With an array of stories the author affirms that throughout our lives God is there. Sometimes He is there simply enjoying with us the gifts and treasures He has provided. And at other times He is there in our sad and tragic moments, sitting quietly at our side. This book, Snapshots of God’s Caring Presence is a collection of this author’s true and favorite short stories revealing in a multitude of ways God’s caring presence. As you read, you will sit with a barefoot little girl playing joyfully with God as they enjoy the little tadpoles in her long ago pond. In another story you will watch Jose, with God’s guidance, save the life of this book’s author. Still, further as you read, you will observe the women in a poverty neighborhood, fashion and sew little Catherine’s first dress and coat—clothing her mother could never afford. You will listen to the old saw sharpener as he relates God’s wisdom to the neighborhood children sitting with God in the grass near his feet. You will feel the biting, winter-cold wind as along with neighborhood youth you will help put into gunny sacks coal collected from the railroad tracks—coal that will provide heat for the homes of their neighbors. You will savor the joy of God’s work as you sit later with them enjoying coffee around a pot-bellied-stove. Finally, some stories will take you to the edge of our reality. Was God really there? Did I dream it? The stories of the book will flow to and around you, and you will feel God’s caring presence page after page. As noted in the book’s preface, you may not want to read too quickly for every story is intended to provide its own unique flavor.

Offers an in-depth, ¿right-brain¿ approach to liturgical theology.

...[C]oncern about the [inherited doctrine of vocation and its relevance for modern life] was generated out of the complexities and frustrations especially of industrial life, and it has produced a voluminous literature of a popular and semi-popular kind which has served to drive home the problem of daily work upon the conscience of contemporary Christians, and also to provide certain resources for handling it. In addition to this varied literature, the last years have also seen a very general discussion of the question at every level of church life: in ecumencal conferences, in the curricular material of the major denominations, and in conferences and study groups of all kinds. About the urgency and importance of the problem of vocation there is now no doubt. But now we find that the rather simple formulae in which we have been dealing with it do justice neither to the Biblical and Reformation inheritance, nor to the profound dilemmas that appear not only in industry, but in every area of professional and commercial life. The problem now is not only to equip our lay-people with fuller theological resources for the understanding of the meaning of discipleship, but to utilize their practical experience of day-to-day dilemmas and day to-day decisions. ...Gustaf Wingren's conscientious analysis of Luther's teaching on the matter...remains our prime resource for the understanding of the relation of faith and works. Nothing could exceed the patience and thoroughness with which Wingren has combed through the Luther corpus.... [I]t will serve to put the full range of Luther's insight at the disposal of those who care for theology as part of their care of all the Churches. Alexander Miller Stanford University

In The Culturally Savvy Christian—his incisive critique of contemporary culture and religion—Dick Staub concludes that though it is influential, American popular culture is generally superficial (diversionary, mindless, and celebrity-driven) spiritually delusional (moralistic, therapeutic, and deistic) and soulless (sustained not by art, craft, and ideas, but by the mad pursuit of profit—propped up by marketing and technology). Similarly American Christianity has devolved into its own mindless, diversionary, and celebrity-driven superficiality. Because humans are created in God's image with spiritual, intellectual, creative, moral, and relational capacities, we long for more, yet the true seeker faces the lose-lose alternatives of a soul-numbing culture and a vacuous Christianity-lite. The renaissance we need in both faith and culture will originate in a deep spiritual renewal that restores God's image in us and creates a new breed of culturally savvy, thoughtful creatives who rekindle the spiritual, intellectual, and creative legacy of Christians as enrichers of culture.

Engaging in conversation with God is life changing. When we pursue Him and expect Him to answer back, we are never, not ever, the same. Do you desire more of God? Are you intrigued by Him? Do you want to run deeper into His arms and receive His light, fresh air, and new things? This book is for the joy-hungry and hope-thirsty. For women who want to be challenged and inspired, encouraged and energized. In Breathing Eden, Jennifer J. Camp shares the extraordinary conversations between forty women and God and then guides readers into experiencing God's voice for themselves. Each conversation is followed by practical tools that help us hear God's voice in our lives right now.

As God's eternal life flows through us, we learn to let go of our pretensions of control and rest into the new life offered in Jesus Christ. This book is an invitation for you to become nonresistant to this movement of God's love for you and the world. Through a variety of sermons and meditations, Sider and Villegas bear witness to a grace that disarms our guardedness and makes room for us to fall into the love of God. Preaching becomes a dispossessive practice, as each person is invited to give and receive God's transforming power. The proclamation of the gospel, Villegas and Sider say, should display the priesthood of all believers. Thus, the call to preach belongs to the whole congregation and its conversation rather than to the lone preacher and her (or his) sermon. Presence: Giving and Receiving God draws on the Mennonite tradition of the Zeugnis ("conversation") to explore how the preached Word echoes through all of our voices.

"Understanding Catholic Christianity" offers a comprehensive overview of Catholicism for ninth graders, to serve as a foundation for other high school religion courses and faith formation experiences they will have. With pastoral sensitivity, the course's examples, stories, quotes and reflection activities bring to life the basic of the Catholic faith for adolescent hearts and minds.