Learn how to rebuke the devil and avoid his snares with this new book from Pope Francis's teachings. In this powerful collection, the pope lays bare the devil's ploys and tactics, to help you avoid getting ensnared. Listen with care, as the pope tells the story of the devil's history, character, and works, and consider the pope's suggestions about what you can do to see victory over the devil. Rebuking the Devil will be an important and sobering awakening to those who have forgotten the reality of the spiritual battle that humanity is undergoing. And to those already fighting hard in spiritual battle, they will find great reassurance in the pope's certainty that we can overcome through Spirit-filled discernment and the power of God in Christ Jesus. Through the course of this book, you'll learn from Pope Francis about the practical tools of spiritual battle. This book is vital. Those from youth, to adult, to the wisdom of age will appreciate the pope's guidance on dealing with our perennial foe. This collection will be readily used by students, parents, educators, faith formation groups, faith-sharing groups, priests and deacons preparing for homilies, and all Christians seeking to rebuke the devil. Pick up this easy-to-read, digestible collection of Pope Francis's meditations on accessing God's power over the devil, as your next weekend read!

Why is it that Pope Francis is admired by so many? What gives him the uncanny ability to speak with young people in language familiar to them? In this book, John Raymaker and Gerry Gruzden explore the life and writings of Pope Francis which have a prophetic, visionary ability to speak to important issues of the day. The authors evaluate how Pope Francis’ encounters with religious leaders of other faiths have broken new ground to help unite mankind. They reach back into Christian history to explore the teachings of such Catholic mystics as Thomas Merton while also delving into the beliefs of Islamic and Buddhist mystics to demonstrate how well the pope is in touch with a spirituality that can speak to those seeking the truth. In its final chapters, the book examines how the pope endorses the work of Christians who live their faith in small Christian communities and reveals how such communities can strengthen parish life in various parts of the world. Like St. Francis, his namesake, and like Teilhard de Chardin before him, the pope has an appropriate vision to rebuild God’s Church in a transitional age. His writings have focused on caring for the earth and preaching the good news of the gospels in a way that and allows him to reach young people in need of joy as they face an uncertain future. He is the Conscience of the World.

Can we know that Satan exists as a particular, disembodied spirit? Current Catholic teaching insists that Satan exists as a person, a fallen angel who has instigated the Fall of humanity, continues to influence humans today, and constitutes a singular nemesis to God. How, one might ask, could human beings know such a thing with certainty? In response, this book seeks to rescue the mythical language in which the doctrine of Satan is rooted so that it is freed from the unreasonable expectation that it affirms the existence of a particular creature, and can instead express theological truth that is of relevance to all free-willed creatures. In doing so, it addresses thorny questions concerning the interpretation of Scripture, the relationship between God and evil, between doctrine and truth, between the Church and modernity, and between the condemnatory impulses apparent in Christian thought and the doctrine of an omnipresent God of infinite mercy. The book detects in the doctrine of Satan the expression of fundamental truths concerning the Creator-creature relationship—truths that are too easily obfuscated in current formulations that invite either fundamentalism or incredulity.

What it means to be a man or a woman is questioned today like never before. While traditional gender roles have been eroding for decades, now the very categories of male and female are being discarded with reckless abandon. How does one act like a gentleman in such confusing times? The Catholic Gentleman is a solid and practical guide to virtuous manhood. It turns to the timeless wisdom of the Catholic Church to answer the important questions men are currently asking. In short, easy- to-read chapters, the author offers pithy insights on a variety of topics, including • How to know you are an authentic man • Why our bodies matter • The value of tradition • The purpose of courtesy • What real holiness is and how to achieve it • How to deal with failure in the spiritual life

Richard Rohr, internationally known retreat leader, speaker and writer, plumbs the depths of the Job's story and its relevance for us today. Rohr strips Christian faith down to the essentials, beyond glib answers and a "hand-me-down" experience of God, and points the way to true knowing. In this invigorating exploration, the tension between suffering and faith becomes a powerful means to an authentic, open connection with the divine.

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

At most church weddings, the person presiding over the ritual is not a priest or a pastor, but the wedding planner, followed by the photographer, the florist, and the caterer. And in this day and age, more wedding theology is supplied by Modern Bride magazine or reality television than by any of the Christian treatises on holy matrimony. Indeed, church weddings have strayed long and far from distinctly Christian aspirations. The costumes and gestures might still be right, but the intentions are hardly religious. Why then, asks noted gay commentator Mark D. Jordan, are so many churches vehemently opposed to blessing same-sex unions? In this incisive work, Jordan shows how carefully selected ideals of Christian marriage have come to dominate recent debates over same-sex unions. Opponents of gay marriage, he reveals, too often confuse simplified ideals of matrimony with historical facts. They suppose, for instance, that there has been a stable Christian tradition of marriage across millennia, when in reality Christians have quarreled among themselves for centuries about even the most basic elements of marital theology, authorizing experiments like polygamy and divorce. Jordan also argues that no matter what the courts do, Christian churches will have to decide for themselves whether to bless same-sex unions. No civil compromise can settle the religious questions surrounding gay marriage. And queer Christians, he contends, will have to discover for themselves what they really want out of marriage. If they are not just after legal recognition as a couple or a place at the social table, do they really seek the blessing of God? Or just the garish melodrama of a white wedding? Posing trenchant questions such as these, Blessing Same-Sex Unions will be a must-read for both sides of the debate over gay marriage in America today.

Pope Francis has often expressed his concern for the urgent pastoral needs of families in today's society. Underscoring that deep love and concern for the family, the Pope has spent many months speaking on this subject in his weekly Wednesday audience talks. This book is a collection of all of those talks about the family from Dec. 17, 2014 to Sept. 16, 2015. The Pope covers a wide variety of important subjects directly related to family life, speaking in his personal style that offers wisdom and practical insights for the modern family. His words are for families in general, and also directed to the important roles of all those specific persons who make up family life - husbands, wives, parents, children and grandparents. He emphasizes the deep crisis that the family and marriage are undergoing in the Western world, and says that the family is "a new mission field for the Church." He challenges families today to be witnesses to the world of love, fidelity, and service. Some of the specific topics his talks address include: the example of the Holy Family of Nazareth; transmitting the faith; educating the children; family prayer; complementarity of male and female; celebration in family life; mercy and forgiveness; dealing with illness and death; learning the value of work; poverty and economic struggles; evangelizing the culture, and much more. Throughout his addresses, the Holy Father especially emphasizes the primary role of God and faith in family life, and the crucial importance of regular family prayer to draw on God's grace for strength, love, joy and unity within the home. "The true joy which we experience in the family is not superficial; it does not come from material objects, from the fact that everything seems to be going well. . . . True joy comes from a profound harmony between persons, something which we all feel in our hearts." - Pope Francis