Two books published by Ave Maria Press won top honors in the 2016 Association of Catholic Publishers Excellence in Publishing Awards.
Maria Morera Johnson’s My Badass Book of Saints: Courageous Women Who Showed Me How to Live took first place in the inspirational category.
Our Lady, Undoer of Knots: A Living Novena by Marge Fenelon took second place in the inspirational category.
Johnson is a CatholicMom.com blogger, speaker, and cohost of SPQN’s Catholic Weekend. She recently retired as a composition and literature professor and director of English learning support at Georgia Piedmont Technical College.
My Badass Book of Saints explores the quality of twenty-four holy women who lived lives of virtue in unexpected and often difficult circumstances. Johnson also shares her experience as a first-generation Cuban-American, educator of at-risk college students, and caregiver for a husband with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Through humorous, empowering, and touching portraits of twenty-four spiritual mentors who inspired her—including Servant of God Sr. Blandina Segale who tried to turn the heart of Billy the Kid—Johnson shows how their bravery, integrity, selflessness, perseverance, and hope helped her and can help others have courage to reach for a closer connection to God.
Fenelon’s Our Lady, Undoer of Knots creates a new devotional practice—a guided meditation—from the classic novena that is a favorite of Pope Francis. She reflects on nine sacred sites associated with the Holy Father’s 2014 pilgrimage to the Holy Land to help readers explore the “knots” or impossible situations in their own lives in order to find peace. Fenelon is a veteran Catholic journalist, columnist, and author of a number of books related to Marian devotion and Catholic family life, including Imitating Mary.
The awards will be presented at the twentieth annual Catholic Marketing Network International Trade Show in Schaumburg, Illinois, in July.
Stephen Binz—author of Ave’s Transformed by God’s Word—won third place in the inspirational category for Saint Peter: Flawed, Forgiven, and Faithful, and first place in the scripture category for Divine Mercy, part of the Threshold Bible Study series. Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, author of Ave's Mortal Blessings, was awarded first place for a biography, Flannery O'Connor.
View all of the award winners at the ACP website.
DES MOINES, Iowa—Ave Maria Press author Joyce Hutchison, Iowa’s first hospice nurse and an expert on care of the dying, passed away Saturday, May 7, 2016, at the age of 76 after an almost three-year battle with lung cancer.
Hutchison served as palliative care coordinator and hospice educator for Iowa Health Hospice and Home Care in Des Moines. A registered nurse, her clinical experience included work as an oncology nurse, home care nurse, and residence team director of a hospice facility. A member of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the Oncology Nursing Society, she also frequently presented workshops on care of the dying and hospice.
Hutchison was the coauthor, with Joyce Rupp, of the bestselling books May I Walk You Home? and Now That You’ve Gone Home. Ave will publish Hutchison’s final book, a chronicle of her own journey with cancer, in the spring of 2017.
She is survived by three children, Joe (Ann Marie) of Lynchburg, Virginia, Mike (Carter) of Des Moines, and Julie (Mike) Llsac of Kansas City, Missouri; and nine grandchildren. Her husband, Gary, her parents, and four brothers are deceased.
You can learn more about Hutchison in the Des Moines Register, where you can also read her obituary.
May she rest in the peace of Christ.
The cause for Dorothy Day’s beatification and canonization moved into a new phase on April 19, 2016, as Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, opened the canonical inquiry on the life of the Catholic Worker movement founder, gathering evidence to determine if Day lived a life of “heroic virtue” in the eyes of the Church.
The Archdiocese, which is sponsoring her cause, will gather the evidence and present it to the Pope Francis and the Vatican’s Congregation for the Saints to determine if she will be elevated from “Servant of God” to “Venerable” and become eligible for beatification.
Day founded the Catholic Worker Movement with Peter Maurin in 1933 in New York City, following her conversion to Catholicism in 1927. Day remained active in the Catholic Worker movement until her death in New York at the age of 83 in 1980.
A few years after her death, the Claretian fathers began collecting materials for a canonization effort. In 2000, at the request of Cardinal John O’Connor, the Vatican provided its nihil obstat, naming Day “Servant of God” and opening the canonization process. Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo was named “postulator” or chief advocate for the Cause of Canonization. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provided its formal endorsement in 2012.
About 50 eyewitnesses—people who had first-hand experience of Day—will be interviewed. Dolan also will appoint a historical commission that will place Day’s life in historical context and review her unpublished writings, which also will be reviewed by theological experts.
In the fall of 2015, Ave Maria Press published a series of reflections Day wrote during Advent. Ave will rerelease Day's biography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, called Thérèse, in the fall of 2016.
Find out more by reading the release on the Archdiocese of New York website.
BALTIMORE, MD — The Association of Catholic Publishers (ACP) is pleased to announce the finalists for the Excellence in Publishing Awards. The goal of these awards is to recognize the best in Catholic publishing.
Awards will be given for books falling into eight categories: Biography, Children’s Books, General Interest, Inspirational, Prayer and Spirituality, Resources for Ministry, Scripture, and Theology. A “Book of the Year” will be named from among the first-place finishers of the eight categories.
“Music and mercy have found their way to the top of the lists this year, followed by an assortment of ancient and contemporary models of discipleship,” noted Therese Brown, ACP’s executive director. “Like last year, Pope Francis’ presence is visible across multiple categories, inspiring titles on mercy and those for specific audiences like children.”
Almost a quarter of the publisher members are represented by these titles. Liturgical Press and Paulist Press have six finalists each in four and five different categories, respectively.
Each category was judged by a three-person panel, which reviewed and evaluated the entries down to up to eight titles, all of which will move on to the final round of judging. First, second, and third place winners will be announced in June.
The finalists by category are:
Biography
A Still and Quiet Conscience (Orbis Books); Elizabeth Ann Seton (Pauline Books and Media); Flannery O'Connor (Liturgical Press); Fly While You Still Have Wings (Ave Maria Press); Joan Chittister: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith (Orbis Books); Oscar Romero: Prophet of Hope (Pauline Books and Media); Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax (Fordham University Press)
Children’s Books
Before I Sleep: I Say Thank You (Pauline Books and Media); Catholic Corner Volume 5: Prayers and Practices (World Library Publications); Drop By Drop (Loyola Press); Everybody Has a Body (Pauline Books and Media); Francis, the Pope for Kids (Liguori Publications); Green Street Park (Loyola Press); Michael the Archangel: Protector of God's People (Liguori Publications); Our Father Is . . . (Paulist Press)
General Interest
Catholic Economics (Liturgical Press); Habits of Resilience: A Grief Workbook with Practices and Reflections for Healing and Growth (Twenty-Third Publications); Morning Homilies: Pope Francis (Orbis Books); Pope Francis' Revolution of Tenderness and Love (Paulist Press); Stripped: At the Intersection of Cancer, Culture, and Christ (Loyola Press); The Gaze of Mercy (Word Among Us); Vatican II (Paulist Press)
Inspirational
Dear Young People: Inspiration from Pope Francis for Everyone (World Library Publications); Family, the Church, and the Real World (Liguori Publications); Monastic Practices (Liturgical Press); My Badass Book of Saints (Ave Maria Press); Our Lady, Undoer of Knots (Ave Maria Press); Saint Peter: Flawed, Forgiven, and Faithful (Loyola Press); The Beatitudes (Paulist Press); The Catholic Drinkie's Guide to Homebrewed Evangelism (Liguori Publications); When the Saints Came Marching In (Liturgical Press)
Prayer & Spirituality
Crossing the Threshhold of Mercy (Paulist Press); Just Prayer (Liturgical Press); Living in the Sacred (RENEW International); Sanctuary: Creating a Space for Grace in Your Life (Loyola Press); The Between Time: Savoring the Sacred Moments of Everyday Life (Twenty-Third Publications); Walk With Christ: Celebrating the Way of the Nativity, the Cross and the Resurrection (Clear Faith Publishing); Welcome, Faithful Presence: A Week of Praying the Hours with Henri Nouwen (Clear Faith Publishing)
Resources for Ministry
Living Your Discipleship: A Practical Guide to Following Christ in Daily Life (Twenty-Third Publications); Mystagogy of the Eucharist (Liturgical Press); Proclaim the Gospel in Song: More Warm-Ups for the Musicians's Spirit (World Library Publications); Reimagining the Ignatian Examen: Fresh Ways to Pray from Your Day (Loyola Press); The Spirituality of the Psalms: Prayers for All Times (Twenty-Third Publications); To Be One in Christ (Liturgical Press); When We Sing: Simple Techniques for Conducting Children's Choirs (World Library Publications)
Scripture
Divine Mercy (part of the Threshold Bible Study series) (Twenty-Third Publications); Luke: My Spirit Rejoices (RENEW International); Sagas, Scholars & Searchers: Why the Bible Is the Atheist's Best Friend (Clear Faith Publishing); The Holy Year of Mercy (Word Among Us)
Theology
A Holy Yet Sinful Church (Liturgical Press); Abounding in Kindness (Orbis Books); Jesus and Salvation (Liturgical Press); The Sacraments (Paulist Press)
A brief explanation of each category follows. Books in the “Biography” category must be about Catholics whose work has made a valuable contribution to the Church and the world on a local level or a universal level. “Children’s Books” are for ages up 18. These titles may provide instruction on specific aspects or general information about the Catholic faith, the Church, or Catholicism.
Books in the “General Interest” category include Church history, collections of essays by theologians or important Catholic thinkers. The “Inspirational” book category focuses on devotional, spiritual, and meditation books and books on saints, holy people, and stories related to people living their faith. “Prayer and Spirituality” are books centered on prayer or spiritual reflection, and include any theme for organizing and presenting such content.
“Resources for Ministry” includes any book that serves as a faith formation tool in parish ministry for sacrament preparation, catechesis (other than basal programs), adult faith formation, and for use in enrichment programs.
The category of “Scripture” includes books about Scripture, whether scholarly treatments of particular books or collections of books of the Bible. Bibles are excluded from this category. “Theology” includes books on the topic of Catholic theology, whether scholarly monographs or more popular treatments of theological aspects of Catholic teaching on, for example, the sacraments, the nature of the Church.
The Association of Catholic Publishers (ACP) is a membership organization of Catholic publishers, those who provide services to Catholic publishers, and individuals who work with Catholic publishers. The ACP provides opportunities for members to further the Catholic publishing industry, promote Catholic publishing and reading, and engage those they interact with, including retailers, pastoral leaders, individual customers, and staff.
To schedule interviews, contact Therese Brown at 410-988-2926 or at tbrown@catholicpublishers.org.
Fr. Edward Hays, beloved author of more than thirty books, gifted storyteller, and imaginative artist died on April 3 at St. Luke's Hospice Care in Kansas City, Missouri. Hays and Thomas Turkle founded Forest of Peace Publishing in 1979, a publishing effort that grew out of and supported the work of the Shantivanam House of Prayer in Easton, Kansas. (Shantivanam is a Sanskrit word that can be translated as “forest of peace.”) With Fr. Hays as its principle author, the company established a national reputation for its innovative books on prayer and spirituality.
During the 1980s and ’90s Hays was very popular with Spiritual Book Associates members and his books were often chosen as main selections of the club. When Hays and Turkle decided to leave the publishing business, they approached Ave Maria Press because of the good working relationship between the two companies. In 2003, with the acquisition of Forest of Peace, Ave reissued many of Hays’s books, including bestsellers such as Prayers for the Domestic Church (first published in 1979) and Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim (first published in 1989). Ave continued to publish Fr. Hays’s work under this imprint with books such as Chasing Joy and The Passionate Troubadour (a life of St. Francis of Assisi). His final work, A Book of Wonders, was a collection of daily meditations published in 2009. Here is the reflection for April 3, the day of his entrance into eternal life. It speaks well of the quality of his life as a “one-person divine visitation.”
A Mirabilary
We are wonderstruck when we’re caught off guard by some amazing or surprising thing or person. Unlike being lightning-struck—which is lethal—being wonderstruck is life-giving and spirit-arousing. If God is the Wonder of Wonders, then to witness any wonder is to have a divine visitation. These are more common than is believed. Admiration is to wonder, to be awed when people act heroically, selflessly, or generously. Normally, we have low expectations of our fellow humans. The unexpectedness of such behaviors are visitations of wonder. We capture this by calling them a “bolt out of the blue,” linking them to lightning. Become a bolt out of the blue yourself by being a mirabilary, an uncommon synonym for wonderworker. Today, surreptitiously plot to be a mirabilary by being a one-person divine visitation. In unexpected places and times, act in a surprisingly unselfish, noble, or heroic way.
We at Ave Maria Press who had the joy of working with Fr. Ed will always be grateful for the incomparable ways that he touched us with a spirit of holiness and joy.
Novalis Publishing and Ave Maria Press are excited to announce that Novalis will represent Ave in Canada as its distributor, effective immediately.
Ave Maria Press is a leader in publishing Catholic high school religion textbooks, parish resources, and books on prayer and spirituality. Its imprints include Ave Maria Press, Sorin Books, Christian Classics, and Forest of Peace. An apostolate of the Congregation of Holy Cross, United States Province of Priests and Brothers, Ave recently celebrated its 150th anniversary.
Novalis is the largest bilingual publisher in Canada, maintaining offices in both Toronto and Montreal. It was founded by André Guay, OMI, in 1935, and now is a division of Bayard Canada. Novalis distributes books and resources in Canada for more than twenty religious publishers from the United States and the United Kingdom.
The two companies share a common mission and values, producing spiritual resources that engage Catholics more deeply in their faith. This distribution partnership will allow both companies to better serve the Church and its people.
"We look forward to extending our reach in Canada through this partnership with Novalis Publishing," said Karey Circosta, vice president of sales and marketing at Ave Maria Press. "We’re pleased to make our high school religion textbooks, parish resources, and outstanding line of trade books more readily available throughout the country."
Robert Hamma had been interested in publishing before he began his second career as an editor at Paulist Press in 1984.
His background in ministry and two theology degrees from Immaculate Conception Seminary and the University of Notre Dame drew him toward Catholic publishing. Hamma will retire in July after 25 years at Ave Maria Press.
He learned the publishing business at Paulist Press, where he acquired and edited books, worked with RENEW, and developed resources for RCIA and college-level theology.
Hamma and his wife, Kathy Schneider, met at Notre Dame and they wanted to return to their circle of friends in the area. In 1991, Hamma was hired by Frank Cunningham as a book editor at Ave, as well as editor of Spiritual Book Associates, which involved working with about a half-dozen other publishers whose books were included in the book club. In that role Hamma also served as editor of Spiritual Book News, which was published eight times a year. He was promoted to editorial director in 1996.
Hamma estimates he’s edited about 200 books, including those of such notable authors as Sr. Joyce Rupp, Robert Wicks, Henri Nouwen, Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, Msgr. Peter Vaghi, Sr. Macrina Wiederkehr, Christine Valters Paintner, Michael Pennock, Judy Cannato, Msgr. Joseph Champlin, Fr. Ed Hays, John Kirvan, Sr. Anne Bryan Smollin, and Br. Loughlan Sofield.
Hamma is a respected part of Ave’s team. “Oh, how I will miss having Bob Hamma as my editor,” Rupp said. “He polished my manuscripts with his editorial skills and often restored my confidence. I owe so much to Bob for how kindly he approached my writing and the deftness with which he brought it to fuller life.”
Added current Ave Maria Press publisher Tom Grady, “After such a long and fruitful tenure at Ave, Bob has earned his retirement, but it will be hard to imagine this organization without him.”
Digital technology has open up new opportunities for publishing, Hamma said, and the pace of the work has increased accordingly. Communication with authors is instantaneous now, allowing editors to be more productive. Changes in the Catholic Church itself have altered the focus of publishing from primarily books for priests and religious to publications for lay Catholics exploring what it means to be part of the faith today. “Interest in Catholic identity has really shaped the kind of publishing we do,” Hamma said.
He is still discerning plans for the future, but Hamma wants to remain involved in publishing in a limited way, possibly to write and teach, and to work especially with Spanish-speaking Catholics. “It’s been 25 years and I feel like I am in place where I have a lot of energy for new things and I’m ready to make a change and step back from the fast pace.”
Ave will begin searching for Hamma’s successor immediately.
Will you commit to making a difference in someone’s life this year by becoming an Easter Evangelist?
Jared Dees, author of the newly released To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach: The Essential Guide to Ministry in Today’s Catholic Church, recently launched a campaign to extend 5,000 personal invitations to attend Easter Masses on March 26 and 27. He needs your help to meet his goal.
Just invite someone who is a lukewarm or fallen-away Catholic to go to Easter Mass and share with them why Easter is important to you. It’s that simple.
Dees recommends asking God to lead you to the person who needs the invitation the most. It could be a friend, coworker, acquaintance—even a family member who hasn’t been to church in a while. They might say no, but they also might say yes. Remind them as Easter gets closer and offer to go with them if you sense some reluctance.
Let God and the Holy Spirit do the rest. You might be planting a seed that could be a turning point in their faith journey.
Join the movement and gather with other Catholics from throughout the world at easterevangelist.com, where you’ll also find some FAQs to help.
In addition, by joining the Easter Evangelist e-mail list, you’ll get scripts and prompts to help you extend your invitations. You’ll receive stories and advice to help you become better at evangelization. Most importantly, you’ll be a part of a community of fellow Christians committed to spreading the joy of the Gospel this Lent and Easter season.
