In 1972, a young Franciscan friar named Murray Bodo wrote a unique book about the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis: The Journey and the Dream offered readers a unique combination of lyrical prose and brief, absorbing vignettes that inspired hundreds of thousands of people all over the world to contemplate the life of the famous saint and see him in a new way. Fifty years and over 200,000 copies later, this book still captivates people everywhere, and Fr. Bodo is still writing about St. Francis and the Franciscan way of life. His poetic style continues to draw readers in, and he himself continues to gaze in wonder at the saint who worked nearly his entire life to rebuild the church. This special anniversary edition includes a new preface in which Fr. Bodo reflects on a half century spent immersed in the Franciscan way.

This attractive booklet tells the life story of the beloved Franciscan, St. Anthony of Padua -- finder of lost articles, helper in troubles, healer of bodies and spirits, and patron of lovers and marriage. Devotions to Anthony and legends about his life are included along with perspective on Anthony's meaning today.

In Where the Colors Blend, Stephen Copeland’s self-discovery and God-discovery is told over a period of six years in the context of an annual retreat to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Roanoke, Virginia, where an obscure, forty-year-old church softball tournament takes place each summer to raise funds for mission work in Paraguay. In stepping into these stories, and sharing them with the reader, Stephen simultaneously journeys deeper within himself, discovering the divine in the process and taking readers deep into the throes of doubt, deconstruction, and depression. But it’s there, in the darkness, that an authentic hope finds him. Throughout the narrative, readers experience with Stephen a number of paradigm shifts in the areas of: Spirituality: from exhausting oneself trying to get close to God to simply abiding: awakening to who we already are at the core of our beings as children of God. Psychology: from suppressing emotions, pains, and insecurities to curiously and non-judgmentally exploring them. Relationships: from trying to change others or silently judging them to accepting others as they are and learning from those who are most different than ourselves: abandoning ignorance and arrogance. Art, writing, and work: from being taunted by internal demands and a relentless pursuit of perfection to simply enjoying the gift of the process. Stephen's present-tense narrative, mysteriously unfolding all the way, is free-thinking and free-flowing, swinging from humor to complex theology, from someone else’s story to sudden introspectiveness and application, creating a unique experience for readers as it challenges them to adopt their own lifestyle of introspection and contemplation.

The editor of "St. Anthony Messenger" magazine for many years, Fr. McCloskey has answered many questions in his "Ask a Franciscan" column. He mines that wealth of material to find the most helpful questions and answers for readers to help them see the connection between their faith and their spiritual growth as disciples of Jesus Christ.

The Franciscan spirit begins with the story of Francis Bernardone, now known to the world as St. Francis of Assisi. This simple retelling of Francis’ story explores the secret of his love affair with God through his loving relationship with all things living—a secret that is worth probing today more than ever.

Where do we find religion? In places of worship? For many, it can be found in the activities of daily life, from shopping for groceries and making dinner to falling in love and raising children. How do historians write this history? How do they record the significance of religious culture expressed through the mundane and the extraordinary--from letters to magazines to praying for miracles at shrines? This study offers more than a century's worth of religion lived through media, particularly Franciscan media. From the late nineteenth century through the present, Franciscan media have offered Catholics in the United States ways to reflect on and react to the issues of daily life: family, sex, children, obedience to church doctrine (from dietary requirements to treatment of divorced Catholics), communism, and even the moral dimensions of popular culture, especially movies. Interaction through media helped shape Catholic identity, revealing the difficulty of living as a Catholic in modern America. Franciscans wrote for magazines, produced radio shows, developed film projects, and understood that to reach people, they needed to appeal to the heart as well as to the head--to speak to the emotion of living one's Catholicism as well as thinking about what Catholicism means. Voice of Empathy uses a spectrum of sources, from letters to priests in print magazines such as St. Anthony Messenger to scripts for shows such as The Hour of St. Francis to the multi-platform work of Mother Angelica and Father Richard Rohr, to highlight the fluid engagement between faith and the secular world. The social, economic, political, and cultural developments that gave shape to Franciscan media also became the context in which Franciscans forged particular approaches to their pastoral ministry. Of particular note, Voice of Empathy deals extensively with the central role women have played in Franciscan media as consumers, producers, and shapers of lived Catholicism.

"Friar Murray Bodo explores the core teachings of St. Francis and discusses how they shape Franciscan spirituality even today"--

Not about Francis as a saint, but Francis as a man, embarking on his own journey, taking his own path in life, an "Everyman" figure.