Now a major motion picture—The Upside—starring Bryan Cranston, Kevin Hart, and Nicole Kidman. Discover the moving and heartfelt #1 international bestseller and inspiration for the film The Upside about an aristocratic Frenchman who is paralyzed in an accident and has to adjust to his new normal with the help of his unlikely caregiver. As the descendant of two prominent French families and director of a legendary vineyard, Philippe Pozzo di Borgo was not in the habit of asking for help. Then, in 1993, right on the heels of his beloved wife’s diagnosis of a terminal illness, a paragliding accident left him a quadriplegic. He was forty-two years old and unable to do anything—even feed himself—without the help of another person. Passing his days hidden behind the high walls of his Paris townhouse, Philippe was totally isolated. His paralysis rendered him unable to reach out to others and seemed to make people unwilling to touch him or acknowledge the reality of his existence. For the first time, he learned what it felt like to be excluded. The only person who seemed not to be bothered by Philippe’s condition was someone who had been marginalized his entire life: Abdel, an unemployed, uninhibited Algerian immigrant from the outskirts of society who would become Philippe's unlikely caretaker. With his tenacious spirit and irreverent sense of humor, Abdel is able to reawaken Philippe’s connection to people and the larger world around him. A Second Wind is the inspiring true story of two men who refused to ask for help, and then wound up helping each other in more ways than they could imagine.

This book grapples with a wide range of contemporary ethical and religious issues through the lens of the reflections of Charles Péguy on his friend and mentor Bernard-Lazare. Both Péguy, a leading French Catholic poet and philosopher, and Bernard-Lazare, an iconoclastic Jewish intellectual, were passionately involved in the Dreyfus Affair, which forms the background of these reflections. The book is in four parts. The first sets Péguy’s portrait of Bernard-Lazare in a series of contexts, analyzing it against the background of the rampant antisemitism of its time, situating it in relation to present-day discussions about the "Other,” and, especially, placing it within various twentieth-century attempts to rethink religion. Péguy’s great contribution in this area lies in redirecting our attention to the ways human beings respond to defeat, and to the ways the intellect is oriented by something outside itself, as keys to the discovery of the transcendent. His work reformulates the meaning of hope and incarnation. The second part of the book presents Péguy’s portrait of Bernard-Lazare in a complete English translation. In the third part, the author shows the affinity of Péguy’s thought to that of two Jewish thinkers, Franz Rosenzweig and Emmanuel Levinas. All three, in rethinking the religious dimension, located it amidst the daily interactions between people. The final part explores the implications of this notion of transcendence for the task of interpretation in the social sciences and the humanities.

In The Encounter, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture guides the readers through the spiritual life with the same retreat he gave to Pope Benedict just days before his resignation. This small book presents a unique opportunity for readers—believers and non-believers alike: • Take part in the exclusive retreat preached by Ravasi to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and the Papal household from February 17 to February 24, 2013 • Receive guidance through the Psalms from one the Church’s foremost experts • Learn how the Psalms demonstrate God’s great love for us and how we can use them to awaken and strengthen our prayer life. • And much more… Along the way, Ravasi weaves in classic works of art, fiction, poetry, and music, creating a rich tapestry of God’s goodness. Written with a loving and personal touch by one of the church’s premier teachers, Ravasi shows how God is constantly calling us to Him, if only we fix our gaze on Him and open our ears to His word. After reading these pages, we cannot help but raise our eyes to Him.

Translated by David L. Schindler, JrIn what is one of the greatest Catholic poetic works of our century, Péguy offers a comprehensive theology ordered around the often-neglected second virtue which is incarnated inhis celebrated image of the ‘little girl Hope'.

This dictionary provides definitions for over 7,000 terms and names in the history of Christianity. The topics range from the foundational theological developments of the early church to the divisions of the Protestant Reformation to the missionary enterprises of the last two centuries. Nelson's Dictionary of Christianity is an essential resource for anyone who wants to know more about how Christians have lived, built the church, and worked to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.

Is It Possible to Live this Way, a translation of the first part of Luigi Giussani's Si Può Vivere Così?, addresses the virtue of hope. A compilation of Giussani's conversations with young people who have chosen the path of the consecrated life in the Church - that is, have chosen to live their lives in the world according to the "evangelical counsels" of poverty, chastity, and obedience - it proposes an unusual yet reasonable approach to living as a Christian. As in all his works, Giussani encourages young people to be serious about their own existence and loyal to their experience. The conversations reported here are fascinating and insightful, providing support for a way of life that today is frequently questioned, rejected, or censured.