Books - (also see Inspirational Books)

The remarkable success of the book A Pastor's Toolbox: Management Skills for Parish Leadership has demonstrated that the demands of time and financial challenges continue to impact the work of today's parish leaders. The need has become even greater for practical tools to assist in the many aspects of temporal administration, leadership, and church management.

This follow-up volume provides all new information, insights, and practical tools that pastors need to handle the complexities of parish management in the twenty-first century. Sixteen contributors from across the country deliver key content that focuses on promoting excellence and best practices in the areas of management, finances, communications, and human resources development. A Pastor's Toolbox 2 provides: 

• leadership tools for the pastor and his team;
• help for working with the parish's pastoral and finance councils;
• intercultural competence and complex pastoring situations;
• suggestions for time management and effective meetings;
• human resources, change management, and canon law;
• tools for parish stewardship, communications, and Catholic schools.

The book is an outgrowth of the Toolbox for Pastoral Management, a nationally recognized joint project of Leadership Roundtable and Seton Hall University. Learn more at www.LeadershipRoundtable.org.

Author: Paul A. Holmes, Editor

Details: 186 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 07/03/2017

Today's parish leaders are expected to be holy and prayerful spiritual guides, great preachers and compassionate confessors, but also to make important decisions in key areas like finance, budgeting, hiring and firing, fundraising, risk management, relationship-building, and more-often with virtually no transition or training. And with all the requisite education in philosophy and theology they must provide future pastors, in addition to formation in priestly spirituality and pastoral care, seminaries can do little to prepare priests to deal with the difficult temporal issues pastors face.

A Pastor's Toolbox is designed to help fill that void. It is loaded with valuable information, insights, and practical tools that pastors need in order to begin handling the complexities of parish management in the twenty-first century.

The book is an outgrowth of The Toolbox for Pastoral Management, a nationally recognized joint project of The National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management and Seton Hall University. The Leadership Roundtable is a nonprofit organization of Catholic lay leaders, religious, and clergy working together to promote excellence and best practices in the management, finances, communications, and human resources development of the Catholic Church in the U.S. through the greater incorporation of the expertise of the laity. Learn more at www.TheLeadershipRoundtable.org.

Author: Paul A. Holmes, Editor

Details: 190 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/28/2014

Like its predecessor, this revised edition of The Ministry of Music explores liturgical singing in terms of how it enables the gathered assembly to enter more fully into ritual enactment of the paschal mystery. The "whats" and "how-tos" of music ministry are developed from this perspective. How does communal liturgical singing enable us to participate in and surrender to the paschal mystery? What musical and pastoral choices best enable the singing to fulfill this role? And how does the singing form us in a paschal mystery spirituality that shapes daily Christian living and makes the relationship between liturgy and life more evident?

This edition incorporates new understandings of the ministry of liturgical music generated by Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship (STL). New material addresses the underlying theology shaping STL, provides schemas for using both the Proper chants and vernacular songs at the Entrance and Communion, discusses the value of singing the dialogues, and explores silence as a necessary component of music-making and liturgical prayer.

Author: Kathleen Harmon, SNDdeN

104 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/19/2016

Joyce Ann Zimmerman's The Ministry of Liturgical Environment has served as a reliable and inspiring resource for parish liturgy committees, liturgy directors, and clergy for more than a decade. It is an insightful and practical guide to preparing an inviting sacred space that reflects and enhances the community's valued principles. Contemporary and complete, it considers the physical location of our worship, from assembly seating, color usage, and liturgical accouterments to ministers' and assembly's dress. This fully revised edition includes new content, a new structure, and updates based on ecclesial documents published since the publication of the previous edition. Anyone involved in liturgical ministry will want to keep it close at hand.

Author: Joyce Ann Zimmerman, CPPS

104 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/19/2016

Emphasizing both spiritual and practical preparation, this book will help both experienced and beginning lectors develop their understanding of the ministry of proclaiming the word of God as well as the skills needed to do it well. Wallace offers insight to various aspects of the lector's work (job, ministry, vocation), and reflects on the mystery of God who speaks to--and through--us in the Word. It includes an accessible explanation of important concepts related to the Lectionary and the liturgy, ideas for spiritual preparation before serving as lector, concrete guidance for ongoing skill development, and a handy pronunciation guide.

Author: James A. Wallace, CSsR

104 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 02/10/2017

The Ministry of Servers is a simple and concise, yet comprehensive, guide for altar servers and their instructors. This book will be easily understood by children who fulfill this essential ministry to God and God's people.

Author: Michael Kwatera, OSB

48 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/19/2016

The Ministry of Communion offers practical advice and vital theology for eucharistic ministers. Updated with the latest liturgical laws and norms, and with an expanded section on leading Communion services, this book is an excellent guide for both those who serve God's people and those who help them prepare for the ministry.

Author: Michael Kwatera, OSB

56 pgs , 5 3/8 X 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/18/2016

The Ministry of Cantors has long been a valuable resource for music ministry formation. This new edition includes valuable insights from Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship. The revised edition addresses more fully the distinction between the roles of psalmist and cantor, suggests further concrete ways a paschal mystery spirituality must undergird both roles, and offers practical insights for helping one discern the call to be a cantor. New content also explores the power of the psalms to transform those singing into the kind of persons God is calling them to be.

As with the first edition, this new book does not present the "how-tos" of vocal technique, warm-up exercises, diction principles, etc. Instead, The Ministry of Cantors focuses on what the cantor is doing beneath vocal technique: surrendering self to the dying and rising of the paschal mystery. The aim of the book is to help cantors delve more deeply into who they are and who they are becoming through their ministry: the Body of Christ pouring self out in voice, breath, and prayer for the life of the world.

Author: Kathleen Harmon, SNDdeN

96 pgs , 5 3/8 X 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/19/2016

Ministering as a catechist is one of the highest callings within the church. Your "yes" to this calling for whatever reason needs to be affirmed and supported by an understanding of the ministry of catechesis, your role as minister, the audience to whom you are ministering, and the art of this ministry. Carrie Sallwasser offers an overview of the ministry of religious education for novice and veteran catechists alike that will aid in their ongoing formation as catechists in the ministry of forming disciples.

Author: Carrie Sallwasser

88 pgs, Paperback

Publication Date: 03/15/2016

Many who come to Sunday Mass or other liturgical celebrations are not one of the formal ministers (presider, greeters, acolytes, lectors, etc.). This book is about helping everyone at liturgy understand that being there and serving one another so that liturgy is fruitful for all is a ministry. This is what we may call the ministry of the assembly.

In some respects the ministry of the assembly is the most important ministry of all because it makes visible the church, the Body of Christ, by its very gathering together as one Body. As liturgical assembly, it makes present the celebration of the paschal mystery and Christ's ongoing mystery of salvation. Being a liturgical assembly is a privilege of our baptismal identity and the first way we live it out. The Ministry of the Assembly is a new book in the Collegeville Ministry series. Its five chapters address the being of the liturgical assembly, what the assembly does during liturgy, why being a liturgical assembly is so important, the configuration of the liturgical assembly in its own place, and a spirituality of the liturgical assembly.

Author: Joyce Ann Zimmerman

80 pgs , 5 3/8 X 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 01/09/2016

Instead of being a dour task on the checklist, what if the process of homily prep renewed you? Instead of feeling insecure about your message, what if your skills made you confident to preach a consistently clear message of Good News, authentic to you, relevant to your listeners, holding their attention and inviting transformation? Backstory Preaching: Integrating Life, Spirituality, and Craft shows you how.

By integrating your life and spirituality with the practical skills necessary for effective preaching, you can move beyond the boredom, stress, or insecurity of preaching so it is no longer you who preach but Christ who preaches in you. By connecting with God in the midst of your sermon prep, the Gospel will be spread deeper and further. God's joyand yourswill be made complete.

Author: Lisa Cressman

172 pgs , 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 05/23/2018

The fifty-six essays in this book present cultural reflections on the gospel reading assigned for each Sunday in Cycle C of the Roman Lectionary. Each essay highlights aspects of the first-century, Eastern Mediterranean cultural world in which Jesus lived and suggests a cross-cultural comparison with contemporary Western culture. With this background information, readers can make more fitting applications of the Scripture to modern life situations.

By John J Pilch

5-3/8 x 8-1/4 paperback 184 pages

Reflections on Lectionary Readings for Cycle C by Dr. Dianne Bergant, CSA

A well-known biblical scholar presents thought-provoking reflections on the lectionary readings for each Sunday and feast for the Year of Luke.

Paperback 200 pages

Cycle C of this three-volume work of reflections on the liturgical readings for Sundays and Holy Days rounds out Father Krempa's series with meditations based largely on the Gospel of Luke which plays such a prominent role in the Cycle.   As such, emphasis has been placed on the Lord's kindness, compassion, predilection for the poor, the outcast, the sick and the sinner.   Intended for the "average" Sunday congregation, these brief thoughts exemplify how to apply the best scripture scholarship to practical, everyday problems.  

199 pages

In concluding his 3-volume series of reflections on the Sunday Gospels, Father Dowling throws light in a special way on the nuances to be found in the Gospel of Luke, which plays such a predominant role in Cycle C of the liturgical readings. With Luke there is always more than meets the eye or ear when initially encountered. These meditations reveal what we otherwise might well have missed. Ever gender-conscious in his presentation of the teachings of Jesus, Luke made a special effort to follow a lesson in which a man was the protagonist with another in which a woman took the lead. Struck by Our Lord €™s predilection for the poor, the outcast, the sick and the sinner, Luke portrays the kindness, the compassion, the empathy and the forgiving nature of Jesus in a way that is unique to his Gospel. Drawing on his years of study and long experience as a homilist in a variety of settings, Father Dowling educates and inspires with these brief yet profound reflections in the hope of enriching the spiritual lives of those who make use of them. Homilist and average parishioner will find much to ponder here. All will appreciate the addition of the topical, liturgical and scriptural indices to his three-volume series present in this third book.

Pages 271

In this volume, Father Smith rounds out his three-year cycle of practical, pertinent and popular reflections on the Word of God proclaimed from the pulpit each Sunday. Following his own advice he has kept his homilies short and to-the-point with brief, illustrated and often humorous stories which emphasize the main theme of the liturgical readings of the day. €œPreaching, €� he tells us, €œmust be the fruit of the preacher €™s own prayed experience €¦[and] a good homily always serves up something to think about, something to emote over, something to aspire to, something to smile at, and something to believe. Most of all, it provides a truth of faith to live by €�. These Sunday homilies succeed remarkably well in doing all these things.

Pages 251

This resource provides invaluable commentary on the Lectionary readings for Year C (including the Responsorial Psalm) for Sundays, holydays of obligation, and feasts and solemnities that may occur on a Sunday. Written in a pastoral tone, it offers historical-critical background on each of the readings and underscores their relevance to life today. Thematically related quotations from major Church documents are included with each Scripture background to provide context and connections to Church teaching. Organized by the liturgical calendar, each season of readings begins with an overview of the season and a brief look at where the readings come from and any unifying messages or themes present throughout the selected readings. Scripture Backgrounds for the Sunday Lectionary, Year C is written by a team of writers with a broad range of theological, pastoral, and catechetical experience. Their reflections offer homilists a solid foundation from which to begin the process of preparing to speak the Word of God to their assemblies.

Author contributors: Mary A. Ehle; Peg Ekerdt; Jean Marie Hiesberger; Biagio Mazza; Mary M. Mcglone, csj; Abbot Gregory J. Polan, caps">osb; Denise Simeone; George Smiga; Paul Turner

Paperback 6x9 308 pages

This is a book of short homilies on the Gospels for the Sundays and celebrations of Year C. The homilies concentrate on the core message of the Gospel and are catechetical in approach. They make a wonderful companion and guide for those who prepare the homilies as well as those who want further reflection on what they hear at Mass.

Paperback 6x9 160 pages

In recent years there has been an intensified focus on the development of discipleship-based parish ministries especially in the Catholic Church. Making disciples is the great and enduring Commission Jesus gave to the Church in Matthew 28:19.

In this book, Monsignor Mueggenborg presents a simple resource that can help enrich the faith lives of parishioners and assist them in becoming missionary disciples. These reflections are based on the Gospel readings assigned to a given Sunday in liturgical year C.

Each reflection identifies some significant elements in the Gospel passage followed by application questions that challenge a disciple's faith life. The reflections are designed for use in either small group bible studies or as a resource for individual prayer and contemplation. The reflections intentionally start with the brevity and simplicity of Advent before developing into more complex explorations of the biblical text as the year progresses. The Word of God is alive, powerful, and sharper than a two edged sword (Heb 4:12). Come Follow Me is a tried and proven resource that helps to unleash the power of the Word in the hearts of Christ's disciples.

Paperback 6x9 292 pages

Whether you preach from a pulpit or sit in a pew, you hope (and pray) for a homily that connects the Good News with life. But what does it mean to connect? In a world that buzzes with the synapses of technological "connection," can the human touch of preaching make a difference anymore?

Connecting Pulpit and Pew is a fresh look at the conundrum of Catholic preaching, asking six key questions:

• Why does Sunday preaching matter and to whom?
• Why is Catholic preaching such an uphill climb?
• How can we connect the Gospel message with our young people?
• What are the struggles of clergy-on-the-ground in preaching?
• What is going on in the listener's head during the homily?
• And finally, what can each of us do to help "connection" in preaching become more common?

New research speaks to those questions from the voices of youth, the experiences of lay leaders, and the words of priests and deacons. Karla Bellinger offers concrete ways to connect the pulpit and the pew so that preaching becomes an act of love within a community of caring. This practical book breaks open an important and necessary conversation.

Author: Karla J. Bellinger

Details: 190 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 05/08/2014

In June of 2012, an astounding 360 people gathered at the University of Notre Dame for a major conference on Catholic preaching. With contributions by a wide variety of theologians and practitioners, We Preach Christ Crucified gathers the fruits of those days spent reflecting on the importance of the preaching ministry. Its release is timely, given the US bishops' promulgation of a new document on preaching, Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily (January, 2013), and the renewed emphasis on preaching by both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

The challenges facing Christian preachers in our time are many and formidable ones. The authors in this collection take a fresh look at the task, the resources at hand, the contemporary context, and the preacher. The result is a refreshing and stunningly hopeful reconsideration of an ancient ministry.

We Preach Christ Crucified includes:

• Preface by Michael E. Connors, CSC
• We Preach a Living Word by Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, MSpS
• Feasting at the Table of the Word: From Dei Verbum to Verbum Domini by Mary Catherine Hilkert, OP
• New Perspectives on Preaching from Verbum Domini by Fr. Jeremy Driscoll, OSB
• Preaching from and for the Liturgy: A Practical Guide by Fr. Jan Michael Joncas
• Preaching and Catechesis: Mending the Rift between Scripture and Doctrine by John C. Cavadini
• The New Evangelization and the New Media by Fr. Robert Barron
• The Challenge of Fulfilled in Your Hearing to Interpret Life in the Light of the Word by Theresa Rickard, OP
• "This Intimate Link"-The Ecumenical Contribution of Fulfilled in Your Hearing by Craig A. Satterlee
• Unfulfilled in Our Hearing, or, Why Can't Our Newly Ordained Priest Preach? by Fr. Tom Margevicius
• Preaching Hope in Times of Polarization by Susan McGurgan
• African American Contributions to Our American Catholic Preaching Challenge by Maurice J. Nutt, CSsR
• Becoming a Cross-cultural Preacher by Kenneth G. Davis, OFM Conv
• Preaching Among the Poor: A Panel of Holy Cross Priests by Fr. Joseph Corpora, CSC; Fr. Bill Wack, CSC; and Fr. Ronald Raab, CSC
• New Directions in the Funeral and Wedding Homily: The Preacher as the Minister of Hospitality of the Kingdom of God by Guerric DeBona, OSB
• Preaching and Children by Ann Garrido
• The Challenges Ahead for Catholic Preaching in the Twenty-first Century by Archbishop Robert J. Carlson
• Afterword: A Living Word of Hope for the Whatever Generation by Michael E. Connors, CSC

Editor: Michael Connors, CSC

Details: 252 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 02/04/2014

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has encouraged, inspired, and delighted those who have heard him preach. Especially fascinating have been his plain-spoken and insightful weekday morning Mass homilies. He has also offered the church a substantial contribution on the theory and practice of homiletics in a large section of his first major teaching document, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). In The Preaching of Pope Francis, Gregory Heille, OP, introduces readers to the pope's preaching, his insights about the preaching vocation of the ordained, and his call to all the baptized to go to the margins as missionary disciples and evangelists of the Word.

Heille, a highly regarded professor of homiletics and preacher himself, offers an inspiring and practical resource for priests, deacons, and anyone involved in the ministry of preaching. He shares the pope's vision and example for the preparation and delivery of effective and engaging homilies and for laity invested in the church's ministry of the Word in a post-Vatican II pastoral context.

Author: Gregory Heille, OP

Details: 96 pgs, 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 02/19/2015

What should preachers aim for in Sunday preaching? In 1982, the USCCB document Fulfilled in Your Hearing: The Homily in the Sunday Assembly answered this question. Here, in a pastoral commentary on Fulfilled in Your Hearing, several Catholic scholars in homiletics, liturgy, and biblical studies both appreciate the abiding insights of Fulfilled in Your Hearing and also propose areas for continuing reflection. Following the four sections of the Bishops' document, The Assembly, The Preacher, The Homily, and Homiletic Method, this commentary emphasizes the document's continuing importance for the initial and ongoing formation of Catholic liturgical preachers, while also inviting conversation about present-day cross-cultural, liturgical, and communication concerns for Catholic preaching.

Priests, deacons, seminarians, bishops, and all others engaged in the preaching task are invited to deepen their appreciation of the homily's unique role in the liturgical life of the church and to stir their enthusiasm for preaching and preaching preparation.

Edited by James A. Wallace, CSsR

Details: 136 pgs , 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 11/01/2010

Thomas Scirghi, SJ, has trained priests, deacons, and lay ecclesial ministers in the art and theology of preaching for decades. In Longing to See Your Face, he makes his insights and experience accessible to a much wider audience.

Scirghi begins with a discussion of the purpose of preaching and offers a theological sounding on proclamation, taking up several descriptions of the role of the preacher in relation to the congregation. He also addresses current theological issues for the contemporary preacher. The second part of the book discusses the practical matter of preparing to preach and proposes a method of preparation by following a pattern of reflection, research, writing, and rehearsing. The third part focuses on two specific sacramental celebrations: funerals and weddings.

Author: Thomas Scirghi, SJ

Details: 130 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 03/08/2017

The church's cycle of scriptural readings for the liturgy offers believers an opportunity to immerse themselves in the word of God. It is a very real and tangible way of responding to the call of Jesus: "Remain in me, as I remain in you."

In Abiding Word, Barbara Reid, OP, takes the Sunday experience to every day with accessible weekly meditations on the Lectionary readings of the year. This collection of articles, which includes Scripture readings for Sundays and solemnities followed by reflections, allows readers to meditate on the connection between the sacred text and their daily lives. Living with the word day by day invites us into a closer relationship with Christ, the God who became flesh.

Author: Barbara Reid, OP

Details: 136 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 08/01/2012

In Good News, Darrin Snyder Belousek explores the meaning of salvation in the Gospel of Luke. Through biblical reflections on the stories and songs of Luke's telling of the coming of Jesus the Messiah, this book explains the manifold message of "good news." Fully accessible to laypersons yet substantially informed by biblical scholarship, keenly aware of spiritual concerns and passionately engaged with social issues, this book offers a vision of salvation that is grounded in grace and nurtured by prayer, relevant to both the spiritual and the social, and inseparable from doing justice and seeking peace.

Author: Darrin W. Snyder Belousek

Details: 154 pgs, 5 3/8 x 8 1/4 Paperback

Publication Date: 04/07/2014

The Lectionary is made up of selected passages from the Bible, placed within a literary and liturgical context. This new context calls for a consideration of the liturgical character and setting of the Lectionary readings. Preaching the New Lectionary: Year C, offers readers that interpretation.

Preaching the New Lectionary is unique. First, it employs a literary-liturgical way of interpreting all the readings of each Sunday and major feast of the liturgical year, including the often overlooked responsorial psalm. Second, it explicitly situates the interpretation of each day within the theology of its respective liturgical season. This theology is drawn from the specific themes of the readings that comprise that particular year rather than from more general themes associated with the season. The meaning of the entire season becomes the context for understanding the individual parts of it. Third, the lections are also read in sequential order from the first Sunday of that season to the last. This reading interprets the function of the literary forms, thus providing yet another way of interpreting the riches of the readings.

This way of reading and understanding the Lectionary has potential for liturgical ministry. It can quicken the religious imagination of homilists, thus providing fresh new possibilities for liturgical preaching. It offers creative insights for those involved in the liturgical preparation for the celebration of feasts and seasons. It can also act as a valuable resource for liturgical catechesis. The insights included in Preaching the New Lectionary contribute toward enhancing the liturgical lives of the faithful.

Author: Dianne Bergant, CSA, with Richard N. Fragomeni

Details: 456 pgs, 6 x 9 Paperback

Publication Date: 08/01/2000