This work offers a selection of passages from Catherine of Siena as a basis for a path of spiritual growth with the theme of growth in capacity to love. There is an introduction and fifteen chapters, no additional front or back matter. Each chapter will include a couple of very short passages from Catherine; a couple of scripture readings about the theme of Catherine's passages; a meditation and guide to Catherine's wisdom; and exercises based on Catherine's wisdom.
The book invites engagement with the content of the passages through the suggested prayer exercises that seek to help persons apply Catherine's wisdom to their own journey. These prayer exercises are suitable for a beginner or someone already on a spiritual journey. They contain methods of prayer that are active and use the imagination, as well as more contemplative ones.
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"St. Catherine of Siena is often known for her challenging the religious authorities of her time. But that understanding of this multifaceted saint is too narrow. This lovely new book helps us all understand the foundation of her spiritual life, which is love. This love, which comes from God, and which is for God, is a beautiful invitation for the reader to enter into a world of God's embrace.
—James Martin, SJ, author of Learning to Pray
"In her beautifully scripted guide to the spirituality of Catherine of Sienna, Diana Villegas makes four significant offerings. First, she tells us the story of an important spiritual leader in the context of her time and place. Second, she highlights the essential theology and meaning of this leader for our time and place; namely, the conviction of God as loving presence at work in all people at all times to include and involve us in the unfolding of love. Third, she highlights the vision of Catherine for the feminine divine. Fourth, she scaffolds for the reader a pathway into the spirituality that Catherine represents, namely a journey into the loving and peaceful wisdom of God that is accessible to each human being through attention to the inner life. Diana's writing is intelligent, crystal clear, grounded in extensive scholarship and personal familiarity with the writing and spirit of Catherine, yet remarkably accessible and practically applicable to the everyday person open to learning from one of Christianity's great mystics. This book is a treasure!"
—Dr. Phil Daughtry, spiritual director and founder of Fruitful Mind Consultancy, Adelaide, South Australia
Diana L. Villegas, studied spirituality at the Institute of Spirituality of the Gregorian University, Rome, and obtained a PhD in theology, specializing in the history of spirituality, from Fordham University. Her dissertation compared discernment in Catherine of Siena and Ignatius of Loyola. She is a trained spiritual and retreat director with over thirty of years of experience. After many years in the Boston area, she now lives in her native Colombia.
Higgins plans an introductory chapter that will contextualize the Synod and explain why it's special and potentially transformative. The book will also contain a day-by-day record of personalities, crises, behind-the-scenes politics, lapses, triumphs.
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"Like an ecclesiastical Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Higgins searched the aulas of the Vatican and walked the cobbled streets of Rome in search of clues and sources who would piece together what was really going on behind locked doors in the Vatican. This book is a remarkable achievement in doing that, but also a wonderful record written in colorful prose of an event that to the outsider was presented by the Vatican in awkward and uninviting language, or 'ecclesiastical bafflegab' as Higgins describes it. It's 'unputdownable'"
—Garry O'Sullivan, publisher and editor, The Irish Catholic and The Synodal Times, Dublin, Ireland
"In this erudite yet accessible work, Dr. Higgins provides us with a most helpful prelude outlining the background to the 2021–2024 Synod of Bishops on the themes of communion, participation, and mission. His diary entries, from his vantage point as an 'external observer' to the discussions going on in the synod hall, provide helpful insights into the deeper implications of the Synod for the Catholic Church, especially moving forward from the legacy of Pope Francis into the Petrine ministry of Leo XIV. All in all, delightful and insightful in equal parts!"
—Raymond Lafontaine, episcopal vicar, Archdiocese of Montreal, table facilitator at the 2024 Synodal Assembly
Michael W. Higgins has been an administrator and teacher at several Canadian and U.S. Catholic colleges and universities. Currently he is Basilian Distinguished Fellow of Contemporary Catholic Thought, St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought Emeritus at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT. He has authored or coauthored numerous books, including The Church Needs the Laity: The Wisdom of John Henry Newman, and, with Kevin Burns, Impressively Free: Henri Nouwen as a Model for a Reformed Priesthood and Genius Born of Anguish: The Life and Legacy of Henri Nouwen.
In Revisioning Spirituality, John Markey and Michael Ceragioli explore the power of a communal imagination to renew the understanding and practice of Christian spirituality. The book traces a lineage that evolved against the grain of mainstream radical individualism in the United States, with roots in the thought of philosophers William James, Josiah Royce, and Charles Sanders Peirce, and echoes in the likes of Thomas Merton, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barbara Holmes.
By engaging with American philosophers, spiritual exemplars, and the recent pioneers of the discipline of Christian spirituality, a new picture of the promise of spirituality emerges, relevant for all those interested in the dynamics of the human encounter with God in an age of fragmentation.
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"We live in an intensely individualistic and deeply divided society. We frequently hear phrases like: 'I'm spiritual but not religious' and 'I've done my own research on this! I don't trust the official story!' How does one articulate a Christian spirituality in this context? John Markey and Michael Ceragioli do precisely that, offering a perspective that challenges as it unites and converts as it heals. A much-needed book."
—Ronald Rolheiser, author of The Holy Longing; professor of spirituality, Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, TX
"John Markey and Michael Ceragioli have written a revolutionary book, one that effectively reimagines the primary assumptions undergirding the discipline of spirituality. In these pages, religious experience is invariably communal and social as well as personal, which means that the transformation of the human person is always at the same time a communal transformation. Beautifully written, spiritually deepening."
—Nancy Pineda-Madrid, past president, Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA); Professor and T. Marie Chilton Chair of Catholic Theology, Loyola Marymount University
John J. Markey, OP, is a professor of theology and the director of the PhD program in spirituality at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.
Michael Ceragioli is a doctoral candidate in spirituality and lecturer at Oblate School of Theology.
As a soldier of the Roman Empire, Martin gave away his cloak to a beggar, only to discover the beggar was Christ. As bishop of Tours, France, Martin lived in a hut and cared for the poor. Through this charming story, follow St. Martin from his childhood through his army career to becoming a bishop famous for his wisdom and humility.
"Who gives away their cloak in the dead of winter? Who marches into battle without sword or shield? Discover the simplicity and daring of Martin of Tours, who gave away his coat and his sword to follow Christ. A tale vibrantly illustrated and clearly told."
—Joshua C. Benson, Catholic University; coauthor, with Margaret Carney, OSF, of Francis of Assisi: A Meditation on His Life and Writings
Michaela Hanauer is a Munich native. She studied law and has been a children's and young adult writer for more than fifteen years.
Angela Glökler was born in Rastatt in southern Germany. She studied illustration at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg.
