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This work has emerged from efforts to attend Mass then having to leave with a deep sadness that does not easily go away, and the awareness that I am not alone in this. This book is not intended for anyone who is able to happily participate in the sacramental life of the Church, nor is it intended to encourage anyone to stop doing so. As a faithful Catholic has a right to the sacraments, this ritual is for those faithful members of the People of God who are finding themselves unable to do so and still yearning to, a way to help those of us who feel pushed to the margins. In other words, the purpose of this little book is to help faithful Catholics stay in the Church. The core of this ritual is our identity as priests in the common priesthood of Jesus. Each baptized follower of Jesus the Christ has been anointed priest, prophet, and royal. As vassal kings and queens of the King of kings and queens, each of us has been gifted with power rooted in our imago dei, being created in the image of God with gifts and talents we are meant to use to wash the feet of humanity and participate in God's ongoing creative and healing work. As a prophet each of us will be called to speak a truth that God wants heard by a person, a community, or by the whole world, and speaking this truth will involve risk. As a priest in the common priesthood of Jesus the Christ, each of us is called to be in a personal relationship with the one God and to be in communion with God along with each human we encounter. And as priests we are given the power and duty to forgive, a power we use in the first place at home. The Agape Meal Prayers, probably from the late 1st century AD might be best suited today for what we call a potluck supper or dinner on the ground, where everyone brings what they have and there is equal sharing, or perhaps for large family reunions. The Eucharistic Prayer is from the Apostolic Tradition, from about 215 AD, the prayer that I use regularly in these days. The Anaphora of Addai & Mari, probably also from the 3rd century, is still the core of some Eastern Eucharistic Prayers. While a deacon, priest or bishop is the ordinary minister of Baptism, in cases of necessity even a non-Christian with the intention of doing so for the Church can baptize as long as water and the words (I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit) are used. As a pastor I developed a Candidacy for Confirmation, used sometimes at a Sunday Mass and sometimes at the end of a Confirmation retreat, and offer it here for a sponsor and parents. The ritual for Marriage can be used by an officiant of a civil marriage. It recognizes that the spouses themselves confer the sacrament of marriage onto each other in their mutual exchange of consents, and it is their identity as priests in the common priesthood of believers that empowers them to do so. The Prayers for the Sick and the Commendation of the Dying are not to take the place of the Sacrament of Anointing, but recognize that there will be times when a priest is not available and we trust in God's mercy. Though a Funeral is normally presided over by a priest or deacon, a graveside service can be done by anyone. For the closing Blessings in this book, as with any blessing by the lay faithful, the leader simply signs themselves with the sign of thecross along with everyone else. If prayer is done with a group of people, consider making copies and inviting all present to read the prayers together. From the institutional church I beg patience and forbearance with all of this. I know this is not easy. Please remember that Catholics who feel marginalized are also being asked to continue being patient with our institutional church. For more visit idjc.org.

The Resurrection in the Great Story of Jesus is a parish-tested resource by a former Catholic priest. If you are a baptized disciple of Jesus, you are already an apostle in the world, a witness to the resurrection (see Acts 1:27). The great story of Jesus is part of your story, part of who you are, for the preaching of the good news began with the Easter story. This little book sets the four gospel accounts side-by-side as the story unfolds, with notes and some questions for pondering: The Empty Tomb, Mary Magdalene, Road to Emmaus, Upper Room, Seashore Breakfast, Commission & Ascension. Invite the original witnesses of the story to sit with some of your curious friends, or with a spouse or best friend, or in your personal time with God, who creating you in God's own image and knowing you better than you know yourself is loving you right now completely.

One Week in Ordinary Time is a meditation rendering of Psalms (146 of the 150), Canticles (40), Sayings of Jesus, Scripture Readings on the Christian Life (42), and traditional songs from the public domain (46), arranged for offices of Readings, Prophets, Morning Prayer, Daytime, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer. Almost all of the Psalms and Canticles and Readings are placed on the same day of the week as in the four-week traditional cycle of the Liturgy of the Hours. Designed by a parish priest as a straightforward introduction to praying the Liturgy of the Hours, One Week can also be used for private prayer and meditation by veterans of the breviary who wish now and then to pray the full Psalter in one week.This meditation rendering follows consciously these four choices: 1. For the name YHVH, or Yahweh, the Hebrew word Adonai (ah-duh-nih') meaning My Lord, is used. In several places the words El or Elyon or Elohim are retrieved, as is Sabaoth instead of Mighty or Hosts. 2. Following the Christian understanding of one God in the three persons of the Trinity, masculine pronouns for God are avoided, except when God is referred to as Father, or specific references to Jesus. 3. In an admittedly imperfect effort to pray the gospel as well as the psalms, the word "enemy" is most often rendered as "enmity." 4. Where people are referred to as evil, the emphasis is shifted to those who do evil, or ways that are evil or bad. There are problems with all four of these choices, and these would be reasons to not consider this compilation for public liturgy.Most of the antiphons are Sayings of Jesus drawn from Sunday Gospel readings: In the Sunday Lectionary, the Old Testament readings have connections with the Gospel reading, and the "responsorial psalm" is a "response" to the Old Testament reading. This means that on any given Sunday there is a relationship between the Gospel reading and the Psalm. The antiphons were chosen based on this relationship.Stephen Joseph Wolf is a parish priest in Clarksville, Tennessee, who spends most Mondays in silence and solitude writing for faith sharing groups. Visit www.idjc.org.

99 Poems, a bunch of odd pictures, and 3 downside-up songs. These twenty years of lines tell of one vocation in progress still by the grace of our patient God. Except for random thoughts while running, really jogging, I rarely thought of poetry and put not a poem on paper since some Christmas lines in the second grade. Introduced to journaling, and asked to write a psalm, "a song to God" a habit settled in and then a second. When a writer advised that a poem is a thing that ought be read out loud, editing became intense joy. A seminary teacher more than once described a priest's life as being with people in the sacred moments of life. In a very odd way, these poems have been with me in the sacred moments of my own life. They have helped me to remember what I believe God is saying to each of us every moment of every day and night: "I made you, I know you, and I love you." - Steve Wolf

A Simple Family Breviary is a modern version of the Little Office of Saint Francis of Assisi by a parish priest trying to help families pray together. Each prayer session includes a traditional song, a psalm of the season, either a psalm of Saint Francis or a psalm from the commons of Mary and the Saints, and closing praises. The order of prayer is easy to follow and offers variety day to day and month to month, and includes a calendar of major feasts of the church year. This simple once-daily prayer is suitable for a family, the classroom, midday at work, and with co-workers. Stephen Joseph Wolf is a retired and now former parish priest of the diocese of Nashville, and Angie Bosio is Director of Youth Ministry at St. Stephen Catholic Community in Old Hickory, Tennessee.

Tree of Life: Incarnation, Passion & Glory, Saint Bonaventure on the Christ Story. This is Saint Bonaventure's 13th Century collection of fifty meditations on the Incarnation, Passion, and Glory of Jesus Christ. Following the 1978 translation by Dr. Ewert Cousins, parish priest of 22 years and spiritual director Stephen Joseph Wolf offers a paraphrase with brush-ink drawings.

Rev. Steve Wolf, a former parish priest, seeks in this essay connections of the faith tradition, scripture, theology, some LGBTQI realities, and a history of some church teachings being both correct and still incomplete. He draws on Pope Francis (Who am I to judge?); that a minority of humans discover themselves to be LGBTQ; religious freedom; the right to act in conscience; and the Church's call to treat people who discover that their reality includes deep-seated same-sex attraction with respect, compassion, and sensitivity; to suggest some ways to deal with all this.

Psalter of Lectio is a revised guide to using your Bible to pray the way a monk might pray outside of the monastery. "Psalter" means the collection of psalms and canticles (poems and songs embedded in scripture) used by the early hermits, a collection developed by St. Benedict and the entire monastic tradition, which is always in a state of reform. "Lectio" is shorthand for "lectio divina," which means literally "sacred reading." Psalter of Lectio allows a pray-er to review the antiphons of all of the psalms and canticles prayed by the Church on a particular day of the week, choose an antiphon that seems to speak to him or her, and then go to the related psalm or canticle to listen to what the Lord might want to say on a particular day. The introduction includes concise and descriptive paragraphs on ways to use the book, the traditional four-step process of lectio divina (read, meditate, dialogue, and sitting open to contemplation), brief summaries of what some of today's teachers of praying are saying, and an invitation into "lectio continua," or continuous day-to-day reading in prayer of the Bible in its entirety, as one abbot says, "omitting nothing, doing honor to the integrity of revelation." Psalms for Night Prayer are also offered, as are simple charts comparing Psalter of Lectio with the Four-Week Psalter used by most priests and religious, and a chapter-a-day reading plan for praying the entire Catholic Bible over 44 months. Most significant are the three blank lines following each psalm antiphon to allow the pray-er to enter the psalm verses prayed, and so build his or her own Personal Psalter for those times when prayer is difficult. Compiled by a former parish priest who loves praying the Psalms and the Gospels, Psalter of Lectio may be the best answer to the oft-repeated question of believers: I want to pray with my Bible; how do I begin?

Linda Zralek went to heaven in 2014, and her funeral was a fest of her poetry.A note from the poet: "I Drink Beauty From Any Cup" is a poem I wrote many hears ago. To notice and to appreciate beauty is as important as breathing to me. Simple beauty, everyday beauty. The beauty of nature, of poetry, music, art, the beauty of all children, the beauty in the goodness of those I love and in others I barely know. I drink it all up and I am always grateful.A note from Linda's beloved Jim: In her humility she would hesitate to let others read her poems. She showed me only one of them. Whether it was spring's first jonquils, giggling grandchildren, a breeze on the screened-in porch, or the smell of coffee, they all primed the pump within her and began the flow of poetry. After living with her for forty-four years I suspect the pump produces water from heaven.Publisher Notes: These poems are presented in the order chosen by Linda's beloved, Jim Zralek. His arrangement is an impressive work of understanding, and I think the reader will agree that it brings to the collection a truly invitational flow which a chronological rendering may not have offered. Where Linda noted dates of composition these are given discreetly. The poems are also given in differing fonts in an effort to be faithful to how Linda recorded them over the years. Steve Wolf, IDJC Press, idjc.org

Hinge Hours For Christmas is a meditation rendering of Psalms (63), Canticles (14), Scripture Readings on the Christian Life (40), and traditional songs from the public domain (36), arranged for the two "hinge hours" of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer for the cycle of the Season of Christmas. Designed by a parish priest as a straightforward introduction to praying the Liturgy of the Hours, the Hinge Hours can also be used for private prayer and meditation by veterans of the breviary. Stephen Joseph Wolf was a parish priest in Nashville for 22 years who spent most Mondays in silence and solitude writing for faith sharing groups and spiritual direction. No longer a priest, the psalms and canticles are still at the center of his prayer life. For more information visit www.idjc.info.