Chiara Luce

Chiara Luce
Author: Michele Zanzucchi
Publisher: New City Press
Total Pages: 51
Release: 2014-05-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1565486692

Chiara Luce, a girl full of vitality, but, suddenly, she fell gravely ill. And, strangely, moment by moment, a new life full of light began to unfold for her. She was eighteen when she died, yet she had lived to the full. Thanks to a collection of her writings, a biography and a video, and through her friends, the local bishop and the Gen, Chiara Luce’s life continues to inspire people. Each generation has its stories of heroism and holiness, which then become models for those coming after them. and yet these young people who have gone to the next life were not aloof or idealized; they have not become “icons”, to use the current terminology. They were just going on ahead of the others to another place, where they all eventually hope to meet up again. This is the story of the life of Chiara Luce Badano, a life lived to the full.

Losing Our Dignity

Losing Our Dignity
Author: Charles C. Camosy
Publisher: New City Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2021-07-12
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1565484711

There is perhaps no more important value than fundamental human equality. And yet, despite large percentages of people affirming the value, the resources available to explain and defend the basis for such equality are few and far between. In his newest book Charles Camosy provides a thoughtful defense of human dignity. Telling personal stories like those of Jahi McMath, Terri Schiavo, and Alfie Evans, Camosy, a noted bioethicist and theologian, uses an engaging style to show how the influence of secularized medicine is undermining fundamental human equality in the broader culture. And in a disturbing final chapter, Camosy sounds the alarm about the next population to fall if we stay on our current trajectory: dozens of millions of human beings with dementia. Heeding this alarm, Camosy argues, means doing two things. First, making urgent and genuine attempts to dialogue with a secularized culture which cannot see how it is undermining one of its most foundational values. Second, religious communities which hold the Imago Dei sacred must mobilize their existing institutions (and create new ones) to care for a new set of human beings our throwaway culture may deem non-persons.

Arriving at Amen

Arriving at Amen
Author: Leah Libresco
Publisher: Ave Maria Press
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2015-05-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1594715882

In 2012, media outlets from CNN to EWTN announced that Leah Libresco, a gifted young intellectual, columnist, and prolific blogger on the Atheist channel on Patheos, was converting to Catholicism. In Arriving at Amen, Libresco uses the rigorous rationality that defined her Atheism to tell the story behind that very personal journey and to describe the seven forms of Catholic prayer that guided her to embrace a joyful life of faith. As a Yale graduate, Libresco launched her writing career by blogging about science, literature, mathematics, and morality from a distinctively secular perspective. Over time, encounters with friends and associates caused her to concede the reasonableness of belief in God in theory, though not yet in practice. In Arriving at Amen, Libresco uniquely describes the second part of her spiritual journey, in which she encountered God through seven classic Catholic forms of prayer—Liturgy of the Hours, lectio divina, examen, intercessory prayer, the Rosary, confession, and the Mass. Examining each practice through the intellectual lens of literature, math, and art, Libresco reveals unexpected glimpses of beauty and truth in the Catholic Church that will be appreciated by the curious and convinced alike.

Ablaze

Ablaze
Author: Colleen Swaim
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780764820298

Shares stories of eight young men and women whose selfless heroism and refusal to deny their faith led to their becoming saints of the Christian church, including Saint Teresa of the Andes, Saint Stanislaus Kostka, and Blessed Pedro Calungsod.

Chiara Corbella Petrillo

Chiara Corbella Petrillo
Author: Simone Troisi
Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
Total Pages: 131
Release: 2015
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1622823052

Chiara Petrillo was seated in a wheel chair looking lovingly toward Jesus in the tabernacle. Her husband, Enrico, found the courage to ask her a question that he had been holding back. Thinking of Jesus’s phrase, “my yoke is sweet and my burden is light,” he asked: “Is this yoke, this cross, really sweet, as Jesus said?” A smile came across Chiara’s face. She turned to her husband and said in a weak voice: “Yes, Enrico, it is very sweet.” At 28 years old, Chiara passed away, her body ravaged by cancer. The emotional, physical, and spiritual trials of this young Italian mother are not uncommon. It was her joyful and loving response to each that led one cardinal to call her “a saint for our times.” Chiara entrusted her first baby to the blessed Virgin, but felt as though this child was not hers to keep. Soon, it was revealed her daughter had life-threatening abnormalities. Despite universal pressure to abort, Chiara gave birth to a beautiful girl who died within the hour. A year later, the death of her second child came even more quickly. Yet God was preparing their hearts for more—more sorrow and more grace. While pregnant a third time, Chiara developed a malignant tumor. She refused to jeopardize the life of her unborn son by undergoing treatments during the pregnancy. Chiara waited until after Francesco was safely born, and then began the most intense treatments of radiation and chemotherapy, but it was soon clear that the cancer was terminal. Almost immediately after giving birth to Francesco, Chiara’s tumor became terminal and caused her to lose the use of her right eye. Her body was tested, and so was her soul as she suffered through terrible dark nights. She said “yes” to everything God sent her way, becoming a true child of God. And as her days on earth came to an end, Enrico looked down on his wife and said, “If she is going to be with Someone who loves her more than I, why should I be upset?” Each saint has a special charisma, a particular facet of God that is reflected through her. Chiara’s was to be a witness to joy in the face of great adversity, the kind which makes love overflow despite the sorrow from loss and death.

Never Give Up

Never Give Up
Author: John Janaro
Publisher: Servant Publications
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Depressed persons
ISBN: 9780867169294

Some human suffering can't be "fixed." Maybe yours is like that, or maybe you have a family member or friend in that situation. John Janaro's been there--in fact, still is there. His struggles with debilitating illness, chronic depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder could easily bring on a massive case of self-pity, but Janaro has found a better way to live.

15 Days of Prayer with Blessed Chiara Badano

15 Days of Prayer with Blessed Chiara Badano
Author: Florence Gillet
Publisher: 15 Days of Prayer
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781565485549

This book is based on the life of Chiara Luce Badano, who was beatified on Sept. 25, 2010 in the presence of 12,000 young people. The 15 days are a journey to help us grow in love and faith, and appreciate the indescribable joy of being among those whose faith is not in vain, because they are witnesses that Christ is truly risen.

Lenten Healing

Lenten Healing
Author: Ken Kniepmann
Publisher: Ave Maria Press
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2018-01-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1594717966

Based on the popular spiritual healing program designed by Bob Schuchts and the John Paul II Healing Center, Lenten Healing offers a twist to traditional Lenten fasting: instead of giving up chocolate, give up your sin. This daily Lenten devotional offers a unique approach to fasting, helping you reexamine the psychological and spiritual roots of sin in your life while sharing reflections and prayer exercises for overcoming sinful habits and acquiring virtuous ones. Lent is the ideal time to identify and address "spiritual blind spots"—unacknowledged emotional wounds and false ideas that hinder your prayer life and worship. During each week of Lent, Ken Kniepmann of the John Paul II Healing Center breaks open one of the seven deadly sins (pride, lust, gluttony, sloth, anger, envy, and greed) and its corresponding virtue (humility, chastity, abstinence, diligence, patience, kindness, and liberality). You'll start by learning about the sin and how it manifests itself in daily life and thought patterns. Then you'll move into reflection and prayer exercises that guide you through the process of renouncing that week's sin and resolving to adopt that week's virtue. Fasting, the practice of giving up pleasures or comforts, allows us to grow in holiness by putting our desires to a kind of death. Obvious examples include giving up a habit such as a favorite food, sleeping in, or late-night TV—but what happens when you try to give up your sins while recognizing the deeper reasons you commit them in the first place? By seeing those connections and praying specifically for God's insight, healing, and revelation, you’ll be able to experience God’s mercy and love to a greater capacity. Kniepmann helps you see how the depth of Catholic teaching is connected to your daily life. Sin isn't just an activity; it is a place of the heart (the interior life) and the movement of the heart (toward or away from sin) as related to thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. By the time Easter arrives, you'll possess a deeper understanding of sin and emotional wounds as impediments to intimacy with God and come away with tangible, practical tools for addressing those impediments in your life.