I write for all those parish pastors and priests who want to preach well, who long to speak with authority, clarity, and humility, and yet who feel, as I do, that there is simply never enough time in the week to do justice to the task. I write for those who feel at times overwhelmed by the responsibilities of our work, who wonder if it is possible, in parish ministry, to live a balanced life. I write from that same place of struggle myself. -- from the Foreword

For many pastors and congregations, the pulpit is the focal point of weekly worship. But preaching is not only a spiritual practice, it's also a practice of leadership - the most effective means for most ministers of inspiring and guiding their flocks as well as engaging with the society in which they live.

Gathering Up the Fragments was written for pastors who struggle with the weight of this heavy responsibility, endeavoring to preach relevant sermons that stay true to the word of God.

Mariann Edgar Budde shows how pastors can create a solid foundation for preaching by taking the fragments of their own life and ministry - their studies, personal life experiences, and relationships with their congregations - and weaving them together in a homiletic mosaic that will bring glory to God and illumination for themselves and their listeners.

This book offers an approach to preaching that enables pastors to integrate the many competing claims of their lives, reflect deeply on the nature of their work, and sustain their intimacy with God. Budde believes that preaching is a form of art - a profoundly satisfying creative expression with intrinsic value, a gift from God that ministers offer back to the congregations they serve.

Each chapter in Gathering Up the Fragments describes a particular dimension of preaching as a spiritual practice and suggests a rule of life for preachers. Budde challenges pastors to be observant of those under their charge, prayerfully considering what God is saying to them individually and communally.

A collection of sermons from throughout the church year is also included, demonstrating how to apply the techniques illustrated in this volume.

What does it mean to glorify God? What does it mean to be an Enjoyer of God? Does it mean we should put controls on ourselves and our personal enjoyment of life? According to C.S. Lewis, our ultimate destiny is to partake in God's glory because we're created by God and for God.

The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis is a collection of nine sermons delivered by Lewis during World War II. Lewis's writings explore the concept of glory and how it relates to our spiritual journey. He presents key discussions that every person should consider:

- The respect we should give each other

- The need for constant learning

- The importance of forgiveness

- The need for collaboration amongst opposing sides

This is a book for C. S. Lewis fans and readers interested in learning more about heaven, Christian theology, and church community. Like a good chess player, Satan is always trying to maneuver you into a position where you can save your castle only by losing your bishop. Lewis reminds us in The Weight of Glory that there are no ordinary people and we live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, so we should treat each other like it.

W. Herschel Ford's series of Simple Sermons have over the years proved of great help to pastors and Bible students alike. His books have been used by many pastors as preaching aids. Many laymen have also used his books for Bible study and devotions. Here in this compendium we have four books in one -- some of the best of Ford, and perhaps some of the most useful. And none of these sermons has been published before. Ford covers the basics in these four books -- basics that all of us need to be reminded of periodically: Sin and Salvation, The Cross and the Crown, On Changeless Truths, On Bible Characters. Among his sermon titles are: - The Heavenly Magnet and the Earthly Pull - Saying Good-bye to God - A Christmas Tree for Jesus - The Great Sin of a Great Saint and many more.

Christian people, writes Lloyd-Jones, too often seem to be perpetually in the doldrums and too often give this appearance of unhappiness and of lack of freedom and absence of joy. There is no question at all but that this is the main reason why large numbers of people have ceased to be interested in Christianity.

Believing the Christian joy was one of the most potent factors in the spread of Christianity in the early centuries, Lloyd-Jones not only lays bare the causes that have robbed many Christians of spiritual vitality but also points the way to the cure that is found through the mind and spirit of Christ.

Accused of conspiring against the Nazi government, he was arrested in 1944, tortured, imprisoned, and executed on Feb 2, 1945. While in prison, Fr. Delp was able to write a few meditations found in this book, which also includes his powerful reflections from prison during the Advent season about the profound spiritual meaning and lessons of Advent, as well as his sermons he gave on the season of Advent at his parish in Munich. These meditations were smuggled out of Berlin and read by friends and parishioners of St. Georg in Munich.

His approach to Advent, the season that prepares us for Christmas, is what Fr. Delp called an Advent of the heart. More than just preparing us for Christmas, it is a spiritual program, a way of life. He proclaimed that our personal, social and historical circumstances, even suffering, offer us entry into the true Advent, our personal journey toward a meeting and dialogue with God. Indeed, his own life, and great sufferings, illustrated the true Advent he preached and wrote about.

From his very prison cell he presented a timeless spiritual message, and in an extreme situation, his deep faith gave him the courage to draw closer to God, and to witness to the truth even at the cost of his own life. These meditations will challenge and inspire all Christians to embark upon that same spiritual journey toward union with God, a journey that will transform our lives.

As one of the last witnesses who knew Fr. Alfred Delp personally, I am very pleased this book will make him better known in America. The more one reads his writings, the more one clearly recognizes the prophetic message for our times! Like his contemporary, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Delp ranks among the great prophets who endured the horror of Nazism and handed down a powerful message for our times.
--Karl Kreuser, S.J., from the Foreword

What has been needed for a long time is someone sufficiently attuned to George MacDonald to undertake the careful editing necessary to make his provocative, content-packed sermons accessible to the thoughtful reader. Rolland Hein has done this task with extraordinary success. Here are more than thirty sermons made vitally alive for the contemporary reader. -E. Beatrice Batson, Wheaton College

Here holiness is presented as so beautiful and necessary that we covet it as a man dying of thirst covets water. I know of no other writer with a greater capacity to make faith real as the air we breathe, rich with the secrets of Paradise for which we would willingly break out hearts. -Robert Siege, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Rolland Hein is Professor of English at Wheaton College, where he has taught since 1970. He has had a lifelong interest in George MacDonald's writings, having edited several volumes of his sermons. He is also the author of George MacDonald: Victorian Mythmaker, a biography based on the letters of MacDonald and his family, The Harmony Within: the Spiritual Vision of George MacDonald, and Christian Mythmakers.

Saint Augustine's ten homilies on the First Epistle of John are among his greatest and most influential works. John and Augustine both develop the same central theme love and in these homilies Augustine uses John's epistle as a point of departure for exploring the meaning and implications of love with his customary profundity, passion and analytic rigor. As with John, a context of dissension and conflict within the Christian community (the Donatist breakaway from Catholic unity), gives his preaching a tone of urgency and poignancy. Anyone who reads these homilies, universally viewed as classics, cannot fail to be moved and challenged both intellectually and emotionally.

Deacon Rick was ordained a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church in 2012. He has delivered hundreds of homilies since that time. He preaches regularly at his home parish of St. Pius X Catholic Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, as well at school Masses at St. Theodore Guerin High School in Noblesville, Indiana, where he serves as president.

Deacon Rick believes scripture-based homilies should focus on one or more of the following: instruction, inspiration, or practical application. As for his homilies, Deacon Rick says, I will occasionally devote an entire homily to instruction, but the vast majority focus on practical application. In other words, how can we live out the gospel message in our everyday lives? I hope all my homilies offer a bit of inspiration.

Deacon Rick's homilies capture the joys and challenges of being a husband, father, and educator. He embraces his role as an evangelist and encourages all the faithful to do the same. His homilies offer them guidance on being God's storytellers as well.

The sermons of Ronald Knox, in Evelyn Waugh's estimation, contain the very best of his literary talent and pastoral sensibility. Prepared, revised and rehearsed with every refinement of taste and skill, the sermons convey their instruction simply and directly: refreshingly conversational in tone, faithfully and knowledgably reliant on Sacred Scripture, and profoundly powerful in content, allusion, and spiritual consolation. Pastoral Sermons presents one hundred and eight superb examples of this excellent preaching. Covering nine discrete topics (Our Father; The Temptations of Christ; The Sermon on the Mount; The Mystery of the Kingdom; The Harvest of the Cross; The Cross of Christ; The Eucharist; Feasts and Seasons of the Year; and St Paul's Gospel), Knox fulfills his duty as a Christian teacher, instructing his listeners in the truths of the faith, the saving graces of the sacraments (especially the Eucharist), and the joyful message of Christ's own words and deeds.

Comparable only with Newman's Oxford sermons in their scope and brilliance-in the words of the volume's editor, Philip Caraman, S.J.-Ronald Knox's Pastoral Sermons is a peerless manual of meditation whose balanced and graceful instructions are certain to direct its readers toward that charity and freedom which characterizes the life lived in-and for-the Lord Jesus Christ.

Preaching in Hitler's Shadow begins with a fascinating look at Christian life inside the Third Reich, giving readers a real sense of the danger that pastors faced every time they went into the pulpit. Dean Stroud pays special attention to the role that language played in the battle over the German soul, pointing out the use of Christian language in opposition to Nazi rhetoric.

The second part of the book presents thirteen well-translated sermons by various select preachers, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and others not as well known but no less courageous. A running commentary offers cultural and historical insights, and each sermon is preceded by a short biography of the preacher.

The sermons in this volume were preached by Dr. John G. Lake during the height of his ministry. Many believe he had the greatest healing ministry of his time, first as a missionary to South Africa, and later in Spokane, Washington, where 100,000 healings were recorded in five years. Compiled and edited by Gordon Lindsay.

Powerful sermons from Washington National Cathedral that inspire and a foreword by John Meacham.

Through their sermons, Cathedral clergy and guest preachers such as Jon Meacham, Kelly Brown Douglas, and Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry share inspiring words. Collectively, they offer lasting guidance for difficult times, reinforcing that even in the midst of loss and chaos, God is at work among us, lifting us up and giving us hope for the future.

Topics include hope, faith during times of distress, love, grief, and the presence of God. With a foreword by Jon Meacham.