Showing results by author "James Martin" in All Categories

Most companies developing software employ something they call "Agile." But there's widespread misunderstanding of what Agile is and how to use it. If you want to improve your software development team's agility, this comprehensive guidebook's clear, concrete, and detailed guidance explains what to do and why, and when to make trade-offs.

On the day after the Orlando nightclub shooting, James Martin SJ posted a video on Facebook in which he called for solidarity with our LGBT brothers and sisters. "The largest mass shooting in US history took place at a gay club, and the LGBT community has been profoundly affected," he began. He then implored his fellow Catholics - and people everywhere - to "stand not only with the people of Orlando but also with their LGBT brothers and sisters."

Richard Tull, a failed and disillusioned novelist, seethes with envy as he watches his longtime friend Gwyn Barry, a talentless, populist charlatan, rise to literary superstardom. Barry is adored by readers, celebrated by critics, and constantly in the public eye, while Tull sinks deeper into middle-aged obscurity, unable to escape the evidence of his own defeat. In a trance of impotent rage, Tull devises a vicious plan to ruin his friend—or at least hurt him as badly as possible—and finds himself tumbling into London’s criminal underworld, as well as the darkest precincts of his own soul.

The Ignatian goal of "finding God in all things" eans that every part of our lives can lead us to God. The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything shows us how this is possible, with user-friendly examples, humorous stories and anecdotes from the heroic and inspiring lives of Jesuit saints and average priests and brothers, as well as examples from Martin's twenty years as a Jesuit. The traditional wisdom that Jesuits use to help other people in their daily lives is easily applied, but not often explained well to the general public.

Learning to Pray explains what prayer is, what to expect from praying, how to do it, and how it can transform us when we make it a regular practice in our lives. A trusted guide walking beside us as we navigate our unique spiritual paths, Martin lays out the different styles and traditions of prayer throughout Christian history and invites us to experiment and discover which works best to feed our soul and build intimacy with our creator.

Audible presents The Heartful Life with Daaji, an Audible Original. Life often demands of us that we juggle not one, but many roles at a time. When we are young, we can be both the playful child, and the curious student. As we grow, we mediate between being the supportive partner, the irreplaceable employee, and the enabling leader.

Come to the movies with two celebrated spirituality writers—American poet and author Kathleen Norris and Irish storyteller and peace activist Gareth Higgins. In A Whole Life in Twelve Movies, Norris and Higgins invite listeners along as they discuss acclaimed movies that can help us better understand our lives—from before birth to death and beyond. Featuring twelve films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Malcolm X, and Babette's Feast, this book is perfect for individuals or groups to watch and discuss movies over the course of a year.

Martin Gardner wrote the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American for twenty-five years and published more than seventy books on topics as diverse as magic, philosophy, religion, pseudoscience, and Alice in Wonderland.

The year is 1794, and the beautiful and resilient Countess Anna Maria Berezowska has narrowly escaped death amidst the chaos caused by the violent dissolution of Poland. Anna is soon reunited with her longtime love, Lord Jan Stelnicki, and the two lovers marry even as their beloved Poland is ripped apart. As the couple struggles to raise a family in the face of an uncertain future, Anna’s capricious cousin, Zofia, returns with a surprise of her own.

With the warmth, wisdom, and grace that infuse his works, Father James Martin explains why Jesus' crucifixion and death on the cross is an important teaching moment in the Gospels. Jesus' final statements, words that are deeply cherished by his followers, exemplify the depth of his suffering but also provide a key to his empathy and why we can connect with him so deeply.

In Struck Down, Not Destroyed, Vatican reporter for America magazine Colleen Dulle takes listeners for the first time into her own experience of reporting: how the church has put her own faith into crisis, and how she has managed to stay Catholic by meeting again and again the spiritual reality at the heart of the church—God and the saints. With each chapter, Dulle revisits her reporting on a church crisis, revealing to listeners that in every instance of anger, betrayal, and hurt, she was ultimately renewed in hope, courage, and resolve.

This is the memoir of James C. Hormel - a man who grew up feeling different not only because his family owned the Hormel “empire” and lived in a 26 bedroom house in a small Midwest town, but because he was gay at a time when homosexuality was not discussed or accepted. Outwardly he tried to live up to the life his father wanted for him - he was a successful professional, had married a lovely woman, and had children - but as volatile changes in the late 1960s impeded on the American psyche, Hormel realized that he could not hide his true self forever.

Theodora: Actress, prostitute, mistress, feminist. And Byzantine Empress of the civilized world. Stephen: Handsome Syrian boy, wizard's apprentice, palace eunuch. And Secretary to the Empress. How does this unlikely pair become such allies that one day Empress Theodora asks Stephen to write her biography? From a very young age, Theodora, daughter of a circus bearkeeper in Constantinople, sets her sights well above her station in life. Her exquisite beauty sets her apart on stages and in the eyes of men.

Together, Justinian and Theodora reach for greatness, albeit in different areas: Justinian aims to simplify thousands of old Roman laws into one codex, as well as reconquer Rome and other lands lost to barbarians. Theodora longs to close the chasm between two religious beliefs, establish significant rights for women, and ensure that the Justinian-Theodora bloodline continues.

Los Angeles, the 1930s. The city of angels. Just beneath the surface is a city stinking of corruption with criminal bosses and politicians squeezing the life out of the city. Stunned by the murder of her crusading politician father, socialite Ellen Patrick determines to bring her father's killers to justice - at any cost! Donning a distinctive white dress and a black domino mask, she becomes the Domino Lady, one of the sexiest - and most elusive - crime fighters of all time.

The Americas have had native groups living there for more than ten thousand years, but Columbus was surely not their first visitors. Uncharted covers a range of cultures who seemingly have been visiting the Americas since long before Columbus. Evidence is explored of potential Roman and Phoenician shipwrecks off the coast of South America through to Celtic and Norse exploration of Northern America. Put simply, the history of the discovery of the North America is all wrong. How did the Knights Templar influence the discovery of the new world?

It is September 11, 1683, and the Ottoman Turks stand at Vienna poised to bring down the weakening citadel and impose jihad. Their sights are set on all of Europe. Aleksy, a Tatar raised by a Polish peasant family, holds in his heart the wish to become a Polish winged hussar, a Christian lancer who carries into battle a device attached to his back that holds dozens of eagle feathers. As a Tatar and as a peasant, this is an unlikely quest. When he meets Krystyna, the daughter of the noble who owns the land that his parents work, he falls hopelessly in love.

Whether it's a faulty memory, a tendency to multitask, or difficulty managing our time, every one of us has limitations conspiring to keep us from being organized. But, as organizational guru and former Google CIO Douglas C. Merrill points out, it isn't our fault. Our brains simply aren't designed to deal with the pressures and competing demands on our attention in today's fast-paced, information-saturated, digital world. But it doesn't have to be this way. Luckily, we have a myriad of amazing new digital tools and technologies at our fingertips to help us.

One of America’s most beloved spiritual leaders and the New York Times bestselling author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and Learning to Pray examines one of the most intriguing events in the New Testament—the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead—and explains its significance for us today.

Spitfire Ace provides a vivid portrait of the few that flew in the Battle of Britain. The battle, in 1940, was one of the most famous air battles in the history of warfare. It is a story of ruthless organisation, and brilliant control and command. And at its heart is a legendary figure, the RAF fighter pilot, and one particular plane, a piece of machinery of almost mythic historical glamour: the Supermarine Spitfire.