The Unlikely Priest

The Unlikely Priest PDF Author: J. Perry Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780983966906
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
From Appalachia to California, from Mexico to the jungles of Vietnam to Central America and Europe, from frozen Minnesota to the Atlanta Olympics and steamy Puerto Rico, this is a remarkable story of a man who led many lives - bullfighter, Trappist monk, U.S. Army counterintelligence agent, CIA operative, FBI Agent and finally...Episcopal priest. The author tells of close encounters with bulls, Viet Cong, spies and thugs, bank robbers, famous officials and movie stars, and just-in-the-nick escapes from Mexico and Central America. He also tells a more personal story of broken trusts and abandonment... a story of a secret adoption and the author's relentless search to find the truth and a biological family. The author mustered all of his investigative skills and instincts to finally discover his biological roots. It was, however, ultimately his faith and hope that sustained him in the search for himself, and his one true father, God. A successful high-level government careerist, Perry wrote this memoir to inspire others to risk a life of service. In a time of national self-doubt and cynicism, this book offers an optimistic and inspired view of serving God and others, especially the nation.

The Unlikely Priest

The Unlikely Priest PDF Author: J. Perry Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780983966906
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
From Appalachia to California, from Mexico to the jungles of Vietnam to Central America and Europe, from frozen Minnesota to the Atlanta Olympics and steamy Puerto Rico, this is a remarkable story of a man who led many lives - bullfighter, Trappist monk, U.S. Army counterintelligence agent, CIA operative, FBI Agent and finally...Episcopal priest. The author tells of close encounters with bulls, Viet Cong, spies and thugs, bank robbers, famous officials and movie stars, and just-in-the-nick escapes from Mexico and Central America. He also tells a more personal story of broken trusts and abandonment... a story of a secret adoption and the author's relentless search to find the truth and a biological family. The author mustered all of his investigative skills and instincts to finally discover his biological roots. It was, however, ultimately his faith and hope that sustained him in the search for himself, and his one true father, God. A successful high-level government careerist, Perry wrote this memoir to inspire others to risk a life of service. In a time of national self-doubt and cynicism, this book offers an optimistic and inspired view of serving God and others, especially the nation.

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert PDF Author: Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781884527821
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
"Rosaria, by the standards of many, was living a very good life. She had a tenured position at a large university in a field for which she cared deeply. She owned two homes with her partner, in which they provided hospitality to students and activists that were looking to make a difference in the world. In the community, Rosaria was involved in volunteer work. At the university, she was a respected advisor of students and her department's curriculum. And then, in her late 30s, Rosaria encountered something that turned her world upside down -- the idea that Christianity, a religion that she had regarded as problematic and sometimes downright damaging, might be right about who God was. That idea seemed to fly in the face of the people and causes that she most loved. What follows is a story of what she describes as a train wreck at the hand of the supernatural. These are her secret thoughts about those events, written as only a reflective English professor could."--Back cover.

Grave Reservations

Grave Reservations PDF Author: Cherie Priest
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982168900
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"Meet Leda Foley; Devoted friend, struggling travel agent, sometime psychic. When Leda, proprietor of Foley's Flights of Fancy, books Seattle PD Grady Merritt on a flight back from Orlando, she does not expect it to change her life. When Grady watches the plane he was set to travel on catch fire while he remains safely in the airport, he seeks out Leda, and despite her rather scattershot premonitions, he enlists her help in investigating a cold case he just can't crack. But Leda has her own reasons for helping: her fiancé Tod was murdered under mysterious circumstances several years ago. Her psychic abilities weren't good then, but now she's been honing them at her favorite bar's open-mic nights, where she draws a crowd klairvoyant karaoke-singing whatever song comes to mind after holding other patrons' personal effects. With a rag-tag group of bar patrons and friends, Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer--and find that the two cases that haunt them may have more in common than they think"--

The Saint Makers

The Saint Makers PDF Author: Joe Drape
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 0316268801
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Part biography of a wartime adventurer, part detective story, and part faith journey, this intriguing book from a New York Times journalist and bestselling author takes us inside the modern-day making of a saint. The Saint Makers chronicles the unlikely alliance between Father Hotze and Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, a country priest and a cosmopolitan Italian canon lawyer, as the two piece together the life of a long dead Korean War hero and military chaplain and fashion it into a case for eternal divinity. Joe Drape offers a front row seat to the Catholic Church's saint-making machinery—which, in many ways, has changed little in two thousand years-and examines how, or if, faith and science can co-exist. This rich and unique narrative leads from the plains of Kansas to the opulent halls of the Vatican, through brutal Korean War prison camps, and into the stories of two individuals, Avery Gerleman and Chase Kear, whose lives were threatened by illness and injury and whose family and friends prayed to Father Kapaun, sparking miraculous recoveries in the heart of America. Gerleman is now a nurse, and Kear works as a mechanic in the aerospace industry. Both remain devoted to Father Kapaun, whose opportunity for sainthood relies in their belief and medical charts. At a time when the church has faced severe scandal and damage, and the world is at the mercy of a pandemic, this is an uplifting story about a priest who continues to an example of goodness and faith. Ultimately, The Saint Makers is the story of a journey of faith—for two priests separated by seventy years, for the two young athletes who were miraculously brought back to life with (or without) the intercession of the divine, as well as for readers—and the author—trying to understand and accept what makes a person truly worthy of the Congregation of Saints in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

Under the Overpass

Under the Overpass PDF Author: Mike Yankoski
Publisher: Multnomah
ISBN: 030756343X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
An updated and expanded edition of the gritty, challenging, and utterly captivating portait of the homeless crisis. Ever Wonder What it Would Be Like to Live Homeless? Mike Yankoski did more than just wonder. By his own choice, Mike's life went from upper-middle class plush to scum-of-the-earth repulsive overnight. With only a backpack, a sleeping bag and a guitar, Mike and his traveling companion, Sam, set out to experience life on the streets in six different cities—from Washington D.C. to San Diego— and they put themselves to the test. For more than five months the pair experienced firsthand the extreme pains of hunger, the constant uncertainty and danger of living on the streets, exhaustion, depression, and social rejection—and all of this by their own choice. They wanted to find out if their faith was real, if they could actually be the Christians they said they were apart from the comforts they’d always known…to discover first hand what it means to be homeless in America. What you encounter in these pages will radically alter how you see your world—and may even change your life.

Confessions of a Gay Married Priest

Confessions of a Gay Married Priest PDF Author: Maurice Monette
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615743851
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
A Roman Catholic priest struggles to remain committed to his vows, live authentically as a gay person and find intimacy. His social activism throws him into doubt about dogma and, after 30 years of church leadership, inspires a leap beyond the bounds of conventional religion and into the passionate embrace of a bigger God. This deeply personal story, perhaps a modern-day cross between The Prophet and The Thornbirds, invites readers - spiritual seekers as well as those alienated from religion - into a sacred space to explore their own journeys and make sense of the human longing to trust in something beyond the self.

Acts of Forgiveness

Acts of Forgiveness PDF Author: Ted Karpf
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476679592
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
In 1980s America, coming out as gay as a father and husband was a significant journey for anyone to make. Coming out as gay as a priest guaranteed immersion into controversy, contradiction, and challenge. This book tells of the Reverend Canon Ted Karpf's navigation of new social and romantic journeys, all within the context of his priestly vocation in the Episcopal Church. Covering from 1968 to 2018, Karpf recounts his vivid memories, life-changing dreams and resonant reflections on living a life of faith in a socially and politically tumultuous period. His narratives are crafted as poetic meditations on enduring values and meaning, which can remind any reader that we are neither abandoned nor alone, and that forgiveness is a fulfilling way of living in a world of contradictions.

Priestdaddy

Priestdaddy PDF Author: Patricia Lockwood
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 069818839X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR NAMED ONE OF THE 50 BEST MEMOIRS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS BY THE NEW YORK TIMES SELECTED AS A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: The Washington Post * Elle * NPR * New York Magazine * Boston Globe * Nylon * Slate * The Cut * The New Yorker * Chicago Tribune WINNER OF THE THURBER PRIZE FOR AMERICAN HUMOR “Affectionate and very funny . . . wonderfully grounded and authentic. This book proves Lockwood to be a formidably gifted writer who can do pretty much anything she pleases.” – The New York Times Book Review From Booker Prize finalist Patricia Lockwood, author of the novel No One Is Talking About This, a vivid, heartbreakingly funny memoir about balancing identity with family and tradition. Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met—a man who lounges in boxer shorts, loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates “like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972.” His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the Church’s country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents’ rectory, their two worlds collide. In Priestdaddy, Lockwood interweaves emblematic moments from her childhood and adolescence—from an ill-fated family hunting trip and an abortion clinic sit-in where her father was arrested to her involvement in a cultlike Catholic youth group—with scenes that chronicle the eight-month adventure she and her husband had in her parents’ household after a decade of living on their own. Lockwood details her education of a seminarian who is also living at the rectory, tries to explain Catholicism to her husband, who is mystified by its bloodthirstiness and arcane laws, and encounters a mysterious substance on a hotel bed with her mother. Lockwood pivots from the raunchy to the sublime, from the comic to the deeply serious, exploring issues of belief, belonging, and personhood. Priestdaddy is an entertaining, unforgettable portrait of a deeply odd religious upbringing, and how one balances a hard-won identity with the weight of family and tradition.

Renewing You

Renewing You PDF Author: Nicholas G. Louh
Publisher: Ancient Faith Publishing
ISBN: 9781944967840
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Are you struggling in your walk with Christ? Do you want to rediscover your reason for living, the person you were created to be? Renewing You: A Priest, a Psychologist, and a Plan gives you the keys to unlock areas of your life that hold you back from fully experiencing the renewal and transformation God has in mind for you. Co-authored by a priest and a psychologist, Renewing You combines principles of spiritual growth with psychological tools to help you become your best self, fully connected with God's purpose for you.

Unexpected Journey

Unexpected Journey PDF Author: Maha Kallas
Publisher: WestBow Press
ISBN: 1490828257
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Head down the road to Emma's house. You'll quickly get caught up in the vibrant story of her family. Emma always dreamed of escaping her dominant father. She finally left her family to live a life of happiness beyond compare with her handsome husband, the powerful warrior Arthur. But one day, Emma found herself disoriented, as if an earthquake was shaking the ground beneath her feet. The people around her became unrecognizable and everyone turned against her for the crime she had committed--giving birth to twin girls, Alice and Rose. Soon, destiny gave her a second chance at happiness when her twin sons, Albert and Fred, were born. But Emma's life was still a roller coaster, and what if it broke down forever? She realized eventually that trouble is unavoidable while misery is optional. When fate gave Emma the chance to be her own commander, she held the reins of power tightly till the last moment of her life. Even though life's thunder and lightning struck Emma and her family over and over without mercy, she built her own dynasty and trained her sons to be the pillars of it. Meanwhile, Emma's granddaughter Mary--that little baby no one expected would live--succeeded against all odds and grew up to be her grandmother's undeclared treasure.