Books published by Harding House Publishing, Inc./AnamcharaBooks

Bruce Epperly invites you to share a Christmas adventure with him, voyaging through the twelve days of Christmas (plus Christmas Eve and Epiphany) with Brendan, Columba, Brigid, Patrick, and other Celtic saints. With these Celtic adventurers as your companions, you will discover "thin places"-moments of time when the Incarnation of Christ shines through ordinary people, places, and events. After the busyness of Advent, the days that follow Christmas can be a quieter time, when you can venture out on an inner vision quest for new ways of seeing and being. Loving God, give me vision. Help me hear the singing of angels and the crying of children. Let my prayers take shape in loving words and healing hands. Walk with me, and help me walk with the lost and lonely, the forgotten and marginalized. Let my life be an incarnation of that little Child who is our Savior. May your Christmas journey awaken you to thin places everywhere.

Ray Simpson has given his life, both professionally and personally, to Celtic Christianity, and now he helps us to celebrate a Celtic outlook on the season of Christmas. With their eloquent yet simple words, his prayers welcome the Holy One who comes to us in small, ordinary ways, who is present in the helpless and the vulnerable. As we join Ray in prayer, we stand on the threshold to paradox and mystery-and we "prepare the way" for God to enter our world anew.

If you don''t believe in Santa, you might want to reconsider. The familiar fellow dressed in red has been around a lot longer than the malls'' Santa, longer than Rudolph, longer even than "The Night Before Christmas." His earliest and most ancient forms brought hope and cheer to generation after generation of humankind-and he still has a message for us today. In the midst of the materialism of the modern holiday, Santa offers us a bridge between the physical, secular world and the spiritual, sacred realm. He calls us to remember the power of love to bring hope, even in the midst of cold and dark. Discover his history and evolution, from Ice Age shaman to medieval saint to modern-day icon. Get to know Santa-and believe all over again.

In the spirit of God''s call to creative transformation, Bruce Epperly invites you to join him on a holy adventure in spiritual growth, inspired by the evolving wisdom of Christianity and the world''s great spiritual traditions, innovative global spiritual practices, and emerging visions of reality. Epperly explores the many resources of Christian spirituality in dialogue with the spiritual practices of the world''s great wisdom traditions, describing the gifts other spiritual paths contribute to the pathway of Jesus; at the same time, he uses the lens of the spiritual practices Jesus has inspired throughout Christian history to examine these spiritual paths. Epperly write as a Christian committed to Jesus, whose teachings and way of life he believes lead to pathways of healing and creative personal and planetary transformation. We need an illuminating and multifaceted spirituality, Epperly affirms, to shed light and provide guidance as we confront the unique crises of our time. By embracing the diverse insights of spiritual wisdom givers, physicists, cosmologists, healing practitioners, and Earth keepers, we can meet the Earth''s current challenges with love, joy, and a united strength.

The great spiritual classic by Julian of Norwich is now available in modern, easy-to-comprehend language that stays true to Julian''s original meanings. Her ancient wisdom is as relevant now as it was in the 14th century''s world of plague, prejudice, and war. Discover Julian''s joyous affirmation of the certainty of Divine love, a love that overcomes all."Julian would be pleased with this rendering of the Showings into contemporary English. The even-handed blending here of simple language and the grandeur of Julian''s content is flawless; and the happy result is that the Showings slip into our minds and hearts as effortlessly as if the mystic of Norwich were speaking to us herself, face-to-face and soul-to-soul."-Phyllis Tickle, founding editor of Publishers Weekly Religion Department, author of The Great Emergence, How Christianity is Changing and Why; The Words of Jesus, A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord; and the Divine Hours series.

Perhaps the world is saved one act, one click, or one post at a time.When we do ordinary things with great love, as Therese of Lisieux counseled, we bring beauty and healing to our companions on the Internet and to the planetary mind. The omnipresent God is as near as the next key stroke, the next post or response to another''s online comment. We need a whole-person spirituality grounded in a sense of the holiness of all creation and reverence for life, despite the conflicts that characterize our world-and given the amount of time most of us spend online, we need to include these activities in our spiritual lives.Bruce Epperly guides his spiritual Internet manual with the wisdom of the Christian mystical tradition. These insights, both ancient and modern, help us to claim our vocation as God''s companions in healing the world-through the vehicle of social media and other online interactions. Each chapter''s dialogue with a mystic concludes with a spiritual practice that enables us to discover, in the spirit of the patriarch Jacob''s exclamation, that "God is online, and we did not know it."

This little book contains "green thoughts" from writers who gardened across the centuries, thoughts that speak about the beauty and meaning of gardens. These words are combined with the author''s personal prayers, based on the ancient Celtic words from the Carmina Gadelica. Whether you garden yourself or only enjoy looking at gardens, this collection of thoughts will remind you of the deep connection with the life force that sustains not only every green thing but also our own lives and the entire cosmos.Here in my garden, I bend my kneeto the beauty I see beneath me,to the beauty I see above me,to the beauty I see all around me.O Great Being, Spirit of Beauty,bestow on me eyes to see beauty in leaf, beauty in flower,beauty in love, beauty in power, beauty in stem, beauty in fruit,beauty in soil, beauty in root. Beauty on earth as it is in heaven,here in my garden, in shade and light, by day and night,I bend my knee to beauty.

Gardening is an instrument of grace.-May SartonIn these fifteen intimate essays, Melina Rudman explores the pain of loss and the joy of connection, all within the context of her garden. She writes of gardening as a spiritual practice, one that has the power to ground us in the seasons and cycles of Nature. Gardening, she says, plants us firmly in the circle of birth, life, and death, "smack dab in the middle of life''s gore and glory." While gardening focuses on the world of touch and sight and scent, it also opens doors to deeper realities. It teaches us resilience; it shows us how to let go; it comforts our aching hearts; it leads us to repentance-and it offers us a conduit to the Divine.Spirit, I give thanksthat I am held in a great web of Being,where the energy of earth and memory,tree and thought, flower and emotion,are all knit together into You. 

Accompanied by inspiration from All Shall Be Well: A Modern-Language Version of the Showings of Julian of NorwichJulian of Norwich was deeply concerned with the spiritual world-but she believed it was firmly rooted in the practical ordinary details of daily life, including eating and tasting. Her thoughts pair well with the recipes of her day, for she writes again and again of the nourishment God gives to us and the sweet taste of the Divine.Joy and love are the two words that best sum up Julian''s spirituality. May this cookbook, based on the food of Julian''s lifetime as well as her writing, give you joy . . . and the certainty that you are Divinely loved.

Grandparenting is truly a holy adventure. As we see and bring forth the inner divinity of our grandchildren, we have the opportunity to show them that they are not only our beloved grandchildren but God''s children as well, infinite in worth and possibility. Grandparenting also takes us beyond our relationships with our own grandchildren to care for children everywhere. What kind of world do we hope for them-and what will we do about it?This book is an invitation to consider grandparenting as a spiritual and ethical vocation. Authentic spirituality is earthly good as well as heavenly minded. As we commit ourselves to love and pray for our grandchildren, we can also work to create a just and healthy world for all grandchildren.Anamchara Books seeks to create a community of "soul friends" to encourage and inspire all of us who are on spiritual journeys. The Soul Seeds series is a unique new offering in that life-enhancing library, timely books that gently and accessibly address the challenges facing all of us in today''s world.

"Lewis presents an intimate view of his centering prayer journey. He helps us discover the contemplative life and who we are in the deepest sense, made in God's image." - Fr. Carl Arico, founding member of Contemplative Outreach Ltd., and author of A Taste of Silence"This work offers a friendly and accessible approach to centering prayer that will be of great benefit to those new to the practice. Rich has a lovely way of inviting the reader in through honest reflections on his own experience, both struggles and graces. These stories offer comfort and gentle encouragement on the way." - Christine Valters Paintner, author of The Soul of a Pilgrim"Rich Lewis's writing is unique in its simplicity and lack of pretense. And he is nothing if not honest, especially regarding his passion for centering prayer. In this book you will find down-to-earth spiritual practice that echoes throughout Rich's life as a husband, dad, and financial consultant. Highly recommended!" - Amos Smith, author of Be Still and Listen

I have a hidden meaning. I was portrayed in a thousand different ways in the past, and I keep sprouting again and again down through the centuries. Don't you want to know who I am?The Green Man is an ancient symbol that has gained new popularity, and yet his origins and meaning remain a mystery. Kenneth McIntosh, author of Water from an Ancient Well: Celtic Spirituality for Modern Life, offers a seldom-heard theory on the original significance of this leafy visage. With a wealth of photographs and drawings, the author traces the Green Man's family tree, revealing the deep spirituality embedded in this archetypal image, and concludes with the hope the Green Man offers us today in the twenty-first century.