The Biblical Mothers Deliver


Book Description

What kind of mother must a woman be to give birth to “chosen” or “saved” peoples? The many stories of biblical mothers found in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament are deeply concerned with this question and answer it in surprising and diverse ways. From Sarah, Abraham’s wife, to Mary, the mother of Jesus, each mother embodies the type of woman her culture thought she had to be to produce a holy people set apart by God. The larger question of Klancher’s book asks, to what end? What does it mean when different types of mothers are used to establish the value of some people over others? Her book explores this question and asks how the mothers’ stories and their interpretation over the centuries have authorized diverse logics of sexual and racial difference that we live with today.




The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak


Book Description

God always keeps His promises, but not always in the way we expect…. “Have faith” is a phrase we hear all the time. But what does it actually look like to live it out? In The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak, Shannon Bream examines the lives of biblical women to see how God’s plans can turn our worlds upside down. She tells the story of Jochebed, a mother who took enormous risks to protect her son, Moses, from Pharaoh. Could Jochebed have imagined that God’s actual design for her son involved flight into exile and danger? And yet this was all part of the master plan to deliver Israel from slavery. Another biblical mother, Rebekah, made terrible choices in an attempt to ensure her son’s place in history. And a daughter, Michal, struggled to keep her faithless father, Saul, from sin, while battling pride in herself. Through these stories, Shannon explains the intimate connection between faith and family—and how God’s unexpected agenda can redefine the way we think about family. Not all of these mothers and daughters in the Bible were paragons of virtue. Like us, they were human beings who faltered and struggled to do their best. While some heard God’s voice, others chose their own paths. Through the lens of their imperfections, we can see how God used their stories to bring about His divine plans. He’s still doing the same work in our lives today. The Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak shows that faith is more often a twisting road than a straight line. Yet, as the stories of biblical families attest, at the end of these journeys lies greater peace and joy than we could ever imagine. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.




Made for This


Book Description

Millions of women have felt the power of birth, and countless women long for it. But for too many, birth can seem like a purely clinical experience — something to get through as quickly as possible in order to get on with the joys of being a mother. In Made for This, author Mary Haseltine draws on Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body to show that birth is an essential part of who God created women to be, body and soul. With real-life stories from many moms and practical tips — including preparing for birth, making informed choices, helping fathers embrace their role in the birth room, and encountering the work of labor — this book is an indispensable guide for navigating the physical and spiritual dimensions of pregnancy and birth. Expectant mothers will find the tools they need to approach birth as a gift, and to invite God into the experience. About the Author Mary Haseltine is a theology graduate and a certified birth doula and childbirth educator. With a passion for building a culture of life through the teachings of the Theology of the Body, she works to bring an awareness and practice of the teachings of the Church into the realm of childbirth, mothering, and pregnancy loss. She lives in Western New York with her husband and five sons. You can find more of her writing at www.betterthaneden.com.




Supernatural Childbirth


Book Description

Pregnancy and childbirth are often depicted as a time of sickness and mood swings for women followed by twelve to twenty hours of pain and hard labor. Many women have been told they can never conceive. Others have suffered the pain of conceiving and miscarrying. Have you had enough of this picture? Supernatural Childbirth is a practical...




Embodying the Sacred


Book Description

Embodying the Sacred presents an innovative approach to both birth and Christian spirituality. Drawing from the actual physical processes of pregnancy and birth, Peg Conway relates them to Catholic-inspired practices in a wise and empowering way. Reflections, prayer, activities, ritual, and creative expression organized around the three trimesters of pregnancy invite readers to assemble a “spiritual birth bag,” and in so doing, to inhabit and celebrate their bodies during this miraculous time. With its focus on the inner journey, this approach provides an ideal complement to other forms of birth preparation. The book also suggests a postpartum ritual format for telling birth stories and concludes with a reflection on birth history in America.




The Christian Childbirth Handbook


Book Description

Providing Christian expectant parents with the tools and information they need to plan for the arrival of their new baby. Applying Biblical principles to the process of giving birth while exploring the wide variety of options available to today's families allows parents to make the best decisions regardless of the circumstances surrounding their baby's birth.




Praise Her in the Gates


Book Description

For a Christian woman, motherhood is the subtle art of building a house in grace: "The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands" (Prov. 14:1). Each day's work is significant, for it contributes toward the long-term plan. Each nail helps a house stand in a storm. But motherhood isn't a simple formula. Building a home -- childbirth, education, discipline -- requires holy joy and a love of beauty. The mother who fears God does not fear the future.




Walking with Mary


Book Description

Mary appears only a few times in the Bible, but those few passages come at crucial moments. Catholics believe that Mary is the ever-virgin Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and Earth. But she also was a human being--a woman who made a journey of faith through various trials and uncertainties and endured her share of suffering. Even with her unique graces and vocation, Mary remains a woman we can relate to and from whom we have much to learn. In Walking with Mary, Edward Sri looks at the crucial passages in the Bible concerning Mary and offers insight about the Blessed Mother's faith and devotion that we can apply in our daily lives. We follow her step-by-step through the New Testament account of her life, reflecting on what the Scriptures tell us about how she responded to the dramatic events unfolding around her. “This book is the fruit of my personal journey of studying Mary through the Scriptures, from her initial calling in Nazareth to her painful experience at the cross,” writes Edward Sri “It is intended to be a highly readable, accessible work that draws on wisdom from the Catholic tradition, recent popes, and biblical scholars of a variety of perspectives and traditions. With the riches of these insights, we will ponder what her journey of faith may have been like in order to draw out spiritual lessons for our own walk with God.” He add, “It is my hope, therefore, that whether you are of a Catholic, Protestant, or other faith background, this book may help you to know, understand, and love Mary more, and that it may inspire you to walk in her footsteps as a faithful disciple of the Lord in your own pilgrimage of faith.”