Catholicism

What Does the Pope Do?
Conclave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election
by John L. Allen, Jr.
Conclave is a fascinating look at the election process and at what this headline-making occasion will mean to the world. John L. Allen, Jr., takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the issues, parties, and people most likely to determine the outcome.

The Final Days of John Paul II
The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and Where He Will Take the Catholic Church
by John L. Allen, Jr.
The story of Pope John Paul II's last days, the behind-the-scenes dynamics within the College of Cardinals that led to the choice of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, and where the new pope is likely to lead the Catholic Church.

A Quick Overview of Opus Dei
Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church
by John L. Allen, Jr.
Journalistic investigation of the highly secretive, controversial organization Opus Dei provides unique insight about the wild rumors surrounding it and discloses its significant influence in the Vatican and on the politics of the Catholic Church.

Vatican 101
All the Pope's Men : The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks
by John L. Allen, Jr.
All the Pope's Men is a lucid, in-depth guide to the sometimes puzzling, often incomprehensible inner workings of the Vatican. It reveals how decisions are made, how papal bureaucrats think, and how careers in the Roman Curia are shaped.

Saint Thérèse

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, largely unknown when she died in a Carmelite convent at the age of twenty-four, became-through her posthumously published autobiography-one of the world's most influential religious figures.

Before John

Pope John XXIII opens with a concise but sweeping history of the Catholic Church and the papacy, culminating in the brief but unforgettable reign of Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli as Pope John XXIII, in the mid-twentieth century.

A Catholic Dark Age

This is the darkest time in Catholic history ... the collapse of religious life, the dearth of vocations, the lowering of ecclesiastical discipline, particularly vis-à-vis false teaching and moral teaching, the general confusion, the apostasy

You Can Get There from Here
Good News for Bad Days: Living a Soulful Life
by Father Paul Keenan
When it comes to bad days in our lives; some seem to have more of them than others. Instead of being mere annoyances or obstacles, our bad days can be the door to discovering a depth and a purpose to our lives far beyond what we may have imagined.

Jesus
A Concise History of the Catholic Church
by Thomas Bokenkotter
The Catholic Church has always claimed Jesus of Nazareth as its founder, and nearly everyone is familiar with the basic facts about this dynamic Jewish preacher and healer who was born around the turn of the first century a.d.

Receiving the Holy Spirit
Contact with God
by Anthony De Mello
I wish to situate this retreat in the context of the Church and the world today. We have assembled here for a period of silence and prayer and withdrawal at a time when the Church is in crisis and the world in desperate need of peace and development

Making Peace with Yourself, Solitude
Living Peace: A Spirituality of Contemplation and Action
by John Dear
A few years before his death in 1999, the great Latin American advocate for the poor, Brazil's Archbishop Dom Helder Camara, was speaking at a crowded church in Berkeley, California. He was asked, 'After facing death squads, would-be assassins

Invitation, Identity
The Questions of Jesus : Challenging Ourselves to Discover Life's Great Answers (Challenging Ourselves to Discover Life's Great Answers)
by John Dear
What are you looking for? The first question Jesus asks does not address our sins, failures, or infidelity. It is not accusatory or hostile. Rather, it is a question rooted in compassion and love, calling upon our deepest desires, the best within us.

Chapter One
Becoming a Father: The Real Work of a Man's Soul
by John L. Hart, Ph.D.
In an age when men's roles in the lives of their children are under fire, the book may well become the touchstone to a new wave of hands-on, emotionally present, conscious fathering. John Hart focuses on the synergistic tenets that a father is crucial

Part 1
Sister Genevieve: A Courageous Woman's Triumph in Northern Ireland
by John Rae
On a January morning in 1956 a sister wearing the blue habit and distinctive white collar and cornette, or headdress, of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul left Clonard Convent in the heart of Roman Catholic West Belfast to walk the short

The Source of My Vocation
Rise, Let Us Be on Our Way
by Pope John Paul II
I set off in search of the source of my vocation. It is beating there … in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. I thank God that during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 I was able to pray-precisely there-in the Upper Room (Mark 14:15)