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Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Ave Maria Press to Debut Several New Books at Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show

Ave Maria Press is debuting its first adult coloring book and its two newest CatholicMom.com series books at the Catholic Marketing Network trade show in Schaumburg, Illinois. The annual trade show, sponsored by the Catholic Marketing Network, is July 26-29, 2016, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center. Renowned Catholic artist Daniel Mitsui is scheduled to sign copies of The Mysteries of the Rosary from 3 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, July 27, at the Ave booth (305) in the exhibit hall. He will join Lisa M. Hendey, coeditor of The Catholic Mom’s Prayer Companion, and Judy Landrieu Kline, author of Mary’s Way, at the event. Kelly M. Wahlquist, founder of WINE: Women In the New Evangelization and editor of the soon-to-be-released Walk in Her Sandals, is the CMN preshow luncheon speaker on July 26. She will sign books at the event as well. Dawn Eden, author of Remembering God’s Mercy, and Margaret Rose Realy, author of The Catholic Gardener’s Spiritual Almanac, will participate in the book signing. Adult coloring books were the fastest-growing book category in 2015, making up five of the top ten bestselling books. But of the hundreds of coloring books on the market, very few reflect Catholic themes. Mitsui’s exquisitely detailed illustrations of the Glorious, Joyful, and Sorrowful Mysteries make up the first adult coloring book to focus on the Rosary and draw inspiration from medieval illustrated manuscripts. Mitsui’s second adult coloring book, The Saints, will be published in November by Ave Maria Press. In The Catholic Mom’s Prayer Companion, Hendey and coeditor Sarah A. Reinhard bring together more than eighty moms, dads, and spiritual companions to provide fresh, uplifting meditations for every day of the year. Created by moms for moms, these hope-filled meditations touch on the issues and concerns parents face as they try to get through the day with a sense of God’s presence in their life. Each day begins with a brief quotation from scripture, saints, recent popes, or important spiritual writers. A personal reflection—written by contributors including Danielle Bean, Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, Lisa Mladinich, Elizabeth Scalia, Carolyn Woo, Mark Hart, and Jeff Young—focuses on some dimension of spiritual, emotional, intellectual, or physical life. Each day also includes a brief prayer and a question or thought to ponder throughout the day. Mary’s Way is for moms who struggle to guide children through the various stages of their lives. Klein shows how her own crisis of faith helped her release her children to the care of the Blessed Mother. In doing so, the popular speaker and teacher shows readers how to find the love, joy, and peace of Our Lord as they surrender their will to him. In Walk in Her Sandals, Wahlquist and her fellow authors take women deeper into their relationship with Jesus by helping them relate to him in a profoundly intimate way. Looking at six universal gifts of women through the eyes of women in the gospels, the book guides readers on a prayerful and creative journey through the days of Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Popcaks Honored by Couple to Couple League

Greg and Lisa Popcak, authors of Just Married and Then Comes Baby, have been named the 2016 recipients of the Fr. Richard M. Hogan Award by Couple to Couple League International. The award is given to those who have excelled in promoting Natural Family Planning in the fields of theology, psychology, sociology, or other social sciences. Ann Gundlach, CCL’s director of communications, offered several reasons for the award, including that Greg Popcak has written a popular column for the organization’s Family Foundations magazine for more than 15 years. Gundlach also cited Greg’s professional practice and the Popcaks’ books and radio programs, which also have supported NFP. “Both you and Lisa are tireless supporters, defenders and advocates for living out marriage according to God’s amazing design,” Gundlach said. You can read more about the award in Greg Popcak’s blog, Faith on the Couch, on Patheos.

Monday, June 06, 2016

McColman Named a Georgia Author of the Year

Carl McColman has been named Georgia author of the year in the inspirational-religious category for his book, Befriending Silence: Discovering the Gifts of Cistercian Spirituality. The award was presented by the Georgia Writers Association on June 4, 2016, at Kennesaw State University. It is the oldest literary awards ceremony in the southeastern United States, started by the Dixie Council of Authors and Journalists in 1964 and hosted by the GWA since 1994. McColman was among 154 nominations in 14 categories that include both fiction and non-fiction genres.

Saturday, June 04, 2016

Three Ave Projects Earn Top Awards From The Catholic Press Association

ST. LOUIS, MO—Ave Maria Press authors and staff were among those recognized at the 2016 Catholic Press Association awards presented Friday night. Teresa Tomeo and her husband, Dominick Pastore, were awarded first place in the family life category for their book, Intimate Graces. Joyce Rupp was given third place in the spirituality/soft cover category for Fly While You Still Have Wings. Ave’s 2015 spring trade catalog and staff members Heather Glenn and Chris Tobin earned second place in best trade/seasonal catalog. Several Ave authors also were presented awards for other projects: Lisa M. Hendey, Ave editor-at-large, second place in the children’s book category for The Secret of the Shamrock from the Chime Travelers Series; second place, best blog by a group or association for CatholicMom.com. Karey and Manuel Santos, honorable mention for contributions to the family life column “Marriage Matters” in FAITH Lansing. Kelly M. Wahlquist, first place in the first-time authors category for Created to Relate. Brian Doyle, honorable mention in family life for So Very Much the Best of Us. Angelique Ruhi-Lopez was recognized with fellow staff members of The Florida Catholic for first place in the best news coverage of the papal visit to Cuba and the US. A complete list of winners is available on the Catholic Press Association website.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Holy Cross Priests, Brothers Celebrate Jubilee Milestones

Twenty-seven members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, United States Province of Priests and Brothers, will celebrate jubilee milestones on Friday, May 27, 2016. The jubilee Mass will begin at 4 p.m. in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame. If you are unable to attend the Mass in person, it will be streamed live. Twenty-four priests will celebrate milestones of their ordination, while three brothers will mark the anniversaries of their religious profession. The jubilarians are: Seventieth Anniversary of Ordination Rev. Howard A. Kuhns, C.S.C. Sixty-fifth Anniversary of Religious Profession Br. Herman F. Zaccarelli, C.S.C. Sixtieth Anniversary of Ordination Rev. T. Philip Devlin, C.S.C. Rev. Leon J. Mertensotto, C.S.C. Rev. William J. Neidhart, C.S.C. Rev. J. Robert Rioux, C.S.C. Rev. Patrick J. Sullivan, C.S.C. Sixtieth Anniversary of Religious Profession Br. Thomas P. Tucker, C.S.C. Fiftieth Anniversary of Ordination Rev. Robert C. Antonelli, C.S.C. Rev. James William Irwin, C.S.C. Rev. Charles J. Lavely, C.S.C. Rev. Louis A. Manzo, C.S.C. Rev. Donald P. McNeill, C.S.C. Rev. Daniel Panchot, C.S.C. Rev. Claude A. Pomerleau, C.S.C. Rev. James A. Rigert, C.S.C. Rev. Cornelius J. Ryan, C.S.C. Rev. Stephen J. Sedlock, C.S.C. Fiftieth Anniversary of Religious Profession Br. Dennis L. Meyers, C.S.C. Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Ordination Rev. John J. Donato, C.S.C. Rev. Marc F. Fallon, C.S.C. Rev. David L. Guffey, C.S.C. Rev. Fulgens Katende, C.S.C. Rev. Paul V. Kollman, C.S.C. Rev. Russell K. McDougall, C.S.C. Rev. Patrick M. Neary, C.S.C. Rev. Timothy L. O'Connor, C.S.C. You can read more about each man on the Holy Cross website. Ave Maria Press is the publishing apostolate of the U.S. Province of Holy Cross.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Johnson and Fenelon Books Win ACP Awards

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.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Remembering Joyce Hutchison (1940-2016)

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.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Dorothy Day Cause for Canonization Moves Forward

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.