Jon M. Sweeney

Biographies of St. Francis will only take you so far. It’s impossible to truly understand him without reading his writings. Sweeney has compiled all of the ones that we are most certain come from Francis himself, including his first Rule of life, the Rule he wrote for the Third Order, letters to friends, letters to people in power, messages to all Franciscans, songs, praises, canticles, and his final spiritual Testament. An introduction and explanatory notes throughout the book help to put the...

Biographies of St. Francis will only take you so far. It’s impossible to truly understand him without reading his writings. Sweeney has compiled all of the ones that we are most certain come from Francis himself, including his first Rule of life, the Rule he wrote for the Third Order, letters to friends, letters to people in power, messages to all Franciscans, songs, praises, canticles, and his final spiritual Testament. An introduction and explanatory notes throughout the book help to put the...

In this fourth installment of “The Pope's Cat” series, Margaret and the Pope travel for the first time together away from the Vatican and out of Rome. They go by train to the Umbrian hill town of Assisi, a place of pilgrimage for Christians all over the world who want to remember the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Together they visit the great Basilica named for St. Francis, greet Franciscan friars at the monastery, attend a World Day of Prayer for Peace, meet religious leaders (each, it...

Margaret – The Pope's Cat – is back! Illustrated in full color. Bang! Slam! Boom! Loud sounds in St. Peter's Square had been going on for nearly an hour already. Margaret was annoyed, because as you may know, cats like to sleep. A lot. The apartment where Margaret lives with the Pope, ever since he adopted her off the streets of Rome, looks out onto St. Peter’s Square. And the noises down there kept waking Margaret up. She rolled over, covering her ears with her paws. A few...

In this new series of «little books» you will learn how to grasp the meaning of ancient ways of praying in a relatively short amount of time. In Praying with the Saints, a popular Catholic author (The Pope Who Quit) explains the origin of saints, how to recognize one, and the most time-tested ways of praying with them in order to enrich your spiritual life.

This collection draws heavily from the core devotional strain in Miller’s poetry, offering what novelist Fenton Johnson described in his review of Iron Wheel as “the vision and experience of that place where dark merges seamlessly into light; the house and home of grace—unasked for and perhaps undeserved, but transformative all the same.” Framed by meditations on the beginnings and possible post-human ends of culture, the new poems reflect on the callings and limits of art in responding to...

This is the story of a stray born on the Via della Conciliazione in Rome, how she’s adopted by the Pope, and then “rules” the Vatican from museum to floorboard! First in a new series. No one has a closer view of what’s happening in the world’s tiniest nation, Vatican City, than Margaret, the Pope’s new cat. But she wasn’t always Margaret, and she wasn’t always the Pope’s cat. She started out as a stray on the streets of Rome, and there are those in the Vatican who wish she’d never been...

This warm-hearted little book is a window into the soul of St. Francis, one of the most passionate and inspiring followers of Jesus. «Prayer was to Francis as play is to a child: natural, easy, creative, and joyful,» author Jon Sweeney tells us. «Before it became common to speak in personal terms of a relationship with God, Francis did so and made it seem natural.» With this guide, readers will: – Pray the words that Francis taught his spiritual brothers and sisters to pray. ...

The Middle Ages were not so very dark, as the old textbooks say. As you will discover in this intriguing portrait of the first Franciscans, we live in dark ages whenever we become preoccupied with power. In this popular history, Jon Sweeney reveals the timeless temptations that come with being human–greed, competition, ego, and selfishness–as well as the many ways that Francis and Clare of Assisi inspired change and brought light into darkness. Discover how Francis was first found by God and...

For all who love St. Francis and his spirit of passionate creativity and devotion to God, this prayer book is an invitation to experience the spiritual gifts of one of his closest companions. Clare was a deep, ready source of wisdom—a well to Francis's river. Discover the spirituality of St. Clare and how it complements that of St. Francis. Enter into a week of morning and evening prayer centered on themes from Clare's life. Pray with Clare's own words in a variety of...

This joint biography illuminates the lives of Francis and Clare and their way of life. It shows how they were bound together by devotion to God as well as the violent objections of their families to religious life. It explores a variety of issues they faced, including the treatment of lepers in medieval society, corruption in the church, and attitudes toward the created world. You will learn how Clare’s spirituality influenced that of other prominent women, how Francis lost control of his own...

The Complete Prayers of St. Francis and St. Clare, with Selections from Brother Juniper, St. Anthony of Padua, and Other Early Franciscans We do not immediately associate Francis and Clare with prayer and praying. St. Francis, according to the most common legends, rarely sat still. St. Clare did, more so, but that was probably mostly because of the convent and the grille and the conventions of the time: she couldn’t be a walkabout friar. However, they did sit still. And they stood. And they...