Seven Lights of Love takes you on a journey into the authors physical and emotional pain and explores the process by which that pain transformed her life. The book illustrates the importance of self-love and self-acceptance as we face our shadows, be they pain, anxiety, depression, grief, or aloneness. By learning how to embrace, rather than ignore or reject, both the beauty and heartbreak of our own earthly journey (our humanness), we discover how to celebrate the beauty and heartbreak of others experiences, assist others along their paths, and connect with the mind/ body/spirit of all humans. Seven Lights of Love goes beyond the personal mind/body/spirit connection and explores the ways in which an awakening to self and our place on this earth connects us with others on this journey. Neither easy nor painless, this hero/ heroines journey of self-discovery opens us to the preciousness of coming home to ourselves and our souls purpose . . . and ultimately connects us to the oneness of the universe.

Faith, Hope, Love, Joy, and The Light Of The World are themes in this candlelighting service for the four Sundays of Advent and Christmas Eve. Each service includes a scripture, message and prayer with optional listing of hymns and calls to worship. Lights Of Love provides a banner instruction section, a Christmas Eve candlelighting suggested order of service, and a brief explanation of the meaning of Advent. In addition to public worship, the services can easily be used in a family worship or Sunday school setting. Charles T. Brown is a pastor in the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, and Bangor Theological Seminary Bangor, Maine.

This research presents the evidence that Mary Magdalene was the 'Beloved Disciple' whose identity is revealed at the foot of the cross. For almost 2,000 years the incorrect naming of the Fourth Gospel as 'The Gospel According to John' has misled its readers. It would be more correct to say 'The Gospel According to John if you believe Irenaeus.' Just as Church Fathers wanted a line of apostolic bishops linked to Peter and Paul, so they wanted the gospels attributed to people who were accepted by the Church. The Fourth Gospel shows that God views the qualifications for a Beloved Disciple differently to the traditional requirements of men. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13). The Fourth Gospel has much to reveal to those willing to search it out.

Is it possible to fully accept, even love, the life you have? Is it possible to drop the struggle to make yourself and your life different? Acclaimed teacher and bestselling author Roger Housden says yes in this profound alternative to nonstop striving and self-criticism. Whether about our relationships, careers, or spirituality, many of us judge ourselves as not measuring up. But fulfillment comes when we stop struggling and learn to trust the wisdom of what life presents us with. Housden wrote Dropping the Struggle as someone who, up until a few years ago, spent much of his time in a covert struggle with life. Despite his success, he often felt that something was missing. He struggled for years with an ongoing spiritual longing, with questions of meaning and purpose, with the search for love, with all the usual difficulties of being human, until he finally realized — though not with his thinking mind — that the only thing life was asking of him was to rest in a deeper knowing that was always there, usually silently, behind the arguments and strategies that would so commonly occupy his conscious self. “Struggle will never get us the things we want most,” Housden writes, “love; meaning; presence; freedom from anxiety over the past and future; contentment with ourselves exactly as we are, imperfections and all; the acceptance of our mortality — because these things lie outside the ego’s domain. For these, we need another way. That way begins and ends in surrender, in letting go of our resistance to life as it presents itself.”

Discusses the work of a central, but poorly understood, figure in the development of Persian Sufism, A?mad al-Ghaz?l?. The teachings of A?mad al-Ghaz?l? changed the course of Persian Sufism forever, paving the way for luminaries such as R?m?, A???r, and ??fi?. Yet he remains a poorly understood thinker, with many treatises incorrectly attributed to him and conflicting accounts in the historiographical literature. This work provides the first examination of A?mad al-Ghaz?l? and his work in Western scholarly literature. Joseph E. B. Lumbard seeks to ascertain the authenticity of works attributed to this author, trace the development of the dominant trends in the biographical literature, and reconstruct the life and times of A?mad al-Ghaz?l? with particular attention to his relationship with his more famous brother, Ab? Hamid al-Ghaz?l?. Lumbard’s findings revolutionize our understanding of A?mad al-Ghaz?l?'s writings, allowing for focus on his central teachings regarding Divine Love and the remembrance of God.