Like the sower in the Gospel parable, homilists scatter seeds of faith each Sunday, calling forth growth in the hearts of their hearers. But such sowing requires a range of supportive, accompanying work: seeding, planing, harvesting, gleaning. The Sower's Book has been written for homilists and preachers who believe that preaching is a ministry--indeed, the most important communication they have with the communities they serve. It is designed to provide a framework by which homilists can think through and develop the Sunday homily over an entire Liturgical year.

From the bestselling author of Seasons of Your Heart and A Tree Full of Angels, a lyric, loving, and inspiring approach to communion with God based on Benetictine spirituality.

In 1585, the British painter and explorer John White created images of Carolina Algonquian Indians. These images were collected and engraved in 1590 by the Flemish publisher and printmaker Theodor de Bry and were reproduced widely, establishing the visual prototype of North American Indians for European and Euro-American readers. In this innovative analysis, Michael Gaudio explains how popular engravings of Native American Indians defined the nature of Western civilization by producing an image of its “savage other.” Going beyond the notion of the “savage” as an intellectual and ideological construct, Gaudio examines how the tools, materials, and techniques of copperplate engraving shaped Western responses to indigenous peoples. Engraving the Savage demonstrates that the early visual critics of the engravings attempted-without complete success-to open a comfortable space between their own “civil” image-making practices and the “savage” practices of Native Americans-such as tattooing, bodily ornamentation, picture-writing, and idol worship. The real significance of these ethnographic engravings, he contends, lies in the traces they leave of a struggle to create meaning from the image of the American Indian. The visual culture of engraving and what it shows, Gaudio reasons, is critical to grasping how America was first understood in the European imagination. His interpretations of de Bry’s engravings describe a deeply ambivalent pictorial space in between civil and savage-a space in which these two organizing concepts of Western culture are revealed in their making. Michael Gaudio is assistant professor of art history at the University of Minnesota.

For over a decade the Sower's Seeds books have been a wonderful resource for teachers, preachers, and anyone who has to speak in front of an audience. Now author Brian Cavanaugh has revised and expanded his original volume--with twenty new stories--for old fans as well as a whole new audience. He includes stories of inspiration, warmth, and insight arranged around numerous universal themes ranging from awareness, compassion, perseverance, and wisdom, to such unusual themes as baseball, Thomas Edison, hospitality, and risk-taking. While the majority of stories are anonymous, there are some attributed to well known names like Zig Ziglar, Mickey Mantle, and Theodore Roosevelt. Years before there was Chicken Soup, Sower's Seeds was making readers laugh, cry, and come away with a warm heart. The newest book--like the others in the series--is ideal both for quiet inspiration and for handy, on-the-run fun. This is storytelling at its best.

This book is a contemporary version of “The Parable of the Sower and the Seed”. Though four sisters grew up in a God-fearing household, their lives depict what type of soil they fell on. Brenna, the oldest sister, falls on the hard path and blatantly denounces Jesus. Sophia, the second oldest, gets emotionally caught up in the wiles of a false prophet. Onia, the youngest, worries too much about the hardships her family faces. Zoey is the sister who fell on the good soil. Her faith takes root and shows itself. However, her zeal for the Lord creates rifts in her relationships. She is assaulted and ridiculed by the impact depravity has on the people around her including her own sisters. Now her colleague and spiritual confidant, Theresa (Resa) Williams, is retiring, leaving her feeling abandoned and questioning whether she should continue to teach the hostile and rude students who treat her with contempt. She questions whether her spiritual influence is making a difference in anyone’s life. Zoey’s sense of urgency in sharing the gospel proves to be valuable because the Sower is coming to reap His harvest. Who will be ready?

William's First book was "The Writer's Sight." In this second set of works, William expands that sight even further, Taking the reader on a poetic harvest of sights, sounds and feelings. A must read for any fan of Poetry.

Work always has been a central construct in the United States, influencing how Americans measure their lives and assess their contribution to the wider society. Work also has been valued as the key element in the philosophy of self-improvement and social mobility that undergird the American value system. Yet work can also be something imposed upon people: it can be exploitative, painful, and hard. This duality is etched into the faces of the people depicted in the portraits showcased in The Sweat of Their Face: Portraying American Workers. This companion volume to an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery examines working-class subjects as they appear in artworks by artists including Winslow Homer, Elizabeth Catlett, Danny Lyon, and Shauna Frischkorn. This richly illustrated book charts the rise and fall of labor from the empowered artisan of the eighteenth century through industrialization and the current American business climate, in which industrial jobs have all but disappeared. It also traces the history of work itself through its impact on the men and women whose laboring bodies are depicted. The Sweat of Their Face is a powerful visual exploration of the inextricable ties between American labor and society.