A moving account that reveals the healing power of literacy.

Presents Pope Benedict's answers to children's questions about First Holy Communion.

For so many of us, our friends are like family members--we lean on them through our highest highs and our lowest lows--but sometimes those friendships don't turn out quite as we hoped. Bible teacher Kelly Needham debunks our world's constricted, narrow view of friendship and casts a richer, more life-giving, biblical vision for friendship. In Friend-ish, Kelly Needham reminds us that we were called to more than halfhearted friendships and lukewarm connections. We need something more stable, secure, and sacred. We were designed for real friendship--but the difficult truth is that too many of us are settling for less. Kelly deconstructs what Scripture says about the gift of friendship and takes a closer look at the distorted view that most of us have instead. As she shares the lessons she's learned from experience, Kelly paints her own glorious vision of what Christian friendship could look like. With hard-fought wisdom, a clear view of Scripture, and a been-there perspective, Friend-ish teaches us how to: Recognize symptoms of idolatry and toxic dependency Boldly ask for what we need from our community of friends Understand and address the problems that arise in friendship--from neediness to discord Recognize when it's time to end an unhealthy friendship Reorient toward the purposeful, loving relationships we all crave that ultimately bring us closer to God Find the friends you need and start to become that friend for others Join Kelly as she challenges you to view your chosen family in a new light, gain a vision of friendship according to Jesus, and finally enjoy friendships as God intended.

God made you for friendship. Friendship is one of the deepest pleasures of life. But in our busy, fast-paced, mobile world, we've lost this rich view of friendship and instead settled for shallow acquaintances based on little more than similar tastes or shared interests. Helping us recapture a vision of true friendship, pastor Drew Hunter explores God's design for friendship and what it really looks like in practice—giving us practical advice to cultivate the kinds of true friendships that lead to true and life-giving joy.

Neale Donald Walsch has changed the way millions of Americans think about God. His Conversations with God series, book 1, book 2, and book 3, have all been New York Times bestsellers--book 1 for over two years.The essence of Neale Donald Walsch's message lies at the heart of faith--the sacred place in every person, where he stands alone with his God. Walsch urges each of us to forge our own unique relationship with God, a God who is everywhere and speaks to us in all we do. It is up to us to stop and listen. It is up to us to respond . . . to begin the conversation. And a conversation is the first step, just as in any relationship, in establishing trust, in building friendship, in creating communion. In Friendship with God, Neale Donald Walsch shares the next part of his journey, and leads us to deepen and strengthen our own bonds with God. He honors our heart's desire: a closer connection, richer and fuller. A friendship with God.

We all want true friends. But how many of us really know what friendship is, or where to find it? In these pages, philosopher John Cuddeback weaves together the timeless wisdom of Scripture, of the ancient Greeks, and the saints to map out the steep and beautiful path to man's greatest joy—true friendship. Following Aristotle's teachings on the unbreakable connection between happiness and virtuous living, Cuddeback sees friendship at the very center of the human drama. Although there are different kinds of friendship, the deepest kind can only be achieved through a life of virtue, and this is where the human person comes most fully alive. True Friendship offers simple yet rich advice on how to tap into this reality in our own lives. Such friendship demands much of us, but it gives us even more, as individuals and as a society. Both the Old and New Testaments place a premium on friendship. In the Christian vision, the philosophers' insights attain a broader supernatural perspective. Christ transforms human friendship and expands it. With help from the writings of Saints Thomas and Aelred, Cuddeback discovers what lies at the heart of the Christian life—the wondrous and unsurpassable reality of friendship with God in Jesus, the Divine Friend, who is at work in all our authentic friendships.

Puritan studies is one of the most heavily researched areas of scholarship in both England and the United States. In this in-depth exploration of the relationship between Puritans in England and New England, Francis J. Bremer challenges the view that the colonists turned away from English Puritans in the 1640s. Rather, he convincingly demonstrates that the two communities retained a complex, symbiotic connection - a communion - throughout the seventeenth century, and that the clergy on both sides of the Atlantic saw themselves as closely linked in their spiritual mission. Focusing on the interaction between social experience and the shaping of belief, Bremer thoroughly analyzes how Puritan clergymen of a congregational persuasion came together in a godly communion and examines how that communion sustained them in times of trouble and physical dispersal. He explains the social forces that led to the articulation of early Congregationalism and details the significance of trans-Atlantic religious exchanges through correspondence, associations, publications, and other devices. Bremer traces the first-generation Puritans from their formative years at Cambridge University through the creation of a network of clerical friendships, through the flight to Holland and to New England, to the death of Oliver Cromwell and the beginnings of division within Congregationalism. This thought-provoking volume makes a solid contribution to Puritan studies and offers a basis for further discussions of the trans-Atlantic aspects of the Congregational community.