Blessed and Confused is a collection of rhyming poems inspired by the author’s journey of healing. The poems catalogue the terror of loss and joy of discovery, as well as the moments of challenge and the dreams of a contented future. At once brutally honest and introspective, Pelletier’s poetry uses straightforward language to explore philosophical themes. The collection asks readers to think about the lessons hidden within each of our lives. Who can we be, and how can we find our passion? Grounded in religion and expressed in stirring words, these poems remind us to keep moving forward. We all have the strength to persevere through any challenge we may face.
An invitation to find beauty and meaning in the ordinary and imperfect aspects of your life; not as a call to settle for less, but rather as a way to mysteriously participate in God's power and purpose. Glenn Packiam wants to empower readers to find great joy, purpose, and passion in their daily living. While bread may be one of the most common items on our dinner tables, Jesus chose to take it at the Last Supper and invest deep, wonderful, and transcendent meaning in it. Like the bread that was blessed, broken, and given; readers will see how God uses ordinary experiences to cultivate their mission and their brokenness to bring healing to the world. The ordinary is not the enemy; it is the means by which God accomplishes the miraculous. Through clear biblical teaching and practical steps, Packiam leads the reader into a more purposeful, directed, hopeful future.
Being Catholic. Are you: • A cradle Catholic born into the faith and a regular participant in Sunday Worship yet unable to defend your faith? • A lukewarm, pew Catholic going through the motions? • An inactive Catholic, believing but barely attending Mass except for Easter and Christmas, weddings and funerals? • A Fallen Away Catholic, angry at the Church for a slight, real or otherwise? • A Catholic who has left the Church to enter into another religious affiliation because Mass was boring? • A new Catholic, wondering if you fully understand what you have professed? • Thinking about becoming Catholic but not sure if you can accept or live with what the Church teaches? • An intentional Catholic, openly living and sharing the joy, doctrine and dogma of the Church that has endured for centuries. There are over a billion Catholics in the world. How many Catholics actually live and love their faith may be in question but those who are intentionally Catholic are united every day in the struggle to live and understand the teachings and traditions instilled in this universal identity since Jesus Christ first appeared on the scene. Some have died for the faith and others walk away when called to defend it. Some identify with the crucified Christ and others with the resurrected Christ. Some deem obedience the crucial element needed to be true, while others consider love to be essential in the teachings of the Catholic faith. Many spend their whole lives devoted to the Church answering when called to serve, supporting the Church in all her needs, savoring the joys that can be found therein. Whoever you are, Ms. Scoyola invites you to enter into her experience of thirty plus years in the service of the Church. She returned to the faith after an absence of twenty years, guilty but repentant and found reconciliation and redemption. In her years of serving in several parishes of the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston in Texas, she directed the formation of hundreds of adults and children asking to be initiated or welcomed into the Catholic Church through the RCIA ministry. In doing so she learned to become Intentionally Catholic.
The most impressive thing about Wayne Keller's body of ideas for worship throughout the Christian Year is his boldness. He is bold in demanding that we, his colleagues in liturgical leadership, plan worship that has to do with the reality of our congregations' experience in the world, rather than just leading people through a proper agenda of acts and words that have no bearing on what we do the rest of the week. He is bold in challenging us to bring that real world -- with its pains and its pleasures, its hungers and its feasts, its beauty and its ugliness -- to exposure before the living God. And he is bold in helping us shine the strong, exposing light of the transforming Word on our real lives and on that real world, so that we may move beyond planning worship as a "nice," safe, feel-good routine from which we depart the same people we were when we arrived. We are thrilled by the seriousness and authentic reverence with which this author approaches the planning of worship. Thank God for Wayne Keller and for his deep respect for the central act of the Christian community: the blessed and life-transforming experience of the worship of God. Richard Avery and Donald Marsh Port Jervis, New York Wayne Keller's method creates not only a contemporary appeal, but also effects a congregational involvement so necessary today within the liturgical context. His approach is fresh and practical and yet a reflection consistently of a solid liturgical and homiletical background. Keller has the ability to appeal to the everydayness of congregational experience. Donald Macleod Francis L. Patton Professor Emeritus Princeton Theological Seminary The good humor of Wayne Keller's work helps us feel at home in our imperfect world and feel more empathy for the rough edges of others and ourselves. Wayne's work encourages hope and faith with the way we are. Doug Adams Professor of Christianity and the Arts Pacific School of Religion and Graduate Theological Union A cascade of insights, ideas, suggestions, and plans for stimulating the working pastor's imagination and guiding in worship planning. Robert Coote Professor, San Francisco Theological Seminary Editor, Mustard-Seed Churches Wayne Keller elevates us to an authentic bring-your-warts-and-smiles encounter with the living God... a remarkable year-round resource for the entire worship team. Paul Hackett Former pastor and member, First Presbyterian Church Puyallup, Washington Keller says, "I have seen people bored to death in worship, seemingly because they come to worship as spectators, not as participants. For me no spectators are allowed! Soren Kierkegaard's analogy of worship as drama has guided my thinking and planning." Wayne H. Keller graduated from Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He has served pastorates in Pennsylvania, Washington, and Oregon, and has also been the director of a halfway house for recovering mental patients. A member of the Presbyterian Writers Guild, Keller has published several books and numerous articles, and has been a columnist for the Bellingham Herald. He has also appeared frequently on radio and television programs and co-hosted a call-in counseling program and talk show.
The problem with starting over in another state after losing your partner is that your new friends don't understand why you can't just get over it. They never saw how you were together, how much you loved her, how she was your life. They only see a number: three, as in, the number of years since she died. That's all the evidence they need to begin pressuring you to get back out there again. It doesn't matter that you've told them to back off. No, they feel it is their duty to butt into your life and ambush you with blind dates. This wasn't a predicament Briony Gatewood anticipated when she relocated for tenure at a prestigious university. Yet after a year with her new friends, they've ceased being merely concerned and moved on to obnoxious. As if being fixed up wasn't bad enough, the dean at her college just volunteered her to teach a potentially career damaging class. Along for the experimental course is the socially challenged M Desiderius, a fellow professor who won't ever win a faculty popularity contest. But as they start working together, Briony begins to understand M's aloofness and is intrigued by the shy, brilliant, passionate woman. Enough so that she's starting to believe her friends when they say it's time to move on. And M, as complicated as her past has been and reticent as she seems now, may be the perfect person to help Briony finally heal and love again.
Words--positive or negative--carry enormous potential to create or destroy. It's always been that way, ever since God said, "Let there be..." The Power of Blessing explores the timeless words of Jesus in the Beatitudes and takes readers on a journey into the extraordinary world of blessings. It shows them how to use words to heal rather than wound as well as how to bless their loved ones more effectively. Readers looking for a way to jump-start their relationships will find the key in this book of blessings.
BLESS is a simple, biblical, and relational set of 5 practices that everyone—young and old—can use every day to reach their neighbors, show them love, and change their world! From the beginning of the Bible, God’s has spoken of blessing. Throughout the gospels, Jesus blessed others through his life and leadership. This book will break down the Bless principles, and help Christians engage in a relational form of evangelism. Readers will learn the five practices of BLESS: Begin (with prayer) to discover your personal mission Listen to others Eat with others and build the relationship Serve others Tell you Story. By establishing a relationship, and investing in others, opportunities will arise to share your story of God’s influence upon your life.
In fifteenth century Greece, an extraordinary friendship develops between Miguel, a refugee from post-Inquisition Spain, and David, the son of a wealthy Greek fabric merchant, despite the concerns of both Greek and Spanish Jews that the other group is not truly Jewish.
