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Spirituality and Religion March 2026 |
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The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness
by Arthur C. Brooks
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of From Strength to Strength, an account of how the modern world sets us up to fail at finding meaning--and a plan for finding what you seek. Meaning in life is getting harder to find--and there's a reason for that. In The Meaning of Your Life, social scientist and happiness expert Arthur Brooks explains how rapid societal and technological changes have rewired our brains, making them ill-equipped to handle questions of existential reckoning. The resulting emptiness is not imaginary, and it is life-destroying for some, especially for young people. Fortunately, there's hope. With compassion, clarity, and practicality, Brooks tells you exactly what you need to do to move toward meaning. You'll take a test to determine where you are on your meaning journey, learn evidence-based tactics for rewiring your brain for complex and abstract concepts, and discover a vocabulary for your desires. Most importantly, Brooks will show you where to search for the transcendence, vocation, and significance that are your birthright as a human being. What is the meaning of my life? is not an unanswerable question, but the road to an answer--or answers--is a long one. The Meaning of Your Life is your guide for the journey.
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Peace Be with You!: My Words to the Church and to the World
by Pope Leo XIV
The first American Pope's words for the world reveal themes to his leadership: peace, hope, and unity.I would like this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world. Peace be with you With his first public appearance before the world, Pope Leo XIV expressed hope for an unarmed and disarming peace. Collected in this beautiful edition are the sermons and speeches Pope Leo XIV has delivered since his May 8, 2025, election, including: his First Apostolic blessing, delivered to the Central Loggia of the Vatican BasilicaCalled to Be a Light of Hope, his video message to the young people of Chicago and the whole worldThe compass of natural law, his Address to Members of the International Inter-Parliamentary Uniona special preface addressing U.S. readersand more.These first addresses convey some of Pope Leo XIV's vision for the future: the primacy of God, communion in the Church, and the pursuit of peace. His countless calls for reconciliation are addressed not only to politics, but to the heart of every person: Peace begins with each of us: from the way we look at others, listen to others, speak about others. He shows us that unity is possible, and it begins in our hearts.In his own words, Pope Leo XIV welcomes us all into communion and calls us to act to protect our shared humanity and our precious home.
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| The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us by Rebecca Newberger GoldsteinThis thoughtful, curious book explores our deep need to feel like we matter and all the surprising (and sometimes painful) ways we build our lives around that urge. Blending philosophy, psychology, and vivid storytelling, it examines how our longing for significance shapes relationships, creativity, and conflict in a world hungry for purpose. |
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Are You There, Spirit? It's Me, Travis: Life Lessons from the Other Side by Travis HolpTravis Holp shares his journey toward self acceptance and spiritual connection, weaving insights from his work as a medium together with client stories. Warm and hopeful, this memoir reflects on grief, intuition, and the unexpected moments in which we sense something larger at work in our lives.
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Liturgies of the Wild: Myths That Make Us
by Martin Shaw
Martin Shaw proposes that we look to the ancient technologies, the myths and initiatory rites, for help achieving maturity and wholeness. Drawing on his experience as a guide for wilderness rites of passage, Shaw teaches you to read a myth the way it wants to be read; provides vivid retellings of tales powerful enough to carry you through life's travails; and shows you how to gather and reshape your own thrown-away stories. Most vividly, he shares how these ancient technologies led him-unexpectedly-to Christ, the True Myth, by way of a thirty-year journey and a 101-night vigil in a Dartmoor forest-- Provided by publisher.
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Traversal
by Maria Popova
From the Marginalian creator and bestselling author Maria Popova, a bold exploration of what makes a meaningful life. What is life?What is death?What makes a body a person? What makes a planet a world? In Traversal, Maria Popova illuminates our various instruments of reckoning with the bewilderment of being alive--our telescopes and our treatises, our postulates and our poems--through the intertwined lives, loves, and legacies of visionaries both celebrated and sidelined by history, people born into the margins of their time and place who lived to write the future: Mary Shelley, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Fanny Wright, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, Marie Tharp, Alfred Wegener, Humphry Davy, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead. Woven throughout their stories are other threads--the first global scientific collaboration, the Irish potato famine, the decoding of the insulin molecule, the invention of the bicycle, how nature creates blue--to make the tapestry of meaning more elaborate yet clearer as the book advances, converging on the ultimate question of what makes life alive and worth living. By turns epic and intimate--as concerned with the physical laws binding atoms into molecules as with the psychic forces binding us to one other--Traversal explores the universe between cells and souls to reveal the world, and our lives, in a dazzling new light.
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| Work in Progress: Confessions of a Busboy, Dishwasher, Caddy, Usher, Factory Worker... by James Martin, SJThis coming-of-age memoir looks back on the summer jobs, awkward moments, and small lessons that shaped a future Jesuit priest. Told with humor and humility, it reflects on work, character, and the surprising ways ordinary experiences can prepare us for a life of purpose. Readers drawn to this blend of warmth and everyday spirituality might also appreciate Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle. |
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| Conversations on Faith by Martin Scorsese with Antonio SpadaroIn a series of intimate dialogues with Father Antonio Spadaro, filmmaker Martin Scorsese reflects on his Catholic upbringing, creative influences, and the spiritual questions that run through his films. Their conversations offer a candid look at the evolving faith behind a celebrated artistic life. |
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| Uncomplicate It: Permission to Enjoy God in Your Unique Way by Hosanna WongThis inviting book encourages readers to discover a more personal and flexible relationship with God by honoring their own personality and life season. Through real-life stories and practical reflections, it offers gentle permission to release comparison, rethink expectations, and find meaningful connection in everyday moments. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Anne Arundel County Public Library
5 Harry S. Truman Pkwy.
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
410-222-7371https://www.aacpl.net |
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