At life’s many crossroads, the sacraments of the Church—Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Holy Eucharist, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick—bring people into contact with the saving work of God. In this collection of homilies, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) explains these celebrations of the Church and shows how they always offer an opportunity to announce our faith in Christ and to deepen our understanding of it. Ratzinger endeavored as a theologian to develop an understanding of the sacraments that would help to make participation in them, and in the Paschal Mystery, more fruitful. Many of these homilies connect the sacraments with a profound interpretation of Scripture. The scriptural passages interpreted in each homily are listed at the beginning of the chapter, so that this volume can also be used for scriptural meditation. Since the Church herself is both a sacrament—that is, a sign of God’s saving action in the world—and the place where the sacraments take place, two of the chapters are about the Church, the body of believers where God dwells.

'A thoughtful exploration of humanity ... Fabes is great company and makes riding bicycles seem like the best way to see and understand the world' - Guardian They say that being a good doctor boils down to just four things: Shut up, listen, know something, care. The same could be said for life on the road, too. When Stephen Fabes left his job as a junior doctor and set out to cycle around the world, frontline medicine quickly faded from his mind. Of more pressing concern were the daily challenges of life as an unfit rider on an overloaded bike, helplessly in thrall to pastries. But leaving medicine behind is not as easy as it seems. As he roves continents, he finds people whose health has suffered through exile, stigma or circumstance, and others, whose lives have been saved through kindness and community. After encountering a frozen body of a monk in the Himalayas, he is drawn ever more to healthcare at the margins of the world, to crumbling sanitoriums and refugee camps, to city dumps and war-torn hospital wards. And as he learns the value of listening to lives - not just solving diagnostic puzzles - Stephen challenges us to see care for the sick as a duty born of our humanity, and our compassion.

Scott Hahn, the bestselling author of The Lamb’s Supper and Reasons to Believe, celebrates the touchstones of the Catholic life, guiding readers to a deeper faith through the Church’s rites, customs, and traditional prayers. Signs of Life is beloved author Scott Hahn’s clear and comprehensive guide to the Biblical doctrines and historical traditions that underlie Catholic beliefs and practices. Devoting single chapters to each topic, the author takes the reader on a journey that illuminates the roots and significance of all things Catholic, including: the Sign of the Cross, the Mass, the Sacraments, praying with the saints, guardian angels, sacred images and relics, the celebration of Easter, Christmas, and other holidays, daily prayers, and much more. In the appealing conversational tone that has won him millions of devoted readers, Hahn presents the basic tenets of Church teachings, clears up common misconceptions about specific rituals and traditions, and responds thoughtfully to the objections raised about them. Each chapter concludes with loving, good-natured, inspiring advice on applying the Church’s wisdom to everyday life.

A tour de force of life on a journey with Jesus. By all means, take this journey if you can.—Chuck Colson, Founder, Prison Fellowship With our society’s sometimes unfavorable view of Christians, it is all the more important that believers display what Dr. David Jeremiah calls signs of life — signs that Jesus has transformed us and that we are committed to Him and His kingdom. They are signs that ought to be detected from across the street, over the fence, down the hall, throughout the office, or in the pews, for it’s not enough to just talk about Jesus. It’s also not enough to serve Him in secret with our acts of private devotion. We have to display the lifestyle of the Nazarene in the midst of a corrupt and darkened culture. In a world starved for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, honesty, relevance, and compassion, Christians should specialize in exactly those things through public expressions of private faith. It’s by our smile, our compassion in the face of misfortune, our friendliness, our simple lifestyle, our willingness to commit random acts of kindness, our social ministries, our tears, and our words that unbelievers recognize Who we represent. Signs of Life will lead you on a journey to a fuller understanding of the marks that identify you as a Christian. Signs that will advertise your faith. Personal imprints that can impact souls for eternity and help you become a person of influence who radiates relevancy, authenticity, generosity, and compassion every day — just like Jesus did.

From award-winning author-illustrator Stephen Savage comes a playful wordless picture book about what the figures on road signs do when no one is around! What do the figures on signs do when no one is watching? Under cover of night, they leave their signs to play and collaborate in this imaginative story by celebrated author-illustrator Stephen Savage.

The writer presents with innumerable details this incredible narrative as an autobiography and as a testimony of his recent medical experiences that includes two surgeries he had suffered in the last few years. In a much-simplified way, he endeavors to explain the relationship that exists between the signs he had been receiving and his illnesses. Even though he has had a successful life, he feels that somehow he is not completely happy with the results. Throughout his journey, he discovers that there are no coincidences in life and that everything happens for a reason. He also finds out that God is always trying to communicate with him, and us, by way of many different signs and messages; however due to our busy schedules, we don't often listen to them, or tend to discard them as unimportant. For many months, the author suffers an internal transformation that unexpectedly makes him happy and which also allows him to experience a gradual change in his spirituality. The inner changes and spiritual evolution that he sees from within motivates and gives him a new purpose for living. He also realizes the immense need to give thanks to God every day for all the blessings he has received. As this exciting drama unfolds, and consequences develop after being able to decipher the meaning of the signs and finding out that God had truly been with him throughout his life, he considers it a duty and a promise to God to explain his testimony in writing, not only for his family and friends but for anyone who desires a spiritual transformation. The story contemplates the universal human questions of how, when, why, what, and where this experience could take place. This narrative is a true story written without exaggeration or drama. The story is a testimony of what actually happened to the author and is therefore identified with our human spirituality, obviously by making a great emphasis on the importance and of the need to find God. His story, The Signs for a New Life, perhaps to some, might be controversial due to the reader's own speculations, ideas, perceptions, and, certainly, religious beliefs.

Hayford discusses the newborn believer's relationship to God, how the Bible can help the believer, types of baptisms, and the importance of spending time with other believers.

"The soul never thinks without an image," claimed Aristotle. Indeed, as Angeles Arrien displays in this reissued edition of Signs of Life, shapes have significant psychological and mythological meanings embedded in our minds. Understanding the messages they convey and our attraction to them opens up a door to the secret workings of our inner selves and to a fuller appreciation of the art itself.As in her widely popular The Tarot Handbook, Arrien applies her background as a cultural anthropologist to the import human beings attribute to shapes. Examining her results, she has developed an effective tool to determine the connection between a person's preferences for certain shapes and the same person's inner, subjective states. In the course of using Arrien's book, individuals, parents, teachers, and therapists will experience the universal processes of growth embodied in images and myths. Life, we discover, is art, and through Arrien's fascinating journey in Signs of Life, we gain a new perception of the omnipresent patterns and symbols that surround us. Illustrated throughout with drawings and photographs

Signs: A New Approach to Coincidence, Synchronicity, Guidance, Life Purpose, and God's Plan presents a new way of approaching coincidental or synchronistic events, events that seem to be telling us something. It explains how to separate out more ordinary synchronicities from what the author calls "signs" or CMPEs (Conjunctions of Meaningfully Parallel Events), a kind of super-synchronicity. These occurrences are so intelligently organized as to go far beyond chance and convey a remarkable depth of wisdom and insight for our lives. Filled with dozens of real-life examples, the book is both a how-to guide for working with this phenomenon and an exploration of the phenomenon itself, including what it implies about the nature of reality and the existence of God.