Finnian's quest continues as he and Brendan use an ancient map to discover a mysterious island in hopes of finding a legendary sword with the extraordinary power to defeat evil and prevent the Vikings from further pillaging the land. Along the way they meet the mysterious stowaway, Merewyn, and discover there is more to their quest than they imagined. At the same time, a fierce Viking king, Ragnar, threatens the monastic community on the Irish island of Skellig Michael as he begins his own violent quest for the same sword. Who will reach the sword first? Will evil triumph or good prevail?

THE HEROIC LIFE AND DEATH OF ST. JOAN OF ARC!At age 18, Joan led the French armies into battle. She was a peasant girl who couldn't even read, let alone fight a war. To save France from the English, she was going to need divine intervention.The heavens answered her.Joan received aid from St. Michael the Archangel, supreme commander of the heavenly armies. With his help, Joan led the French to victory on the battlefield, paving the way to the end of the Hundred Years' War.This two issue series follows Joan's encounters with the Archangel, exploring her brief military campaigns in France, ending in her capture, trial and heroic martyrdom.COLLECTING: The Mission of Joan of Arc #1-2 by Philip Kosloski, Alexandre Nascimento and Jesse Hansen.

Collects Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #16-23, #16.HH and #18.HU-20.HU. VOLUME 4 of Nick Spencer's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN run! When Kraven returns, Spider-Man becomes the hunted! Sergei Kravinoff and his minions have been kidnapping animal-themed superhumans for months, and they need one more to complete the collection: the Spider. But what does Kraven want with all of them?! In Central Park, the prey is let loose, and the hunt begins - but Kraven isn't the one in pursuit. Who has Spidey in their crosshairs? The Lizard has a target on his back, too - but he has a truly terrifying plan of his own! Peter Parker will find himself in a horrible situation, but there are lives - innocent and otherwise - at stake, and...well...he's Spider-Man. When it comes to the big showdown, you have no idea how this one will go down!

With the release of the latest Star Wars films, the ancient monastery atop Skellig Michael has enchanted the world with its beautiful vistas and mysterious history. While much has been written about the architectural feats achieved by the monks on the lonely island, little has been discussed about the daily life of the religious hermits. What was it like 1,000 years ago? Why did the monks choose Skellig Michael? What was their spirituality like? Why did they leave and never return? In this short book, the life of these ancient monks is described and illustrated in an accessible way to those simply curious to know a little more about these mysterious hermits. What's even more surprising is how closely these monks resemble the Jedi who have brought the island to life in the latest Star Wars universe.

Romano Guardini's The Spirit of the Liturgy "helped us to rediscover the liturgy in all its beauty, hidden wealth, and time-transcending grandeur, to see it as the animating center of the Church, the very center of Christian life.... We were now willing to see the liturgy as the prayer of the Church, a prayer moved and guided by the Holy Spirit himself, a prayer in which Christ unceasingly becomes contemporary with us, enters into our lives." — Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger In the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote that liturgical reform and renewal must accord with what they called "the spirit of the liturgy". But what did they mean by this? Popes had written and spoken about this spirit in the decades before the council, but another important source is the 1918 book The Spirit of the Liturgy by Romano Guardini, which Pope Benedict XVI credits with sparking the liturgical movement in Germany. The Seven Gifts of The Spirit of the Liturgy is a study of Guardini's watershed text. With contributions from Bishop Arthur Serratelli, Cassian Folsom, O.S.B., Michon Matthiesen, David Fagerberg, Daniel Cardó, Bishop James Conley, Emery de Gaál, and Susan Benofy, as well as Christopher Carstens, it analyzes each of the seven core features of the liturgical spirit as Guardini defined it: objective, corporate, universal, symbolic, meaningful, beautiful, and logical. The Second Vatican Council saw each of these seven characteristics as integral to authentic liturgical reform. Too often they remain absent from liturgical celebrations even today, when subjectivism and individualism take the place of an objective, corporate spirit; when custom-made liturgies neglect the dimension of universality; when frivolous, anemic symbols stand in for a robust symbolism that truly manifests Christ; when beauty and seriousness fade into the background. We hold back the spirit of the liturgy if we don't know what it is, if we don't desire it, and if we don't work to let it animate liturgical prayer and practice. For this reason, nine experts on the liturgy recall in this book Guardini's key spiritual insights, showing how these can deepen our liturgical understanding and practice today.

Living Mantra is an anthropology of mantra-experience among Hindu-tantric practitioners. In ancient Indian doctrine and legends, mantras perceived by rishis (seers) invoke deities and have transformative powers. Adopting a methodology that combines scholarship and practice, Mani Rao discovers a continuing tradition of visionaries (rishis/seers) and revelations in south India’s Andhra-Telangana. Both deeply researched and replete with fascinating narratives, the book reformulates the poetics of mantra-practice as it probes practical questions. Can one know if a vision is real or imagined? Is vision visual? Are deity-visions mediated by culture? If mantras are effective, what is the role of devotion? Are mantras language? Living Mantra interrogates not only theoretical questions, but also those a practitioner would ask: how does one choose a deity, for example, or what might bind one to a guru? Rao breaks fresh ground in redirecting attention to the moments that precede systematization and canon-formation, showing how authoritative sources are formed.