The Circle Of Grace

"Within the struggle, joy, pain, and delight that attend our life, there is an invisible circle of grace that enfolds and encompasses us in every moment. Blessings help us to perceive this circle of grace, to find our place of belonging within it, and to receive the strength the circle holds for us." -from the Introduction Beginning in Advent and moving through the sacred seasons of the Christian year, Circle of Grace offers Jan's distinctive and poetic blessings that illuminate the treasures each season offers to us.

Having remained in touch through a shared journal since college, friends Grace Liz, Tess, and Amanda meet for an unplanned reunion after a personal crisis leads to the discovery that Grace's colorful life is a fabrication.

None of us can predict the endless twists and turns of life or the unimaginable impact that our Christian faith can have on its outcome. Through faith, one of God's gifts we receive at our baptism, we are able to share God's kindness and love – His Grace – among one another. Through God's gift of free will, we can choose or not choose to share or seek God's grace. Aside from so-called routine acts of kindness, grace encounters can come crashing into our laps out of nowhere or perhaps through a vague awareness that a stranger somewhere is facing a crisis. Our response often demands an extraordinary act of faith. In an uplifting tone, sprinkled with self-effacing, humorous reflections, Mikie Casem poignantly unfolds an often painful journey which led him and his wife, Rita, to not one, but two, extraordinary encounters with grace and a woman named Theresa Palumbo. During their journey, more than a few Catholic Clergy and Religious offered them practical advice, lifted them up from despair or challenged them to grow in their faith. Theresa Palumbo also candidly shares her two extraordinary encounters with Mikie and Rita: first, as an unwed, pregnant teen who was welcomed into the Casem home to live with a family she had never met and again, 32 years later, living 300 miles away, married with a family of her own and teaching school, when Theresa learned of Mikie's end-stage illness. She made an astonishing decision to return and do what she could to try to save his life.

"Are you soul-weary? Do you struggle to make time for God in the midst of a packed schedule? Or do you sometimes stay so busy doing things for God that you can't relax and just 'be'? Jesus faced amazing pressure and overwhelming demands throughout his ministry, but he did not experience the burnout so common today among Christian ministers and laypersons. You can learn the rhythm of living that Jesus demonstrates -- the Cycle of Grace -- throughout the Gospels ... This 6-week study will help you know that God loves you, nurture your spiritual life, understand who you are called to be in the world, learn how to restore balance to your life."--Publisher

"Enjoy heartwarming stories of friendship from Point of Grace and their circle of friends. Michael W. Smith, Barbara Johnson, Beth Moore, Patsy Clairmont, Marilyn Meberg, Steve Green, Luci Swindoll, Sheila Walsh, Thelma Wells, and more."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Did you know that you have a cleansing mechanism built into your nervous system that clears out stress, strain, and pain? The Circle of Grace is a simple active meditation that puts you in charge of releasing excess internal pressure and re-energizing your body with new universal energy whenever you feel the need. Care and maintenance of the aura are vital for your physical health! The Circle of Grace is a wonderful shortcut to attaining and maintaining your lightbody and creating the bright, joyous future that you deserve. It is now time to shed your 3D density in order to gracefully expand into the heightened energies of the Millennium Shift of 2012 and beyond.

The work that goes into managing a home can sometimes feel boring and insignificant. Furman reminds women of the gospel's extraordinary power over ordinary life, helping homemakers see and savor the miraculous in the mundane.

During the 1950s and early 1960s Flannery O'Connor wrote more than a hundred book reviews for two Catholic diocesan newspapers in Georgia. This full collection of these reviews nearly doubles the number that have appeared in print elsewhere and represents a significant body of primary materials from the O'Connor canon. We find in the reviews the same personality so vividly apparent in her fiction and her lectures--the unique voice of the artist that is one clear sign of genius. Her spare precision, her humor, her extraordinary ability to permit readers to see deeply into complex and obscure truths-all are present in these reviews and letters.