Picking up on the monastic tradition of creating a "rule of life" that allows for regular space for the practice of spiritual disciplines, Ruth Haley Barton takes you more deeply into understanding seven key spiritual disciplines along with practical ideas for weaving them into everyday life.

Spanning the years 1870-1881, Evenings at Home in Spiritual Seance (Second Series ) documents the everyday, yet astonishing, experiences of spirit activity within the domestic space of the Victorian parlour. Through the intimacy of her diary-like prose, Houghton conjures cosy images of spirits laying the table for tea in what she called the "interblending of the heavenly and the mundane." She is equally comfortable communicating with her beloved pet dove as she is with the archangel Gabriel, living an unassuming yet spiritually rich life, filled with people of this world and the next. Houghton narrates her experiences of seances and trance mediumship with close friends, discusses her own automatic spirit drawings, and offers an autobiographical glimpse into her day-to-day business. This critical edition, edited by Sara Williams, includes: * Introduction * Author biography * Select bibliography * Explanatory footnotes * Appendices on 'Houghton in the Spiritualist press', 'Automatic spirit drawings' and 'Houghton's spirit photography'

Sometimes the gift of free will does not seem like God has done us a favor. God has given us free will, but what is God's will in our lives? To seek God's will, we must get to know God. This book helps us to explore the will of God not as an end in itself, but as the path to freedom; not the freedom of autonomy, but the freedom of love. The author takes the reader on a lovely journey through ten evenings with God and examines prayer as a relationship with God, the importance of solitude for listening to God, and the use of the senses in discerning God's presence in our lives. Each of the ten chapters deals with a different way to see God's will, including understanding that God's love is the foundation for His will. Each chapter ends with guiding questions designed to help readers reflect upon their relationship with God. Everyone must make hard choices in life, and sometimes it is difficult to understand God's will when making life-changing decisions. This book reinforces the simple fact that God is love and out of this love flows all of life. View sample pages. "Paperback"

The Jewish community has lost some of the most sensitive spiritual souls of this generation. They are Jews who were looking for God and found spiritual homes outside of Judaism. Their journeys traversed the Jewish community, but nothing there beckoned them. The creation of synagogue-communities in which the voices of seekers can be heard and their questions can be asked will challenge many loyalist Jews. It will upset and enrage them. But it would also enrich them. —from Chapter 18 In this fresh look at the spiritual possibilities of American Jewish life, Rabbi Sidney Schwarz presents the framework for a new synagogue model—the synagogue community—and its promise to transform our understanding of the synagogue and its potential for modern Judaism. Schwarz profiles four innovative synagogues—one from each of the major movements of Judaism—that have had extraordinary success with their approach to congregational life and presents practical ways to replicate their success. Includes a discussion guide for study groups and book clubs as well as a new afterword by the author describing developments in synagogue change projects since the book was first published.

This illuminating guide to the night opens up an entirely new vista on early modern Europe. Using diaries, letters, legal records and representations of the night in early modern religion, literature and art, Craig Koslofsky explores the myriad ways in which early modern people understood, experienced and transformed the night.

They come to our aid when we least expect it, and they disappear as soon as their work is done. Invisible helpers are available to all of us. In fact, we all regularly receive messages from our guardian angels and spirit guides, but usually fail to recognize them. This book will help you to realize when this occurs. And when you carry out the exercises provided, you will be able to communicate freely with both your guardian angels and spirit guides.

This is an authoritative, uncompromising, altogether real guide to spiritual practice. Rohini Ralby spent eight years as head of security, appointments secretary, and personal assistant to the great Swami Muktananda, and in their many hours alone together, this world-renowned guru taught her, one on one, the essence of spiritual practice. In Walking Home with Baba, an expert guide to spiritual practice, Rohini draws on that experience and her subsequent study and work as a spiritual director to convey, in clear and concise terms, what spiritual practice truly is: walking home, and retracing our way back to God -- to Absolute Truth, Absolute Consciousness, and Absolute Bliss. Walking Home with Baba combines intimate stories about Ms Ralbys own experiences with Muktananda and others with chapters explaining the actual work of spiritual practice. She provides tools that she has developed for freeing ourselves from misery. One chapter is perhaps the most masterfully clear and concise companion to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali available today. Readers will learn not only about Ms Ralbys experience of travelling the path and being the close disciple of a great Guru; they will gain practical guidance in walking that path themselves.