The Tears Of The Divine

"Fr. Benedict, with practical advice and prayers for use in times of distress, guides the reader through the effects of catastrophes in relationship to our faith in divine providence, in God's goodness and mercy, and in the light of Christ's suffering and death."--Back cover.

On the heels of the fugitive spellweaver Ivellios, Polnygar Ap’Lydin and her companions reach Skurj, a frozen land of ancient hatreds and hidden blasphemies. Allies are thin on the ground, and Polnygar must contend with the array of foes that Ivellios has pitted against her. In distant Emparia, Polnygar’s brother Bellaydin has achieved rank and power after the Goriinchian war, but dark shadows from the Ap’Lydins’ past threaten the present. The Horned God’s powers are on the rise as a new army sets out, intent on conquest. The stakes have never been higher, and Bellaydin and Polnygar’s enemies are after one thing – the Tears of the Divine. But what powers does this relic hold? And why do the Horned God’s followers seek it so desperately?

This book is an expanded, larger-format, and more highly illustrated version of a smaller book released by CEU Press in 2011. It presents and comments on an extensive set of religious and personal photographs and illustrations that depict people along with divine beings or absent loved ones. First, Christian examines the periodic appearances of Christ-like strangers in the Spanish countryside through the vision of a woman in La Mancha in 1931. Then he considers the long history of images with liquids on them not only for early modern Spain, but also in the United States, Italy and France in the 1940s and 1950s. The third and most extensive chapter addresses the iconography of illustrated depictions of divine and spirit beings in conjunction with humans and how its conventions were incorporated into commercial postcards and personal photographs, culminating in photo montages of families and their absent soldiers in World War I. The fourth theme is new to this edition. It compares the electric moments in Spanish communities when people ritually come into physical contact with saints and with animals, or transform themselves into saints or animals for ritual purposes. Over 50 of the color photographs by Spain's preeminent documentary photographer, Cristina García Rodero, are included.

John Climacus (c. 579-649) was abbot of the monastery of Catherine on Mount Sinai. His Ladder was the most widely used handbook of the ascetical life in the ancient Greek Church.

A personal and spiritual growth journal that walks you through a welcoming process of slowing down and reflecting on how to live a more Christ-centered, balanced life that values relationships and community.

What religion does not serve as a theater of tears? Holy Tears addresses this all but universal phenomenon with passion and precision, ranging from Mycenaean Greece up through the tragedy of 9/11. Sixteen authors, including many leading voices in the study of religion, offer essays on specific topics in religious weeping while also considering broader issues such as gender, memory, physiology, and spontaneity. A comprehensive, elegantly written introduction offers a key to these topics. Given the pervasiveness of its theme, it is remarkable that this book is the first of its kind--and it is long overdue. The essays ask such questions as: Is religious weeping primal or culturally constructed? Is it universal? Is it spontaneous? Does God ever cry? Is religious weeping altered by sexual or social roles? Is it, perhaps, at once scripted and spontaneous, private and communal? Is it, indeed, divine? The grief occasioned by 9/11 and violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and elsewhere offers a poignant context for this fascinating and richly detailed book. Holy Tears concludes with a compelling meditation on the theology of weeping that emerged from pastoral responses to 9/11, as described in the editors' interview with Reverend Betsee Parker, who became head chaplain for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City and leader of the multifaith chaplaincy team at Ground Zero. The contributors are Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Amy Bard, Herbert Basser, Santha Bhattacharji, William Chittick, Gary Ebersole, M. David Eckel, John Hawley, Gay Lynch, Jacob Olúpqnà (with Solá Ajíbádé), Betsee Parker, Kimberley Patton, Nehemia Polen, Kay Read, and Kallistos Ware.

In the third installment of the foundation for an expansive universe of books, the heart of all characters will be tested. Follow Daarion throughout the kingdoms in discovering the heart-wrenching choices many made for a certain clarity. His will shall be tested throughout, for an oath of jusice and peace leaves him grounded in a world of cruelty. And with the end of The Divine Tear's foundation, Daarion, along with his companions will have many more adventures.

A book on contemplation, Tears of an Innocent God invites the reader to explore the ways of the One who would have us perceive, listen, and love as Christ did, and still does: not by imitation, but through a gradual inner transformation.

We know Jesus the Savior, but have we met Jesus, Prince of Peace? When did we accept vengeance as an acceptable part of the Christian life? How did violence and power seep into our understanding of faith and grace? For those troubled by this trend toward the sword, perhaps there is a better way. What if the message of Jesus differs radically differs from the drumbeats of war we hear all around us? Using his own journey from war crier to peacemaker and his in-depth study of peace in the scriptures, author and pastor Brian Zahnd reintroduces us to the gospel of Peace.