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Sisterchicks Do the Hula
by Robin Jones GunnSome dreams take a while before they come true. Best friends Hope and Laurie never made it to Hawaii during their college years. But when they're about to turn forty, the islands still beckon, and off they go - with an unexpected stowaway on board (Hope happens to be seven months pregnant). A little pineapple, a little sunshine, and a surprising little surfing lesson give these two sisterchicks all their crazy hearts could hope for - and more - as they enter the next season of their lives with a splash and with a beautiful vision of what God has dreamed up for them.
Sisterchicks Down Under
by Robin Jones GunnKathleen joins her husband for a three-month trip to New Zealand when he's hired by a film studio in Wellington. Leaving behind all that is familiar in her comfortable corner in Southern California, she realizes that the past twenty years have been so tightly woven into the life of her only daughter that she's not sure who she is on her own or with her husband. In her isolation, Kathleen begins to contemplate reinventing herself, but before her crazy schemes take flight, she meets Jill at the Chocolate Fish café. Even though the two women are very different at first glance, they find they share a common Sisterchick heart and instantly forge a friendship that takes them on a journey where both Kathleen and Jill find that God has returned to them the truest part of themselves that was set aside so many years ago.
Sisterchicks Go Brit!
by Robin Jones GunnCheerio, Sisterchicks! SISTERCHICK®n: a friend who shares the deepest wonders of your heart, loves you like a sister, and provides a reality check when you’re being a brat. Two midlife mamas hop over to jolly ole England and encounter so much more than the usual tourist stops. Liz does have a bit of a childhood crush on Big Ben, and she has hoped to “meet” him ever since her fifteenth birthday. Kellie dreams of starting an interior design business and figures Liz needs to be a part of that equation–a calculation that hasn’t added up for Liz yet. Nothing on the excursion goes the way these two friends had envisioned. They start with a village pancake race and end up being held for questioning on The Underground. Kellie and Liz take a wild tour through the land of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and then find themselves swept up, up, and away in a hot air balloon over the Cotswalds. London beckons with the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, shopping at Portabella Road in Knotting Hill, and of course, reservations at the Ritz for a posh high tea. A few detours along the way and the possibility of being lost in a London fog of wonderment aren’t enough to stop these two Sisterchicks! Each step of their regal journey is lined with evidence of God’s gracious compassion, and both come to realize that God knows their every wish. He is the One who planted every dream in their hearts. And, oh, what a surprise awaits them when they return home! From the Trade Paperback edition.
Sisterchicks Say Ooh La La!
by Robin Jones GunnChildhood Friends Reunite to Rendezvous! All giggles and wiggles, Lisa and Amy sealed their friendship under the pink ruffles of a canopy bed, promising to be friends forever. They remained inseparable until an argument over Lisa's prom date divides them. In a plan that could only be devised by their heavenly Father, Amy and Lisa end up in the same hospital emergency room years later. With their promise to always be there for each other unexpectedly fulfilled, the two friends grow close again. Amy reminds Lisa of one of their childhood promises yet to be realized--their plan to rendezvous in Paris . Amy and Lisa find a way to make good on their Parisian promise from thirty years ago and pack their bags for the adventure of a lifetime. From becoming unexpected counselors for a rocky marriage to scaling the Eiffel Tower to winking at Mona Lisa in the Louvre, these two Sisterchicks find the treasures of Europe can't compare with the gems of a friendship renewed for eternity! C'est magnifique! SISTERCHICK n.: a friend who shares the deepest wonders of your heart, loves you like a sister, and provides a reality check when you're being a brat. When they were little girls, Amy made Lisa promise her that someday they'd go to Paris and walk down the Champs-Elysées together looking tres chic. After all, Amy's classy grandmother was from Paris. Then over the years, they drifted apart. But some promises seem to be held for safekeeping in the courts of heaven until the time is right, and these reconnected friends-for-life are handed the opportunity to see Paris together! Lisa's only response to her patient friend is, "Oui oui, mon ami!" The City of Lights turns out to be all Amy ever promised, with world-class shopping, flaky croissants, the Eiffel Tower, Monet's Water Lilies, and food running the gamut from frog legs to fabulous chocolate. Of course, there are also con men, indignant waiters, and spring cloudbursts. But nothing deters these Sisterchicks as they set out to climb a few personal " Eiffel Towers" in this next season of life. The only way to go is step by step together under the careful protection of their Heavenly Papa, who showers them with grace upon grace. Reader's guide included Story Behind the Book"Each of the Sisterchicks books portrays the reality of how a close friendship between two women can draw them closer to God, and reveal clear direction for their futures. In Sisterchicks Say Ooh-La-La!, readers discover the value of rekindling an old friendship and replacing old, incorrect assumptions with new truth. I hope readers will take away a sense of God's immense plan for His children and His unending grace in every season of life." --Robin Jones GunnFrom the Trade Paperback edition.
Sisterchicks in Gondolas
by Robin Jones GunnSisterchicks Take the Boot! (and we don't mean shoe thievery) Jenna and Sue have been sisters-in-law for nearly thirty years but inseparable friends for only the last five. When Jenna is invited to a week's stay at a fifteenth century restored palace on a quiet canal in Venice , Sue is her travel companion of choice. The catch? They must cook for a group that is staying at the palace for a retreat. It's the first time Sue has been this far from home, and both women are coming out of a valley season of life where they operated each day in long shadow s of fear. Entering into the lilting gondola-paced Italian lifestyle and discovering corners of Venice most tourists never see, they welcome a new time of refreshing. And over boiling pots of pasta, they dare each other to dream again. Ciao bella! SISTERCHICKn. : a friend who shares the deepest wonders of your heart, loves you like a sister, and provides a reality check when you're being a brat. When Jenna is invited to Venice for a week of cooking for a small retreat group, she knows just who to take along: her sister-in-law Sue. With her Dallas drawl and wild tangle of red hair, Sue desperately needs her own retreat from the pressures of the past two yearshellip;and blessedly for their guests, Sue actually knows how to cook (unlike Jenna)! With about six words of Italian between them, a map, and a keen appetite for gelato, they puzzle out the lovely city together. During their stay, Jenna and Sue become victims of grace in ways they never expected-starting with their accommodations: a restored fifteenth-century palace on a quiet canal complete with a stairwell perfect for mattress sledding! Coming out of a time of dark shadows in their lives, these two friends dive into a new season of refreshing and realize that sometimes when serving God, the most important thing to do is just show uphellip;and watch for goodness and mercy to follow close behind. Come join Jenna and Sue over boiling pots of pasta in this lilting gondola-paced adventure! Discussion guide included Story Behind the Book Sisterchicks in Gondolaswas birthed after Robin experienced Italy for herself. "In the summer of 2004, I went to Venice with my lifetime fellow Sisterchick from Ireland , Ruby," she says. "We explored the city with our daughters and discovered the joys of Italian living. " With a splash of humor, grace, and a few zany antics, this latest Sisterchicks release continues to celebrate the unique and timeless bond between women friends. Entertaining and delightful, the story also challenges readers to examine their relationships with one another and with God. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Sisterchicks in Sombreros
by Robin Jones GunnTwo Canadian sisters inherit beachfront property in Mexico and take off on an adventure to claim their inheritance. They travel opulently by cruise ship to Ensenada and survive a rocky trip through Baja California, only to be shocked when they arrive in San Felipe. Their beachfront property is, indeed, on the beach, but the "structure" is a cement slab and the Airstream trailer their uncle parked on the property in the early 1960s! With the help of a few locals, the Canadian cuties figure out what to do with their less-than-desirable legacy. The true gift, they find, is that they are reconnected as sisters and discover that everything that happened along the way was part of God's plan. Say Olé the Sisterchick Way ! SISTERCHICK TM n.: a friend who shares the deepest wonders of your heart, loves you like a sister, and provides a reality check when you're being a brat. Canadian sisters Melanie and Joanne are stunned to hear they've inherited their uncle's beachfront summerhouse in Mexico. With a snap, a trip is planned: They'll travel opulently by cruise ship to Ensenada, zip over to San Felipe, sign a few papers at the bank, and the tropical hideaway will be theirs. What they don't expect is a spa treatment gone loco, snails and cactus on their dinner plates, risky ocean dips, a cross-country desert drive, a dishy doctor, or a Federale who doesn't speak English! Fortunately, some problems really can be solved with coconut cake and, if necessary, a water fight. The beachfront property--and what it takes to get them there--becomes a gift beyond their wildest wishes as these Sisterchicks relinquish themselves to the dreams God has for them...all under the sombrero of His grace. Story Behind the BookA year ago in July, an associate from my publishing house walked up to my friend and I and said, "You need to go on a cruise." She grinned and told us that she had a cruise package she couldn't use and it would be her delight to see my editor and me go to Mexico on a Sisterchick adventure. After we got over the shock, we gratefully made arrangements to go cruisin' in December. What a time we had! Was it research or was it recharging of our creative efforts? Both! The result is the third Sisterchicks novel, Sisterchicks in Sombreros! I love it when God does His God things. His eye is on the sparrow, or in this case, Robin and her Sisterchick friend! From the Trade Paperback edition.
Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes!
by Robin Jones GunnA multi-tasking mama, Summer Finley has found ways to handle whatever life throws at her with grace and a grin. Until now, that is. An "abnormal" medical test result sends Summer into an emotional tailspin and prompts her to fulfill a life-long dream of "meeting" her best friend and pen pal since fourth grade, Noelle Van Zandt, face-to-face. Their blissful week together in the Netherlands finds Summer and Noelle floating down a canal in Amsterdam, visiting Corrie Ten Boom's Hiding Place, sipping decadent Dutch cocoa in Delft, and bobbing merrily along through a sea of brilliant, spring-fresh tulips. Each day takes them further from midlife anxiety and closer to trusting God in deeper ways. When Summer finally confides in Noelle about the abnormal test results, Summer's honesty prompts Noelle to share a long-held heartache. The two friends find they both needed to be together more than either of them realized. Could it be this adventure was tucked away in God's imagination long before Summer bought her ticket to fly to the land of merry tulips and kalomping wooden shoes?From the Trade Paperback edition.
Sisterchicks on the Loose
by Robin Jones GunnSharon has lived calmly in Chinook Springs, Washington, her entire life. All that changes when her best friend of twenty years, Penny, takes an impulsive trip to seek out her only living relatives in Finland -- and brings Sharon with her. The land of reindeer and saunas holds infinite varieties of zaniness for these two unlikely friends -- Sharon is a quiet mother of four and Penny was a motorcycle mama before she came to Christ -- who return home with a new view of God, a new zest for life, and a big impact on those around them for decades to come.Get set for adventure as the sisterchicks drive, float, or fly off to faraway places--exploring new territory and delighting in the soul ties that forever bind their hearts.
Sisterhood of Faith: 365 Life-Changing Stories about Women Who Made a Difference
by Shirley BrosiusWoman to Woman...Sister to Sister…Friend to Friend…Bound by an Unstoppable Faith...Changing Their World Forever The forces that bind woman to woman, sister to sister, and friend to friend are among the most powerful in the world. Add to that the strength of faith, and you have a union that transcends all earthly holds. That unique bond is the sisterhood of faith. The women whose stories are told in this book are the kind of women who wave a hand of dismissal at the obstacles in their paths. The kind who are unstoppable in their mission, stubborn in their resilience. They are women just like you. Women whose lives make a difference because they trusted in their God as they lived their lives in service to Him—women who belong to the sisterhood of faith. Each daily devotion features an inspirational sister of faith. In addition to Her Story, you'll find Her Service, Her Message, and My Response. Meet women like • Mary Kay Ash • Lisa Beamer • Patsy Clairmont • Elizabeth H. Dole • Ruth Graham Bell • Liz Curtis Higgs • Florence Nightingale • Condoleezza Rice • Dale Evans Rogers • Joni Eareckson Tada • Mother Teresa • CeCe Winans Be inspired, be challenged, believe that you, too, can change your world forever.
Sisters (Carolina Chronicles #4)
by Lisa WingateIn the book, Sisters, experience " three novellas about the joys and trials of sisterhood." Sisters is the last book in The Carolina Book Series. Each of its novellas relate to one of Wingate's novels. The first novella, The Sea Glass Sisters provides background for The Prayer Box; the second novella, The Tidewater Sisters, is a continuation of The Sea Keeper's Daughters; and the third novella, The Sandcastle Sister, continues the story of The Story Keeper. Each novella has its own synopsis which is on the back cover of Sisters: In The Sea Glass Sisters, a "mother-daughter road trip is the last thing Elizabeth Gallagher needs. But with an impending hurricane, they are determined to convince Aunt Sandy to abandon her seaside store and return home. Instead, they discover that sisterhood can change hearts, lives, and futures... often in unpredictable ways"; In The Tidewater Sisters. Tandi Reese and her sister, Gina, have complicated ties. Faced with legal papers for a fraud she didn't commit, Tandi heads to the North Carolina Tidewater for a reckoning. But to unravel lies from truth, she must first confront strained sibling bonds and uncover a dark family secret"; And in The Sandcastle Sister. "New York editor Jen Gibbs has not only acquired Evan Hall's blockbuster book deal--she's also accepted his engagement proposal. Now she's scared to death. In Jen's family history, marriage represents the death of every dream a woman holds. Will her mother's long-held secret change Jen's beliefs about life and love?"
Sisters In Crisis, Revisited: From Unraveling to Reform and Renewal
by Ann CareyFifty years ago, nearly 2000 religious sisters worked in Catholic schools, hospitals, and other institutions throughout the United States. American Catholics honored these women of faith who founded and built these flourishing works of mercy. Then came the ideological shifts and moral upheavals of the 1960s, and ever since most women's orders in the United States have been in a state of crisis. Now the sisters are aging, with fewer and fewer younger women to take their place. Perhaps related to this demographic shift is the continuing doctrinal confusion that has come under the scrutiny of the Vatican. Using the archival records of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and other prominent groups of sisters, journalist and author Ann Carey shows how feminist activists unraveled American women's religious communities from their leadership positions in national organizations and large congregations. She also explains the recent and necessary interventions by the Vatican. After examining the many forces that have contributed to the crisis, Carey reports on a promising sign of renewal in American religious life: the growing number of young women attracted to older communities that have retained their identity and newly formed, yet traditional, congregations.
Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life
by John Van EngenThe Devotio Moderna, or Modern Devout, puzzled their contemporaries. Beginning in the 1380s in market towns along the Ijssel River of the east-central Netherlands and in the county of Holland, they formed households organized as communes and forged lives centered on private devotion. They lived on city streets alongside their neighbors, managed properties and rents in common, and worked in the textile and book trades, all the while refusing to profess vows as members of any religious order or to acquire spouses and personal property as lay citizens. They defended their self-designed style of life as exemplary and sustained it in the face of opposition, their women labeled "beguines" and their men "lollards," both meant as derogatory terms. Yet the movement grew, drawing in women and schoolboys, priests and laymen, and spreading outward toward Münster, Flanders, and Cologne.The Devout were arguably more culturally significant than the Lollards and Beguines, yet they have commanded far less scholarly attention in English. John Van Engen's magisterial book keeps the Modern Devout at its center and thinks through their story anew. Few interpreters have read the Devout so insistently within their own time and space by looking to the social and religious conditions that marked towns and parishes in northern Europe during the fifteenth century and examining the widespread upheavals in cultural and religious life between the 1370s and the 1440s. In Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life, Van Engen grasps the Devout in their humanity, communities, and beliefs, and places them firmly within the urban societies of the Low Countries and the cultures we call late medieval.
Sisters in Blue/Hermanas de azul: Sor María de Ágreda Comes to New Mexico/ Sor María de Ágreda viene a Nuevo México (Querencias Series)
by Enrique R. Lamadrid Anna M. NogarSisters in Blue tells the story of two young women—one Spanish, one Puebloan—meeting across space and time. Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda, New Mexico&’s famous Lady in Blue, is said to have traveled to New Mexico in the seventeenth century. Here Anna M. Nogar and Enrique R. Lamadrid bring her to life, imagining an encounter between a Pueblo woman and Sor María during the nun&’s mystical spiritual journeys. Tales of Sor María, who described traveling across the earth and the heavens, have traditionally presented her as an evangelist who helped bring Catholicism to the Pueblos. Instead this book, which includes an essay providing historical context, shows a connection between Sor María and her friend Paf Sheuri. The two women find more similarities than differences in their shared experiences, and what they learn from each other has an impact for centuries to come.
Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women's Religious Communities
by Ann CareyEssays by authors, including G. K. Chesterton, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, and Hilaire Belloc, examine the history, religious beliefs, and controversies of the American Catholic Church
Sisters in the Mirror: A History of Muslim Women and the Global Politics of Feminism
by Elora ShehabuddinA crystal-clear account of the entangled history of Western and Muslim feminisms. Western feminists, pundits, and policymakers tend to portray the Muslim world as the last and most difficult frontier of global feminism. Challenging this view, Elora Shehabuddin presents a unique and engaging history of feminism as a story of colonial and postcolonial interactions between Western and Muslim societies. Muslim women, like other women around the world, have been engaged in their own struggles for generations: as individuals and in groups that include but also extend beyond their religious identity and religious practices. The modern and globally enmeshed Muslim world they navigate has often been at the weaker end of disparities of wealth and power, of processes of colonization and policies of war, economic sanctions, and Western feminist outreach. Importantly, Muslims have long constructed their own ideas about women’s and men’s lives in the West, with implications for how they articulate their feminist dreams for their own societies. Stretching from the eighteenth-century Enlightenment era to the War on Terror present, Sisters in the Mirror shows how changes in women’s lives and feminist strategies have consistently reflected wider changes in national and global politics and economics. Muslim women, like non-Muslim women in various colonized societies and non-white and poor women in the West, have found themselves having to negotiate their demands for rights within other forms of struggle—for national independence or against occupation, racism, and economic inequality. Through stories of both well-known and relatively unknown figures, Shehabuddin recounts instances of conflict alongside those of empathy, collaboration, and solidarity across this extended period. Sisters in the Mirror is organized around stories of encounters between women and men from South Asia, Britain, and the United States that led them, as if they were looking in a mirror, to pause and reconsider norms in their own society, including cherished ideas about women’s roles and rights. These intertwined stories confirm that nowhere, in either Western or Muslim societies, has material change in girls’ and women’s lives come easily or without protracted struggle.
Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-talk
by Dolores S. WilliamsThis landmark work first published 20 years ago helped establish the field of African-American womanist theology and is widely regarded as a classic text. Drawing on the biblical figure of Hagar mother of Ishmael, cast into the desert by Abraham and Sarah, but protected by God Williams finds a proptype for the struggle of African-American women. African slave, homeless exile, surrogate mother, Hagar's story provides an image of survival and defiance appropriate to black women today. Exploring the themes implicit in Hagar's story poverty and slavery, ethnicity and sexual exploitation, exile, and encounter with God Williams traces parallels in the history of African-American women from slavery to the present day. A new womanist theology emerges from this shared experience, from the interplay of oppressions on account of race, sex and class. Sisters in the Wilderness offers a telling critique of theologies that promote liberation but ignore women of color. This is a book that defined a new theological project and charted a path that others continue to explore.
Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction (Early Classics Of Science Fiction Ser.)
by Lisa Yaszek and Patrick B. SharpAnthology of stories, essays, poems, and illustrations by the women of early science fiction For nearly half a century, feminist scholars, writers, and fans have successfully challenged the notion that science fiction is all about "boys and their toys," pointing to authors such as Mary Shelley, Clare Winger Harris, and Judith Merril as proof that women have always been part of the genre. Continuing this tradition, Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction offers readers a comprehensive selection of works by genre luminaries, including author C. L. Moore, artist Margaret Brundage, and others who were well known in their day, including poet Julia Boynton Green, science journalist L. Taylor Hansen, and editor Mary Gnaedinger. Providing insightful commentary and context, this anthology documents how women in the early twentieth century contributed to the pulp-magazine community and showcases the content they produced, including short stories, editorial work, illustrations, poetry, and science journalism. Yaszek and Sharp's critical annotation and author biographies link women's work in the early science fiction community to larger patterns of feminine literary and cultural production in turn-of-the-twentieth-century America. In a concluding essay, the award-winning author Kathleen Ann Goonan considers such work in relation to the history of women in science and engineering and to the contemporary science fiction community itself.
Sisters of the Dark Moon: Thirteen Rituals of the Dark Goddess
by Gail WoodMysterious but not frightening, the Dark Moon (the night before the New Moon) is less familiar yet equally as powerful as the Full Moon. There are no secrets on the Dark Moon Path, but there is hidden wisdom. Sisters of the Dark Moon presents the thirteen Dark Moons of the year by the zodiac sign in which they fall, along with rituals designed to help you experience and learn from their energies. You'll explore the Dark Moon lessons of: * The Unseen in Aquarius, Time in Pisces, Identity in Aries, The Body in Taurus, Knowledge in Gemini, Emotion in Cancer, * Risk in Leo, Silence in Virgo, Descent in Libra, Intuition in Scorpio, Creativity in Sagittarius, Power in Capricorn, * The Dark in Arachne (a spirit sign). Deepen your understanding of the Moon and the Goddess as you experience the intuitive and deep healing of the dark.
Sisters of the Quilt: The Complete Trilogy (Sisters of the Quilt)
by Cindy WoodsmallCan Hannah find refuge, redemption, and a fresh beginning after her world is shattered? When the Heart CriesHer life among her Amish community brutally interrupted, seventeen-year-old Hannah Lapp faces questions neither family, nor fiancé, nor even faith can easily answer. The first book in the Sisters of the Quilt series, When the Heart Cries will ignite a broader understanding of others' beliefs and a God-given strength to deal with pain we all experience. When the Morning ComesRejected by those she loves, Hannah Lapp leaves her Amish community and seeks refuge in the world outside, leaving her family and friends to wrestle with the painful truths that emerge in the wake of her disappearance. As she struggles to find her place in the confusing Englischer world, her community deals with the turbulent aftermath of her departure. When the Soul MendsHoping to help her sister, Hannah Lapp reluctantly returns to the Old Order Amish community she fled in disgrace more than two years earlier. When hidden truths are revealed about her former fiancé, she must choose whether to return to the Plain life or to the Englischer man who adores her in this captivating conclusion to the Sisters of the Quilt series. This three-in-one collection includes the entirety of the best-selling Sisters of the Quilt trilogy now at a new low price! From the Trade Paperback edition.
Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women's Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century (Religion In North America Ser.)
by William L. Andrews"Sisters of the Spirit . . . should interest a wider audience. . . . These fascinating accounts can stand on their own. . . . Mr. Andrews has made them even more accessible by providing a comprehensive introduction and helpful footnotes . . . but he does not intrude on the text itself." —New York Times Book Review" . . . informative and inspiring reading." —The Journal of American HistoryJarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, and Julia Foote underwent a revolution in their own sense of self that helped to launch a feminist revolution in American religious life and in American society as a whole.
Sisters' Retreats: A Guide for Priests and Sisters
by Fr. Thomas DubaySisters speak out on how to improve their retreats, what they want in a retreat master, what forms of meditation talks are the most helpful, etc.
Sisters, Ink. (Sisters Ink. #1)
by Rebeca SeitzHome. A grown woman should know where that is, right? So why is attorney Tandy Sinclair so confused? Is home in Orlando, with her dream job and the only "man" in her life, a Basset hound? Or is it in sleepy Stars Hill, Tennessee, with Daddy, Momma's grave, and three crazy, lovable sisters? Forced into a leave of absence from her job, Tandy heads for Tennessee to find answers. But Stars Hill isn't as sleepy as she remembers. Daddy's got a new "friend," and the sisters have more going on than she ever imagined. And the high school flame she thought was off playing soldier? Think again. Now Tandy's more confused than ever and facing some hard decisions. Decisions that will lead her to a true understanding of home--and what it means to live a dream. There's always plenty going on with four sisters with love for each other and scrapbooking in common. Meg has three young children, Joy takes cooking and housekeeping to the next level, Kendra is an artist and Tandy runs Sisters, Ink with all of them. Read all of the 4 books in the Sisters, Ink series including #2 Coming Unglued, #3 Scrapping Plans and #4 Perfect Piece
Sisters: Catholic Nuns and the Making of America
by John J. FialkaSisters is the first major history of the pivotal role played by nuns in the building of American society. Nuns were the first feminists, argues Fialka. They became the nation's first cadre of independent, professional women. Some nursed, some taught, and many created and managed new charitable organizations, including large hospitals and colleges. In the 1800s nuns moved west with the frontier, often starting the first hospitals and schools in immigrant communities. They provided aid and service in the Chicago fire, cared for orphans and prostitutes in the California Gold Rush and brought professional nursing skills to field hospitals run by both armies in the Civil War. Their work was often done in the face of intimidation from such groups as the Know Nothings and the Ku Klux Klan.In the 1900s they built the nation's largest private school and hospital systems and brought the Catholic Church into the civil rights movement. As their numbers began to decline in the 1970s, many sisters were forced to take professional jobs as lawyers, probation workers, managers and hospital executives because their salaries were needed to support older nuns, many of whom lacked a pension system. Currently there are about 75,000 sisters in America, down from 204,000 in 1968. Their median age is sixty-nine. In Sisters, Fialka reveals the strength of the spiritual capital and the unprecedented reach of the caring institutions that religious women created in America.
Sisters: Loving God With Heart and Soul, and Mind and Strength (Sisters: Bible Study for Women)
by John SchroederThis is the leader's guide for this study in the Sisters: Bible Study for Women series. For more information about Sisters, go to www.sisters.cokesbury.com.
Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye
by Brad WarnerIn 2003, Brad Warner blew the top off the Buddhist book world with his irreverent autobiography/manifesto, Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth about Reality. Now in his second book, Sit Down and Shut Up, Brad tackles one of the great works of Zen literature, the Shobogenzo, by thirteenth-century Zen master Dogen. Illuminating Dogen’s enigmatic teachings in plain language, Brad intertwines musings on sex, meditation, death, God, sin, and happiness with an exploration of the punk rock ethos. In chapters such as “Evil Is Stupid,” “Kill Your Anger,” and “Enlightenment Is for Sissies,” Brad melds the antiauthoritarianism of punk with that of Zen, mixing in a travelogue of his triumphant return to Ohio to play in a reunion concert of Akron punk bands. For those drawn to Buddhist teachings but scared off by their stiff austerity, Brad writes with a sharp smack of truth, in teachings and stories that cut to the heart of reality.