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Books
Into the Deep: Finding Peace Through Prayer
Discover why growing in prayer, which sometimes can be compared to a battle, is worth every ounce of effort you give it. Even if you’ve never prayed, or if you’ve never developed the habit of daily prayer, God is waiting to meet you where you are and encourage you every step of the way.
Using a simple approach to prayer, you’ll learn how even ten minutes a day can change your life. Author Dan Burke explains how to set up your own sacred prayer space, discusses the common obstacles to prayer, and provides practical ways to overcome them. You’ll also read stories of others who are seeking to orient themselves to God through prayer.
If you are ready for God to transform your heart and mind, you will know the life that Jesus has promised; a life of peace and joy that cannot be taken away by the trials of this world.
Dan has also created a free short course you can access at https://spiritualdirection.com/pray. The course can be used personally or in a small group. If you want to run it in your small group of parish and want support, please contact us at avmoderatormail@gmail.com.
Available from Fidelity Books or Divine Mercy Publications.
Navigating the Interior Life: Spiritual Direction and the Journey to God
In concise, straightforward prose, author Dan Burke here provides an invaluable road map for spiritual growth, complete with signposts to help ensure that you remain on the right path. He guides you through the hazardous terrain that can threaten your spiritual health and shows you how to discern God’s will daily and follow it in a meaningful way.
Through intensive study of the major Catholic mystics, Dan has acquired the keys to developing a more meaningful relationship with Christ, which he shares with you in this indispensable volume. The pearls of wisdom you will gain here include the following:
- How to identify the state of your spiritual life — and the optimal path for your future spiritual growth
- The three critical steps to authentic repentance
- How to know if you are ready (or not ready) for spiritual direction
- The questions you must ask to determine the appropriateness of any potential spiritual director
- How to identify your root sin
- How to develop a rule of life that will help you grow in virtue and spiritual discipline
If you follow the time-tested advice in this book, your faith is sure to grow stronger as you purposefully, consistently, and substantively grow in your relationship with God and neighbor.
Available from Parousia.
Spiritual Warfare and the Discernment of Spirits
Satan is always at work breeding sadness and anxiety while providing obstacles that prevent souls from making spiritual progress. In this concise yet powerful book, author Dan Burke presents the venerable, time-tested wisdom of Catholic mystics to help you understand the influence of the Enemy on your mind and heart, and the tactics you need to combat him.
With St. Ignatius as his guide, Burke presents here an indispensable, authoritative manual for engaging in daily battle with the Adversary—combat that is both inevitable and winnable. Burke will help you recognize the ebbs and flows of consolation and desolation, and distinguish between the voices of God and of Satan. Best of all, you’ll come to see the spiritual life not as a science to be learned, but as an intuitive art to be practiced as you move with increasing success from habitual sin to sanctity.
The battle for our souls is unavoidable. The saints won theirs by learning how to be spiritual warriors and by recognizing that we become stronger through battle and grow weaker from avoidance. With this book as your guide, you’ll grow in strength and contentment as you learn:
- How to take captive every negative thought and make it obedient to Christ
- St. Ignatius’s revelations exposing how the Devil seeks to influence us
- The Paradigm of Ascent and the Five Steps to Sanctity
- The three ways you can discern “Good Spirits” from “Bad Spirits”
- The three principal causes of desolation—and what you must do when it afflicts your soul
- Proven methods for moving away from sin and toward self-giving love of God and neighbor.
Available from Parousia.
Finding Peace in the Storm: Reflections on St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Uniformity with God’s Will
Sometimes discernment seems complicated, and we struggle to “be still” to listen to God’s voice. Following the death of his spiritual director, St. Alphonsus Liguori penned timeless advice in a letter to one of his spiritual daughters, and it became the famous work titled Uniformity with God’s Will. Now Dan Burke breaks open St. Alphonsus’s eighteenth-century classic for you. He intersperses relevant explanations and insights within the text of this great saint and includes reflection questions for each chapter.
St. Alphonsus explains, “We should most confidently abandon ourselves to all the dispositions of divine providence, since they are for our own good.” In page after page, Burke shows you how the “wind and waves” can help you ascend to union with God. You will discover:
- The “paralyzing cocktail” we drink when we reject God’s will
- When good works are displeasing to God (Can you guess?)
- Three prayers that will assist you in directing all things to God’s will
- Two ways we can know God’s love and hear His voice
- Two life-altering spiritual disciplines according to St. Teresa of Ávila
- How humiliation, adversity, and trials can bring freedom, healing, and salvation (You will be shocked!)
Liguori intersperses fascinating real-life examples from the saints to assist you in remaining steadfast amid afflictions. He explains three temptations that confront us and how to resist them, along with four practices of uniformity to God’s will and a surefire way to unite your sufferings to Christ’s sufferings.
You will acquire tips on what to do during periods of aridity or desolation. Above all, you will discover how to enjoy peace of heart in all circumstances and foster loving conversation with God. By learning how to entrust yourself fully to God’s holy will, you will experience His divine embrace and the fulfillment of your deepest desires.
A “What Next?” section helps you take practical steps in doing God’s will. Burke also provides a summary of the Paradigm of Ascent, which provides often hidden but foundational insights and practices necessary to live out Liguori’s wisdom and to know the peace promised by God. In addition, he provides a simple action plan to implement these fruitful practices in your life.
Available from Parousia.
The Devil in the Castle: St. Teresa of Avila, Spiritual Warfare, and the Progress of the Soul
We often think of demons appearing only in extravagant and extraordinary manifestations or working only through “bad” people. But the truth is more frightening than that. Most demonic activity takes place undetected, under the radar, and can even be hidden in our own prayer lives and in the churches where we attend Mass. Subtlety, illusion, and deceit are the preferred tactics of Satan’s army of fallen angels, and they are waging an invisible battle for souls — right now — within and around us all.
With St. Teresa of Avila’s masterpiece The Interior Castle as his guide, bestselling author Dan Burke takes you on an illuminating journey through the seven levels of spiritual progress, explaining what God is accomplishing within your soul at each stage, as well as the finely tailored demonic strategies applied to throw you off your path.
You’ll learn how the devil is as active in your prayer life as you are, and how the saints were able to counter Satan as he adapted his schemes to correspond with where they were on their spiritual journeys.
By discovering the myriad challenges St. Teresa faced and the remedies she employed to advance the spiritual progress of her soul, you’ll know precisely what to expect as you progress in your current state to your final spiritual destination. You’ll also learn:
- The marks of authentic contemplative encounter with God
- Why God uses dryness in prayer to advance the progress of our souls
- How to know if you’re still in the “Purgative Way”
- How desolation can work for the good of the soul
- Why it’s dangerous to assume that your decisions are correct if you feel at peace
- How to fight distraction in prayer
- The 11 ways to test the authenticity of charismatic gifts
Available from Parousia coming soon…
The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer
Every saint and renowned spiritual director through the ages has said the same thing: if we desire to become saints, we must spend time daily in meditation. With this book, Fr. John Bartunek has created an extensive, Christ-centered resource to serve as your daily meditation companion. The Better Part offers a practical explanation of Christian meditation as well as material to draw from during your meditations, including a Bible study on the Gospels, a survey of saints’ writings, and a handy guide to prayer.
As you learn to read, meditate upon, absorb, and apply the Gospels to your life, you’ll also find ways to personalize your times of prayer, allowing you to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead along the path of holiness. Open these pages to discover the methods of meditation that best suit you, develop your friendship with Christ, and experience the true Christian joy of a deep, fruitful life of prayer.
Available from Parousia coming soon…
