Faith amid Darkness


Book Description

While growing up during the 1930s in Lodz, Poland, Adrian Nowak befriends Misha Coen, a Jewish boy who lives in his apartment building. As they play together and learn about each other's cultures and religions, the two boys look forward to the future. They have no idea of how things will change in 1939 when Nazi Germany invades their beloved country. On the day of Misha's Bar Mitzvah, he and his family are taken away by the SS. A few months later, Adrian is forcibly taken into German service and put to work at Treblinka and later Auschwitz-the two most notorious concentration camps in World War II. Subjected to years of subjugation and horror, Adrian is left in deep despair-until the day he catches a glimpse of Misha in a selection yard at Auschwitz. Thrilled to be together once again, Adrian and Misha find strength, faith, and hope in their morning prayers, the sacred Teffilin that Misha managed to save from his old life, and their friendship, as they both attempt to survive in the face of horrifying conditions. Faith amid Darkness provides a heartrending and surprising glimpse inside the brutality of the Holocaust.




Called Out of Darkness


Book Description

The first memoir from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Interview with a Vampire—a "very affecting story of a well-known prodigal’s return ... [a] vivid, engaging tale of the journey of a soul into light” (Chicago Sun-Times). Anne Rice was raised in New Orleans as the devout child in a deeply religious Irish Catholic family. Here, she describes how, as she grew up, she lost her belief in God, but not her desire for a meaningful life. She used her novels—beginning with Interview with a Vampire—to wrestle with otherworldly themes while in her own life, she experienced both loss (the death of her daughter and, later, her beloved husband, Stan Rice) and joys (the birth of her son, Christopher). And she writes about how, finally, after years of questioning, she experienced the intense conversion and re-embracing of her faith that lie behind her most recent novels about the life of Christ.




Meditations for Advent


Book Description

Carefully selected to lift your soul to God in those hectic days that stretch from Thanksgiving to Christmas, these forty daily meditations will keep you mindful of the real meaning of Christmas while affording you an admirable distillation of the doctrines and piety of our Holy Catholic Church.







This Beautiful Truth


Book Description

We live in a broken world. Amid the daily realities of sickness and isolation, disappointment and pain, it can be profoundly difficult to grasp the real goodness of God. But this is where God breaks into our darkness with beauty. In the wonder of creation, in art or film, story or song, in the kindness of his people and the good they create, God breaks into our pain in a tangible way, teaching us to trust his kindness and hope for his healing. Beauty is a voice singing into our suffering, beckoning us toward restoration. In This Beautiful Truth, Sarah Clarkson shares her own encounters with beauty in the midst of her decade-long struggle with mental illness, depression, and doubt. In a voice both vulnerable and reflective, she paints a compelling picture of the God who reaches out to us in a real and powerful way through the "taste and see" goodness of what he has made and what he continues to create amid our darkness. "To recognize and trust God's gift in pain," she writes, "empowers us to create and love as powerful witnesses to God's healing love in a hopeless world." If you want to renew your capacity to recognize and encounter God's beauty in your life, this hope-filled book will show you the way.




Creation and the Cross


Book Description




Keeping Faith


Book Description

“A triumph. This novel’s haunting strength will hold the reader until the very end and make Faith and her story impossible to forget.” —Richmond Times Dispatch “Extraordinary.” —Orlando Sentinel From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult (Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart, Handle with Care) comes Keeping Faith: an “addictively readable” (Entertainment Weekly) novel that “makes you wonder about God. And that is a rare moment, indeed, in modern fiction” (USA Today).




Night of the Confessor


Book Description

Tomáš Halík is a wise guide for the post-Christian era, and never more so than in his latest work, a thought-provoking and powerful reflection on the relationship between faith, paradox, change, and resurrection. As the challenges of cultural secularization and dwindling congregation size confront religious communities across North America and Europe, and the Catholic Church in particular, Tomáš Halík is a prophetic voice of hope. He has lived through the political oppression and intolerance of religion that defined Communist Czechoslovakia, and he draws from this experience to remind readers that not only does crisis lead to deeper understanding but also that any living religion is a changing religion. The central messages of Christianity have always seemed impossible, from peace and forgiveness in the face of a harsh world to love and self-sacrifice despite human selfishness to the victory of resurrection through the defeat of the cross. Acceptance of paradox therefore is the way forward, Halík explains. It is a difficult way that offers an unclear immediate future, but it is ultimately the only honest way.




An Echo in the Darkness


Book Description

This classic series has inspired nearly 2 million readers. Both loyal fans and new readers will want the latest edition of this beloved series. This edition includes a foreword from the publisher, a preface from Francine Rivers and discussion questions suitable for personal and group use. #2 An Echo in the Darkness: Turning away from the opulence of Rome, Marcus is led by a whispering voice from the past into a journey that could set him free from the darkness of his soul.




Beyond the Darkness


Book Description

In this remarkable book, Fenimore describes one life, haunted by abuse and despair, that led to the suicide she thought would give her peace. Instead she entered a realm of terrifying darkness. Beyond the Darkness is unique in the near-death literature because it is the only full-length account of a descent into Hell.