Sparkhouse

Be the Brave One: Living Your Spiritual Values Out Loud and Other Life Lessons

The Rev. Ann Kansfield left Wall Street and found her calling as the first female and openly gay chaplain at the New York Fire Department. Guiding her life are the values that anchor her. Weaving real-life stories with wit and practical faith, Kansfield challenges readers to discover and live out their own spiritual values.

9781506463735

The Sacred Pulse: Holy Rhythms for Overwhelmed Souls

Contemporary life is leaving us frazzled, overwhelmed, and out of sorts.

In The Sacred Pulse, pastor and author April Fiet invites us to examine the frantic patterns of perfection and production and to reclaim the deeper, sacred pulses that pattern our days. Through stories, scripture, and practical guidance for daily living, she lays out twelve practices that are both sustainable and sustaining so we can tap into the joyful, holy rhythms of life.

9781506469089

Our Last Best Act: Planning for the End of Our Lives to Protect the People and Places We Love

How do we align our end-of-life choices with our values?

In a world experiencing a climate crisis and a culture that avoids discussions about death and dying, environmentalist and educator Mallory McDuff takes readers on a journey to discover new, sustainable practices around death and dying--and how it's possible to make end-of-life choices that honor our values, create a sustainable legacy, and help to heal the earth.

9781506464466

Messy Minimalism: Realistic Strategies for the Rest of Us

Drowning in clutter and a crazy schedule, Rachelle Crawford assumed you had to be naturally organized to be tidy. Then she found messy minimalism, which is less about perfection and more about purpose. With empathy and humor, Crawford lays out strategies for curbing consumption, decluttering, and finding lots more joy. Becoming a messy minimalist is not about pristine countertops. It's simply about carrying fewer things so that we find ourselves holding only what truly matters.

9781506466866

The Defiant Middle: How Women Claim Life's In-Betweens to Remake the World

Women who don't fit in amid cultural expectations, because of life transitions or changes in their body, mind, or gender identity, are carving out new ways of being in and remaking the world. Drawing on the wisdom of women mystics, this book explores how transitional eras can be both spiritually challenging and excitingly freeing. Ultimately, we see how these in-between times lead us to reinvented ways of seeing ourselves and changing the world.

9781506467689

Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear

The height of the AIDS crisis in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s left many profound stories that remained untold. In Hidden Mercy, gay Catholic journalist Michael O'Loughlin uncovers the stories of Catholics who at great personal cost chose compassion. A compelling picture of those who responded to human suffering with mercy, offering insights for LGBTQ and other people of faith struggling to find a home in religious communities today.

9781506467702

Seeing Jesus: Visionary Encounters from the First Century to the Present

Jesus ascended to heaven. End of story. But then how do we explain the Christians, in nearly every century since, who claimed to have seen, heard, met, and touched Jesus in the flesh? In Seeing Jesus, Robert Hudson ponders characters throughout Christian history who have encountered the actual face of the resurrected Christ.

9781506465753

Brave: Women of the Bible and Their Stories of Grief, Mercy, Folly, Joy, Sex, and Redemption

Following the success of Fierce, Alice Connor returns to introduce a new group of women from the Bible, some whose names we know, others who go unnamed. Connor invites us to see them not as players in a man's story, but as foremothers of the faith.

Skillfully drawn by the author, these women's stories are challenging and beautiful. When we read their stories, we see not only their particular, formidable lives but also our own.

9781506463964

All Who Are Weary: Easing the Burden on the Walk with Mental Illness

We live in an age uniquely attentive to the problem of mental illness. More than half of us will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in our lifetime. All Who Are Weary is not a map to a cure, nor a perfectly restorative prayer. Rather, Emmy Kegler joins the reader on the long walk of reflection, understanding, and compassion, trusting in the promise of a lighter load for us all.

9781506467801

The Lightmaker's Manifesto: How to Work for Change without Losing Your Joy

Many of us want to advocate for causes we care about--but which ones? We want to work for change--but will the emotional toll lead to burn out? In The Lightmaker's Manifesto, activist Karen Walrond shares strategies to help you define the actions that bring you joy, identify the values and causes about which you are passionate, and put them together to create change. Includes conversations with changemakers Valarie Kaur, Brené Brown, Tarana Burke, and Zuri Adele.

9781506469942

Inkwell: Simple Writing Practices to Restore Your Soul

Tired. Uninspired. Emotionally exhausted. Overwhelmed. Burned out. In a world where the pace seems to get faster and the problems seem intractable, more and more people feel they just can't go on as they have been doing. The truth is, we're much better at caring for our bodies than caring for our spirits. In Inkwell, writing instructor and professor Anne Whitney shows how writing can be a powerful tool for your spiritual self-care.

9781506464794

Dimming the Day: Evening Meditations for Quiet Wonder

The moon is out, the air has cooled, you are ready for bed. You know that scrolling on your phone does not draw you toward sleep. Power down your phone, take a breath, and begin to dim the day. Author Jennifer Grant offers gentle meditations that help you direct your gaze away from screens and toward the natural world. Replace anxiety with awe, distraction with focus, and worry with true rest.

9781506471198

Breath Prayer: An Ancient Practice for the Everyday Sacred

Christine Valters Paintner, abbess of Abbey of the Arts, introduces us to the spiritual practice of breath prayer and offers beautiful poem-prayers for walking, working, dressing, cleaning, sitting in silence, doing the dishes, living in community--breathing the divine into our daily lives. Over time these recitations become as natural as breathing. We don't so much recite the prayers as the prayers recite us, guide us, and open our hearts to the everyday sacred.

9781506470672

We Cry Justice: Reading the Bible with the Poor People's Campaign

In We Cry Justice, leaders of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival uncover what the Bible really says about justice and poverty. Liz Theoharis is joined by pastors, organizers, scholars, low-wage workers, and people in poverty in interpreting sacred stories about the poor seeking healing, justice, and freedom. Find in the pages of Scripture God's persistent call to repair the breach and fight poverty, not the poor.

9781506473642

Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred

Like many unfulfilled by traditional faith expressions, Victoria Loorz went in search of a spirituality strong enough to reckon with the unraveling of her vocation, identity, and planet, and found herself in the wilderness. Loorz invites us to reimagine our relationship with and commitment to a suffering planet by loving it--and calling it church.

9781506469645

Feed the Wolf: Befriending Our Fears in the Way of Saint Francis

Turn from fear and find peace. In Feed the Wolf, author and Saint Francis scholar Jon M. Sweeney explores fifteen spiritual practices from the essential wisdom of Saint Francis for us to apply to our twenty-first-century lives.

9781506470733

Our Fair Share: How One Small Change Can Create a More Equitable American Economy

Over the past fifty years, our economy has been pulling us apart at unprecedented rates by allowing the richest Americans to hoard wealth like almost never before. In Our Fair Share, Brian C. Johnson combines accessible scholarship on wealth and income inequity with stories of real people struggling to survive and thrive in America today. Ultimately, Johnson lays the groundwork for a reasonable and actionable solution, drawing us together to build a common American future.

9781506470757

A Simple Christmas on the Farm

Warm and heartfelt, this story invites readers to imagine an inclusive, generous Christmas, focusing on the simple pleasures of family, community, and making things by hand.

9781506471365

Portraits of Peace: Searching for Hope in a Divided America

Frustrated with an increasingly polarized society, award-winning photographer John Noltner set out on a road trip across the US to rediscover the common humanity that connects us by asking people the simple question "What does peace mean to you?"

9781506471211

A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community 

America is at a spiritual and political crossroads. A new narrative is needed to counter the discord in her politics and culture, a new way forward rooted in Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of community. A More Perfect Union calls for a shared vision that transcends partisanship to live out America's best ideals and realize a more perfect union.

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