Hidden—Richard Giannone’s searingly honest, richly insightful memoir—eloquently captures the author’s transformation from a solitary gay academic to a dedicated caregiver as well as a sexually and spiritually committed man. Always alone, always fearful, he initially resisted the duty to look after his dying female relatives. But his mother’s fall into dementia changed all that. Her vulnerability opened this middle-aged man to the love of another man, a former priest and Jersey boy like himself. Together the two men saw the old woman to her death and did the same for Giannone’s sister. In Hidden Giannone uncovers how, ultimately, these experiences moved him closer to participating in the vitality he believed pulsed in the world but had always eluded him. The mothering life of this gay partnership evolved alongside the AIDS crisis and within and against Italian American culture that reflected the Catholic Church’s discountenancing of homosexual love. Giannone vividly weaves his reflections on gay life in Greenwich Village and his spiritual journey as a gay man and Catholic into his experience of caring for the women of his family. In Hidden Giannone recounts a gripping religious conversion, drawing on the wisdom of the ancient desert mothers and fathers of Egypt and Palestine. Because he was raised a Catholic, the shift is not from nothing to something. Rather, it is away from the modeling power of institutional Christianity to the tempering influence of homosexuality on the Gospel. Gay or straight, so long as we remain hidden from ourselves, the true God remains hidden from us.

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At key moments in his life on earth, Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, turned to the Psalms for words to express his deepest thoughts and emotions. It is not hard to imagine Jesus, his mind and heart saturated with the words and thoughts of the Psalms as they were prayed aloud in the Temple, going off early in the morning to pray. How much must he have mouthed the words of the Psalms and given them a fulfillment? They became his answering speech to his heavenly Father. In these pages you will discover how the psalms that relate closely to the mission of Jesus can also become our answering speech. We will begin our journey into the mind of Christ by immersing ourselves in several psalms which Jesus himself refers to and fulfills. And then in the second half of the book, we will immerse ourselves in psalms that Jesus would have meditated on during his time on earth, focusing on the heart and mind of Jesus as he prayed the psalms. Structural analysis of each psalm will help us grow our ability to read the Psalms. The guided personal prayer liturgy with each chapter will help us go deeper in the experience of praying the Psalms. Through these psalms we will discover more of the human life of our Lord and Savior. And in the process we will discover more of who we are as we come before our holy God. Also included: a group discussion and prayer experience to accompany each chapter.

How and why did the early church grow in the first four hundred years despite disincentives, harassment, and occasional persecution? In this unique historical study, veteran scholar Alan Kreider delivers the fruit of a lifetime of study as he tells the amazing story of the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Challenging traditional understandings, Kreider contends the church grew because the virtue of patience was of central importance in the life and witness of the early Christians. They wrote about patience, not evangelism, and reflected on prayer, catechesis, and worship, yet the church grew--not by specific strategies but by patient ferment.

This is a book about spirituality for the spiritual but not religious. Those who identify themselves as spiritual but not religious make up one quarter of the population in the United States. This book provides 189 monthly entries based on the national and international celebrations that occur every month. Each entry begins with the name of the occasion and the date when it is marked during the month. A text from the Bible, a US public law, a presidential proclamation, a United Nations declaration, etc. that illustrates the day is presented. The text is followed by a reflection which gleans the spirituality from the text and provides historical background on the day being celebrated. Journal/meditation questions follow the reflection, and a prayer concludes the entry. This book is for the spiritual but not religious, a practice of spirituality that does not regard organized religion as a valuable means to further interior spiritual growth. A section of the introduction to the book explores who the spiritual but not religious are and presents the common themes that surface from research about them.