardships they endured in the face of unspeakable cruelty.

Discover the Christian meaning in The Hobbit. In Bilbo's Journey, go beyond the dragons, dwarves, and elves, and discover the surprisingly deep meaning of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novel The Hobbit.

During his years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, well-known Vatican prelate Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger has given three in-depth interviews. The first two interviews have become best selling books: The Ratzinger Report and Salt of the Earth. Because of the tremendous reception those books received, the Cardinal agreed to do another interview with journalist Peter Seewald, who had done the very popular Salt of the Earth interview. This third in-depth interview addresses deep questions of faith and the living of that faith in the modern world.

Join Thoman as he skillfully weaves the known facts of Clare’s life with imaginative passages that bring the listener into the profoundly spiritual world of the “Light from the Cloister.” Hailing from an aristocratic or “Major” family, Clare continually—in imitation of Our Lord and Francis—sought to make herself lesser or minor. In the process, in another of God’s “divine paradoxes,” she became a giant, not only of her Age, but of all time.

Christ’s words ring true for this earthly life that we must endure in order to, hopefully, attain eternal rest with Him in heaven. Our fallen world is full of sufferings and struggles; from the everyday aggravations to the life-altering sorrows that we sometimes face. Yet, Christ assures us that His “yoke is sweet and [His] burden light.” This is so because He always helps us carry our crosses throughout this life and because the ultimate battle is already won, thanks to Christ’s love for us. Yet we must remain vigilant.

It is the dawn of the New Age. After six millennia of stagnation, humanity stands on the brink of its final great evolutionary step. But it is a step that has come at tremendous cost. Half the world's population is dead. The planet's survivors face a fundamental choice: follow Christopher Goodman, the Messiah of the New Age and clone of Jesus Christ, or cling to the very worldview and the God who has wrought this destruction.

On a balmy day in April 1863, Union Colonel Abel D. Streight, at the head of a brigade of federal infantry, set out on a 220-mile ride to destroy the Western and Atlantic railroad at Rome, Georgia. The most fascinating thing about the raid is that Streight's brigade of four infantry regiments, almost 1,800 soldiers, was mounted on mules, a huge problem in itself; few of his men had ever ridden a horse, let alone a mule.

The "Rule" of St. Benedict was written in the sixth century by the father of monastic life, St. Benedict himself. It towers in the great tradition of Christian Monasticism. Its leading characteristics are its wonderful discretion, moderation, and keen insight into the capabilities and weaknesses of human nature. Here is a common sense approach to arranging life so that Christian spirituality and virtue can be lived out in any community settings - monastic or familial.