This Sacred Life

This Sacred Life redescribes the meaning of this world and the value and purpose of human life within it.

Winner of 5 national awards, Recipes for a Sacred Life is now available in a new, expanded edition. "Recipes for a Sacred Life left us moved—and changed. Wise, poignant, funny, and inspiring."—Redbook ON A DARK WINTER NIGHT with little to do, Rivvy Neshama took a "Find Your Highest Purpose" quiz. And the funny thing was, she found it: to live a sacred life. Problem was, she didn't know how. But she set out to learn. And in the weeks and months that followed, she began to remember and encounter all the people and experiences featured in this book-from her father's jokes to her mother's prayers, from Billie in Harlem to a stranger in Salzburg, and from warm tortillas to the humble oatmeal. Each became a story, like a recipe passed down, beginning with her mother and her simple toast to life. NESHAMA'S TRUE TALES, a memoir of sorts, are filled with love, warmth, and timeless wisdom. They ground us, and they lift us up. They make us laugh, and they make us cry. And most of all, they connect us more deeply with the grace and meaning of our lives. "Exquisite storytelling. Written in the spirit of Elizabeth Gilbert or Anne Lamott, Neshama's stories (and a few miracles) are uplifting, witty, and wise." —Publishers Weekly "Rivvy's bite-sized stories will make you nod with deepest knowing. It's a magical companion."—HuffPost "Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a guide to happiness? Recipes for a Sacred Life is the closest thing I've found. Powerful. Inspiring. About adding love and joy to the everyday."—First for Women magazine

A delightful, inspiring, and empowering board book about connecting with nature and celebrating life from New York Times bestselling author-illustrator Kim Krans. Hello Sacred Life introduces little ones to the sun, moon, the five elements, and big-picture concepts that children will hold dear to their hearts forever. Equally likely to be spotted on a nursery bookshelf as styled on a grown-up coffee table, Hello Sacred Life is a book for all of us, visual poem in honor of life’s great mysteries.

Imagio DeiIgnatius ExamenSpiritual PilgrimagePrayer BeadsLectio DivinaThese ancient Christian practices might not be well known or commonly practiced in your local church. You may have never heard of some of them before, but these spiritual disciplines have been a vital part of the Christian faith for centuries.As a handbook to the spiritual practices and prayers of the early Church, Sacred Life will challenge you to take part in an experiment in discipline. These spiritual disciplines will allow you to experient God’s grace in new and profound ways, moving you forward in the journey to become more like Christ.

Winner NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS in Contemporary Jewish Life & Practice Myra H. Kraft Memorial Award A crucial new lens on repentance, atonement, forgiveness, and repair from harm—from personal transgressions to our culture’s most painful and unresolved issues American culture focuses on letting go of grudges and redemption narratives instead of the perpetrator’s obligations or recompense for harmed parties. As survivor communities have pointed out, these emphases have too often only caused more harm. But Danya Ruttenberg knew there was a better model, rooted in the work of the medieval philosopher Maimonides. For Maimonides, upon whose work Ruttenberg elaborates, forgiveness is much less important than the repair work to which the person who caused harm is obligated. The word traditionally translated as repentance really means something more like return, and in this book, returning is a restoration, as much as is possible, to the victim, and, for the perpetrator of harm, a coming back, in humility and intentionality, to behaving as the person we might like to believe we are. Maimonides laid out 5 steps: naming and owning harm; starting to change/transformation; restitution and accepting consequences; apology; and making different choices. Applying this lens to both our personal relationships and some of the most significant and painful issues of our day, including systemic racism and the legacy of enslavement, sexual violence and harassment in the wake of #MeToo, and Native American land rights, On Repentance and Repair helps us envision a way forward. Rooted in traditional Jewish concepts while doggedly accessible and available to people from any, or no, religious background, On Repentance and Repair is a book for anyone who cares about creating a country and culture that is more whole than the one in which we live, and for anyone who has been hurt or who is struggling to take responsibility for their mistakes.

A book about empowering people with a connection to the land and spirit. There are powerful meditation exercises to expand consciousness and prepare you for spirit contact using neo-shamanic techniques. There are many insights and exercises to protect your energy and unwind belief systems to create inner calm and awareness.

In Search of the Sacred Book studies the artistic incorporation of religious concepts such as prophecy, eternity, and the afterlife in the contemporary Latin American novel. It departs from sociopolitical readings by noting the continued relevance of religion in Latin American life and culture, despite modernity’s powerful secularizing influence. Analyzing Jorge Luis Borges’s secularized “narrative theology” in his essays and short stories, the book follows the development of the Latin American novel from the early twentieth century until today by examining the attempts of major novelists, from María Luisa Bombal, Alejo Carpentier, and Juan Rulfo, to Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and José Lezama Lima, to “sacralize” the novel by incorporating traits present in the sacred texts of many religions. It concludes with a view of the “desacralization” of the novel by more recent authors, from Elena Poniatowska and Fernando Vallejo to Roberto Bolaño.

Drawing from a variety of religious teachings, anthropological evidence and myths and legends from around the world, this book examines how the essential element water plays a vital role in all aspects of our spiritual lives.