Non-fiction audiobooks page 63

Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892) was an Oxford-educated Anglican clergyman who converted to Roman Catholicism after the Privy Council ordered the Church of England in 1850 to reinstate an heretical vicar. Manning was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in 1851, appointed archbishop of Westminster in 1865, and made a cardinal in 1875 by Pope Pius IX.

In The Love of Jesus to Penitents, Manning enumerates the many benefits that the Sacrament of Penance affords the penitent: it reveals to the prodigal the tender compassion of Jesus Christ; it bestows the grace of spiritual regeneration upon the spiritually dead soul; it is the means of self-knowledge; it inclines the peniten...

In this book, his most famous, Max Stirner presents a philosophical case for a radical egoism that shuns the socially-oriented outlooks of both "establishment" ideologies and of revolutionaries in favor of an extreme individualism. The book is most widely talked about today only through the lens of other philosophers' thought: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels launched a famous assault on it in The German Ideology, and some draw a connection between Stirner's thoughts here and Nietzsche's egoism a generation later. But it is worth reading in its own right, as much for its lyricism as the challenge of its philosophical proposals.

CHAPTER I HOMES OF THE COLONISTS When the first settlers landed on American shores, the difficulties in finding or making shelter must have seemed ironical as well as almost unbearable. The colonists found a land magnificent with forest trees of every size and variety, but they had no sawmills, and few saws to cut boards; there was plenty of clay and ample limestone on every side, yet they could have no brick and no mortar; grand boulders of granite and rock were everywhere, yet there was not a single facility for cutting, drawing, or using stone. These homeless men, so sorely in need of immediate shelter, were baffled by pioneer conditions, and had to turn to many poor expedients, and b...

Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892) was an Anglican priest who, in 1851, converted to Roman Catholicism. In 1865, he was appointed archbishop of Westminster, which is the mother diocese of Roman Catholics in England and Wales, and in 1875, was made a cardinal by Pope Pius IX.

Sin and Its Consequences is based on a series of eight Lenten lectures. The first four chapters deal with the problem of sin. After explaining the nature sin, Manning explains the distinction between mortal and venial sins. He further discusses sins of omission which, if left unchecked, can all too easily lead to more serious sins. In the fifth chapter, Manning shows how the Sacrament of Penance is a most effecti...

In contrast to Scott’s South Pole expedition, Amundsen’s expedition benefited from good equipment, appropriate clothing, and a fundamentally different primary task (Amundsen did no surveying on his route south and is known to have taken only two photographs) Amundsen had a better understanding of dogs and their handling, and he used of skis more effectively. He pioneered an entirely new route to the Pole and they returned. In Amundsen’s own words: “Victory awaits him who has everything in order — luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.” Short accounts by other members of the party are appended...

This is the story of the lepers of Molokai and of the Roman Catholic missionary, Father Damien, who ministered to those who languished in that desolate place, waiting for death to release them from a most intense form of physical and mental suffering. Fr. Damien, born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious order. He won recognition for his ministry to people with leprosy (Hansen's disease), who had been placed under a government-sanctioned medical quarantine on the remote island of Molokai in the Kingdom of Hawaii. He, himself, contracted and died of this dreaded disease after...

An in-depth series of chapters devoted to the use of our memory system; as the title suggests, how to develop our memory system, how to train it to improve it, and how to make the best use of it in our everyday lives, and to improve our positions in life. This is not intended to be a series of chapters to impress friends and colleagues, nor to play 'tricks' on others, rather it is for the betterment of individuals in whatever walk of life in which they may be involved by training and using their memory toward that end.

Today, almost every layperson understands the concept of intelligence tests and can glibly discuss IQ scores. In fact, these have become so common in the popular imagination that magazines, websites and pop quizzes offer to assess your intelligence at the drop of a hat!

In this scenario, it's interesting to recall the very first person who proposed the concept of measurable intelligence. Alfred Binet was basically a clinical psychologist whose wide-ranging interests in learning difficulties faced by school children prompted him to undertake extensive studies in human cognition, psychology, learning and behavior. Though he initially trained to become a lawyer, he moved to medi...

This is the inspiring story of Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231). The son of a wealthy Portuguese family, he was initially ordained a priest of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine. In 1221, he took up the habit of a poor Franciscan friar and devoted his life to fervently preaching the Word of God. His extensive knowledge of Sacred Scripture and keen insights into its profound spiritual meaning astonished his hearers. To confirm the efficacy of his words, God gave him the gifts of prophecy and of performing miracles, the most memorable of which he worked in Padua in northern Italy, where he resided for many years. Anthony was declared a Doctor of the Church and is the beloved Patron Sai...

Isabella Bird travels abroad in Canada and the United States in the 1850s. As an Englishwoman and a lone female, she travels as far as Chicago, Prince Edward Island, and Cincinatti. Her observations on the trials and tribulations of the journeys are astute, if formed by her place and time in history. Adventures with pickpockets, omnibuses, cholera, and rat invested hotels deter her not. (Sibella Denton)