Many people today are looking for opportunities to bring the spiritual into their everyday lives in non-traditional ways. Their days are so busy they can't imagine how they can fit in time to kneel or sit in prayer on a regular basis. As a result, they fly from one activity to the next at breakneck speed, always looking forward to some nonexistent time in the future when things will slow down long enough to allow them to breathe, center themselves, and pray. Everyday Divine: A Catholic Guide to Active Spirituality helps busy readers explore different ways to achieve a place of stillness and peace while remaining very much in the world. In fact, the day-to-day activities of life become the pathway to prayer-even the prayer itself. Drawing on Catholic tradition, from the Desert Fathers and Mothers to ancient monastics to modern-day saints and sages, Everyday Divine looks at how we can adapt these ancient practices for modern times, quoting holy men and women on various methods and offering practical instructions and suggestions to help people put them into practice. Readers learn how to find spiritual peace while immersed in everyday activities, such as: - Housework and chores - Workouts and exercise - Cooking, eating, and fasting - Listening to music - Traveling and making pilgrimages - Living among the noise of daily life The book also includes personal stories from the author and others, and will weave in practices from specific spiritualities-such as Franciscan, Benedictine, and Trappist-to show how these practices fit into the bigger Catholic picture.

Two innovative spiritual teachers show how to use desire and passion—eros—as a gateway to realizing our fullest potential What do desire and passion have to do with our spiritual journey? According to A. H. Almaas and Karen Johnson, they are an essential part of it. Conventional wisdom cautions that desire and passion are opposed to the spiritual path—that engaging in desire will take you more into the world, into egoic life. And for most people, that is exactly what happens. We naturally tend to experience wanting in a self-centered way. The Power of Divine Eros challenges the view that the divine and the erotic are separate. When we open to the energy, aliveness, spontaneity, and zest of erotic love, we will find it inseparable from the realm of the holy and sacred. When this is understood, desire and passion become a gateway to wholeness and to realizing our full potential. Through guided exercises, the authors reveal how our relationships become opportunities on the spiritual journey to express ourselves authentically, to relate with openness, and to discover dynamic inner realms with another person. Through embodying the energy of eros, each of us can learn to be fully real and alive in all of our interactions.

It could be a cloud in the shape of a loved one's face or an extremely relevant song playing on the radio at the exact time of a friend's death--if we allow ourselves to stop, look, and listen, we can identify what spiritual teacher Ann Bolinger-McQuade calls personal oracles. And when we tune into these subtle messages from Spirit, we will discover guidance for navigating life's most trying situations. In this illuminating book, readers will learn that the universe is constantly conspiring in our favor and is ready to lend a helping hand when we need it most--if only we can look closely and open our hearts to the divine messages that are on display around us. Sharing stories of divine inspiration from her own life, as well as the lives of others (many of them well-known historical or contemporary figures), McQuade shows readers how: A PAIR OF SPARROWS SAVE A MAN'S LIFE: Journalist Byron Pitts narrowly escaped being hit by a car and saw a couple birds circling in front of him. The birds reminded him of the lyrics to his mother's favorite hymn: "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me." The comforting reminder of guidance and provision encouraged him to persevere in his challenging career in broadcast journalism, which was ultimately rewarded when CBS offered him a position on 60 Minutes. A LITTLE BOY BRINGS HOPE BACK INTO A WOMAN'S LIFE: Nancy was reeling from her husband's recent diagnosis of AML, a rare form of leukemia, when a seven-year-old boy knocked at her door collecting donations for AML research. He smiled at her warmly as he told her how he had had AML since he was two, and then he announced proudly that a transplant had saved his life. SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S APPLE WAS ACTUALLY AN EVERYDAY ORACLE: Many are familiar with the story of how Sir Isaac Newton first discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head. It is a lesser known fact that Newton was interested in the supernatural. Born in the 1600s, when astronomy and astology were considred one and the same, the highly respected alchemist looked to the heavens to assist him in his quest to decode the mysteries of the universe. The falling apple that arrested his attention acted as a personal oracle. In addition to illuminating oracles through examples, McQuade discusses the history and science of oracles in general and of personal oracles specifically, offering the reader practical instructions for identifying and decoding the divine messages in their own lives.

The notion that the world is filled with holy sparks is shared by religious traditions around the world. Learn to uncover this sacred dimension and you will begin to both hallow the world and be healed by its powers. These 101 lively reflections will help you learn to look outward and discover a spark of the divine in everyday objects, activities, experiences, and the glories of the natural world.

Divine Moments books are designed to help you experience a daily breakthrough with God. Inside each handy book you'll find life application topics such as acceptance, brokenness, calling, comfort, crisis, decisions, doubt, endurance, giving, healing, hurts, loss, love, miracles, mistakes, planning, purpose, risk, romance, stress, temptation, tragedy, and wisdom. Under each topic you'll find a question that we all ask at one time or another about how we relate to God and how our faith relates to everyday life. When we bring our deepest questions to God, we can find answers. Discover today how God's Word provides answers to our deepest questions about life and answers hundreds of the greatest questions of all time.

Discover simple habits and easy-to-implement daily rhythms that will help you find meaning beyond the chaos of family life as you create a home where kids and parents alike practice how to love God and each other. You long for tender moments with your children--but do you ever find yourself too busy to stop, make eye contact, and say something you really mean? Daily habits are powerful ways to shape the heart--but do you find yourself giving in to screen time just to get through the day? You want to parent with purpose--but do you know how to start? Award-winning author and father of four Justin Whitmel Earley understands the tension between how you long to parent and what your daily life actually looks like. In Habits of the Household, Earley gives you the tools you need to create structure--from mealtimes to bedtimes--that free you to parent toddlers, kids, and teens with purpose. Learn how to: Develop a bedtime liturgy to settle your little ones and ground them in God's love Discover a new framework for discipline as discipleship Acquire simple practices for more regular and meaningful family mealtimes Open your eyes to the spirituality of parenting, seeing small moments as big opportunities for spiritual formation Develop a custom age chart for your family to more intentionally plan your shared years under the same roof Each chapter in Habits of the Household ends with practical patterns, prayers, or liturgies that your family can put into practice right away. As you create liberating rhythms around your everyday routines, you will find your family has a greater sense of peace and purpose as your home becomes a place where, above all, you learn how to love.

Throughout time, people have turned to goddesses as symbols of what they seek -- from abundance to healing, from protection to passion. Building on the resurgence of interest in the Divine Feminine, Julie Loar presents the qualities and origins of an international array of these deities, along with powerful suggestions for putting their attributes to practical use. In a daily-reflection format, she gracefully aligns the goddesses with the cycles of nature and the signs of the zodiac. If you are struggling to attain a goal, call on the Nepalese goddess Chomolungma, as the sherpas climbing Mount Everest have done for generations. Or, for good luck, invoke the Roman goddess Fortuna, the inspiration behind gambling's wheel of fortune. With 366 goddesses to choose from, you will find a deity to call upon for every aspiration and need.