Janet E. Smith has been among the world’s preeminent voices in the study of the issues raised by Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical letter Humanae vitae. Self-Gift: Essays on Humanae Vitae and the Thought of John Paul II presents Smith’s critical collection of essays on the vocation of marriage, human sexuality, contraception, and more. Her groundbreaking scholarship touches on all the areas implicated in Humanae vitae: from natural family planning to parenthood and natural law to personalism. This collection not only includes Smith’s English translation of the encyclical from the original Latin text, but also helpful background on the development and release of this authoritative magisterial document. With a particular emphasis on the personalist and Thomistic philosophy of Pope St. John Paul II and how it illuminates the two-millennia tradition of Catholic teaching on human sexuality, Self-Gift delivers crucial insight into the Creator’s plan for human sexuality and our full flourishing in Christ.

This definitive biography of Pope John Paul II explores his historic influence on the world stage: “Magnificent. A tremendous achievement” (Washington Post). As head of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005, John Paul II was one of the world’s most transformational figures. With unprecedented cooperation from the Pope, as well as the people who knew and worked with him throughout his life, George Weigel offers a groundbreaking portrait of him as a man, a thinker, and a leader whose religious convictions defined a new approach to world politics—and changed the course of history. The Pope played a crucial yet underexplored role in some of the most momentous events of his time, including the collapse of European communism, the quest for peace in the Middle East, and the democratic transformation of Latin America. With an updated preface, this edition of Witness to Hope explains how this “man from a far country” did all of that, and much more—and what both his accomplishments and the unfinished business of his pontificate mean for the future of the Church and the world.

Christopher West makes John Paul II's theology of the body available for the first time to people at all levels within the Christian community. Love, sexuality, and human flourishing are inseparable. Those who doubted this will find West's book a transforming experience, and those who have been wounded will find liberation and peace. A wonderful education on the meaning of being human. Christopher West teaches the theology of the body and sexual ethics at St John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. He is also visiting faculty member of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Melbourne, Australia.

Meeting House Essays in a series of papers reflecting on the mystery, beauty and practicalities of the place of worship. This popular series was begun in 1991, and each resource focuses on a particular aspect of space, design or materials and how they relate to the liturgy.

While shaping the history of the Church and the world, Pope John Paul II lived his daily life among individuals who knew him closely as a spiritual father, colleague or friend. Friends who helped him, served him and closely collaborated with him to change the world. Polish journalist Wlodzimierz Redzioch, for over 30 years an employee of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, interviewed almost two dozen of them for this book, from lifelong friends who first met the Pope in Krakow (as Karol Wojtyla), to his personal physician, personal secretary, papal photographer, papal spokesman, Polish bishops, recipients of miraculous cures, members of the papal household, and Curial officials, including the German Cardinal close to the Pope who became his successor, Joseph Ratzinger. They tell inspiring and remarkable stories about Wojtyła’s courageous witness as a bishop and professor of philosophy in Communist Poland, his participation in Vatican Council II, his election to the papacy, the challenges and worldwide travels of his pontificate, the sufferings of his final years, and even the process of his beatification and canonization. A composite portrait emerges of a man of heroic faith, love and deep prayer, a decisive leader who was capable of discussing, listening and delegating, a well-rounded human being with a gift for friendship, joy and humor with an awareness that seemingly insignificant moments are also part of our personal sanctification. He succeeded in changing the world because he deeply touched and changed the hearts of countless people everywhere. In this inspiring book you will discover many previously unpublished true stories and anecdotes, stories that will move you to know the great heart with which St. John Paul II loved God and humanity.