Art Religion

Jews have a centuries-old tradition of telling jokes, from the ghettos of Europe to Hollywood and the Catskills. Jewish jokes are entertainment, the oral history of a culture, insightful social criticism, and survival tactic rolled into one. In 2008, Hollywood director and producer Sam Hoffman launched a website called Old Jews Telling Jokes. It’s just what it says: Jewish men and women over 60 sharing their favorite stories, tales, riddles, and punchlines.

Imagine being able to fly. Walk through walls. Shape-shift. Breathe underwater. Conjure loved ones - or total strangers - out of thin air. Imagine experiencing your nighttime dreams with the same awareness you possess right now - fully functioning memory, imagination, and self-awareness. Imagine being able to use this power to be more creative, solve problems, and discover a deep sense of well-being.

Over the years, you willingly pour everything you have into your family, but in the process, you lose the essence of who you are. In her characteristic raw and visceral style, Rachel teaches you how to rewrite the pages of your story, follow your passion, and discover the beauty of who you are. Drawing on lessons from her own incredible journey - together with insight from conversations with thousands of other women - Rachel encourages moms to break cycles, take off masks, and prevent fear from taking control.

The Wisdom of the Desert was one of Thomas Merton's favorites among his own books, surely because he had hoped to spend his last years as a hermit. The personal tones of the translations and the blend of reverence and humor so characteristic of him show how deeply Merton identified with the legendary authors of these sayings and parables, the fourth-century Christian fathers who sought solitude and contemplation in the deserts of the Near East.

Technology has brought us together, yet stress, anxiety, and depression have become common mental illnesses. We have tried to buy material things, only to discover that we move further away from peace and happiness. If you’re tired of living a stressful life and want inner peace and a successful life, then The Art of Self-Mastery is your go-to guide. In this book, you’ll learn why we have become a society that depends on antidepressants and many other medications. More importantly, you’ll learn how to take back control of your life into your hands.

Handel’s oratorio Messiah is a phenomenon with no parallel in music history. No other work of music has been so popular for so long. Yet familiarity can sometimes breed contempt — and also misunderstanding.

In Joy on Demand, Chade-Meng Tan shows that you don't need to meditate for hours, days, months, or years to achieve lasting joy - you can actually get consistent access to it in as little as 15 seconds. Explaining joy and meditation as complementary things that naturally reinforce each other, Meng explains how these two skills form a virtuous cycle and, once put into motion, become a solid practice that can be sustained in daily life.

Whether it's her work today as a reporter and host for Fox News or the time she spent competing in pageants like Miss America, Shannon Bream has spent her adult life navigating high-pressure environments where perfection is expected and competition is the name of the game. But in this laugh-out-loud book of stories and inspiration, Shannon shares the moments away from the cameras and the halls of government, in which she learned that the values and faith of her blue-collar upbringing could keep her grounded in a world where everyone wants you to be something other than who you are.

This extensive encyclopedia is the most complete and practical work ever published on the art and craft of biblical preaching. Its 11 major sections contain nearly 200 articles, comprehensively covering topics on preaching and methodology.

From the New York Times best-selling author of A Book of Angels, The Art of Intuition is a wise and inspiring guide to strengthening one's intuitive abilities. Sophy Burnham contends that we all have hunches and sudden insights and that we need only awaken to our inborn abilities in order to develop our inner wisdom. In this fascinating audiobook, Burnham tells the stories of individuals who have "seen without seeing", illustrating the wondrous workings of what she calls our "intuitive hearts".

A Course in Miracles is profound, deeply moving, and as boring to read as a bookshelf assembly manual. Pam Grout to the rescue! Her new audiobook is for all those still struggling with the Course. Grout offers a modern-day rewrite of the 365-lesson workbook - the text at the heart of the Course. Unlike the original, it's user-friendly, accessible, and easy for everyone to understand. Grout drills down to the Course's essential message and meaning, grounding it in the context of everyday life in a way that's bound to stick.

Discover the mystery and ancient wisdom contained in the Three Books of Enoch: the First Book of Enoch (Ethiopian Enoch, 1912), the Second Book of Enoch (Slavonic Enoch, 1896), and the Third Book of Enoch (Hebrew of Enoch, 1928). This complete edition gathers all versions into a single volume, giving you total access to one of the most enigmatic works of antiquity. Perfect for those who wish to explore the boundaries between the earthly and the divine.

Unlock the secret of your personality and learn how to be a better spouse, parent, friend, & Christian! All of us are born with distinct personality traits. Some of us live for crowds and parties; others seek solitude and time for quiet reflection. Some of us are naturally pushy, while others are content just to get along. We don't pick and choose these traits; they're just part of the way we're made.

Each of us carries a song inside us, the song that makes us human. Zen Guitar provides the key to unlocking this song - a series of life lessons presented through the metaphor of music. Philip Sudo offers his own experiences with music to enable us to rediscover the harmony in each of our lives and open ourselves to Zen awareness uniquely suited to the Western mind. Through 58 lessons that provide focus and a guide, the listener is led through to Zen awareness, with quotes from sources ranging from Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to Miles Davis.

You are in the process of becoming. Every day is an opportunity to be shaped and formed by what moves your heart, drives your thoughts, and captures your gaze. Is it any wonder that where you direct your eyes and your heart matter in your day-to-day? We become what we behold when we set our hearts and minds on Christ and His redemption story here in the details of our daily lives - not just on Sunday, not just on holidays, not just when extraordinarily hard or wonderful things happen...but today.

Every artist has been given an invitation to co-create with the Creator of the Universe. As we cooperate with him, though the power of the Holy Spirit, we can reveal, reflect, and release his image, nature and presence into the world through our creative expression. It's simply mind-blowing and yet, that's his invitation to us. Art, like any other created means, is a vehicle for the presence of God to move in and through. It functions almost as a stealth language by which God can commune with us as kingdom artists.

In this book, Mark Westmoquette speaks from a place of profound personal experience. A Zen monk, he has endured two life-changing traumas caused by other people: his sexual abuse by his own father, and his stepfather’s death and mother’s very serious injury in a car crash due to the careless driving of an off-duty policeman. He stresses that by bringing awareness and kindness to these relationships, our initial stance of “I can’t stand this person, they need to change” will naturally shift into something much broader and more inclusive.

The Art of Listening Prayer is about what it really means to have a personal relationship with God. If God loves his people, maybe it means that he wants to speak one-on-one with us, and if that’s true, shouldn’t our first priority be to learn how to hear from him? Explore what it means to experience prayer that really is two-way. Using the Bible as a foundation, you can go way beyond theory and grow in this practice of listening prayer.

Forgive and forget. It should be easy to do—so why don’t we do it? The father who wasn’t always there for us. The mother who punished us. The spouse who betrayed us. The children who will leave us behind. Whoever and whatever the source of hurt, there is always a path to forgiveness. But too often, instead of forgiving, too many of us live with resentments and grudges that keep us stuck, robbing us of joy, peace, and purpose.

Originally delivered in 1962 for artists - and made available now for the first time in English - St. John Paul II's (Karol Wojtyla's) penetrating spiritual exercises on divine beauty and its reflection in our humanity - and the art it produces - remain as timely as ever. The retreat itself, of course, forms the heart of this attractive volume.