This guide for modern-day spiritual seekers draws wisdom from Celtic spiritual practices and leads readers through a pilgrimage of the soul to create space for grace.

Bill and Terry Treacy died three months apart, after fifty years of marriage and a lifetime of faith. Devastated by this loss, their ten children found comfort in inexplicable signs assuring them that their parents were at peace, reunited in heaven, and yet still present in the lives of those who grieved for them. In Thin Places: Where Faith Is Affirmed and Hope Dwells, Mary Treacy O?Keefe describes such signs as thin places'sudden realizations of that ethereal veil between what we know of earth and what we believe of heaven. In sharing her family's story (and those of many others), she shows how thin places are present in ordinary places at ordinary times'and how such moments of grace reveal Divine loving messages of faith and hope in our daily lives.

An Indie Next Selection for April 2022 An Indies Introduce Selection for Winter/Spring 2022 A Junior Library Guild Selection Both a celebration of the natural world and a memoir of one family’s experience during the Troubles, Thin Places is a gorgeous braid of “two strands, one wondrous and elemental, the other violent and unsettling, sustained by vividly descriptive prose” (The Guardian). Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, on the border of the North and South of Ireland, at the very height of the Troubles. She was brought up on a council estate on the wrong side of town—although for her family, and many others, there was no right side. One parent was Catholic, the other was Protestant. In the space of one year, they were forced out of two homes. When she was eleven, a homemade bomb was thrown through her bedroom window. Terror was in the very fabric of the city, and for families like ní Dochartaigh’s, the ones who fell between the cracks of identity, it seemed there was no escape. In Thin Places, a luminous blend of memoir, history, and nature writing, ní Dochartaigh explores how nature kept her sane and helped her heal, how violence and poverty are never more than a stone’s throw from beauty and hope, and how we are, once again, allowing our borders to become hard and terror to creep back in. Ní Dochartaigh asks us to reclaim our landscape through language and study, and remember that the land we fight over is much more than lines on a map. It will always be ours, but—at the same time—it never really was.

A “thin place” is where God’s grace is waiting to happen. Your thin place might be an important threshold, a soul friendship, a fresh chapter in your own life story, a painful secret or fear, or a time of hardship. Whatever the circumstance, a thin place is where God and humanity meet in a mysterious way. These moments open us to places of rawness and beauty. When we enter into a thin place, something seems to break open inside us, and words are inadequate to describe what we are experiencing. In these moments, we feel a sense of breakthrough as we break free of the ordinary and experience the extraordinary amid our daily lives. Drawing on her Irish-Celtic heritage, Julianne Stanz helps us explore those times and holy places of transformation. Inspired by faith and guided by spiritual practices, we can experience each thin place as a point of departure on a sacred journey to a truer understanding of who we are meant to be.

“In this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, you will find John a “soul friend” on your own journey through life, offering support and solace, clarity, and consciousness—expanding narratives that invite you to experience relationships with people, nature, and even your inner world in new ways that nurture well-being and resilience in these challenging times.” —Daniel J. Siegel, MD, Neuropsychiatrist and New York Times Bestselling Author A special twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the classic work of Celtic spirituality and mysticism by beloved poet and philosopher, John O'Donohue, with a new introduction by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, an afterword by the late author’s brother, Pat O'Donohue, and insightful material from O'Donohue's circle of close friends. In this revered classic, John O’Donohue excavates themes of friendship, belonging, solitude, creativity and the imagination, among many others. Widely recognized for bringing Celtic spirituality into modern dialogue, his unique insights from the ancient world speak with urgency for our need to rediscover the thresholds of the soul. With lyrical wisdom and fluency, O'Donohue encourages pathways of discovery to come home to the natural rhythm in ourselves in sacred connection with one another and the landscapes we inhabit. This timeless collection nourishes the heart and elevates the spirit. It is "a book to read and reread forever.” (Irish Times)

• Describes the Celtic rituals of honoring death and dying and offers prayers, meditations, and blessings for the time of transition • Offers reflective questions and exercises to explore your beliefs, attitudes, and fears around your own death • Includes the sacred meditation of traveling with the dead as offered by an anam-áire or Celtic soul carer THE CELTS BELIEVED in the transmigration of the soul, in the magical rhythm of life with a particular order of coming and going for each soul. As they celebrated every new stage of their lives with a ritual, they also honoured the passing of a soul--the death of the physical body. In her decades of work with the dying, Phyllida Anam-Áire has revived the ancient Celtic tradition of watching with the dying and traveling with the soul after death. Integrating the wisdom of her Celtic ancestors with modern knowledge of the death process, she shows how a peaceful transition for the leaving person is possible and how this process can be consciously supported by relatives or friends. Reflective exercises and meditations help us become aware of our beliefs and fears around dying and acknowledge our own death as a natural transformation, allowing our essence to move on into love. Once we come to terms with our own mortality, we will find it easier to assist family and friends in their last hours in this life. Rituals, prayers, and blessings in this guide offer compassionate support for the one transitioning and for those left behind. Phyllida also shares the sacred meditation of traveling with the dead as held by a Celtic Anam-Áire, or soul carer. In addition, she addresses many practical questions around the care for the dying and their environment during and after the process, stressing the importance of silence. A practical yet soulful guidebook, A Celtic Book of Dying deepens our spiritual understanding of the internal journey of the dying and the adventurous afterdeath journey still to embark on. Dying is the most natural step we will ever take.

2019 Best Book Awards, Finalist: Religion—Christianity 2020 Catholic Press Association, 3rd Place: Future Church 2020 International Book Awards, Winner: Religion—Christianity Take a moment and ask yourself: does every activity in my parish point more deeply to Jesus? Julianne Stanz wants to help you and your parish community make sure the answer to this question is a resounding, "Yes!" Serving parishes in her diocese as the Director of New Evangelization, Stanz has recognized a practical and motivational way to restructure a parish's mission – start with Jesus. Start with Jesus is a book about people, process, and culture, rather than an emphasis on quick fixes or unsustainable efforts. She aims to help regular people be transformed from the inside out by growing in relationship with Jesus Christ through individual and group experiences, thus transforming our parish communities. Start with Jesus will be an essential resource for decision-makers and thought-leaders in parishes, but its true strength lies in its value for the countless Catholics longing for peace, healing, and hope in the context of our parish communities. It will be an inspiration to Catholics who come to Mass each week, parents trying to instill the faith in their children, leaders searching for an effective and sustainable approach to parish renewal, and to all who are curious about developing a relationship with Jesus. ​