Finding Sanctuary

Abbot Christopher Jamison, from BBC2's THE MONASTERY and new show THE SILENCE, suggests ways in which the teachings of St Benedict can be helpful in everyday life. Have you ever wondered why everybody these days seems so busy? In FINDING SANCTUARY, Father Christopher Jamison offers practical wisdom from the monastic tradition on how to build sanctuary into your life. No matter how hard you work, being too busy is not inevitable. Silence and contemplation are not just for monks and nuns, they are natural parts of life. Yet to keep hold of this truth in the rush of modern living you need the support of other people and sensible advice from wise guides. By learning to listen in new ways, people's lives can change and the abbot offers some monastic steps that help this transition to a more spiritual life. In the face of many easy assumptions about the irrelevance of religion today, Father Christopher makes religion accessible for those in search of life's meaning and offers a vision of the world's religions working together as a unique source of hope for the 21st century.

For readers of Walden, Wild, Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek, A Book of Silence, A Gift from the Sea and other celebrations of the inner adventure. An utterly engaging dive into our modern ways of retreat — where we go, why we’re drawn, and how it’s urgent From pilgrim paths to forest cabins, and from rented hermitages to arts temples and quiet havens for yoga and meditation, In Praise of Retreat explores the pleasures and powers of this ancient practice for modern people. Kirsteen MacLeod draws on the history of retreat and personal experiences to reveal the many ways readers can step back from society to reconnect with their deepest selves — and to their loftiest aspirations in life. In the 21st century, disengaging, even briefly, is seen by many as self-indulgent, unproductive, and antisocial. Yet to retreat is as basic a human need as being social, and everyone can benefit, whether it’s for a weekend, a month, or a lifetime. Retreat is an uncertain adventure with as many peaks and valleys as any mountain expedition, except we head inward, to recharge and find fresh energy and brave new ideas to bring back into our everyday lives.

A richly illustrated diary-style narrative, serving as a showcase and celebration of Mass Audubon's wildlife sanctuaries across Massachusetts. Over the course of four-and-a-half years, internationally recognized nature artist Barry Van Dusen visited all of Mass Audubon's 61 wildlife sanctuaries, nature centers and museums, creating drawings and paintings at each location. This book celebrates the richness, beauty and ecological diversity of Massachusetts and the Mass Audubon sanctuary system, as seen through the eyes of a wandering artist/naturalist. The book includes a foreword by John Hanson Mitchell, and an opening chapter by Barry in which he discusses his artistic practices in field and studio.

Why is being happy such an imperative in our world today? What is the meaning of happiness? In this book Abbot Christopher Jamison turns to monastic wisdom for answers. He explains that, in essence, happiness is a gift not an achievement. It is the fruit of giving and receiving blessings. Following the same accessible and engaging format of his previous book, Finding Sanctuary, Abbot Christopher examines different aspects of happiness and tells us what monastic wisdom has to say about them. In doing so, he offers steps for the journey of finding happiness. Christopher Jamison is abbot of Worth Abbey, a Benedictine monastery near London. He is also president of the International Commission on Benedictine Education and sits on the Council of the alliance for International Monasticism, a body that promotes links between monasteries across the North/South divide. He is author of Finding Sanctuary: Monastic Steps for Everyday Life and was the host of the popular BBC documentary series The Monastery. Watch and listen to what Abbot Christopher Jamison has to say about his book Finding Happiness "

Wynter Evans is a promising young reporter for a television station in St. Louis, but even a bright future doesn't take away her pain over the disappearance of her brother nine years ago. So when she stumbles across a photograph of a boy with an eerie resemblance to him, she can't pass up the chance to track him down. With research for work as her cover, she sets out with one of the station's photogs for the place where the picture was taken: the town of Sanctuary. Almost as soon as she arrives, she meets the town's handsome young mayor, Rueben King, and together they begin to uncover long held secrets that could tear the small town apart and change everything Wynter thought she knew about her life. As the truth of her family's past hides in the shadows, it's clear someone will stop at nothing to keep the answers she's searching for hidden forever--even if the cost is Wynter's very life.

Alien meets Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds in this thrilling debut novel about prison-guard-in-training, Kenzie, who is taken hostage by the superpowered criminal teens of the Sanctuary space station—only to have to band together with them when the station is attacked by mysterious creatures. Kenzie holds one truth above all: the company is everything. As a citizen of Omnistellar Concepts, the most powerful corporation in the solar system, Kenzie has trained her entire life for one goal: to become an elite guard on Sanctuary, Omnistellar’s space prison for superpowered teens too dangerous for Earth. As a junior guard, she’s excited to prove herself to her company—and that means sacrificing anything that won’t propel her forward. But then a routine drill goes sideways and Kenzie is taken hostage by rioting prisoners. At first, she’s confident her commanding officer—who also happens to be her mother—will stop at nothing to secure her freedom. Yet it soon becomes clear that her mother is more concerned with sticking to Omnistellar protocol than she is with getting Kenzie out safely. As Kenzie forms her own plan to escape, she doesn’t realize there’s a more sinister threat looming, something ancient and evil that has clawed its way into Sanctuary from the vacuum of space. And Kenzie might have to team up with her captors to survive—all while beginning to suspect there’s a darker side to the Omnistellar she knows.

Abbot Christopher Jamison, from BBC2's THE MONASTERY and new show THE SILENCE, suggests ways in which the teachings of St Benedict can be helpful in everyday life. Have you ever wondered why everybody these days seems so busy? In FINDING SANCTUARY, Father Christopher Jamison offers practical wisdom from the monastic tradition on how to build sanctuary into your life. No matter how hard you work, being too busy is not inevitable. Silence and contemplation are not just for monks and nuns, they are natural parts of life. Yet to keep hold of this truth in the rush of modern living you need the support of other people and sensible advice from wise guides. By learning to listen in new ways, people's lives can change and the abbot offers some monastic steps that help this transition to a more spiritual life. In the face of many easy assumptions about the irrelevance of religion today, Father Christopher makes religion accessible for those in search of life's meaning and offers a vision of the world's religions working together as a unique source of hope for the 21st century.

Winner of a first-place award in memoirs, a second-place for best front cover artwork, and a third-place in the category first time author of a book from the Catholic Media Association. Where is God when the innocent suffer? Jennifer Hubbard began to grapple with the question in 2012 when her six-year-old daughter Catherine was killed in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. In the depths of her grief, Hubbard founded an animal sanctuary in Catherine’s memory, creating a place of healing for her family and their community and fulfilling her daughter’s dream. Hubbard’s courageous witness will uplift your faith and demonstrate how Christ’s redemptive suffering provides a path of hope, even in the darkest moments of our lives. Hubbard’s daughter Catherine was a happy little girl who wanted to spend her life rescuing animals. All that changed on the morning of December 14, 2012. Though her daughter’s tragic death marked the end of Hubbard’s world as she’d known it, she instinctively held on to her faith in God, realizing it was the only way she could bear the initial impact of her daughter’s death and the subsequent waves of grief and loss as her marriage ended and she was forced to forge a new life. A typographic mistake on Catherine’s obituary led Hubbard to an unexpected invitation to fulfill her daughter’s dreams of opening an animal shelter. She began to channel her grief into a work of peace by starting a foundation in her daughter’s memory, by writing, and by helping her son recover after surviving the tragedy that took his sister’s life. Ultimately, it was Hubbard’s faith that gave her the courage to entrust her daughter to God and to seek his plan for her own life. “God helped me to look back on my life up to that time and to see all the ways he had been preparing me for what was to come,” she writes. In Finding Sanctuary, Hubbard shares her journey of healing and transformation in order to help those who may be grappling with an inability to trust in the goodness of God. You will learn: to recognize the diamonds of divine insight and encouragement when you are deep in the mine of pain and despair; to be patient with yourself as you take the time you need to process what is happening; and to look both to the past and the present for signs of God’s presence, preparing you to move toward acceptance, forgiveness, and peace. Each chapter in the book is dedicated to one step in Hubbard’s journey toward wholeness and includes reflection questions to guide you to consider what God is teaching you as you make your own way toward God’s kingdom of peace.