In this classic text, Thomas Merton offers valuable guidance for prayer. He brings together a wealth of meditative and mystical influences--from John of the Cross to Eastern desert monasticism--to create a spiritual path for today. Most important, he shows how the peace contacted through meditation should not be sought in order to evade the problems of contemporary existence, but can instead be directed back out into the world to effect positive change....

"Over the past ten years, Matthew Kelly has seen more of the world than most presidents and more of the Church than most bishops. Now, in this unique and timely book, he proposes that Catholicism is not a lifeless set of rules and regulations, but a way of life designed by God to help each person reach his or her full potential. With remarkable insight, Kelly dispels dozens of the myths that surround the practice and rejection of Catholicism today,...

A work intended to uncover the basis of a pessimistic Christianity based on the concept of "original sin" and to recover a spirituality based on the original goodness or "original blessing" of creation.