My husband and I dreamed of an early retirement in Spain. When we both suddenly lost our jobs, we decided to turn the dream into reality. Thousands of foreigners move to Spain every year. What is the feel and texture of day in, day out living for these people? We searched for books on what it was like for ordinary, middleclass foreigners to live in Spain. We found books for tourists, books on how to buy a property, how to restore an old farmhouse and finding a holiday home, We found nothing about making a permanent move. Our search for information was in vain but we blindly made the move anyway. This book is a diary of our first two years in Spain. The people are real and the events are true. The first years in a new country are always transitional years. Ours were fraught with excitement, frustration, delight, culture shock and exasperation! If you are planning a new life in Spain, I hope this book is helpful. I wish you luck and happiness on your adventure.

From the most modern and unusual to old-fashion, historical favorites, you'll find over 15,000 names with the corresponding patron saint.

What drove U.S. Catholics in their arduous quest, full of twists and turns over more than a century, to win an American saint? The absence of American names in the canon of the saints had left many of the faithful feeling spiritually unmoored. But while canonization may be fundamentally about holiness, it is never only about holiness, reveals Kathleen Sprows Cummings in this panoramic, passionate chronicle of American sanctity. Catholics had another reason for petitioning the Vatican to acknowledge an American holy hero. A home-grown saint would serve as a mediator between heaven and earth, yes, but also between Catholicism and American culture. Throughout much of U.S. history, the making of a saint was also about the ways in which the members of a minority religious group defined, defended, and celebrated their identities as Americans. Their fascinatingly diverse causes for canonization—from Kateri Tekakwitha and Elizabeth Ann Seton to many others that are failed, forgotten, or still under way—represented evolving national values as Catholics made themselves at home. Cummings's vision of American sanctity shows just how much Catholics had at stake in cultivating devotion to men and women perched at the nexus of holiness and American history—until they finally felt little need to prove that they belonged.

The lives of the saints are a great source of inspiration and reassurance for us. The holy women in Saintly Moms can help us better to understand motherhood as a vocation, just like any other calling from God, and a path to holiness. Whether you’re a new mom, a grandmother, or somewhere in between, this book will encourage all mothers in their vocation as they identify themselves in the lives of these saints, who also experienced the joys and challenges of being a mom. Their stories will also be inspiring to young women exploring the vocation of motherhood and anyone with an interest in saints who were mothers. Each chapter profiles a different holy mother, reflects on a lesson learned in her life, and ends with a prayer through her intercession. While we grow in admiration and devotion to them, these Saintly Moms can help us see the saintly possibilities each one of us possesses. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kelly Ann Guest is a youth minister, contributing blogger at CatholicMom.com, and contributing author for The Catholic Mom’s Prayer Companion. Previously, she was a Dominican Sister of St. Cecilia in Nashville, an education coordinator for a Catholic Charities' program for pregnant teens, a middle school teacher, and a director of religious education. Her most challenging and rewarding calling, though, is as a wife and the mother of ten children.

Part biography of a wartime adventurer, part detective story, and part faith journey, this intriguing book from a New York Times journalist and bestselling author takes us inside the modern-day making of a saint. The Saint Makers chronicles the unlikely alliance between Father Hotze and Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, a country priest and a cosmopolitan Italian canon lawyer, as the two piece together the life of a long dead Korean War hero and military chaplain and fashion it into a case for eternal divinity. Joe Drape offers a front row seat to the Catholic Church's saint-making machinery—which, in many ways, has changed little in two thousand years-and examines how, or if, faith and science can co-exist. This rich and unique narrative leads from the plains of Kansas to the opulent halls of the Vatican, through brutal Korean War prison camps, and into the stories of two individuals, Avery Gerleman and Chase Kear, whose lives were threatened by illness and injury and whose family and friends prayed to Father Kapaun, sparking miraculous recoveries in the heart of America. Gerleman is now a nurse, and Kear works as a mechanic in the aerospace industry. Both remain devoted to Father Kapaun, whose opportunity for sainthood relies in their belief and medical charts. At a time when the church has faced severe scandal and damage, and the world is at the mercy of a pandemic, this is an uplifting story about a priest who continues to an example of goodness and faith. Ultimately, The Saint Makers is the story of a journey of faith—for two priests separated by seventy years, for the two young athletes who were miraculously brought back to life with (or without) the intercession of the divine, as well as for readers—and the author—trying to understand and accept what makes a person truly worthy of the Congregation of Saints in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

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

Hilarious and comprehensive, the ultimate guide to the universe of saints—and what each one means. Cross-referenced by birthdays, professions, and ailments, this is a must-have for any true believer with a proper sense of fun. Your name . . . your birthday . . . your nationality . . . your job . . . your hobby, each entitles you to the Papally Prescribed, Perpetual Personal Protection of a Plethora of Powerful Patrons in Paradise. Whatever your problem—social, sexual, or spiritual—or illness—mental or physical, chronic or acute—a Holy Host of Heavenly Helpers is at Hand. And you don’t even have to be Catholic! All you do need to discover the identities of Your Very Own Patron Saints, and to avail yourself of their Guaranteed Supernatural Assistance, is this Blessed Book. • Religiously researched! • Fanatically comprehensive! • Compulsively cross-indexed! • Incredibly credulous!

The liturgical year invites us to walk with Jesus through the most wonderful story ever told: the Gospel. In Through the Year with Jesus: Gospel Readings and Reflections for Children, catechist and popular blogger Katherine Bogner reveals the rich mystery of the seasons we celebrate in the Church. With Gospel readings for each week of the liturgical year, along with tools for reflection, discussion, and prayer, Through the Year with Jesus offers endless opportunities for discovering who Jesus is and better understanding Catholic teaching about his life and mission. Promote prayer and conversation about the life of Christ with children through Weekly readings from the Gospels Lectio Divina prompts to nurture personal prayer or journaling Sacred art to accompany the Gospel reading Stories of saints and many rich Catholic traditions for the liturgical year The easy-to-use format of Through the Year with Jesus helps adults lead children to an intimate encounter with the heart of Jesus through the rhythm of the liturgical year and the powerful words of Scripture.

By meditating on personal examples from the author's life, as well as reflecting on the inspirational life and writings of Thomas Merton, stories from the Gospels, as well as the lives of other holy men and women (among them, Henri Nouwen, Therese of Lisieux and Pope John XXIII) the reader will see how becoming who you are, and becoming the person that God created, is a simple path to happiness, peace of mind and even sanctity.