Based on early Christian practice, pilgrims to Jerusalem reconstructed the events of Good Friday along the “Way of Suffering,” the Via Dolorosa. The Spanish nun, Egeria, writes of her own experience with this in her fourth century Holy Week journal. In the Middle Ages, the Franciscans and Dominicans particularly picked up on the ritual, and transported it from Jerusalem to chapels and churches outside the Holy Land. If one could not make the pilgrimage to the place of Jesus’s passion, then the...
Many have called the psalms a 'school of prayer' and indeed St. Augustine in his Confessions wrote that the psalms could be a stepping stone to deeper conversation with God. These ancient words from Scripture mirror our own thoughts and emotions—celebration and praise, suffering and lament, gratitude and asking for help—as relevant today as when they were first sung in the Temple. Fr. Martin Shannon brings deep teaching as well as the personal encounter of...
A daily devotional/study for Lent on the subject and the experience of temptation. Daily reflections on the hard school of temptation, based on Scriptures, inspired by the Lenten experience of a Benedictine monastic community. Each day’s reflection includes a quotation taken from two works of the German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945): a series of lectures given on the creation and fall of Adam and Eve; and a six-day Bible study on the theme of temptation, given by...
If you are on a journey of reclaiming your life for God, or rediscovering your true self after a period of living «out of control» in some way, you may need this wisdom. Carol Showalter—the founder of the 3D Plan—has helped change more than 1 million lives with her advice, self-deprecating good humor, and inspiration. Open Your Heart focuses you on the best ways to look for roadblocks that prevent spiritual growth and maturity. If you are undergoing serious changes in lifestyle and...
