Celebrate the incredible stories of over fify amazing Christian women whose lives will change forever how you view women and their ministries.Sacred Friendships gives voice to the voiceless as it narrates how godly women have provided soul care and spiritual direction for the past 2,000 years. It enlightens readers to the often neglected legacy of Christian women and then equips women and men to apply that legacy to their lives and ministries today.
In Walking Together: Discovering the Catholic Tradition of Spiritual Friendship, author, journalist, and speaker Mary DeTurris Poust examines rich and nurturing examples of spiritual friendship from well-known saints, writers, and spiritual Catholic leaders who serve as exemplars for cultivating meaningful Catholic friendship in a world of Twitter and Facebook. Addressing a growing modern hunger for deep soul friendships, popular Catholic New York columnist and Our Sunday Visitor blogger Mary DeTurris Poust looks honestly but hopefully at today's culture, where people feel increasingly isolated despite the advent of myriad gadgets designed to keep them “connected.” In ten practical chapters, Poust explores issues such as commitment and acceptance, the virtues that make for a lasting friendship, the importance of listening, open communication, and praying together. Readers will find here the guidance and encouragement to take the next step in developing spiritual friendships in their lives, one of the basic necessities of spiritual life. Poust profiles inspiring spiritual friendships from the past such as St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare, and St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal. She also examines famous contemporary friendships, like those between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien or Thomas Merton and famous Zen master D. T. Suzuki. Each chapter concludes with “Food for Thought” reflection questions and a prayerful meditation.
Spiritual Friends provides a biblically relevant training manual and relationally practical workbook for relating God's truth to human relationships. Spiritual Friends is for the layperson, pastor, or professional Christian counselor. It will equip the reader to master the personal ministry of the Word and spiritual friendships with thousands of illustrative interactions and hundreds of skill-building exercises.
We need companions on our spiritual journey. In this inviting guide, David G. Benner introduces readers to the riches of spiritual friendship and direction, explaining what they are and how they are practiced. Through prayerful, guided attunement to God's activity, sacred companions provide care for the soul, and Benner models the kind of traveling companion who can move us toward deeper intimacy with God.
Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions offers a compelling case for Christian men and women to move beyond the fears of sexuality and open themselves to deeper friendships.
God made you for friendship. Friendship is one of the deepest pleasures of life. But in our busy, fast-paced, mobile world, we've lost this rich view of friendship and instead settled for shallow acquaintances based on little more than similar tastes or shared interests. Helping us recapture a vision of true friendship, pastor Drew Hunter explores God's design for friendship and what it really looks like in practice—giving us practical advice to cultivate the kinds of true friendships that lead to true and life-giving joy.
We long to nurture our weary souls. But what if ordinary relationships are the answer? Intimacy with others is a part of our soul's architecture, and it can restore life and health to our depleted souls. Spiritual Friendship introduces you to principles of friendship that bring focus to your spiritual life. You'll discover what it takes to have a rich, God-centered relationship that will nourish your soul.
Pastors and Christian institutional leaders serve more creatively, effectively, and joyfully when they feel supported and part of an intimate community of colleagues and friends who care about their personal and professional wellbeing. So attests Victoria Atkinson White in Holy Friendships: Nurturing Relationships That Sustain Pastors and Leaders. And yet, she observes, many leaders sacrifice critical relationships, citing lack of time or competing priorities, and end up isolated, lonely, and burned out. Social media compounds this problem by distorting the meaning of "friend" and reducing it to a relationship in search of clicks, likes, and emoji-ed responses. While we might have lots of "friends," holy friendships are mutual and sacred relationships deeply rooted in God's love. What Christian leaders need is a circle of holy friends to walk alongside them in the challenging and constantly changing work of ministry. White gives readers permission to invest in their own resilience, sustainability, and flourishing by cultivating and nurturing their own holy friendships. By recounting the stories of meaningful holy friendships and revealing the benefits of challenging conversations over time, she offers hope, grace, and humor. She also provides examples of how holy friendships can change institutions and systems, helping pastoral leaders cultivate beloved community.
Christianity Today Book Award Winner Friendship is a relationship like no other. Unlike the relationships we are born into, we choose our friends. It is also tenuous--we can end a friendship at any time. But should friendship be so free and unconstrained? Although our culture tends to pay more attention to romantic love, marriage, family, and other forms of community, friendship is a genuine love in its own right. This eloquent book reminds us that Scripture and tradition have a high view of friendship. Single Christians, particularly those who are gay and celibate, may find it is a form of love to which they are especially called. Writing with deep empathy and with fidelity to historic Christian teaching, Wesley Hill retrieves a rich understanding of friendship as a spiritual vocation and explains how the church can foster friendship as a basic component of Christian discipleship. He helps us reimagine friendship as a robust form of love that is worthy of honor and attention in communities of faith. This book sets forth a positive calling for celibate gay Christians and suggests practical ways for all Christians to cultivate stronger friendships.
"Do you want your friendships to be deeper and more meaningful than Facebook "likes"? Are you looking for a community of companions to create true spiritual bonds? Drawing on the cardinal and theological virtues, stories of the saints, and anecdotes from their own friendships, Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet - bestselling authors of 'Divine Mercy for Moms' - provide a practical primer for any Catholic woman seeking ways to deepen old friendships and develop new ones of virtue." -- back cover.
