Christine Watkins shares her personal story of how she was healed and converted to Catholicism through the Blessed Mother Mary, as well as the similar experiences of five other individuals.

A moving story of the power of love and the miracles of life—chock full of Southern wit, sass, and charm Grace is an intelligent, (struggling-to-be) independent 31-year-old single woman living (in sin!) with the man she’d marry if they both weren’t so commitment phobic. Michael is a doctor and a scientist and Grace has a good idea that he’s also an atheist. Over the years, this dutiful Catholic girl has become ambivalent about her faith. But her family is as devoutly old-fashioned as it gets. The stage is set for a major showdown that might just change Grace’s outlook on life, family,and the South itself.

Two thousand years ago, a girl from Nazareth was transformed by a simple “yes” into the Mother of God—the subject of sublime devotion, divisive controversy, and extravagant speculation. A mother and a virgin, a saint and a peasant, a woman both tragic and triumphant, Mary has held sway over the human imagination for centuries. Yet she has never felt as relevant to our everyday lives as she does today. In Full of Grace, Judith Dupré, the bestselling author of Churches, offers an intimate exploration of this beloved figure, now and through the ages. In a series of poignant stories and essays, Dupré examines Mary’s artistic, cultural, and historical influence, and at the same time shows how Mary’s human journey of love, compassion, grief, and humble strength inextricably connects her to our modern lives. Accompanied by a breathtaking visual feast ranging from classic Renaissance portraits to unexpected contemporary images, Dupré’s text offers insights into the Virgin Mary as a mother and as a religious icon. Visits to the great shrines of Marian pilgrimage—Lourdes, Medjugorje, Fatima, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe—underscore the author’s journey to find Mary’s meaning in her own life. In an essay about Mary in the Qur’an, we see how Mary, far from being an exclusively Catholic figure, emerges as one of the central women in Islam. Another piece details the author’s travels in the Holy Land, a landscape wracked by religious strife but still overflowing with the spirit of generosity that Mary embodies. From Sudanese refugee camps to the painful reminders of Auschwitz, from the struggle of divorce to the challenges of raising a child with autism, we see how Mary’s tenderness, bravery, and grace infuse the story of every mother, young and old. For men and women seeking to better understand their own life journey, this book looks at the many miracles, large and small, along the way. From the Hardcover edition.

During the 1950s and early 1960s Flannery O'Connor wrote more than a hundred book reviews for two Catholic diocesan newspapers in Georgia. This full collection of these reviews nearly doubles the number that have appeared in print elsewhere and represents a significant body of primary materials from the O'Connor canon. We find in the reviews the same personality so vividly apparent in her fiction and her lectures--the unique voice of the artist that is one clear sign of genius. Her spare precision, her humor, her extraordinary ability to permit readers to see deeply into complex and obscure truths-all are present in these reviews and letters.

Few concepts are more important in Catholic theology than that of grace, but most adult Catholics never move beyond a schoolchild's understanding of grace. Charles Journet explores philosophy, revelation and history to explain grace fully. Journet lays out both the doctrinal development of grace and corrects persistent mistakes that Catholics make about grace. He covers habitual grace, actual grace, predestination, justification, merit, and much more. He even includes a revealing exploration of Adam's earthly paradise and how the nature of the Fall called forth God's response of grace.

Christians trying to model their lives after Jesus may find that He gets buried under lists, rules, and formulas. Now bestselling author Randy Alcorn offers a simple two-point checklist for Christlikeness based on John 1:14. The test consists of balancing grace and truth, equally and unapologetically. Grace without truth deceives people, and ceases to be grace. Truth without grace crushes people, and ceases to be truth. Alcorn shows the reader how to show the world Jesus -- offering grace instead of the world's apathy and tolerance, offering truth instead of the world's relativism and deception. Grace or Truth…or Both? Truth without grace breeds self-righteousness and crushing legalism. Grace without truth breeds deception and moral compromise. Is it possible to embrace both in balance? Jesus did. Randy Alcorn offers a simple yet profound two-point checklist of Christlikeness. “In the end,” says Alcorn, “we don’t need grace or truth. We need grace and truth. And for people to see Jesus in us, they must see both.”