A Mother who nurtures, empathizes, and heals... a Warrior who defends, empowers, and resists oppression... the Virgin Mary plays many roles for the peoples of Spain and Spanish-speaking America. Devotion to the Virgin inspired and sustained medieval and Renaissance Spaniards as they liberated Spain from the Moors and set about the conquest of the New World. Devotion to the Virgin still inspires and sustains millions of believers today throughout the Americas. This wide-ranging and highly readable book explores the veneration of the Virgin Mary in Spain and the Americas from the colonial period to the present. Linda Hall begins the story in Spain and follows it through the conquest and colonization of the New World, with a special focus on Mexico and the Andean highlands in Peru and Bolivia, where Marian devotion became combined with indigenous beliefs and rituals. Moving into the nineteenth century, Hall looks at national cults of the Virgin in Mexico, Bolivia, and Argentina, which were tied to independence movements. In the twentieth century, she examines how Eva Perón linked herself with Mary in the popular imagination; visits contemporary festivals with significant Marian content in Spain, Peru, and Mexico; and considers how Latinos/as in the United States draw on Marian devotion to maintain familial and cultural ties.

The Turtle Warrior is the story of the Lucas family, who live in a beautiful and remote part of Wisconsin inhabited by working-class European immigrants and the Ojibwe. By 1967 the Lucas farm has fallen into disrepair, thanks to the hard drinking of John Lucas, who brutalizes his wife and two sons. When the eldest, James, escapes by enlisting to fight in Vietnam, he leaves young Bill alone to protect his mother with only his own will and the spirit of his brother to guide him. Beautifully written and deeply felt, The Turtle Warrior takes readers from the heartland of America to the battlefields of World War II and Vietnam weaving a haunting tale of an unforgettable world where the physical and spiritual, the past and the present, merge.

One hardly known but fascinating aspect of the Cold War was the use of the holy Virgin Mary as a warrior against atheist ideologies. After the Second World War, there was a remarkable rise in the West of religiously inflected rhetoric against what was characterised as “godless communism”. The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church not only urged their followers to resist socialism, but along with many prominent Catholic laity and activist movements they marshaled the support of Catholics into a spiritual holy war. In this book renowned experts address a variety of grassroots and Church initiatives related to Marian politics, the hausse of Marian apparitions during the Cold War period, and the present-day revival of Marian devotional culture. By identifying and analysing the militant side of Mary in the Cold War context on a global scale for the first time, Cold War Mary will attract readers interested in religious history, history of the Cold War, and twentieth-century international history.

Do you long to feel more alive, to see the vibrancy in your daily life? Do you feel the seeds of a new calling tugging at you? Look to the Blessed Mother for help. In Birthing the Holy, Christine Valters Paintner--abbess of the online Abbey of the Arts--invites you to better know Mary and her heart through thirty-one of her titles, and, along the way, you'll nurture the new growth in your life. The Blessed Mother is known by many beautiful titles, some of which are familiar--Virgin, Queen of Peace, and Star of the Sea--and some we may not be aware of--Vessel of Grace, Greenest Branch, and Our Lady of Silence. Paintner offers a flexible format to reflect on Mary's titles through a thirty-one-day personal retreat, a series of novenas, or with visio divina exercises using striking images by printmaker Kreg Yingst. As you reflect on Mary in her role as Mother of Good Counsel, Woman Clothed with the Sun, Mystical Rose, Mother of Sorrows, Queen of the Angels, and other titles, Paintner invites you to hear what God calls you to develop in your life, help that dream or vision grow, and then nourish it in the world. Whether you're meeting Mary for the first time in these magnificent titles or revisiting her as a beloved companion, Birthing the Holy invites you to see the exploration of Mary and your life as a spiritual and creative act, one that can help deepen your faith even as it sparks new growth within you.

This is the final book in the series, Warrior Princess of God. We look closely at the lives for four New Testament women of faith: Mary (mother of Jesus), Priscilla, Lois, and Lydia. This is a personal journal of devotions with space for prayers, thoughts, and answers to questions posed by the author. It also contains a complete set of editor notes that complement the devotions written by the author.

The author recalls her experiences growing up Chinese-American in California and her mother's stories of strong women warriors in her native China, and also discusses the history of Chinese men in America from those who worked on the transcontinental railroad to those who fought in Vietnam.

Saint Faustina is well known for the revelations of Divine Mercy that she received from Jesus and recorded in her Diary. But few know that she also received many revelations from the Blessed Virgin Mary and enjoyed a special relationship with her. Now, in Purest of All Lilies, a prominent Marian priest with a background in Mariology explores St. Faustina's rich relationship with Mary from her love of Mary growing up in Poland to the many Diary passages that she devoted to the Mother of God when she was a nun. The reader learns how St. Faustina's father would begin each day singing prayers to the Blessed Virgin and of the family's special May and October devotions to the Mother of God. At the early age of five, the future saint would tell her mother of dreams she had in which she walked hand-in-hand with the Blessed Virgin in a beautiful garden. Along with St. Faustina's early devotion to Mary, the author shows us how the Blessed Mother taught her as a nun important lessons about suffering, purity of heart and humility. Perhaps most fascinating of all, this Marian priest analyses the poems that St. Faustina wrote about Mary and the metaphors she used to describe the Blessed Virgin, including flowers such as the lily, the rose and the violet.

Wisdom WarriorsA culmination of more than twenty short stories designed to address culturally difficult discussions with young African American minds in the 21st Century, Wisdom Warriors cleverly invites parents and young minds into some of today's most challenging conversations. Through the voice of young Skye, author Mary Cole Watson intentionally delves into challenging, often taboo subjects through the eyes of a child. While intertwining the wisdom of grandparents who have watched the world around them change, Watson addresses many of the tough questions burdening today's curious minds. She intrinsically highlights the fact that African American progress has often been achieved at the cost of stomping out the pride and beauty of a culture relegated to crime and shame. Using African American history, as well as cultural traditions and facts, Watson uses Grandpa Marv and Grandma Mary to help Skye - and many children like her - embrace her unique beauty, the value of the lives she encounters and the call to rise above hate and bigotry. Through the insight of these two Warriors of Wisdom, this essayist tackles each conversation with Skye as a training exercise. The goal of Wisdom Warriors is to develop young minds into healthy, self-loving African Americans charged with the responsibility of preserving the importance of the cultural treasures birthed in a nation seeking life, liberty, and justice for all mankind. This book will be a benefit to classrooms, youth programs and diversity & inclusion initiatives within urban, rural and suburban schools. Linda Collins, Retired High School Principal Parents, educators, student advisers, and coaches can use this tool as a resource for how to handle emotional situations with grace, understanding, and confidence. Millicent Connor, Elementary Reading Specialist Wisdom Warriors provides wisdom to all who may need it when faced with a crucial conversation. The news and media don't always provide the best commentary for discussion in homes or at school to create healthy communities and children of color, but Wisdom Warriors does. Enjoy the book and share it with others.

The author chronicles the lives of three generations of Chinese men in America, woven from memory, myth and fact. Here's a storyteller's tale of what they endured in a strange new land.

Demons wage war against families because families are vital to God's plan of salvation. This stark reality requires that your family members become well-trained spiritual warriors who actively secure your home and fight to keep it off-limits to demonic activity. In A Family Guide to Spiritual Warfare, Kathleen Beckman offers you potent advice from her 12 years of active participation on an exorcist's team. She shows you how to “clean up” your household by cultivating in your family a civilization of love — and how to withstand the spiritual attacks that inevitably come to destroy the harmonious family life you create. Beckman reveals how you can recognize diabolical disguises in your home and offers proven means of protection found only in the Church's arsenal of spiritual weapons. You'll also learn the devil's strategies — how he does not necessarily seek to possess but simply to seed your family with the ve