You don’t change your life for an idea. You change your life for a person. This Advent, don’t get caught up in the busyness. Don’t get lost in the anxiety of preparing for a day. Joyfully anticipate the coming of the person of Jesus through an encounter with his Most Blessed Mother. Imagine having an Advent that is more peaceful, more joyful, and more meaningful than ever before. The Rejoice! Advent Meditations with Mary Journal not only lets you walk beside Mary during the first Advent, but also lets you get to know her in a way you haven’t before. Rejoice! offers more than insights and information about Mary’s life—it offers an opportunity for you to encounter Mary in the quiet of your heart. Each day, in a few short pages, Fr. Toups provides you with aids to help guide your prayer: A word - Focus on a single word each day to draw out the details, the specifics of who Our Lady is. A reflection - Learn more about Mary, the culture in which she was raised, and the world in which she lived. A Psalm - Each day, you’re given a Psalm to pray (just as Mary herself would have prayed) to help you enter into prayer. A reading - In reading Scripture, you find the Word of God, bringing you closer to Mary, who carried the Word in her body. A prompt - Space is provided each day to journal. Record how the Lord is speaking to you

This Rejoice! journal is a prayer resource with daily meditations that will enrich your celebration of Advent. It invites you to experience the very first Advent with Joseph and Mary, as they await the birth of their son, the Savior of the world. Together with the guided meditations found on rejoiceprogram.com, this journal will help you to see the marriage of Mary and Joseph in a new light. You will ponder what was in their hearts and minds as they awaited the birth of Jesus-and you will be invited to reflect on and deepen your own relationships with others. Rejoice! will help you open your heart to the peace and joy of the Holy Family as you prepare for the coming of Jesus this Christmas. Book jacket.

How can we transmit a living, personal Catholic faith to future generations? By coming to know Jesus Christ, and following him as his disciples. These are times of immense challenge and immense opportunity for the Catholic Church. Consider these statistics for the United States. Only 30 percent of Americans who were raised Catholic are still practicing. Fully 10 percent of all adults in America are ex-Catholics. The number of marriages celebrated in the Church decreased dramatically, by nearly 60 percent, between 1972 and 2010. Only 60 percent of Catholics believe in a personal God. If the Church is to reverse these trends, the evangelizers must first be evangelized-in other words, Catholics-in-the-pew must make a conscious choice to know and follow Jesus before they can draw others to him. This work of discipleship lies at the heart of Forming Intentional Disciples, a book designed to help Church leaders, parish staff and all Catholics transform parish life from within. Drawing upon her fifteen years of experience with the Catherine of Siena Institute, Sherry Weddell leads readers through steps that will help Catholics enter more deeply into a relationship with God and the river of apostolic creativity, charisms, and vocation that flow from that relationship for the sake of the Church and the world. Learn about the five thresholds of postmodern conversion, how to open a conversation about faith and belief, how to ask thought-provoking questions and establish an atmosphere of trust, when to tell the Great Story of Jesus, how to help someone respond to God's call to intentional discipleship, and much more. And be prepared for conversion because when life at the parish level changes, the life of the whole Church will change.

Rejoice! Advent Meditations with the Holy Family is a prayer resource with daily meditations that will enrich your Advent by inviting you to experience the first Advent with Joseph and Mary, as they await the birth of their son, the Savior of the world. Together with the guided meditation videos, this journal will help you to see the marriage of Mary and Joseph in a new light. You will ponder what was in their hearts and minds as they awaited the birth of Jesus—and you will be invited to reflect on and deepen your own relationships with others. Rejoice! will help you open your heart to the peace and joy of the Holy Family as you prepare for the coming of Jesus this Christmas. Each day, in a few short pages, Fr. Toups provides you with aids to help guide your prayer: A word - Focus on a single word each day to draw you deeper into the heart of the Holy Family. A reflection - Learn more about Joseph and Mary, their marriage, and the world in which they lived. A Psalm - Each day, you’re given a Psalm to pray (just as Mary and Joseph would have prayed) to help you enter into prayer. A reading - In reading Scripture, you find the Word of God, bringing you closer to Mary, who carried the Word in her body. A prompt - Space is provided each day to journal. Record how the Lord is speaking to you this Advent.

Imagine a group of kids on the floor of a gym, or filling a classroom, or on a weekend retreat, praying in a whole new way--so silently that you can hear a pin drop! It happens everyday with Praying in Color.

The Angelus is a centuries-old Catholic devotion that recalls the annunciation of Christ’s birth by the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. In Praying the Angelus, popular author and speaker Jared Dees reinvigorates the devotion, shares intimately from his own experience of it, shows us how to get started, and enriches the practice with original meditations to reflect on the words of both the Angelus and the Regina Caeli. Jared Dees was twenty-seven and in his fourth year of teaching religion in a Catholic school when he first experienced the Angelus. The creator of The Religion Teacher website allows the devotion to anchor his prayer life and challenge him to daily conversion of heart and will. Dees introduces the Angelus devotion and explores its rich history and significance for the Church. As spiritual companion and guide, he offers meditations on the words and images of both the Angelus and the Regina Caeli, which is prayed during the Easter season. We find lessons about the power of repetitive prayer, the humility of being a disciple, the importance of admitting time belongs to God, the wisdom of taking time with discernment, and the joy of resting in the Lord’s presence. He shares personal stories of the life-change power of the Angelus and guides both newcomers and those already familiar with the prayer to contemplate the mysteries of salvation that lie at the heart of the devotion—the Annunciation, Incarnation, and Resurrection. Named for the opening words of the devotion's first prayer in Latin, "The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary," the Angelus is typically prayed at 6:00 a.m., noon, and 6:00 p.m. each day. Likewise the Regina Caeli is named for the opening lines of its prayer, "Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia." Praying the Angelus is supported by Dees’s website, TheAngelusPrayer.com, where people can gather online to participate in and share this devotion with others.

What could be more familiar than the Christmas story--and yet what could be more extraordinary? The cast of characters is strange and exotic: shepherds and magicians, an emperor and a despot, angels, and a baby who is Almighty God. The strangeness calls for an explanation, and this book provides it by examining the characters and the story in light of the biblical and historical context. Bestselling author Scott Hahn who has written extensively on Scripture and the early Church, brings evidence to light, dispelling some of the mystery of the story. Yet Christmas is made familiar all over again by showing it to be a family story. Christmas, as it appears in the New Testament, is the story of a father, a mother, and a child--their relationships, their interactions, their principles, their individual lives, and their common life. To see the life of this "earthly trinity" is to gaze into heaven.