SONday SONrise is from an international priest at the USA who has been a priest for forty years and is a preacher of Gods Word day in and day out, especially on Sundays, to see that every one of his flock drinks truly the living water that flows out of Gods throne whenever they participate in Jesuss banquet and his discourse in their churches. Every homily found in this book is based on the firm belief that Sunday service is the central part of our Sabbath observance as the community of God in Jesus. As Pope John Paul II said, On this day we celebrate the identity of the parish community encountering the Risen Lord in the table of the Word and the table of His Body. This book of homilies is published mainly for the people who consider Sunday/holy day obligations as the Lords command. It will be of great help to them while going through the Sunday/holy day scriptures before they go to their services, so that they can be attuned to the Spirits move during the liturgy of the Word. It will enrich their understanding of what that days preaching as their pastors break the Word of God. It will also be of great help to their Lords day family gathering at home to converse together little more about the Word of God with spouses and kids. These homilies are only my personal reflections on the scriptural readings. I have prayerfully labored over them while writing. For sure, I have written them with love, uttered them in faith, but was always led by the Spirit of Jesus. Though this is chiefly for my favorable audience, others, especially my priest friends and preachers, can use it too and enrich their favorable congregation.

In this book, the two priest brothers portray the tears they shed in priestly ministry, not merely to ventilate their emotional outbursts or confessions to their friends, kith and kins, and even their so-called enemies, but most of all, to celebrate those tears as part of the blessing that has come to strengthen their union with the Lord, with the church, and certainly with their lifelong neighbors. The kind of tears their eyes showered were those of gratitude, joy, and sorrow. Their discussion also would bring home to every good-willed people how the foreign-born priests who serve the church in different continents not to be considered as mere international priests in a modern business term, rather to be esteemed as the true missionaries sent by the Lord for the impending purpose of new evangelization. Ultimately, their dream in this dialogical venture is to bring their readers, especially their (international) fellow missionary priests, closer to Jesus, the one they love the most, and to the church, his beloved spouse.

The books title is taken from Jesus Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Expounding in detail in this book Rev. Vima stresses the Scriptural fact that at the end of disciples life their merciful acts are the ones that would covet the crown of heavenly blessedness as the Judge would pronounces to them, Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food The author also explains very elaborately the Biblical term CHESED as the remarkable backdrop to the Christian merciful deeds. He continues to augment his contention on CHESED by telling the readers about Jesus longing of his disciples to be perfect as their heavenly Father by performing merciful deeds and by performing those acts perfectly by imitating Gods CHESED of mercy, justice and fidelity. Author writes in his Introduction: This book is nothing but an outcome of my strong belief in an eternal fact of living a CHESED-oriented life: Without Gods CHESED we cannot survive but without our reciprocal CHESED we cannot be what we are designed to become. As the Church celebrates the Jubilee Year of Mercy, author encourages the readers to listen and follow Pope Francis who, referring to the beatitudes, is quoted saying: If the church does not assume the sentiments of Jesus, it is disoriented, it loses its sense. Fr. Vima also dreams that those who read this book will be more inspired and sincere in their works of mercy during this year and the years to come.

The content of the book is a keen observation and thorough analysis and transparent proclamation on Church leadership with all its bright and dark sides as of today. In the light of Jesus’ Gospel-democracy, leadership here zooms out to all humans who have committed to Jesus as their Master who has granted them reciprocally in their Baptismal birth a big share in his leadership. Together with leadership-right Jesus too has put before them many demanding missives and indispensable duties to be fulfilled. This book is made of three sections: Genesis of discipled leadership; Master’s personal demands from discipled leaders; and His official demands from them in executing discipled-leadership. It is a book of the day when thousand and one heinous complains and reports, blasted out in social media against the political and social leadership and very sadly against religious and spiritual leaders. Some of those reports may be probably out of proportion; but almost 85% of them are experiential, legally-investigated and publicly confessed and testified by so many eyewitnesses. Author Fr. Vima assures, if the content of the book is meditated and prayed, chapter by chapter, there will be lot of spiritual and mental gain and support for the readers, especially those who struggle in their management of critical leadership in the Church environment.

As the cradle-religion I belong to has been, at every age, probing into her managing and conserving of the Mmysterious Ttreasures entrusted to her, with the enlightenment, offered by Vatican Council II, I too longed to scrutinize my own handling of Catholic Christian Ffaith. I wanted to examine whether the religion I practice personally was real or reel? tTrue or false? gGenuine or false? aAuthentic or artificial? hHeartfelt or routine? fFruitful or poisonous? oOriginal or counterfeit? sSingle-hearted or double-hearted?' Certainly, as a priest I had lot of occasions like recollections and retreats regularly to regularly assess the genuineness of my religious holdings and practices. Though I began 10ten years back, gathering all my scribbles and journals of evaluation about my personal religion, I started putting them seriously into a book form only after Pope Benedict XVI announced year 2012 as the Year of Faith. I considered it a call from God who wanted to befriend me more intensely and to promote to my friends this habit of assessing one's own faith. This is how this book was conceived and shaped. This book can be considered as a self-imposed act of examining my conscience about the identity, nature, and application, and practice of religion in my life. I hope and pray this effort of mine will surely assist my readers do the same, not only during this Year of Faith as it would be ended 24 November 24, 2013;, but also later on in life when tumult of waves and trials is daunting against our faith and religion.

During all the HILLTOP moments in Jesus life not only he was informed and confirmed by his Father about his true identity and mission, but also he shared those inspirations with his followers. This is what the Scriptures and the Church exhorts us to encounter during our personal prayertime. The author esteems of his retirement-life of solitude as a hilltop milieu, which is very conducive to meditate in the presence of God who is the Highest. According to the author, Where the Highest is there the Hilltop is. And he asserts, the meditations found in this work have been collected when he was at His Highest Place. This book contains 105 weekend meditations, based on Liturgical Years A & B-Sunday Scriptural passages. Author writes in his Forward: I dream to see this work as a handbook to be used either in the hands of every Christian at his/her Sabbath Prayer Hours or at the desks of preachers during the preparation of their Sunday homilies.

2020 Association of Catholic Publishers first place award, resources for liturgy 2020 Catholic Press Association first place award, liturgy soft cover Spirituality is a motion, a responsive movement of heart, mind, and spirit to the life of God moving within us. Starting from his Roman Catholic roots but working ecumenically, Bob Hurd explores this notion of spirituality in two parts. Part 1 places it in the theological framework of Creation-Grace-Incarnation, concluding that its specific form is participation in Christ’s self-emptying love of God, humankind, and creation. Part 2 investigates this kenotic spirituality liturgically, exploring how it comes to expression in the ritual stages of Gathering, Word, Eucharistic Prayer, Communion, and Sending. Comparing and contrasting each stage with corresponding patterns in various Protestant traditions, Hurd lays out the possibility of a spirituality common to Christians of various confessions.