Christine Watkins shares her personal story of how she was healed and converted to Catholicism through the Blessed Mother Mary, as well as the similar experiences of five other individuals.

A moving story of the power of love and the miracles of life—chock full of Southern wit, sass, and charm Grace is an intelligent, (struggling-to-be) independent 31-year-old single woman living (in sin!) with the man she’d marry if they both weren’t so commitment phobic. Michael is a doctor and a scientist and Grace has a good idea that he’s also an atheist. Over the years, this dutiful Catholic girl has become ambivalent about her faith. But her family is as devoutly old-fashioned as it gets. The stage is set for a major showdown that might just change Grace’s outlook on life, family,and the South itself.

Two thousand years ago, a girl from Nazareth was transformed by a simple “yes” into the Mother of God—the subject of sublime devotion, divisive controversy, and extravagant speculation. A mother and a virgin, a saint and a peasant, a woman both tragic and triumphant, Mary has held sway over the human imagination for centuries. Yet she has never felt as relevant to our everyday lives as she does today. In Full of Grace, Judith Dupré, the bestselling author of Churches, offers an intimate exploration of this beloved figure, now and through the ages. In a series of poignant stories and essays, Dupré examines Mary’s artistic, cultural, and historical influence, and at the same time shows how Mary’s human journey of love, compassion, grief, and humble strength inextricably connects her to our modern lives. Accompanied by a breathtaking visual feast ranging from classic Renaissance portraits to unexpected contemporary images, Dupré’s text offers insights into the Virgin Mary as a mother and as a religious icon. Visits to the great shrines of Marian pilgrimage—Lourdes, Medjugorje, Fatima, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe—underscore the author’s journey to find Mary’s meaning in her own life. In an essay about Mary in the Qur’an, we see how Mary, far from being an exclusively Catholic figure, emerges as one of the central women in Islam. Another piece details the author’s travels in the Holy Land, a landscape wracked by religious strife but still overflowing with the spirit of generosity that Mary embodies. From Sudanese refugee camps to the painful reminders of Auschwitz, from the struggle of divorce to the challenges of raising a child with autism, we see how Mary’s tenderness, bravery, and grace infuse the story of every mother, young and old. For men and women seeking to better understand their own life journey, this book looks at the many miracles, large and small, along the way. From the Hardcover edition.

Because of grace, good things happen even in the midst of a bad world. To the casual observer it may look like chance or luck. But to the person who knows Jesus, its undeniable that this undeserved goodness is nothing else but His grace.When Jesus walked on earth, He brought grace into every encounter, to every person. Even now, all around us, God is working out beautiful grace stories. Open the pages of this devotional book for a daily encounter with Jesus and His surprising, endless, life-changing grace.

In this elegant edition, Merritt, author and editor of more than 20 books, chronicles how youth is rendered in photographs, as well as other art and literature, over the course of the last 150 years. Highlights include hand-colored photos from Lewis Carroll (including an image of his muse, young Alice Liddell) and masterpieces by Richard Avedon, Andre Kertesz, Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe and Nan Goldin. Cutting no corners, Merritt tackles the usual suspects (children at play, children at rest, children and dogs) as well as the difficult issues: hunger and poverty, embodied in the chilling Great Depression work of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans; war, including opposing quotations from Adolf Hitler and Anne Frank; and political oppression, as in Carl Iwasaki's shot of Linda Brown in her segregated Kansas classroom prior to her landmark case against the Board of Education. These sobering images are set beside thorough, concerned discussion of critical issues facing children today: AIDS, over-population and famine among them. The text, broken into modes of perception-"the innocent child," "the child assailed," "the child alone," etc.-is peppered with quotes from the likes of Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Rainer Marie Rilke, Jack London, William Wordsworth, Victor Hugo and Herman Hesse. An eclectic, captivating study, this is a fine volume for anyone who works with children or children's welfare issues. 350 four-color and duotone photographs.

Few concepts are more important in Catholic theology than that of grace, but most adult Catholics never move beyond a schoolchild's understanding of grace. Charles Journet explores philosophy, revelation and history to explain grace fully. Journet lays out both the doctrinal development of grace and corrects persistent mistakes that Catholics make about grace. He covers habitual grace, actual grace, predestination, justification, merit, and much more. He even includes a revealing exploration of Adam's earthly paradise and how the nature of the Fall called forth God's response of grace.

In this remarkable tale of hope and survival, Hannah Luce tells how, as the sole survivor of a terrible plane crash, she came to grips with her faith: “a calamitous, fascinating memoir, written with surprising spiritual sophistication” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). On May 11, 2012, a small plane carrying five young adults, en route to a Christian youth rally, crashed in a Kansas field, skidding 200 yards before hitting a tree and bursting into flames. Only two survived the crash: ex-marine Austin Anderson, who would die the next morning from extensive burns, and his friend Hannah Luce, the daughter of Teen Mania founder and influential youth minister Ron Luce. This is Hannah’s story. In Fields of Grace, Hannah details the investigation of her faith, her coming-of-age as the dutiful daughter of Evangelical royalty, her decision to join her father’s ministry outreach to teens, and her miraculous survival and recovery following the accident. It also serves as a tribute and testament to the lives of the dear friends who perished in the catastrophic plane crash and reveals how their memory continues to inspire all that she does. Here is the “riveting personal account” (Booklist) of a girl who grew up as the daughter of one of the most influential evangelical leaders of our time, who questioned her early religious convictions somewhere along the way and who, from the embers of that doomed plane ride, finally found her faith.