Lantern Books

In January 1984, Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, a Benedictine nun from Indiana, paid a visit to Maryknoll missionary nuns working in Bolivia. On what should have been a routine trip to the local town for a convocation ceremony, a flash flood swept away the jeep in which she, three nuns, a priest and a disabled boy they had adopted were travelling. Only she and the priest survived.What happened that night

For a quarter of a century, Trappist monk, Fr. Thomas Keating has been contributing articles on Centering Prayer - the contemporary manifestation of the ancient Christian contemplative tradition - to the newsletter of Contemplative Outreach, the organisation that he helped establish to promote this tradition. THE THOMAS KEATING READER gathers for the first time thirty of those articles (some never

Until the last decade of the twentieth century, the abusive or cruel treatment of animals had received virtually no attention among academics. Since then, however, empirical studies of animal abuse and its relation to other forms of violence toward humans, have increased not only in number but in quality and stature. Sociologists, criminologists, social workers, psychologists, legal scholars, femi

This collection of homilies for feast days and special occasions is rooted in the experience of the grace celebrated in the liturgy. Father Keating draws from his life's devotion as a Trappist monk and abbot to provide a sacramental perspective on such feasts as The Immaculate Conception, The Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Passion Sunday, Good Friday, The Paschal Vigil, Easter,

To a correctional facility in Virginia he is known as Prisoner 179212. But to a legion of journalists and legal reform activists he is Jens Soering, a German citizen who has endured, for the past twenty-six years, the harshest and most unforgiving punishment the USA can offer—a life sentence without realistic hope of release, which some refer to as "the other death penalty." Told with dry humour,

A cancer survivor, an Ironman Triathlete and widely decorated marathon runner, Ruth Heidrich has long been a role model to athletes of all ages. But over the years even Ruth herself has encountered the various, commonly held misbeliefs about running, from "women shouldn't run" to "you need to change your diet to run," that prevent people from lacing up their shoes and getting off the couch. In thi

What about plants? Don't animals eat other animals? There are no perfect vegans, so why bother? If you're vegan, how many times have you been asked these, and other similarly challenging, questions from non-vegans?Using humour and reason, Sherry F. Colb takes these questions at face value and, also, delves deeply into the motivations behind them, coming up with answers that are not only intelligen

Jesus' preaching was first and foremost about simple living, pacifism, and vegetarianism; he never intended to create a new religion separate from Judaism. Moreover, Jesus' radical Jewish ethics, rather than a new theology, distinguished him and his followers from other Jews. It was the earliest followers of Jesus, the Jewish Christians, who understood Jesus better than any of the gentile Christia

This book explores the similar attitudes and methods behind modern society's treatment of animals and the way humans have often treated each other, most notably during the Holocaust. The book's epigraph and title are from "The Letter Writer," a story by the Yiddish writer and Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer: "In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblink

In a very scholarly way, Karen Davis explores the unnatural history of the turkey. Where did the bird come from? How was it treated by Native Americans? What place did the turkey have in their mythology? Why is the turkey called 'turkey'? (And who would have guessed there could be so many compelling theories!?) What happened between the turkey being taken to Europe and then reintroduced to North A

Walking with Wisdom is a stunning sequence of twenty meditations for our time. Inspired by the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom, traditionally attributed to Solomon, Nan Merrill shows us that Wisdom is a treasured gift for all generations. Divine Sophia invites us to participate with her, through her tender guidance, in an existence that transcends death. The unseen Realm of Love is our true life, and Me

In Force Under Pressure, Dr. Lawrence Blum, who has devoted his life's work to the survival and wellness of "those who serve," describes the sources of danger, injuries, and victory to police officers in a down-to-earth, readable style. Blum argues that there are missing “ingredients” in the training and socialization of police officers. These ingredients include techniques and tools to condition

From Genesis to Christ, the Bible testifies to God's love and concern for animals. The same self-centeredness that led to the violence and abuse that has marked human relations also caused the abuse and exploitation of animals. The Bible, argues the author, calls upon human beings to stop their violence and abuse of each other and all other creatures. It promises that when they do, the sorrow and

The writings of St. Thérèse of Lisieux have influenced thousands of people, including American Catholic convert Dorothy Day and Pope John Paul II who made a pilgrimage to Lisieux in her honour in 1980. In ST. THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX: A TRANSFORMATION IN CHRIST, Abbot Thomas Keating reflects on what St Thérèse understood the teaching of Jesus Christ to be. St. Thérèse had an extraordinary penetration in

Thomas Keating has spent over fifty years in sustained practice and devotion to the spiritual life. The results of this creative humble activity are now summarized in his remarkable book: FRUITS AND GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. As Father Keating says, the spiritual journey is a gradual process of enlarging our emotional mental and physical relationship with the divine reality that is present in us but one

Thomas Keating has been crucial in reviving centering prayer which in effect is a work of praying in the medieval spiritual tradition of lectio divina (sacred reading). This collection of essays by Keating Thomas R. Ward Sarah A. Butler George F. Cairns Paul David Lawson and Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler furthers that work by expounding centering prayer itself and applying it to other and more outwardly

In many situations and throughout the ages, when people have petitioned God for the relief of their suffering, or the suffering of others, God has said "No." In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that the "cup be taken from him," if it be God’s will. God answered no. Three times St. Paul begged God to remove the "thorn from his side." Three times God said no. When, says Father Lanahan, my fami

Plant-based cancer therapy Iscador has been gaining increased media attention. But Iscador has been known for its therapeutic benefits for over eighty years. As early as 1917 Rudolf Steiner suggested using injections of mistletoe extract for the treatment of cancer. His recommendations were taken up and put to clinical use by Ita Wegman MD a Dutch physician. Dr. Wegman who founded a clinic that la

Foreword by Brian May.For four decades, Kim Stallwood has had a front seat in the animal rights movement, starting at the grassroots in England and working his way up to leadership positions at some of the best-known organisations in the world, including Compassion In World Farming, the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Yet, as Stallwo

A distillation of over seventy years as a monastic and more than three decades of writing on centring prayer, REFLECTIONS ON THE UNKNOWABLE is Fr. Thomas Keating's latest volume on how we might develop our intimacy with God and our experience of the Christian contemplative tradition. The first part of the book consists of a long interview with Fr. Thomas, in which he examines concepts of the divin