Wellsprings Books Community

Book of Saints for Children

Children love this book .. we have sold many copies of this @ St Mary and St Teresa Church.

Who are the saints, why are they important, and what can today’s children learn from them? In Loyola Kids Book of Saints, the first book in the Loyola Kids series, author Amy Welborn answers these questions with exciting and inspiring stories, real-life applications, and important information about these heroes of the church. This delightful collection of saints’ lives, written in a storybook style for children eight to twelve, explains how saints becomes saints, why we honor them, and how they help us even today.

Divided thematically, the book features more than sixty saints from all over the world and from all across time, including our newest saints, such as St. Katharine Drexel; popular saints, such as St. Anthony of Padua; and Blesseds, such as Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. Each story tells about a saint and encourages readers to consider how they might apply what they learn from the story to their everyday lives.

Altar Wine

Have you tried altar wine before? It’s slightly sweet and the alcoholic contents is high at 17% and it’s very nice . All the altar boys and servers will testify to this though they may not admit to tasting it.

Some people like it after dinner as it’s sweet, rather like port. I like it.

Today as I was putting up some information on the symbolic language that the dying would use. Then came a suggestion to get hold of this title and later Fr Joe ofm also emailed asking for this book. Ha, good timing.

Meditation on death, though it seems depressing to many, is essential for our Salvation! Death is the one journey every man must go through alone. It is the one thing that sobers us all and can set us on a more resolute path to Holiness. But this path only begins after facing the reality of death, for to avoid it only increases our fear. In this popular abridgment of his monumental Preparation for Death, St Alphonsus teaches us the proper attitude toward death, which is one of readiness, of always having our debts cleared. Each chapter is a short consideration with three points, easily understood by laity in all states of life. Each point is followed by meditations and prayers for perseverance in our efforts to lead good lives. To aid busy priests in their sermons, St Alphonsus purposely included texts from Scripture and passages from the Holy Fathers, personally selected by the Saint himself to touch the heart of every reader and listener. St Alphonsus shows us how death is, on the natural level, a great sorrow but, on the supernatural level, a great gift. Understanding it as a gift and implementing this knowledge in our lives is the lesson of each powerful meditation. This book is a wonderful way to enhance your Lenten devotions and gain a more profound gratitude for Christ’s victory over Death and Hell through His crucifixion and Resurrection!

How to live according to God’s plan? God’s plan eh?? What plan! Is there a plan??

Developing a friendship with God may be the starting point for the spiritual journey, but how can that important internal relationship move us to make an impact on and even transform the world around us? In Changed Heart, Changed World, renowned spiritual director William A. Barry, SJ, delves into such topics as how friendship with God impacts our role in society, how to see forgiveness as a way of life, and how compassion can make its mark on the world. Throughout the book, Fr. Barry provides many practical ways to integrate the inner life, where we experience a relationship with God, with the outer life, where we live in relationship with our world. Above all else, Changed Heart, Changed World reminds us that God has a dream for his creation here and now a dream that can only be realized by our becoming other Christs in this world.

A spiritual journal to bring you to healing . . .

Like no other form of prayer, writing makes visible the invisible. Authors Eddie Ensley and Robert Herrmann have based their book, a guided journal with the specific goal of emotional and spiritual healing, on this idea. Once we are able to discern our inner world in a concrete way, we can take our pain and troubles to the God who heals and mends. Writing makes our problems tangible—and thus easier to hand over to God.

Designed to be a journey of personal transformation, this interactive journal employs the time-tested practice of spiritual journaling to bring the reader to personal healing. By offering prayers, journaling exercises, personal stories, guided imagery, and space for writing, Ensley and Herrmann endeavor to introduce the reader to proven journaling techniques.

Paul Coutinho, SJ, is an Indian Jesuit priest with a genial sense of humor and a penchant for asking deeply thought-provoking spiritual questions: Do you have a real relationship with God, or do you just have a religion? Do you know God, or do you just know about God? Have you ever considered believing in a God without limits, a God powerful enough to enable you to think, love, and live differently? In How Big Is Your God? Fr. Coutinho challenges readers to grow stronger and deeper in their faith by embracing a God whose love knows no bounds. Coutinho introduces readers to his Hindu friends who put him on the path to mysticism; to his Buddhist teachers who broke open his limited views of the divine; to Viktor Frankl, Desmond Tutu, and other enlightened guides who led him to a far more meaningful spiritual life; and to St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose Spiritual Exercises continue to shape his reflection and prayer life.

Interesting and simply engaging to read this book. I just spent 2 hours gripped in Ron’s simple and easily readable style. I have learnt a lot about ordinary human’s extraordinary events. In our society, we avoid talking about death and other related issues. In doing so, I supposed I have avoided living fully as well. In the final phase of a dying person’s journey, there is no time to play games and there is an urgent sense to make right what was wrong, to reconcile with loved ones, to tell them that we love them. Though I am not going to embrace what Ron’s advocating, his story about dying cannot be ignored as our turn would come one day. I wish to live fully, each minute in its 60 seconds full. Though I may fail time and again, there is hope that with God’s grace, to run the race and to fight the good fight.

In this collection of poignant and hope-filled stories about people who are dealing with death, Ronald Wooten-Green draws on his experience as a caregiver for his dying wife and as a hospice chaplain to give us a glimpse of the spiritual reality known only by those nearing death. From conversations with unseen visitors to visions of long-dead ancestors, When the Dying Speak reveals the unique phenomena surrounding death and helps us listen to and learn from those at the end of their earthly journeys. Scripture passages, biographical sketches, and thought-provoking questions provide spiritual and historical perspective while encouraging self reflection.

For most people most of the time, prayer is hard. It is especially difficult not to mention unsatisfying when people experience it as formal, dry, and repetitious. But what might happen if you discovered a simple prayer that changed all that? What if you discovered a prayer that changed you? In The Prayer That Changes Everything, Jim Manney introduces Christians to a 500-year-old form of prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed. The prayer is the examen, which St. Ignatius Loyola developed for the purpose of nurturing a reflective habit of mind that is constantly attuned to God s presence. What makes the prayer so powerful is its capacity to dispel any notion that God is somewhere up there, detached from our day-to-day tasks and concerns. Instead, the examen leads us into a relationship with a God who desires to be personally caught up in the lives of those whom he created. By following five simple yet powerful steps for praying the examen, we can encounter the God who, as Scripture tells us, is not far from each one of us the God whose presence in our lives can make all the difference in the world.

Knowing where to go or what to do is certainly a great blessing! Especially in life, this gift is invaluable. However many of us do not quite measure up and we continue to make mistakes, one after another, it’s almost like the blind leading the blind when it comes to making choices in life. This book shows us how to listen with clarity the little voice within. Isn’t this neat? What’s the catch? No punchline, read the book and find out for yourself.

Many of us do not trust our own thoughts feelings and desires when it comes to discerning God s will. Instead we look outside ourselves to determine what God wants from and for us. In God s Voice Within spiritual director Mark E. Thibodeaux SJ shows us how to use Ignatian discernment to access our own spiritual intuition and understand that the most trustworthy wisdom of all comes not from outside sources but from God working through us.

God s Voice Within is intended for people who know that there is more to the spiritual life than they are currently experiencing and are ready to take the next step in their walk of faith by making effective discernment specifically Ignatian discernment a daily practice.

A rare photo with Fr General of the Jesuits, Adolfo Nicolas SJ with lay CLC or Christian Life Community in Singapore on 23 Jan 2011.