Abide in me as I abide in you. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.

In this personal healing retreat from Heather Khym, cohost of the popular Abiding Together podcast, you are invited to break through the barriers that prevent you from trusting and experiencing the deep love of Jesus and be transformed by the freedom that comes when we vulnerably bring our entire selves to the foot of the Cross. Rooted in the teaching of Khym’s Vancouver-based ministry, Life Restoration, Abide shares scripture, essential Catholic teaching, and the author’s personal healing journey to reintroduce you to God as the Divine Healer, Restorer, and Miracle Worker. Khym offers you a compass to navigate your past as you dig into difficult memories that have disoriented your understanding of God and made you afraid to trust him. She challenges you to cast off your self-protective tendencies and to recognize your need for healing so you can be the person you were created to be. Jesus says, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4–5). We are meant to abide in Jesus, to unite ourselves to him. Yet over the course of our lives, we experience brokenness and loss, which lead us to doubt God’s presence. Khym challenges you to step outside your comfort zone so that you can authentically: recognize God as a loving father who desires your happiness; practice spiritual and emotional vulnerability with Jesus; invite the Divine Healer into your past and relationships; acknowledge that you have an enemy who battles for your heart; and overcome false beliefs about God and learn to trust Jesus as a compelling, captivating, and trustworthy lover of your soul. Each chapter includes practical reflection-based exercises that help you recall troublesome memories, identify the roots of your feelings, and meditate on excerpts from scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You’ll come away with a renewed hope in the power of God to bring freedom to your fearful heart as you start to live a life restored in Christ, one that begins with and is sustained by an intimate relationship with Jesus.

There are the times in our lives when hope is hard to find, when we often have more questions than answers, and when fear and worry clamor to be our constant companions. Abiding Hope offers encouragement and inspiration for those times. T. Windahl has endured many trials in her life, including four cancers within ten years, but she is a survivor! T. shares treasured lessons learned through the pages of Abiding Hope.

Between 1940 and 1945, thousands of African Americans migrated from the South to the East Bay Area of northern California in search of the social and economic mobility that was associated with the region's expanding defense industry and its reputation for greater racial tolerance. Drawing on fifty oral interviews with migrants as well as on archival and other written records, Abiding Courage examines the experiences of the African American women who migrated west and built communities there. Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo vividly shows how women made the transition from southern domestic and field work to jobs in an industrial, wartime economy. At the same time, they were struggling to keep their families together, establishing new households, and creating community-sustaining networks and institutions. While white women shouldered the double burden of wage labor and housework, black women faced even greater challenges: finding houses and schools, locating churches and medical services, and contending with racism. By focusing on women, Lemke-Santangelo provides new perspectives on where and how social change takes place and how community is established and maintained.

One of the final conversations Jesus had with his disciples before his arrest was one of identity, found in chapter 15 of John's gospel. Jesus's words: "Abide in me." This book pulls on that thread. It covers choosing Christ as your vine, what it practically means to abide in Christ on a daily basis, our intended relationship with fruit, our response to pruning, how to get what we want in prayer, the necessity of love, and joy beyond our circumstances. Abundant and joy-filled life is in fact possible when we do what Jesus asks. He knows how to change the world, and astonishingly he calls us to be part of that change. If we will allow God to change our hearts, he will change the world through us. The abiding life is how we do it.

Experience the joys of a small town Christmas in this novel in the beloved Mitford series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jan Karon. Millions of Americans have found Mitford to be a favorite home-away-from-home, and countless readers have long wondered what Christmas in Mitford would be like. The eighth Mitford novel provides a glimpse, offering a meditation on the best of all presents: the gift of one's heart. Since he was a boy, Father Tim has lived what he calls “the life of the mind” and has never really learned to savor the work of his hands. When he finds a derelict nativity scene that has suffered the indignities of time and neglect, he imagines the excitement in the eyes of his wife, Cynthia, and decides to undertake the daunting task of restoring it. As Father Tim begins his journey, readers are given a seat at Mitford's holiday table and treated to a magical tale about the true Christmas spirit.