Joan Chittister

Everyone longs to be happy, yet many wrongly believe that happiness comes from having enough money, fame, personal comfort, worldly success, or even dumb luck. Happiness all too often seems to be an elusive, arbitrary thing -something that is always just out of reach. Joan Chittister sees happiness differently -as a personal quality to be learned, mastered, and fearlessly wielded. In Happiness, she embarks on a "great happiness dig" through sociology,...

"In words as wise as they are inspiring, Between the Dark and the Daylight explores the concerns of modern life, of the overworked mind and hurting heart. These are the paradoxical--and often frustrating--moments when our lives feel at odds with everything around us. Only by embracing the contradictions, Chittister contends, may we live well amid stress, withstand emotional storms, and satisfy our yearnings for something transcendent and real. By...

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams often says that, no matter what, the proper stance of the Christian in the world is one of gratitude. In this book, Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, and Archbishop Rowan Williams offer us a sweeping set of things and circumstances to be grateful for 'things for which we can sing alleluia," "praise and thanks be to God."Some are things we naturally feel grateful for: God, peace, wealth, life, faith, and unity. But...

Where can we find communities who accept us fully for who we are? Where do we find the courage to walk forward, often alone, and proclaim the truth? It's an experience many women share: they're well-educated, talented, and passionate about discipleship and ministry, but they serve a church that puts limits on their participation just because they are women and often seems to wish they'd just remain silent. Whom can they turn to for wisdom, inspiration,...

A journey of the soul through the map of Christian time. The liturgical year, beginning on the first Sunday of Advent and carrying through the following November, is the year that sets out to attune the life of the Christian to the life of Jesus, the Christ. What may at first seem to be simply an arbitrary arrangement of ancient holy days, or liturgical seasons, this book explains their essential relationship to one another and their ongoing meaning...

Very little in this world stays fresh and life-giving for 1,500 years. But when that happens, we should ask ourselves why and what that had to do with us. In this book, The Radical Christian Life: A Year with Saint Benedict, Joan Chittister encourages us to look at that question. In an introductory essay, she examines how the insights and values of the sixth-century Visionary Saint Benedict can illuminate today's search for a meaningful life. Then...

This is the third and final volume in a trilogy of insightful reflections on some of our oldest and favorite prayers.

The psalms are the oldest prayers in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Joan Chittister sees them as a lexicon of the human condition, assuring us of God's caring presence and loving help in every situation. In this beautifully designed book, Chittister provides a favorite psalm for each month and a reflection on the prayer for each day so that the psalm can become a benedition that pulsates in our hearts.

In this beautiful book best-selling author Joan Chittister and celebrated artist John August Swanson together reclaim the ancient story of Ruth as a model for contemporary women seeking a fully spiritual life. In concert with Swanson's rich and evocative art, Chittister's graceful prose explores, through this powerful biblical story, a series of twelve defining moments in every woman's life - moments of loss, change, transformation, aging, independence,...