In the midst of the trials of life, God miraculously uses those struggles to develop our endurance, to strengthen our character, and to give us hope. In this book, you will recognize the struggles of one man, Dennis Wood, and the journey of hope that grew within him - along with his zeal to share that message with everyone he met. As you delve into his personal story and witness his victory, may you too be encouraged.

Chenu was a French Dominican friar, a renowned historian, and a theologian with extraordinary creative insight. He shaped the Dominican study center, Le Saulchoir, as its director and as an influential professor from the late 1920s until he was removed by the Vatican in 1942 (for writing a theological program for the school that sounded much like the future Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World). He influenced two generations of scholars with his rare combination of scientific excellence and pastoral wisdom. Fifty years after Vatican II, historians are still discovering documents and letters that offer important insights into the Council's meaning. This brief journal written by Marie-Dominique Chenu, masterfully edited by Alberto Melloni, is such a document. It reveals the decisive role Chenu played in several initiatives that shaped the Council's character; but, more importantly, it brings to light the dynamic networking of bishops and theologians that lay behind the Council's achievement of so much in so few years. Covering the years 1962-1963, Chenu's Notebook allows readers to feel the drama of the Council's opening period. At the Council, he promoted and drafted its great Message to the World that was the Council's first published statement. In it, many of Chenu's key intuitions became part of an official church statement about its hope for the future: attention to the 'signs of the times', the integration of science and technology into the Church's pastoral message, and commitment to justice and the care of the poor. His Vatican II Notebook is an exciting peek into great moments in a great man's life.

"God is ever present in our lives; always doing more than what we can see. Join me on this 30-day journey and watch Him show up and show out! Be blessed and be a blessing."

A long time ago in China, there existed three Books of Peace that proved so threatening to the reigning powers that they had them burned. Many years later Maxine Hong Kingston wrote a Fourth Book of Peace, but it too was burned--in the catastrophic Berkeley-Oakland Hills fire of 1991, a fire that coincided with the death of her father. Now in this visionary and redemptive work, Kingston completes her interrupted labor, weaving fiction and memoir into a luminous meditation on war and peace, devastation and renewal.

Is it possible to experience unshakable peace, regardless of the situations and people that come your way? Kandace Jones was desperate to find out. From the outside, she seemed to have it all together – a successful career, a loving husband, two children, a great group of friends, and a lovely house. Internally, she was filled with stress and insecurity. She relentlessly worked to maintain the appearance of perfection in her personal and professional life, leaving no down time and very little room for self – until she was forced to slow down. Pneumonia, depression, and anxiety abruptly interrupted the high-speed life she was living, igniting a quest for something far greater to enter: Peace. From Stress to Peace takes readers on a journey to peace and direct connection with the Divine. Through intimate journal entries and short stories, the reader will experience Jones’s journey – the thoughts, words and very actions that led her to self-discovery, unexpected encounters with realms unseen by the human eye and ultimately, a higher level of spiritual awakening. Readers will not only peer into Jones’s journey, but will be left with many ‘Selah’ moments to pause and simply reflect on their journey to spiritual elevation and fulfillment. From Stress to Peace leaves readers with nuggets of truth and wisdom that – when applied – can facilitate a constant state of inner peace and eternal bliss.

Daily Meditation readers abound; some, thankfully, endure. Rare are spiritually grounded and contemplative invitations that feature four generations of earnest family teachers, preachers, activists, journalists, and controversial prophets. In various life conditions, threatening and challenged by sickness and despair, herein are eight Niebuhrs' faithful wrestlings. They bequeath bristling morsels and compelling insights, creatively compacted into more than four hundred entries and reference leads for further consideration. Thus, deeply influenced by the patriarch and matriarch, Gustav Sr. and Lydia, arise Reinhold's steadfast reflections on grace-grounded justice and its principles; the caringly layered meanings of the love of neighbor and God from his brother, H. Richard; the dedication to render the faith intelligible to postmoderns held by his son, Richard Reinhold; and the decisive and insightful journalism by, in turn, his son, Gustav Jr., on Lincoln being duly lobbied for mercy to indigenous peoples. And that's not all--the indispensable reminiscences of Reinhold's educator sister, Hulda, and his wife, Ursula, as well as the unearthed grace-based Serenity Prayer of his daughter Elisabeth, corporately express rare gleanings of the Niebuhr clan's virtual school of warm contemplative action.