The Shattered Lantern

This prequel and companion to The Holy Longing has sold over 40,000 copies in various editions.

"Faith Seeking Understanding promotes the idea that one can approach an understanding of God through the study of science. Religious faith and scientific inquiry should not be seen as competitors diametrically opposed to each other but as complementary ways to assist the human quest for knowledge and deeper meaning of existence. Science is viewed primarily as a gift from God." "The author, with his background in both science and theology, provides the reader with an understanding of human participation in God's creation. John Shackleford explores the scientific evidence for a personal, loving God in a positive dialogue between Christian faith and science that will be thought-provoking for college and university students, along with those interested in how science and religious faith intersect."--BOOK JACKET.

From the author of the bestselling, The Holy Longing, comes a book about the central expression of faith for hundreds of millions of Christians, the Eucharist. More so than anything else, the Eucharist is what anchors many peoples' life, prayer, and ultimately the way they live their lives. In this deeply personal book, Father Ronald Rolheiser delves into the history and meaning of this sacred tradition, drawing upon the insights of various scripture scholars, theologians, and church teachings. With personal warmth and great insight, he reflects on his own particular Roman Catholic upbringing and the centrality that the Eucharist has within that tradition. At the same time, he looks at other denominations’ traditions around the Eucharist. Our One Great Act of Fidelity is an investigation into the ways people secure their faith and belief and discover true intimacy with God and each other. Ultimately, however, it is a spiritual and a personal statement of how Ronald Rolheiser understands the Eucharist and why he celebrates it every day. Ronald Rolheiser is a specialist in the field of spirituality and is currently President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. Father Rolheiser is the author of The Holy Longing, The Restless Heart, Forgotten Among the Lilies, The Shattered Lantern, and Against an Infinite Horizon. He writes a weekly column that appears in more than 90 Catholic publications. More information on his work can be found at RonRolheiser.com.

When one reaches the highest degree of human maturity, one has only one question left: How can I be helpful?—TERESA OF ÁVILA Beloved author Ronald Rolheiser continues his search for an accessible and penetrating Christian spirituality in this highly anticipated follow-up to the contemporary classic, The Holy Longing. With his trademark acuity, wit, and thoughtfulness, Rolheiser shows how identifying and embracing discipleship will lead to new heights of spiritual awareness and maturity. In this new book, Rolheiser takes us on a journey through the dark night of the senses and of the spirit. Here, we experience the full gamut of human life, pleasure and fervor, disillusionment and boredom. But, as Rolheiser explains, when we embrace the struggle and yearning to know God we can experience too a profound re-understanding to our daily lives. “What lies beyond the essentials, the basics?” Rolheiser writes. “Where do we go once some of the basic questions in our lives have been answered, or at least brought to enough peace that our focus can shift away from ourselves to others? Where do we go once the basic questions in our lives are no longer the restless questions of youthful insecurity and loneliness? Who am I? Who loves me? How will my life turn out? Where do we go once the basic question in life becomes: How can I give my life away more purely, and more meaningfully? How do I live beyond my own heartaches, headaches, and obsessions so as to help make other peoples’ lives more meaningful? The intent of this book is to try to address exactly those questions: How can we live less self- centered, more mature lives? What constitutes deep maturity and how do we reach that place? And, not unimportantly, what constitutes a more adult, Christian discipleship? What constitutes a truly mature following of Jesus?” As the poet Rainer Maria Rilke suggests, “Live the questions now.” In Sacred Fire, Rolheiser’s deeply affecting prose urges us on in pursuit of the most holy of all passions—a deep and lasting intimacy with God.

A new collection of short stories by a master of the form with a common focus on the turmoils of romantic love Ready! Aim! On command the firing squad aims at the man backed against a full-length mirror. The mirror once hung in a bedroom, but now it's cracked and propped against a dumpster in an alley. The condemned man has refused the customary last cigarette but accepted as a hood the black slip that was carelessly tossed over a corner of the mirror's frame. The slip still smells faintly of a familiar fragrance. So begins "Tosca," the first in this vivid collection of Stuart Dybek's love stories. Operatically dramatic and intimately lyrical, grittily urban and impressionistically natural, the varied fictions in Paper Lantern all focus on the turmoil of love as only Dybek can portray it. An execution triggers the recollection of a theatrical romance; then a social worker falls for his own client; and lovers part as giddily, perhaps as hopelessly, as a kid trying to hang on to a boisterous kite. A flaming laboratory evokes a steamy midnight drive across terrain both familiar and strange, and an eerily ringing phone becomes the telltale signature of a dark betrayal. Each story is marked with contagious desire, spontaneous revelation, and, ultimately, resigned courage. As one woman whispers when she sets a notebook filled with her sketches drifting out to sea, "Someone will find you." Some of Dybek's characters recur in these stories, while others appear only briefly. Throughout, they—and we—are confronted with vaguely familiar scents and images, reminiscent of love but strangely disconcerting, so that we might wonder whether we are looking in a mirror or down the barrel of a gun. "After the ragged discharge," Dybek writes, "when the smoke has cleared, who will be left standing and who will be shattered into shards?" Paper Lantern brims with the intoxicating elixirs known to every love-struck, lovelorn heart, and it marks the magnificent return of one of America's most important fiction writers at the height of his powers.

Ronald Rolheiser makes sense of what is frequently a misunderstood word: spirituality. In posing the question "What is spirituality?" Father Rolheiser gets quickly to the heart of common difficulties with the subject, and shows through compelling anecdotes and personal examples how to channel that restlessness, that deep desire, into a healthy spirituality. This book is for those searching to understand what Christian spirituality means and how to apply it to their own lives. Rolheiser explains the nonnegotiables--the importance of community worship, the imperatives surrounding social action, the centrality of the Incarnation, the sustenance of the spiritual life--and how spirituality necessarily impacts every aspect of human experience. At the core of this readable, deeply revealing book is an explanation of God and the Church in a world that more often than not doubts the credibility of both.

A thoughtful exploration of loneliness, in the tradition of Henri Nouwen's classic Reaching Out. Loneliness may be more pervasive now than at any other time in human history. Cell phones and "instant messaging" not withstanding, our longing for meaningful connections seems to increase in direct proportion to our accessibility. In The Restless Heart, Ronald Rolheiser identifies different types of loneliness and discusses the dangers and opportunities they represent in our lives. Using contemporary parables from literature, film, and his own life, he shows that loneliness can be a tremendously creative and even valuable force when it is recognized, accepted and used as a dynamic catalyst. With his trademark clarity of vision, honesty, and intelligence, Rolheiser offers a distinctively Christian approach to living an examined, involved life and presents suggestions that will free readers to discover greater meaning and fulfillment in their own lives.

Rolheiser points readers to the proximity of God in the seeming insignificance of life. He sheds new light on issues such as marriage and family life and the presence of God, loneliness and sexuality, language and prayer, and most of all, the all-encompassing, unconditional love of God.