Exorcist: Spiritual Battle Lines Volume Two by Fr Jose Francisco C Syquia

Hardback: We cannot thank Fr Jocis enough for this second volume of his book on an area of our spiritual and ecclesial life that he knows by heart. This simply reveals how he has continued to grow from study, ministry, and prayer. I personally congratulate Fr Jocis as I encourage him to pursue with humility and love this special service in the Church.

Although many people might think that the ministry of exorcism is way beyond their grasp, the truth is that the reality dealt with by exorcists is one of the most common of human experiences. All of us are in touch with the innate goodness that God our Creator has put in our heart. We hear the voice of conscience, the “original memory of the good and the true” that is part of our being human. We cannot deny the goodness that is within us as a gift of our Creator. Yet we also live daily with the assaults of the tempter. We can recall the many times we have allowed ourselves to be deceived by his false claims. The evil one is real and active. He relentlessly pursues human beings in order to destroy and kill. The more serious cases that exorcists handle are connected to the attacks from the evil one that we hardly notice.

Fr Jocis’ experience as codified in this book is a resounding affirmation of Christian faith and hope. We confess that God is all good. In Jesus we have come to know that the evil one had failed to stain the purity of God’s love. The Holy Spirit has been poured into our hearts and on the Church so that the power of the name of Jesus the Risen One may vanquish our fear. In the love of God victorious in Jesus, we are more than conquerors in the face of trials, persecution, temptation, and death. This is the truth proclaimed by the ministry of exorcism. In our daily prayer for deliverance from evil and the performance of good actions to defeat evil, we share in that ministry. I pray that Fr Jocis book may confirm us as bearers of Jesus triumph over evil. - Most Rev Luis Antonio G Tagle, DD, Archbishop of Manila

Exorcist: Spiritual Battle Lines, Volume Two (2012) includes Marian and Angelic Prayers.

About the author/priest: Fr Jose Francisco "Jocis" Syquia hails from a wealthy family. The second to the eldest son of the late ambassador Enrique Syquia and his wife, Leticia, he and his four brothers grew up in North Forbes Park, Makati City in the Philippines.

After graduating from college in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy at the University of Santo Tomas (UST), Fr Jocis entered the seminary in 1989 and completed his training from both San Carlos Major Seminary in Makati City and the University of Santo Tomas Central Seminary. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sacred Theology from the UST Ecclesiastical Faculties and a Licentiate in Spiritual Theology from the Angelicum in Rome. He finished both courses with magna cum laude honours. He also has a Master's degree in Psychology from the UST Graduate School.

Fr Jose Francisco C Syquia is the Head of the Commission on Extraordinary Phenomena for the Archdiocese of Manila. He is the Director of the Archdiocese of Manila Office of Exorcism, an exorcist of Manila for ten years now, and a member of the International Association of Exorcists based in Rome. He completed the Vatican Course on Exorcism and Deliverance at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University. He is the author of the bestselling trilogy, Exorcist, published by ST PAULS. He is also a full-time formator, spiritual director, and professor of spirituality and psychology at the San Carlos Major Seminary.

Exorcism: Encounters with the Paranormal and the Occult by Fr Jose Francisco C Syquia

Hardback: Warning: You won't be able to put down this book. Because Fr Jocis Syquia - an official exorcist of the Catholic Church - will take you into the hidden, dark world of demons and how they intersect our daily world. 

Speaking from personal experience of haunted houses, demon possession, ghosts and true-to-life, scientifically unexplainable paranormal activity, Fr Jocis will also show you the incomparable power of God over spirits. 

In the end, his mind-blowing stories will not make you fear the devil as much as they will make you love God more.

Exorcism: Encounters with the Paranormal and the Occult (2006) includes Rules from The Roman Ritual of Exorcism and how to handle emergency cases.

About the author/priest: Fr Jose Francisco C Syquia is the Head of the Commission on Extraordinary Phenomena for the Archdiocese of Manila. He is the Director of the Archdiocese of Manila Office of Exorcism, an exorcist of Manila for ten years now, and a member of the International Association of Exorcists based in Rome. He completed the Vatican Course on Exorcism and Deliverance at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University. He is the author of the bestselling book Exorcist comprising three volumes published by ST PAULS. He is also a full-time formator, spiritual director, and professor of spirituality and psychology at the San Carlos Major Seminary.

Dave Eggers, American Writer, Editor, and Publisher

The Nobel Prize In Literature 2018/2019

Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk, Polish Writer, Activist, and Public Intellectual

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Şafak

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Dead Cold (Chief Inspector Gamache Series) by Louise Penny

Paperback: Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.

No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter - and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death.

When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the Sûreté du Québec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he is dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything.

Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder - or brilliant enough to succeed?

With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. But other dangers are becoming clear to Gamache.

As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself.

Dead Cold (2006) aka A Fatal Grace is the second instalment in the worldwide phenomenon Chief Inspector Gamache series set in Canada. In 2007, it won the Agatha Award in the Best Novel category.

About the author: Louise Penny is the Number One New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Gamache series, including Still Life, which won the CWA John Creasey Dagger in 2006. Recipient of virtually every existing award for crime fiction, Louise was also granted The Order of Canada in 2014 and received an honorary doctorate of literature from Carleton University and the Ordre Nationale du Québec in 2017. She lives in a small village south of Montreal.

Rating:  5/5

Crossing The Threshold

An Interesting Companion

Make The Reader Feel At Home

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Paperback:  The thrilling new novel from number-one New York Times best-selling author Lisa See explores is a moving story about Chinese tradition, tea farming, and the enduring connection between mothers and daughters.

Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea in their remote mountain village. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate - the first automobile any of them have seen - and a stranger arrives.

In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), See introduced the Yao people to her audience. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority, the Akha, whose world will soon change.

Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city.

After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley's happy home life, she wonders about her origins, and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family's destiny for generations.

A powerful story about a family separated by circumstances, culture, and distance, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little-known region and its people and a celebration of the bonds of family.

The Tea Girl Of Hummingbird Lane (2017) is a 2018 Audie Award Finalist for Fiction and Multi-Voiced Performance.

About the author:  Lisa See is a Chinese-American author. Her New York Times bestselling books include Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), Dragon Bones (2003), Peony in Love (2007), Shanghai Girls (2009), China Dolls (2012), and Dreams of Joy (2011) which debuted at No 1. Ms See is also the author of On Gold Mountain (1995), which tells the story of her Chinese American family's settlement in Los Angeles. She was named the 2001 National Woman of the Year, by the Organization of Chinese American Women and was the recipient of the Chinese American Museum's Historymakers Award in fall 2003. She lives in Los Angeles.

Rating:  5/5

No Man Is An Island by Thomas Merton

Paperback:  "We are always asking, 'What is Truth?' and then crucifying the truth that stands before our eyes."

Here, in one of his most popular of his more than thirty books, Thomas Merton, one of the most influential and provocative spiritual writers of the twentieth century and hailed as a prophet during his lifetime, provides further meditations on the spiritual life in sixteen thoughtful essays, beginning with his classic treatise "Love Can Be Kept Only by Being Given Away."

This recapitulation of his earlier work, Seeds of Contemplation (1949), provides fresh insight into Merton's favorite topics of silence and solitude, love and hope, while also underscoring the importance of community, friendship, humility, spiritual loneliness, courage, and the deep connectedness to others that is the inevitable basis of the spiritual life - whether one lives in solitude or in the midst of a crowd.

No Man Is An Island was originally published in 1955. The book has sustained millions of readers with its extraordinary understanding of humanity and the divine and with its practical applicability to our lives.

About the author:  Thomas Merton was one of the most influential Catholic authors, a world-renowned religious philosopher and revered mystic of the 20th century. He was ordained to the priesthood and given the name Father Louis in 1949. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, in the American state of Kentucky, Merton was an acclaimed Catholic spiritual writer, poet, author, witness to peace and social/antiwar activist. Merton wrote over 60 books, scores of essays and reviews, and is the ongoing subject of many biographies. Merton was also a proponent of inter-religious dialogue, engaging in spiritual dialogues with the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and D T Suzuki. In 1963, he was awarded the Pax Medal for his writings on non-violence.

His life and career were suddenly cut short at age 53 in 1968, when he was electrocuted stepping out of his bath in Thailand. In 2018, Hugh Turley and David Martin published The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation, questioning the claim of accidental electrocution.

This Fine October