Do you have trouble praying? Do you get easily disconcerted? Aggravated? Depressed? Stressed? Anxious? Do you have low self-esteem? Lack a sense of self-worth and self-acceptance? Do you feel socially inadequate? Are you having problems loving and being loved? Do you feel disillusioned in your marriage? Lonely in your single life? Are you bored with the routine of your daily living and relating? With stories, both inspirational and humorous, references to Scripture, movies, novels, TV programs as well as to religious leaders and the works of spiritual writers, the author draws you into the intimacy of the life of the Trinity dwelling within you and you within the Indwelling Trinity. In this dynamism, the world of mystical experience opens up to you and lures you in.

Christmas, with its sparkling decorations and gaily wrapped gifts, is the most celebrated holyday in many people's lives. Christmas is even a holiday so brightly prominent is it in our culture. Christmas shines like the Bethlehem Star into the dark shadows of our workaday world. Christmas is the peaceful pause in the noisy hustle and bustle of our daily work and relationships. Yet for many the grueling preoccupation in the preparations for Christmas is with the jingle-belled material things: shopping, decorations, gifts, exotic foods, visits, entertainment, etc. Sometimes many forget the fundamental spiritual meaning of Christmas. These daily meditations are geared to help you to become more exuberantly aware of the primary meaning of Christmas, namely, the love of God so boundless that God gave us his only divine son as a human babe, Jesus, to live among us, teach us with his stories, lay down his life for us and rise again on the third day. These daily meditations were written in the hope that you will be able to probe, with dynamic and contagious faith, the gospel stories to increase and deepen your spiritual development during the Advent and Christmas seasons.

These poems, Poems Inspired by the Jesus Story, are an attempt to bring the Jesus story in the gospel into contemporary experience. The Jesus story is not a wrinkled document eclipsed in the mist of ancient history. Rather the Jesus story in the gospel has a vibrant impact on and infuses our everyday lives here in the present. These poems are geared to increasing your consciousness so that you can make essential connections between Jesus life story and your life story. Each poem is a retelling of some part of the Jesus story in the gospel story. Father T. Ronald Haney is a retired priest of the Harrisburg, PA diocese. Ordained 50 years. He has been a principal of a high school; a pastor; and the Executive Editor of The Catholic Witness for 30 years, the diocesan newspaper. He is a published essayist, poet and novelist. He has published inspirational books on the spiritual life, including God Within You, One Minute Meditations, The Jesus Story, The Stations of the Cross and Prayers for Priests. He lives in St. Theresas parish in New Cumberland, PA and can be contacted at [email protected]

Do you have trouble praying? Do you get easily disconcerted? Aggravated? Depressed? Stressed? Anxious? Do you have low self-esteem? Lack a sense of self-worth and self-acceptance? Do you feel socially inadequate? Are you having problems loving and being loved? Do you feel disillusioned in your marriage? Lonely in your single life? Are you bored with the routine of your daily living and relating? With stories, both inspirational and humorous, references to Scripture, movies, novels, TV programs as well as to religious leaders and the works of spiritual writers, the author draws you into the intimacy of the life of the Trinity dwelling within you and you within the Indwelling Trinity. In this dynamism, the world of mystical experience opens up to you and lures you in.