BOOK: God in the Moment: Making Every Day a Prayer
Author:  Kathy Coffey
Summary:

• Our relationship with God through prayer can be expressed in many different ways.
• Prayer can be all-pervasive, a persistent habit of finding God's presence everywhere.
• "Can we really pray everywhere? Even in the emergency room? The retirement center? The jail? The bar? The traffic jam?

 

BOOK: Savoring God: Praying With All Our Senses
Author:  Kathleen Finley
Summary:

• Presents a different way of praying, rather than trying to shut out our world and focus on the interior life, this book invites us instead to be with God through the very tangible, specific objects of our everyday life.
• We're invited to take another look-as well as another listen, taste, touch, and smell-at what is right before us and to see God there.
• A variety of prayer exercises to help use objects in nature as well as personal everyday objects as touch-stones for prayer.
• Each exercise includes five parts: an opening prayer, a guided meditation, some related Scripture passages, a reflection, and a closing section on how to put our prayer into action.

 

BOOK: God Knows Parenting Is a Wild Ride, 9 Things to hold on to,
AUTHOR: Kathy Coffey, Sorin Books, Notre Dame, Indiana,  2002
SUMMARY:

• Calls on parents to look within to discover ways to reverence their children, communicate, discipline and laugh. Teaches that parenting is sacred and the work very rewarding.

 

BOOK: The Book of New Family Traditions
Author:  Meg Cox
Summary:

• Nice companion resource for anyone planning special family days. 
• Five subject chapters the ideas for easy reference.
• Ritual Recipes: Getting started ingredients, the three parts of a ritual, five signs you need a family ritual, making a ritual personal and best of all examples.
• Holidays: The list includes New Year’s Celebrations, Valentines Day, Passover, Equinox, pre-Christmas and Kwanza.
• Family Festivities and Ceremonies: The list birthdays, school days, summer vacations, family reunions, quirky times with kids.
• Daily, weekly and monthly rituals: Options include meals, bedtime, meetings and greetings, chore rituals, sports rituals.
• Rites of Passage: special ideas include childhood milestones, coming of age, new drivers and graduations.
• Fresh ways of celebrating established holidays like Thanksgiving and Halloween, Passover and Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
• Original observances for birthdays, bedtime, and dinnertime.
• A compendium of unexpected traditions: sports rituals, pet rituals, homework rituals, vacation rituals, and family meetings, among others.

 

BOOK: More than Meets the Eye – Finding God in the Creases & Folds of Family Life
Author:  Mary Jo Pederson, Tom Greisen, Ronald Wasikowski
Summary:

• Awaken a family's awareness of God in all kinds of places and in common family experiences, such as birthday parties, the laundry room, a gravesite, Saturday nights with grandma and grandpa, and many, many more.
• Real-life stories are presented along with the helpful reflections and meaningful rituals.
• Helping families make associations that open eyes to seeing a recognition of God in family life.

 

BOOK: My Monastery Is A Minivan
Author:  Denise Roy
Summary:

• Reveals the variety of times and ways she has noticed the divine presence operating within the very ordinary and very daily experiences of a middle-aged woman with four kids, a mortgage, and ten extra pounds, as she describes herself.
• Imagine the  minivan as a monastery- where one prays and meditates and transports angels from one location to another.
• Learning how not to miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged in the way you expects.
• The sacraments of daily life are simple, sacred acts. These are how we mediate love, as we minister to our own little congregations-children, spouse, family, and friends.

 

BOOK: The Liturgy of Motherhood: Moments of Grace
Author: Kathleen Finley
Summary:

• Using the liturgical year as a framework, Finley helps mothers and parents to pause and reflect on the rhythms, cycles, symbols and rituals that define who they are.
• Explores the spirituality of many kinds of mothers and the ways that the Christian tradition (from the Advent wreath to the Beatitudes, the Paschal mystery of Christ's death and Resurrection to the daily celebration of the Sacraments) sheds light on the unique daily holiness of motherhood.
• Helps parents connect the themes and practices of the season to particular aspects of a mother's spirituality; a spirituality that is communal, incarnational, nurturing, patient among other qualities.
• Includes passages from Scripture, questions for reflection, and suggestions for further resources.

Table of Contents
Introduction: Motherhood and Liturgy: What’s the Connection
Advent: Waiting in Hope
Christmas & Epiphany: A Child is Born to Us
Lent: The disciplines of Motherhood
Holy Week and Easter: Dying and Rising
Pentecost: The Spirit at work
Ordinary Time: Living Motherhood Day to day
Resources
Afterword

 

BOOK: New Dad’s Guide to Playing God –  Reflections on the Vocation of Fatherhood
Author: James Penrice
Summary:

• Helping fathers realize that similar to our Father God, we are all called to act like him – to be loving, forgiving, compassionate, to stand up for what is right, to actively pursue peace and justice.
• Revealing howour lives are to resemble the life of God - we are to “play God.” with very profound implications.  
• God calls a man to be a father and charges him with the mission to be the one from whom his children will primarily experience the love of their heavenly Father.
• Being a father means being the arms, eyes, heart and voice of God to one’s children,. These pages were written to help fathers discover their true identity and to do what it takes to nourish it.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – You Have the Right to Play God
Chapter 2 – The “Weaker” Sex
Chapter 3 – Be a Regular Joe
Chapter 4 – The Dad’s Club
Chapter 5 – Baptism: The Rite Stuff
Chapter 6 – Mass Confusion
Chapter 7 – Balancing Act
Chapter 8 – The Many Faces of Fatherhood
Chapter 9 - They Don’t Need Another Hero
Works Cited

 

 

BOOK: DaddyHood 
Author: Daniel W. Driscoll
Summary: 

• This book encourages dads to pass on their own values, share in their kids' sense of discovery, enjoy the playful and endure the painful.
• Daddyhood is also about the future. It is about hope, a belief that your child and all children will make a difference, will change the world.
• A revealing and enlightening exploration of the moments that make a man a daddy.

 

• BOOK: Sacred Dwelling - A Spirituality of Family Life
  Author: Wendy M. Wright
  Summary:
• Relates the profound moments of family life  — birth, death, sexual intimacy, estrangement, forgiveness, gathering, the daily struggles to be with and for each other — with words associated with religion and the spiritual life.
• Structured as a contemplative walk through a home, pointing out the allusive meanings of various rooms and possessions.
• Teaches the incarnate the virtues of Jesus when we practice love, wonder, hospitality, nurturing, reverence, and hope in our homes and in our relationships with those closest to us.
• A soulful book that gives a depth-charged revision of the home as a sacred dwelling and a workshop for the Spirit.

 

BOOK: Seasons of a Family’s Life, Cultivating the Contemplative Spirit at Home
AUTHOR: Wendy M. Wright,  Jossey-Bass, 2003
SUMMARY:

• Explores life as a context for nurturing contemplative practices in the

home.

• Challenges us to wrestle with the universal abiding questions that shape our lives – Who are we? Who are you? Is God with us? Where have we come from? Where are we going? Do justice and mercy meet? Is there a season for everything?

 

 

• BOOK: Busy But Balanced
  Author: Mimi Doe
  Summary:
• Putting goals and ideas into action and balancing that with creating a nourishing home and deeply connecting with our children.
• A practical and inspirational guide will help you take action month by month, manage change, even invite it in, to create a full life lived with no regrets.
• Helps in making choices that allow you to live sanely with more joy, energy, and success-without sacrifice.
• Suggests ways in which parents can unravel the chaos of everyday routines and create a spiritually nourishing environment.
• Shows parents how to break away from the madness, even for just a moment, and improve the connection to their children, no matter what their age.
• A easy month by month format offers many practical, easy and creative ideas to breath new life into your family relationships
• Balancing tips are a buffet of ideas for a parent to try and bring practical changes to your lives
• Resources – Offered to explore a particular topic in a deeper way.
• Quotes – Throughout the book from children and parents offer wisdom and inspiration.

 

BOOK: The Power of Discernment:  Helping Your Teen Hear God’s Voice Within
Author: Maggie Pike, St. Mary’s Press, 2003
Summary:

• This book shows that it really is possible to make such a lofty principle as discernment understandable, practical, and useful to a ten-year-old, a fifteen-year-old, a young person on the brink of adulthood.
• Offers a method of spiritual discernment for dealing with issues such as peer pressure, friends, sexuality, change, and family well-being.
• A method of parenting centered in God.

 

BOOK: Weaving Faith and Family, When You’re Hanging on by a Thread,Reflections and Suggestions for Your Busy Family 
AUTHOR: Eileen Marx, Ave Maria Press, 1999

SUMMARY: