"Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps." 1 Peter 2:21 What must it have been like to draw near to Christ as he drew near to the cross? Reflecting on Michelangelo's majesticPieta, in which Mary gathers the suffering Jesus into her arms, Ken Gire offers seven meditations on a costly discipleship that invites us to take up our cross and follow our Savior--through death to life everlasting.

One of Library Journal's "Best Books 2013" (spirituality/religion) ForeWord 2013 Book of the Year Award Finalist (Graphic Novels and Comics) Thousands of people start each day with a shot of Coffee with Jesus, the enormously popular online comic strip. Irreverent at times, yet always insightful, this volume features classic entries and all new, exclusive material that was born out of artist David Wilkie's frustration with the polarized political climate in America. "Originally created as a one-off, single-panel comic on my blog, utilizing old advertising clip art for the main characters and Sunday school clip art for the person of Jesus, I simply enjoyed the notion of Jesus appearing at table with these people (dressed as they were and sharing coffee with them) to refute their claims of how he might vote on any particular issue, to convince them that they cannot confuse their flag with their God--to set them straight, as it were," explains Wilkie. But it didn't stop here. Soon the Jesus of Coffee with Jesus could be seen offering counsel to a recurring cast of characters on their personal and work lives. The characters--Carl, Lisa, Ann, Kevin and Joe--all honestly engage with Jesus about their successes and failures and wants and needs, effectively showing what conversation with God--or prayer--might look like. Poignant, pointed, and rife with good theology, Coffee with Jesus is organized around six themes: getting to know Jesus, spiritual disciplines, relationships, culture, church, and the challenges of life. With exclusive material like twelve-panel mega-strips and "behind the strip" reflections on life, faith and art, Wilkie inventively poses answers to the perpetual Christian speculation, "What would Jesus do?"

In medieval Ashkenaz piyyut commentary was a popular genre that consisted of 'open texts' that continued to be edited by almost each copyist. Although some early commentators can be identified, it is mainly compilers that are responsible for the transmitted form of text. Based on an ample corpus of Ashkenazic commentaries the study provides a taxonomy of commentary elements, including linguistic explanations, treatment of hypotexts, and medieval elements, and describes their use by different commentators and compilers. It also analyses the main techniques of compilation and the various ways they were employed by compilers. Different types of commentaries are described that target diverse audiences by using varied sets of commentary elements and compilatory techniques. Several commentaries are edited to illustrate the different commentary types.

Jesus was condemned . . . so we could be set free. He was wounded . . . so we can be healed. He died . . . so we might have life. The cross has lost much of its appeal as a symbol of Christianity. Yet what Christ did at the cross remains central to our faith. In this richly designed book, Michael Card reflects on what it means for Christians that we meet our savior at a cross. Card combs the Old Testament prophecies and Gospel accounts of Jesus' self-sacrifice, seeking a renewed vision of the cross-the inconceivable meeting place of violence and grace.

This is a rich, informative, and inspiring compendium of the Christian tradition of prayer and contemplation from the earliest days of the Church to the present day. Included are selections from St. Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, St. Clement of Rome, St. Gregory of Nyssa, John Cassian, St. Augustine, St. Gregory of Sinai, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Julian of Norwich, Brother Lawrence, St. Francis de Sales, St. Vincent de Paul, Lancelot Andrewes, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, St. Edith Stein, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Pope John Paul II. Levering has selected readings that capture how Christian saints and spiritual leaders through the ages have understood what prayer is, why we pray, and how we pray. The selections also integrate the Eastern Orthodox and Western understandings of prayer and contemplation. The book is perfect for study, meditation, and inspiration.

This book concerns an examination of the totality of the musical experience with a view to restoring the soul within it. It starts with an analysis of the strands in the landscape of contemporary spirituality. It examines the descriptors spiritual but not religious, and spiritual and religious, looking in particular at the place of faith narratives in various spiritualities. These strands are linked with the domains of the musicking experience: Materials, Expression, Construction and Values. The book sets out a model of the spiritual experience as a negotiated relationship between the musicker and the music. It looks in detail at various models of musicking drawn from music therapy, ethnomusicology, musicology and cultural studies. It examines the relationship between Christianity and music as well as examining some practical projects showing the effect of various Value systems in musicking, particularly in intercultural dialogue. It finally proposes an ecclesiology of musical events that includes both orate and literate traditions and so is supportive of inclusive community.

Twelve Anglicists (from France, America, Poland, and Romania) who met in Bucharest to debate Religion and Spirituality in Literature and the Arts at the ACED Conference in June 2015 join their voices in demonstrating the vitally spiritual power of Christianity in the recently modern world (in twentieth and twenty-first century literature and society). Poetry (by Eliot, Yeats, Heaney, David Jones, Hill, G.M. Brown) and fiction (Henry James, Lodge, Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O'Connor, Rose Macaulay and Ron Hansen), interpreted with (Thomist and more recent) theology (J.H. Newman's, Paul Tillich's, Hans Urs von Balthasar's, De Certeau's) and philosophy (from Plato to Gadamer) in mind, give heartening suggestions for transcending, along Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox lines, the modern secular ethos.

Author Kristen Johnson Ingram was photographing Native American dancers at an Oregon pow-wow when an official tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to stop taking pictures. "This is the prayer the dancer is doing," he explained. For people of faith, Ingram realized, there are many forms of prayer besides the ones we speak with our lips: Devout Jews bow while reading Torah; Episcopalians stand, sit, or kneel in church; exuberant Christians raise their arms; and mystics of all denominations walk while murmuring the Jesus Prayer. As Christians, we can use our entire bodies to praise God, transforming simple acts like hearing music, looking at shafts of sunlight, or walking in the woods into acts of prayer that celebrate God's presence in everyday life. Beyond Words is a book for spiritual adventurers who seek new ways to pray. Readers can put into practice the concepts they find here, making the book not just a source of inspiration but a springboard to action that deepens their prayer lives and draws them closer to God. Kristen Johnson Ingram is the author of more than twenty books, including Wine at the End of the Feast: Embracing Spiritual Change as We Age. She is also a writing instructor and a licensed preacher in the Episcopal Church.

We know it's important to be generous. But it can be hard to know what healthy stewardship looks like in our families and churches. What if God has deeper and richer lessons to teach us about what it means to live generously? Ignite Your Generosity will help you see your resources of time, talents and treasures in a fresh, God-honoring way. A twenty-one-day devotional, this book is now expanded with a four-week small group guide that is perfect for both individual and church use. Every day's reading features an engaging story, Scripture for further study and personal reflection questions to grow in the area of stewardship. Begin your journey of pursuing generosity God's way. Discover the joy and fulfillment that comes from a life of giving freely to his plans and purposes.

For centuries the Jesus Prayer has been leading Orthodox Christians beyond the language of liturgy and the representations of iconography into the wordless, imageless stillness of the mystery of God. In more recent years it has been helping a growing number of Western Christians to find a deeper relationship with God through the continual rhythmic repetition of a short prayer which, by general agreement, first emerged from the desert spirituality of early monasticism. In this study James Wellington explores the understanding and practice of the psalmody which underpinned this spirituality. By means of an investigation of the importance of psalmody in desert monasticism, an exploration of the influence of Evagrius of Pontus and a thorough examination of selected psalm-commentaries in circulation in the East at this time, he reveals a monastic culture which was particularly conducive to the emergence of a Christ-centred invocatory prayer.

This book explores the alliance of theology and music in the Christian liturgical tradition, interrogating the challenges posed by the gendered nature of church leadership in many areas of its life. It examines the relationship between theology, spirituality and music, concentrating on women's perceptions of these. The title draws on the Report of the Archbishop's Commission on Church Music from 1992 which was entitled In Tune with Heaven. It questions the absence of women's voices and experiences from the literature and attempts to redress this. It sets out the values that underpin Christian musical liturgical traditions primarily in Europe and the USA with a view to understanding where women are situated within or outside these traditions. It draws on material from many interviews with contemporary practitioners from a variety of contexts. It does not set out to be a definitive history of women in these traditions but simply to give some small vignettes that illustrate a variety of positions that they have occupied in various denominations - and thus make their often hidden contributions more visible.

The observation that domestic artefacts are often recovered during church excavations led to an archaeological re-assessment of forty-seven Early Byzantine basilical church excavations and their historical, gender and liturgical context. The excavations were restricted to the three most common basilical church plans to allow for like-for-like analysis between sites that share the same plan: monoapsidal, inscribed and triapsidal. These sites were later found to have two distinct sanctuary configurations, namely a -shaped sanctuary in front of the apse, or else a sanctuary that extended across both side aisles that often formed a characteristic T-shaped layout. Further analysis indicated that -shaped sanctuaries are found in two church plans: firstly a protruding monoapsidal plan that characteristically has a major entrance located to either side of the apse, which is also referred to as a 'Constantinopolitan' church plan; and secondly in the inscribed plan, which is also referred to as a 'Syrian' church plan. The T-shaped layout is characteristic of the triapsidal plan, but can also occur in a monoapsidal plan, and this is referred to as a 'Roman' church plan. Detailed analysis of inscriptions and patterns of artefactual deposition also revealed the probable location of the diakonikon where the rite of prothesis took place.

This book presents and evaluates the liturgical vision of Pope Benedict XVI and the theological background underlying that vision. It describes the main features of Joseph Ratzinger's theology of the liturgy and analyses them within the context of his theology as a whole. Ratzinger's evaluation of the contemporary Roman Catholic liturgy is explored in relation to his overall assessment of the post-Vatican II era in the Church, alongside an examination of his project of liturgical renewal ('reform of the reform') and its practical implementation during his pontificate. The author discusses the various critical voices which have been raised against the Pope's liturgical agenda and against certain aspects of his general theology. Overall, the book offers an assessment of the importance of Ratzinger's vision for the Church at the threshold of the third millennium.

The question of how to interpret scripture and whether there is a distinctively Anglican approach to doing so is one of the leading theological questions in the Anglican Communion. An Anglican Hermeneutic of the Transfiguration analyzes major Anglican interpretations of the Transfiguration from the eighth century to the present and suggests that Anglicans do in fact have a distinctive hermeneutical approach to this event. Moreover, this approach may point to larger trends in the interpretation of Scripture overall, but especially the Gospels. With respect to the Transfiguration, Anglicans interpret the event within the biblical context, assume its basic historic character, and juxtapose high Christology with the human limitations of Jesus' self-understanding. Furthermore, Anglicans draw pastoral implications for the lives of Jesus and the disciples from the Transfiguration and assert that the glory manifested on the mountain supports a partially realized eschatology. Finally, Anglicans write for well-educated, non-specialists in theology.

The similarities and differences between poetry and worship have intrigued writers since at least the nineteenth century, when John Keble declared that poetic symbols could almost partake of the nature of sacraments. Since then poets, philosophers and literary critics alike have evoked the terms 'sacrament' and 'incarnation' to make claims about art and poetry. Extending and challenging this critical tradition, this book explores the influence of sacramental belief on the works of three Roman Catholic poets: the nineteenth-century Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, the Anglo-Welsh artist David Jones and the Australian poet Les Murray. The author explores the idea that the incarnation and the sacraments embody both God's immanence and God's transcendence and argues that Hopkins, Jones and Murray all endeavour to enclose the 'open mystery' of the Divine while recognizing that it cannot be imprisoned. The volume sets their writings in conversation with each other's, as well as with literary, philosophical and theological discourse. The result is a study that shows the wonders, the mysteries and the difficulties of the sacramental worldview and its central place in the writings of these three major Catholic poets.

"The Work of Day and Night" (Amal al-yawm wa'l-layla) was written by Imam Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti as a guide to correct conduct and worship in accordance with the example of the Prophet and the Pious Predecessors. Translated into English by Rashad Jameer, "The Work of Day and Night" contains some of the most beautiful prayers in Islamic devotional literature, and Suyuti has provided guidance for nearly every situation that one is likely to encounter day-to-day. In it the reader will find: the prayers said upon awakening, before eating and when dressing; the acts carried out at various times of the day and between prayers; and much else. A special section is dedicated to prayers that are recommended for reading at times of need due to their widely recognised protective qualities. "The Work of Day and Night" is invaluable for learning the Sunna of the Prophet and integrating it into one's life, as Suyuti took great care to explain precisely how to perform each of the daily practices in accordance with the example of the Prophet Muhammad.---It is hoped that this bilingual volume of "The Work of Day and Night" will enable a wider English-speaking audience to access one of the treasures of traditional Islamic knowledge and practice, and that it will provide Muslim readers with a source of inspiration in everyday life. A selection of the most beautiful and useful prayers has been transliterated and included in an appendix so that all worshippers may benefit by reciting them-regardless of Arabic ability. There is also a glossary of the most important religious terms.

He is risen Now what? How does the resurrection of Jesus impact my everyday life, and why should I care? Pastor Ray Johnston provides a resource for individuals and communities who want to explore the implications of the Resurrection on Christian life. This Changes Everything explores thirty practical ways Christ's victory over the grave changed the lives of early believers and can transform us today. This resource has been given to thousands of new Christians at Bayside Church where the author is the founding pastor. While not primarily an apologetics text, This Changes Everything provides helpful apologetics resources while speaking practically about the impact of the resurrection of Jesus in ordinary life. Let your whole life declare, "He is risen, indeed "

Reading the writings of early church fathers points us to the deep joy that awaits us in Christ when we drink deeply from Scripture, the only water that can give us true life. This guide for reflection combines excerpts from the writings of the church fathers as found in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture with a simple structure for daily or weekly reading and prayer. Included are fifty-two weeks of readings following the weekly lectionary cycle B which can be read in order or by thematic interest. Each day you will also find a simple opening and closing prayer drawn from the prayers and hymns of the ancient church. Come and find the deep nourishment God offers.