Bert Ghezzi will address the 18th Annual Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit (RBTE) at a lunchtime talk on Wednesday, May 27 in St. Charles, Illinois. Ghezzi is the author of Mystics & Miracles: True Stories of Lives Touched by God and The Sign of the Cross: Recovering the Power of the Ancient Prayer. His newest book, Voices of the Saints: a 365-Day Journey with our Spiritual Companions, will be released in September 2009.
From the monthly archives:
May 2009
Loyola Press is offering a new publication created specifically for parishes, Parish Life Inspiration and Resources includes helpful articles and tips written by best-selling authors and experts in the Catholic Church, as well as suggested resources to use in parish ministry.
Now Loyola Press is offering this resource to you for free. The publication is now available on Issuu. Loyola Press also offers several more resources on issuu. These include excerpts from Compass Points by Margaret Silf and the Fall 2009 Trade Catalog.
Tom McGrath and Bret Nicholaus, authors of The Meal Box, visited with Sean Herriott of Relevant Radio. Bret described his experience in creating such creative questions and Tom described his parent’s role in shaping his faith. To hear this interview from Relevant Radio, visit the Relevant Radio audio archive. The program originally aired May 7, 2009, hour 2.
Congratulations to Fr. Gary Smith, SJ, for being a 2009 Jubilarian. He is celebrating his fiftieth year in the Society of Jesus with 33 other Jesuits in the Oregon Province. Fr. Smith entered the Society on August 14, 1959. He was ordained in 1971 and took his final vows in 1987.
Gary Smith, SJ, is the author of They Come Back Singing and Radical Compassion. He is currently serving in South Africa through the Jesuit Refugee Service. For more information about this year’s Jubilarians, please visit the Society of Jesus Oregon Province website.
For parents who take faith seriously, it can be a challenge to know how—or when—to talk about faith with their children, and a bigger challenge yet to get kids to share their own thoughts about God and faith. For many families, the only time of the day when they are all together is at the dinner table, offering an opportunity for faith-filled conversation . . . yet how do you get the conversations cookin’?
Thanks too The Meal Box, a new mealtime product created by national best-selling question-book author Bret Nicholaus and family expert Tom McGrath, faith and fun go hand in hand at supper time. The Meal Box contains 54 two-sided cards. On one side of each card is a totally fun and creative question to get general conversation going; the reverse side contains a family faith tip that relates to the question and allows mom or dad to comfortably segue into various faith-related topics with their children.
Nicholaus, who has written more than 4,500 published questions, says, “The questions in The Meal Box are designed to ignite the imagination and spark fun conversations. Adults and children alike will learn a lot about each other simply by asking the questions.” Says McGrath, the author of Raising Faith-Filled Kids and other family books, “The faith tips allow parents and their kids to talk about faith in a relaxed, nonthreatening manner. The Meal Box makes thinking about faith a downright fun thing to do.”
The highly practical faith tips are written in an ecumenical style that will appeal to both Catholics and Protestants. The Meal Box is published by Loyola Press and retails for $9.95; the 54 cards are housed in a small plastic box that is easy to tote around.
About the Authors
Bret Nicholaus is the coauthor of the national best-selling question book The Conversation Piece (over 200,000 copies sold), as well as nearly twenty other books designed to get people talking. Bret and his wife, Christina, have two young boys.
Tom McGrath is the author of a multitude of family resources, including the best seller Raising Faith-Filled Kids. He is a frequent speaker on faith formation in the family. Tom and his wife, Kathleen, have two grown daughters.
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The Meal Box:
Fun Questions and Family Tips
to Get Mealtime Conversations Cookin’
Bret Nicholaus and Tom McGrath
Plastic box $9.95
978-0-8294-2813-1
