The towns that the Spaniards of colonial Mexico planted on their northern frontier were organized around the ideal of a close interaction between church, missionary outreach, and military. San Antonio was the most successful realization of this dream in Texas. The pattern of this tripartite approach has continued to shape the rich culture of the city down to the present. With this selection of photos, San Antonio's Churches takes a snapshot visit back through religious development throughout the three centuries of San Antonio's history.

A simple, fun instruction manual for living a more joy-filled, authentic life! By one of the most admired spiritual teachers in the country, this book shows us how every moment, every experience, and every person can be an opening for our soul--to greater understanding, more peace and joy, and an overwhelming experience of love. Divided into three easy-to-use parts, this book will: - Tell a fable that puts our spiritual journey into context. - Discuss the seven spiritual principles that are universal to all of the world's wisdom traditions, becoming a map into our purpose and destiny. - Show how nine specific challenges and difficulties (like fear, illness, and change) can be transformed into stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks. Each chapter also includes three parts: the Essence, the Experience, and the Expression. The Essence gives the spiritual teaching behind each principle, the Experience tells a story, illustrating the principles from Dr. Teel's own life or the life of one of his many followers, and the Expression gives specific instructions for readers to embody that principle for themselves. Filled with advice that can only come from a lifetime of practicing these traditions, this book will be a unique and indispensable guide to people who want more from their lives.

How a new congregation of 40 Episcopalians struggling against general rowdiness in an isolated frontier outpost of 8,000 inhabitants had the daring to commission Richard Upjohn, the nation's leading church architect, to design their church and then to build it is the start of one of the stories that makes San Antonio such an unusual place. Even the first members caught their breath once the church was finally finished. Fully aware that their new edifice could not match the elegant and costly decorations of the churches in our Eastern cities, one writer nevertheless admitted to a feeling of local pride . . . that old San Antonio, in the wilderness as she is, and almost out of the world as she is thought to be, should possess such a church. As various denominations worked to establish churches in San Antonio, missionaries were able to form an Episopal church in town in 1850, but it was another eight years before their efforts bore lasting fruit with St. Mark s. Robert E. Lee and other Episcopalians in the U.S. Army helped keep things going. St. Mark s became one of the major churches in San Antonio and in the Episcopal Church as well. Among its landmark events was the wedding of future President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Taylor in 1934. St. Mark s produced a profusion of bishops as it endured and thrived even as downtown churches elswhere were having difficult times. This book, laced with color illustrations, succinctly recounts 150 years of struggles and triumphs in a significant congregation's remarkable journey.