Christy Wilkens made the long trek to Lourdes with her husband, Todd, and their toddler, Oscar--who was plagued by mysterious seizures--through a program with the Order of Malta. In the spiritual memoir Awakening at Lourdes, Wilkens shares that while Oscar's condition did improve slightly after their visit, the real healing took place between husband and wife, who unexpectedly discovered a deeper love for each other, a renewed sense of appreciation for their faith community, and an abiding confidence in God's mercy.
Winner of a third-place award in the memoir category from the Catholic Media Association. “This is your cross, and I am not going to take it away from you. I will be with you, and I will help you, but it is yours to carry.” Christy Wilkens heard Jesus speak those words after she prayed for her son Oscar’s healing in her parish adoration chapel one bright September day. Almost a year later she would find herself in Lourdes, France, seeking a miracle. The grotto at Lourdes is known as a place of healing. But sometimes the miracle that occurs is not physical, but something much deeper. Wilkens made the long trek to Lourdes with her husband, Todd, and their toddler—who is plagued by mysterious seizures—through a program with the Order of Malta. In Awakening at Lourdes, Wilkens shares that while Oscar’s condition did improve after their visit, the real healing took place between she and her husband. Through their time at Lourdes, they discovered a deeper love for each other, a renewed sense of appreciation for their faith community, and an abiding confidence in God’s mercy. Persuaded by her husband to take the trip, Wilkens summoned her faith– faith in God, faith in her husband, and faith in the doctors and other helpers who surrounded them every step of the way—to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Recording their experiences with deeply personal yet highly relatable language, Wilkens offers a firsthand account of the traditions and culture of the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes and the shrine’s special servers, the Order of Malta. She also captures her own doubts, questions, and fears as she attempted to process the family’s physical and emotional journey. The Wilkens family’s story will help you learn to be open to what God has in store for you and to see that if you surrender control, open yourself to God’s grace, and lean on your community, you are never alone. The book includes a study guide for individual or group use.
The resource is designed to help spiritual directors and others use expressive arts in the context of spiritual direction. It is the latest book in the unique SDI series, designed for professional spiritual directors, but also useful for clergy, therapists, and Christian formation specialists. The Spiritual Directors International Series – This book is part of a special series produced by Morehouse Publishing in cooperation with Spiritual Directors International (SDI), a global network of some 6,000 spiritual directors and members.
So much of the experience of everyday life, says Osho in this insightful guide, is shaped by religious and social conditioning — and we are not even aware of the fact. We are constantly being pulled away from the unique nature that is our birthright. In place of that original and unique self, a false self called the “ego” is constructed that eventually gains control of our creativity, our ideas about what it means to be successful, our relationships, and our very experience of who we are. At the same time, he argues, the collection of egos known as “society” shapes our political, educational, and religious institutions, which in turn combine to force the same old patterns onto new generations. In this book, Osho shows how to discard these old patterns in favor of a new and nurturing trinity of watchfulness, awareness, and alertness. The bundled DVD lets readers directly experience the insights of this important modern mystic.
SAT Words from Literature presents a new approach to scoring high on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Rather than taking words directly from a dictionary and studying them, SAT Words from Literature presents vocabulary words that are found in classic literature in their original context. In this way, you will get a clear understanding of what the word can do in a sentence, what it might mean, and how it is used. Each vocabulary word is highlighted in the text and also reproduced in bold on the facing page, followed by the part of speech as it is used in the book, the pronunciation, an appropriate definition, and a synonym or antonym if applicable. Exercises that test your understanding of the vocabulary words are included at the end of the book. To make the exercises more manageable, words are arranged by chapters, or sections, so that there are not too many words in any one group. With this painless approach to learning vocabulary, you can boost your chances of acing the SAT.
Elevate your consciousness and heal your life. In Awakening to the Fifth Dimension, author Kimberly Meredith offers readers something truly revolutionary—a new dimension of healing. Discovering her healing gifts after two near death experiences in 2013, she is now one of the most in-demand medical intuitive healers in the nation, traveling the country to speak at events, appearing at major consciousness and global virtual events, and offering healing to those who so desperately in need. Here in these pages, Kimberly shares her gift for the first time with a wider audience, giving readers the tools to implement this healing in their own lives. Whether you are wrestling with chronic illness, seemingly untreatable symptoms, or other mental, emotional, or physical ailments, Kimberly’s gentle wisdom offers a way forward towards happiness and freedom. Filled with instruction, case studies, testimonials, nutritional advice, and practical methods to raise your consciousness Awakening to the Fifth Dimension will empower readers to confront their own health struggles and find true, lasting healing.
Tools for Transformation gives you the "rules and tools" you need to change your life for good. * Learn the rules of the subconscious realm. * Explore mind tools, such as affirmations. visualizations, meditation, intuition and dreams. * Learn, step-by-step how to use these tools to help you transform your life. "A comprehensive guide to shaping the mind....creative, down-to-earth guidance... marvelously enjoyable." -- Napra Review"I found this very helpful...will expand your personal power and transform your life." -- Enlightenments "Truly a tool for transformation...excellent...I recommend it highly." -- New Age Retailer
Thomas Cook has always been drawn to dark places, for the powerful emotions they evoke and for what we can learn from them. These lessons are often unexpected and sometimes profoundly intimate, but they are never straightforward.With his wife and daughter, Cook travels across the globe in search of darkness—from Lourdes to Ghana, from San Francisco to Verdun, from the monumental, mechanized horror of Auschwitz to the intimate personal grief of a shrine to dead infants in Kamukura, Japan. Along the way he reflects on what these sites may teach us, not only about human history, but about our own personal histories.During the course of a lifetime of traveling to some of earth's most tragic locals, from the leper colony on Molokai to ground zero at Hiroshima, he finds not only darkness, but a light that can illuminate the darkness within each of us. Written in vivid prose, this is at once a personal memoir of exploration (both external and internal) and a strangely heartening look at the radiance and optimism that may be found at the very heart of darkness.
Christine Watkins shares her personal story of how she was healed and converted to Catholicism through the Blessed Mother Mary, as well as the similar experiences of five other individuals.
Proving prayer to be as valid and vital a healing tool as drugs or surgery, the bestselling author of Meaning & Medicine and Recovering the Soul offers a bold integration of science and spirituality.