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“What is happiness and how can I find it?” may be one of the most frequently asked questions there is. Perhaps that’s because it is so hard to experience lasting happiness. In The Saints’ Guide to Happiness, Robert Ellsberg suggests that some of the best people to show us are holy men and women throughout history—from St. Augustine to Flannery O’Connor, Thomas Merton to St. Theresa of Avila and Mother Theresa. These people weren’t saints because of the way they died or their visions or wondrous deeds. They were saints because of their extraordinary capacity for goodness and love, which—in the end—makes us happy.
What brings us real and lasting happiness? Although just about every marketing firm, self-help guru, and man on the street has an answer, very few, if any, understand true happiness. It doesn’t come from power, pleasure, popularity, or possessions. So what is happiness and how do we find it? In How to Be Happy, author Matt Fradd relies on the help of St. Thomas Aquinas to show what will—and what won’t—bring us happiness in this life. By making the thought of Aquinas utterly accessible for today, How to Be Happy is an invaluable guide to a good life.
Countless Christians — including scores of saints — have suffered profound, pervasive sorrow that modern psychiatrists call “depression.” Then, as now, great faith and even fervent spiritual practices have generally failed to ease this wearying desolation of soul. In these pages, Catholic psychiatrist Aaron Kheriaty reviews the effective ways that have recently been devised to deal with this grave and sometimes deadly affliction — ways that are not only consistent with the teachings of the Church, but even rooted in many of those teachings. Extensive clinical experience treating patients with depression has shown Dr. Kheriaty that the confessional can't cure neuroses, nor can the couch forgive sin. Healing comes only when we integrate the legitimate discoveries of modern psychology and pharmacology with spiritual direction and the Sacraments, giving particular attention to the wisdom of the Church Fathers and the saints. Here, with the expert help of Dr. Kheriaty, you'll learn how to distinguish depression from similarlooking but fundamentally different mental states such as guilt, sloth, the darkness of sin, and the sublime desolation called “dark night of the soul” that is, in fact, a privileged spiritual trial sent to good souls as a special gift from God. You'll come to know how to identify the various types of depression and come to understand the interplay of their often manifold causes, biological, psychological, behavioral, cultural, and, yes, moral. Then you'll learn about exciting breakthroughs in pharmacological and other medical treatments, the benefits and limitations of psychotherapy, the critical place that spiritual direction must have in your healing, and the vital role that hope — Christian hope — can play in driving out depression.
A noted spiritual writer seeks answers to life's big questions in the stories of the saints In All Saints---published in 1997 and already a classic of its kind---Robert Ellsberg told the stories of 365 holy people with great vividness and eloquence. In The Saints' Guide to Happiness, Ellsberg looks to the saints to answer the questions: What is happiness, and how might we find it? Countless books answer these questions in terms of personal growth, career success, physical fitness, and the like. The Saints' Guide to Happiness proposes instead that happiness consists in a grasp of the deepest dimension of our humanity, which characterizes holy people past and present. The book offers a series of "lessons" in the life of the spirit: the struggle to feel alive in a frenzied society; the search for meaningful work, real friendship, and enduring love; the encounter with suffering and death; and the yearning to grasp the ultimate significance of our lives. In these "lessons," our guides are the saints: historical figures like Augustine, Francis of Assisi, and Teresa of Avila, and moderns such as Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, and Henri J. Nouwen. In the course of the book the figures familiar from stained-glass windows come to seem exemplars, not just of holy piety but of "life in abundance," the quality in which happiness and holiness converge.
World-class spell collector, fortune teller, psychicpractitioner, spirit worker as well as independent scholar, writer, and teacher,Judika Illes offers acomprehensive encyclopedia of the sacred, helpful mystics, saints, andsages from a large variety of religious traditions who can, whenvenerated, produce miracles for the reader. Illes,author of The Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells and The Encyclopedia ofSpirits, surpasses herself in this peerlessly expansive guide for allinterested in folklore, mythology, and history, as well as those looking forguidance about accessing the power of saints. Illes’sThe Encyclopedia of Mystics, Saints, & Sages is the mostcomprehensive, accessible, and effective guide available anywhere.
Raise Your Spirits and Toast the Saints Recipe for a liturgically correct cocktail: mix Bartender’s Guide and Lives of the Saints, shake well, garnish with good cheer. Drinking with the Saintsis a concoction that both sinner and saint will savor. Michael Foley offers the faithful drinker witty and imaginative instruction on the appropriate libations for the seasons, feasts, and saints’ days of the Church year. · A guide to wine, beer, and spirits, including 38 original cocktails · Lively sketches of scores of saints, from the popular to the obscure · Tips on giving the perfect toast and on mixing the perfect drink · Even includes drinks for Lent!
Calling all Catholic women! Does your religious reading and pious practice not always "translate" into how you interact with and love each other? Are you not always aware or convinced of God's love for you? Does happiness seem to elude you in certain circumstances of your life? Fear not! Noted author Rose Sweet is here to help in a new series of books with practical steps and tips to help the reader first remember God's tender love for her and then to love neighbor . . . so that the ups and downs of life and relationships will not diminish her joy. The Catholic Woman's Guide series integrates classic Catholic theology (Theology of the Body and teachings on contemplative prayer) with Sweet's unique brand of storytelling and humor and will help you to find and hold on to authentic happiness in every area of your life. In this first volume, The Catholic Women's Guide to Happiness, Sweet takes you into the "Interior Life" to explore the attitudes, fears, and deepest desires that may keep you from greater joy. Topics include: Identifying what gives you the most pleasure, peace, contentment, and satisfaction Recognizing when you may be hanging on too tightly to something you own, a power you possess, or even a person you love Rooting out the specific fears that rob you of happiness Hearing what the saints and mystics have said about happiness Seeing hidden windows and doors that open to the deepest joys Reordering your natural desires rather than repressing or rejecting them Sweet points to the goodness and love of God as the true Source of all happiness and how to reconcile your longings with His special love for you. The adventure awaits! Accompany Rose on this journey to true happiness in Christ!
Since the early centuries, Christians have held up the saints as models of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While the church officially recognizes a relatively small number of saints, the actual roster is infinitely wider. Blessed Among Us explores this eclectic “cloud of witnesses”—lay and religious, single and married, canonized and not, and even non-Christians whose faith and wisdom may illuminate our path. Brought to life in the evocative storytelling of Robert Ellsberg, they inspire the moral imagination and give witness to the myriad ways of holiness. In two stories per day for a full calendar year, Ellsberg sketches figures from biblical times to the present age and from all corners of this world—ordinary figures whose extraordinary lives point to the new age in the world to come. Blessed Among Us is drawn from Ellsberg’s acclaimed column of the same name in Give Us This Day, a monthly resource for daily prayer published by Liturgical Press.
In this international bestseller Pope Francis explores the idea of happiness and shows how we can bring more meaning and purpose to our lives. For Pope Francis, the appreciation of our everyday lives is a spiritual undertaking. Joy is a divine attribute and creating joy around us an essential part of faith. Happiness in This Life delivers, in warm, engaging language accessible to believers and nonbelievers alike, key lessons instructing readers on how to find love and happiness in a chaotic world. Along the way, Pope Francis discusses the sanctity of women’s rights, the challenges that face today's young people, and why fighting discrimination is the essence of loving thy neighbour. He shares personal stories and anecdotes from his life and provides comforting messages of hope. The core ideas of his Holiness’ papacy – mercy, support for marginalized people, and diplomacy – shine through. Full of inspiration and guidance for personal growth, this life-affirming book will help readers find the path towards spiritual well-being and living a happy life.
Eternal Life and Human Happiness in Heaven treats four apparent problems concerning eternal life in order to clarify our thinking about perfect human happiness in heaven. The teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas provide the basis for solutions to these four problems about eternal life insofar as his teachings call into question common contemporary theological or philosophical presuppositions about God, human persons, and the nature of heaven itself. Indeed, these Thomistic solutions often require us to think very differently from our contemporaries. But thinking differently with St. Thomas is worth it: for the Thomistic solutions to these apparent problems are more satisfying, on both theological and philosophical grounds, than a number of contemporary theological and philosophical approaches. Christopher Brown deploys his argument in four sections. The first section lays out, in three chapters, four apparent problems concerning eternal life—Is heaven a mystical or social reality? Is heaven other-worldly or this-worldly? Is heaven static or dynamic? Won’t human persons eventually get bored in heaven? Brown then explains how and why some important contemporary Christian theologians and philosophers resolve these problems, and notes serious problems with each of these contemporary solutions. The second section explains, in five chapters, St. Thomas’ significant distinction between the essential reward of the saints in heaven and the accidental reward, and treats in detail his account of that in which the essential reward consists, namely, the beatific vision and the proper accidents of the vision (delight, joy, and charity). The third section treats, in five chapters, St. Thomas’ views on the multifaceted accidental reward in heaven, where the accidental reward includes, among other things, glorified human embodiment, participation in the communion of the saints, and the joy experienced by the saints in sensing God’s “new heavens and new earth.” Finally, section four argues, in four chapters, that St. Thomas’ views allow for powerful solutions to the four apparent problems about eternal life examined in the first section. These solutions are powerful because, not only are they consistent with authoritative, Catholic Christian Tradition, but they do not raise any of the significant theological or philosophical problems that attend the contemporary theological and philosophical solutions examined in the first section.