A key comic writer of the past three decades has created his most heartfelt and hard-hitting book. Father Joe is Tony Hendra’s inspiring true story of finding faith, friendship, and family through the decades-long influence of a surpassingly wise Benedictine monk named Father Joseph Warrillow. Like everything human, it started with sex. In 1955, fourteen-year-old Tony found himself entangled with a married Catholic woman. In Cold War England, where Catholicism was the subject of news stories and Graham Greene bestsellers, Tony was whisked off by the woman’s husband to see a priest and be saved. Yet what he found was a far cry from the priests he’d known at Catholic school, where boys were beaten with belts or set upon by dogs. Instead, he met Father Joe, a gentle, stammering, ungainly Benedictine who never used the words “wrong” or “guilt,” who believed that God was in everyone and that “the only sin was selfishness.” During the next forty years, as his life and career drastically ebbed and flowed, Tony discovered that his visits to Father Joe remained the one constant in his life—the relationship that, in the most serious sense, saved it. From the fifties and his adolescent desire to join an abbey himself; to the sixties, when attending Cambridge and seeing the satire of Beyond the Fringe convinced him to change the world with laughter, not prayer; to the seventies and successful stints as an original editor of National Lampoon and a writer of Lemmings, the off-Broadway smash that introduced John Belushi and Chevy Chase; to professional disaster after co-creating the legendary English series Spitting Image; from drinking to drugs, from a failed first marriage to a successful second and the miracle of parenthood—the years only deepened Tony’s need for the wisdom of his other and more real father, creating a bond that could not be broken, even by death. A startling departure for this acclaimed satirist, Father Joe is a sincere account of how Tony Hendra learned to love. It’s the story of a whole generation looking for a way back from mockery and irony, looking for its own Father Joe, and a testament to one of the most charismatic mentors in modern literature.

Father Joe Carroll (1941-2021) helped millions of neighbors in need experiencing homelessness and poverty have access to meals, housing, education, job training, medical care and more. Is there such a thing as a hustler priest? Yes! Father Joe Carroll earned that label early in his career—and it stuck. Always a wheeler and dealer, starting from his childhood in the Bronx, his ability to get things done served him well in developing what’s now called Father Joe’s Villages in San Diego, California. This book of stories from Father Joe’s interesting life, shared in his voice, is heart-warming and heart-wrenching while also head-shaking and hilarious. From his antics as a youth and a seminarian to breaking new ground and crossing the lines when necessary to get things done to support neighbors in need experiencing homelessness, you’ll come to understand that “hustler” suited Father Joe well and he wouldn’t have had it any other way. Book Options Father Joe: Life Stories of a Hustler Priest is available in print (both paperback and hardcover), Kindle digital ebook, and Audible audiobook. The Audible version includes Father Joe introducing each story of the book. A portion of the proceeds will support children in need. About Father Joe Reverend Monsignor Joseph Carroll (April 12, 1941 — July 10, 2021), affectionately known as "Father Joe" to most people, grew up in the Bronx in a two-bedroom apartment with his parents and seven siblings. From childhood, he was entrepreneurially-minded, earning money by doing various jobs in his neighborhood, including being a Shabbos Goy for his Jewish neighbors. In his early 20s, he decided to move across the country to Southern California and a year later entered the seminary. Father Joe was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1974 and was a popular parish priest until 1982 when he was assigned to take over San Diego’s St. Vincent de Paul Center (now known as Father Joe’s Villages). Tasked to build a homeless shelter on an empty block in downtown San Diego, Father Joe’s persistence, charisma, and gregarious personality — along with a fearlessness of the unknown — resulted in developing a revolutionary approach to providing housing and services for people experiencing homelessness. Father Joe's idea, which he boldly shared on national television while being interviewed by 60 Minutes, became reality in 1987 with the opening of the first newly constructed building — St. Vincent de Paul Joan Kroc Center. Decades of development followed, as well as countless awards and international recognition for Father Joe, who became known as the "hustler priest" after seeking money to help neighbors in need on television. Father Joe retired in 2011 yet he continued to be dedicated to serving the greater San Diego community, which benefited greatly from his unique mindset of an entrepreneur, heart of a servant, and willingness to do whatever it takes to create results. Also during retirement, he continued his lifelong support of the Boy Scouts and attended scouting events as much as possible. Two years prior to his passing, Father Joe asked Kathryn Cloward to write a book for him. With tremendous honor, she dedicated herself to fulfilling the task in service to him. Father Joe joyfully celebrated his 80th birthday on April 12, 2021, with the release of Father Joe: Life Stories of a Hustler Priest. He approved every word in the book, which he proudly publicized as much as he could in the final months of his life. He was also delighted to be an illustrated character in Father Joe's Six Golden Seeds, which shares six principles for experiencing daily goodness. Father Joe passed away on July 10, 2021. His legacy of service, compassion, and love lives on in the countless lives he impacted, the programs he created, and these special stories he shared.

This is an invitation that, before the big sleep, we must learn to discover the joys of life where peace, love, and serenity thrive; that God’s love is the foundation of all forms of love and a driving force to share the love through our compassion and charity. Being self-aware is an essential step in our understanding of who we are, what we do, and why we do it, and what gives meaning to us in life. The mystery of prayer is key to understand the mystery of human life; that living the present moment is the grace that we have every day. Being grateful of life, of people, of events, and moments that we are called to take an adventure and learn to be playful as children of God. I love this book. So simple and powerful! Thank you Fr. Joe for refreshing my spirit with your words and life. Bo Sanchez Best Selling Author and Inspirational Preacher Fr. Joe Blas Nolasco’s book is a very helpful guide to living a truly meaningful, happy, and fruitful life. It is the fruit of his prayerful and biblically guided reflection on his many years of experience as a priest-chaplain dialoguing with thousands of patients and people in difficulties. Fr. Joe writes engagingly and challenges you to reflect and act on your own life. Reading this book will be a grace for you as it has already been for me. Most Rev. Teodoro Bacani, D.D. This book is a ray of hope in this troubled time. It will restore our conviction and strengthen our faith in a God who assures us, “BE NOT AFRAID!” (Mt. 14:27) Most Rev. Gerardo A. Alminaza, D.D. Bishop of the Diocese of San Carlos, Philippines I commend Fr. Nolasco for writing this book and for sharing the fruits of his pastoral experience to us all. His work will surely aid us in our journey towards spiritual maturity and realization as Christians. Its publication is definitely timely. The book creatively spells out moments of joy even in most difficult situations in our lives. His Eminence Jose Cardinal F. Advincula, Jr. D.D. Archbishop of Manila

A recovering alcoholic lives in the shadow of a world famous comic strip and its tyrannical creator Caleb is a middle-aged painter with a non-starter career and a checkered past. He also happens to be the only child of one of the world’s most famous cartoonists, Jimmi Wyatt. Known for the internationally beloved father and son comic Sonny Side Up, Jimmi made millions drawing saccharine family stories while neglecting his own son. Now sober, Caleb is haunted by his wasted past and struggling to take responsibility for his present before it’s too late. His always patient boyfriend, James, is reaching the end of his rope. When Caleb gets the chance to step out from his father’s shadow and shape the most public aspect of the family business, he makes every bad decision and watches his life fall apart. Is it too late to repair the harm? Are we forever doomed to make the same mistakes our parents did?

In Abide in the Heart of Christ, Rev. Joe Laramie, S.J., offers accessible wisdom from the foundations of Jesuit spirituality—St. Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises—in a ten-day personal retreat that will help you encounter Christ, grow your relationship with him, and shape your heart. Laramie is your guide through this accessible retreat into the heart of Jesus. Based on a structure and approach he developed as a retreat leader at White House Jesuit Retreat in St. Louis, Laramie introduces you to classic themes of the Christian life, including sin, forgiveness, and creation. This book also helps you learn how to use key scripture passages to reflect on your own experiences. Each reflection includes teachings from the Spiritual Exercises and offers examples from Laramie’s own life. Reflection questions and activities guide you in further contemplation to help you see what’s in your heart, encounter Christ in your daily life, and live more fully in his love each day.

"An NAL-World book." Bibliographical references included in "Notes" (p. 489-[526]).

While academic and popular studies of Buddhism have often neglected race as a factor of analysis, the issues concerning race and racialization have remained not far below the surface of the wider discussion among ethnic Buddhists, converts, and sympathizers regarding representations of American Buddhism and adaptations of Buddhist practices to the American context. In Race and Religion in American Buddhism, Joseph Cheah provides a much-needed contribution to the field of religious studies by addressing the under-theorization of race in the study of American Buddhism. Through the lens of racial formation, Cheah demonstrates how adaptations of Buddhist practices by immigrants, converts and sympathizers have taken place within an environment already permeated with the logic and ideology of whiteness and white supremacy. In other words, race and religion (Buddhism) are so intimately bounded together in the United States that the ideology of white supremacy informs the differing ways in which convert Buddhists and sympathizers and Burmese ethnic Buddhists have adapted Buddhist religious practices to an American context.Cheah offers a complex view of how the Burmese American community must negotiate not only the religious and racial terrains of the United States but also the transnational reach of the Burmese junta. Race and Religion in American Buddhism marks an important contribution to the study of American Buddhism as well as to the larger fields of U.S. religions and Asian American studies.