Helen Plum Library

As a prominent woman juggling many roles, Maria Shriver knows just how surprising, unpredictable, and stressful everyday life can be. Here she shares inspiring quotes, prayers, and reflections designed to get readers thinking, get them feeling, get them laughing, and help them in their journey to what she calls The Open Field -- a place of acceptance, purpose, passion, and joy. Whether you feel like you've got it all together or like it's all falling...

The heart-pounding history of how Pope Pius XII--often labeled "Hitler's Pope"--was in fact an anti-Nazi spymaster, plotting against the Third Reich during World War II. The Vatican's silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope." But a key part of the story has remained untold. Pope Pius...

Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Wills has been asked more than once why he remains in the Church, especially in the wake of his bestselling book Papal Sins, which examined the darker side of the religion's history. In Why I Am a Catholic, he offers some persuasive and heartfelt answers. Beginning with a reflection on his early experiences as a child, and later as a Jesuit seminarian, Wills reveals the importance of Catholicism in his own life. He discusses...

"Pope Francis is prepared to say "bring on the collapse", as perhaps the only way of purging a disgraced Church. "It is not impossible," Francis has said, "that I will go down in history as the one who split the Catholic Church?" However, for Catholics as a whole, the Church will, if Francis is successful, be a friendlier, more empathetic, presence in their lives. Bestselling author, Vanity Fair regular contributor, scholar and teacher John Cornwell...

Coren examines four main aspects of Catholicism as they are encountered, understood, and more importantly, misunderstood, today

Politi takes the reader deep inside the power struggle roiling the Roman Curia and the Catholic Church worldwide, beginning with Benedict XVI, the pope who famously resigned in 2013, and intensifying with the contested and unexpected election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, now known as Pope Francis. Politi's account balances the perspectives of Pope Francis's supporters, Benedict's sympathizers, and those disappointed members...

Who is Mary to you? What role does she play in your spiritual life? Are you struggling to get focused spiritually or looking for a way to grow to new heights? Mary is the most famous woman in history. She has inspired more art and music than any other woman and she fascinates the imaginations of men and women of all faiths. Many holy men and women of monumental virtue considered Mary's humility to be a sure path to intimacy with God. They have surrendered...

One of America's most beloved spiritual leaders and the New York Times bestselling author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and Jesus: A Pilgrimage teaches anyone to converse with God in this comprehensive guide to prayer. In The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, Father James Martin included a chapter on communicating with God. Now, he expands those thoughts in this profound and practical handbook. Learning to Pray explains what prayer...