Let God in: One Ignatian Journey

Perhaps you are a lifelong Christian as is the author, John A. Cooper. Perhaps you are thinking, "I have already let God into my life and my salvation is assured." Perhaps you are not a Christian, maybe you are Muslim, or atheist, or maintain another belief system, or no system at all. Then, this book is for you! Even if you have a relationship with God, would you open the door to your heart even wider and give up everything to live only in the love and Grace of God? Notice the cover art and symbol for the Holy Spirit, the light from the Father, and Jesus, all One God, all of the same substance. Jesus' hands reach out for you… Will you let Him into your life? Will you open the door even wider if he already lives in you? May Jesus be your Peace? John, You share yourself beautifully, both in your life experiences and in your imagination of scripture scenes, in the way you image Jesus, and how you apply those prayers to your personal and spiritual growth. This is a book that will invite all who read it with humility and courage to seek God in their everyday life experiences, with greater depth, trust, and unity. Thank you for sharing this book with me. - Bob Fitzgerald, former Executive Director Ignatius House, Atlanta, GA; currently Adjunct Lecturer, Spring Hill College; and Spiritual Director. This book is both a personal testimony and a practical guide. As in the story of St. Ignatius, the sudden loss of lifelong ambitions led to the grace of transformation, from self-confident determination to profound surrender, to the living Christ. Cooper shares a condensed version of his personal journal during the Spiritual Exercises in daily life. His notes for 32 weeks of prayer and reflection offer a very practical template for others to make their own journey of transformation. - Christopher Viscardi, S.J., Director of Spiritual Direction Program, Spring Hill College.

Let That Dark Horse Run

Have you ever wondered why someone snaps? Just lose it mentally? Forensic experts conduct investigations to answer these very questions. Sometimes there are glaring reasons and sometimes there are not. Most would never understand the depth of the mental suffering of the person in question. This of course doesn’t absolve the person from any dastardly deeds. The mind of the individual may reach a fork in the road. That mind could either take the right fork to commit suicide or take the left fork and kill those who have perpetrated the most grievous harm towards them. Or further still, they could just keep going straight and suffer horribly, dying a little every day. Did anyone know of their mental suffering? Did he or she try to obtain mental health care? But there was no one and no one cared or helped. I suppose you wonder why and how that I could possibly speculate? Please read on…

Life After Reconstruction

Life After Reconstruction is my story after genital reconstructive surgery. It follows the events of what happened in my life after I wrote my first book, Wings for the Butterfly, published in Germany and in Poland. After the book came out, I thought I would be famous on the spot. Instead, I ended up in a worse situation than I was in; from living in my own flat to being in a refugee home. In the refugee home, which was not supportive for the process of sexual healing after reconstruction, I met up with other forms of traumas, perhaps worse than my own. The result of the hostile environment in the refugee home was the tension that heightened the already frightened sexual restoration, leading to numbness once again and even more rage which eventually became uncontrollable. In order to understand myself better, I became involved with trying to understand the people I came to live with, trying to understand their problems, to the point of understanding that we are all looking for pure love that was denied to us in the formative years.

Life As We Speak

Step into a world where words hold unimaginable power and unlock the gateway to our desired reality. In Life As We Speak, the profound connection between our speech and the very fabric of existence comes to light. Delve into the realization that life itself is a pure reflection of the way we harness and employ language.

This transformative book reveals the awe-inspiring potential of intention-oriented speech patterns. By consciously shaping our words, we generate thought forms that act as guiding forces, directing every activity and event toward our initial vision. Life As We Speak empowers readers to harness this ultimate ability, unlocking the keys to success, health, wealth, and whatever else their hearts yearn for, simply by becoming aware of their speech patterns and making conscious adjustments.

Within the pages of this captivating work, the mysteries of spoken and written words are unraveled, allowing readers to master the mechanism of life-creation through the power of their own voices. This book serves as a profound tool, dedicated to enhancing readers’ lives by revealing the immense power hidden within their spoken words. Through enlightening teachings, readers learn to cultivate constructive and beneficial verbal expression habits, forever transforming the way they interact with the world.

Life. Thoughts That Make the World Go Around (and Up, Not Down)

Am I happy? What impact do I have on the world around me? What are my values? How do others perceive me? What does my ideal world look like? What does my ideal workplace look like?

Whether you are looking to improve yourself, improve your work environment or create a thriving culture, this book is for you. Only you have the power to bring about the change you want for yourself and for the world around you. It all begins and ends with you.

By taking a holistic approach, this book combines self-help motivational tools with the business tips you need to be able to empower yourself and change the course of your own life and your workplace for the better.

Lighthouse Stories

Lighthouses remain a fascination to most people. The light beam still flashes a warning to all shipping and acts as a guide to safe harbour in rough weather, but unfortunately the lighthouse keepers are now a thing of the past. Modern technology has meant that satellite navigation where signals can be bounced off satellites to turn engines on and off and fog signals can be operated from ashore without the trusty keepers. The lights still twinkle and backup systems ensure ships still have guidance to safety. No keepers, alas: they have all been made redundant. The way of life of the lighthouse keeper is now well past.
The reader of my stories should gain an insight into what being a keeper was all about. The working details provide a fair look at what makes a lighthouse function. The short stories cover a wide variety of different locations including the Channel Islands. Characters within the service are as varied as the lighthouse but there is always a story to tell given the nature of the work and the importance of safety at sea for shipping. As always, it’s the sea that is the master in everything that happens but humour keeps rearing its head to remind us of the simple things in life; it constantly raises a smile.
Although lighthouses are now unmanned, the public is still curious about their history and what a keeper's life was all about. This book and its stories perhaps can give an insight into a time when keepers were essential to safe passage.

Lighting the Blue Flame

"Welcome to my last day. I am Joshua McKenzie, 16 years old. "I fluctuate between an internal rage at the ones I blame for me feeling like this, and sadness for myself for not being able to do anything about it. "I'm not really scared, just sort of numb, sadness overwhelms me, no one has been there for me and no one is going to be there for me now. I loop the noose; I kick the chair. Fade to black…" Joshua has been bullied to the point of suicide and in his final act wants those he feels are responsible to make things right. Share the journey of those left behind to deal with Joshua's suicide and come up with solutions to prevent this from happening to others.

Lines of Evidence: How Recent Science Infers the Existence of God

Secular science demands we accept the philosophical dogma of scientific materialism—that only material entities exist. Yet recent science has discovered the immaterial!

Also mandated is the assumption that all things must be explained by natural causes. But we now are certain that the universe had a beginning. There was a time when “nature” didn’t exist—and yet we must attribute the origin of the universe to nature!

And what about Darwin’s theory of evolution—taken as fact that every plant and animal owe its origin to a common ancestor and naturalistic causes. At the time of Darwin, over a century and a half ago, no one knew the true complexity of the cell. We now know the simplest of living organisms has 159,662 base pairs of DNA and 182 protein-coding genes. What naturalistic cause put all of this together? Could this be assembled by blind, purposeless accident? What does recent science have to say?

And what about recent discoveries in origin-of-life research? Do we now know enough to suggest life could not have created itself?

A lot is happening in today’s science that is best explained through the Christian worldview. Let’s see what some of today’s scientists are now saying.

Little Bundle of Sorrow

Birth is made out to be the happiest time of your life. But what happens if you have a difficult pregnancy, a traumatic birth, your baby is fussy, or just won’t go to sleep? Are you meant to bond with your baby straight away?

Sometimes, the experience of being a new mum sucks. You’ve been sleep-deprived for weeks or months, and post-natal depression can creep up and take over. If you’ve found yourself struggling to cope, you’re not the only one. Other women have had similar thoughts and feelings to you, no matter how extreme they seem.

The women in this book have experienced postnatal depression and have come out the other side. Their stories will give you hope that there is a way out of the dark hole you are in.

You are not alone.

Living in Interesting Times: Curse or Chance?

These are the memoirs and reflections on the most acute issues of the contemporary world by a boy from the Estonian countryside who, through accident and pure ambition, ended up as a professor at Moscow University and adviser to President Gorbachev on matters of international law. After a stint as head of Estonian diplomacy at crucial moments in the restoration of its independence, he later became a centennial professor at the LSE and chair of international law at King’s College London. This is not a traditional autobiography. Besides reflecting on issues he dealt with while advising Soviet leaders, such as Yakovlev in his speech on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact or the status of the Kuril Islands, and their repercussions in today’s world, the book analyses the roots of the crisis within liberal democracy, the upsurge of populism, the rise of China and the re-emergence of Russia as a great power. A Marco Polo fellow at Jiaotong University in China and recently awarded the highest Russian Order for foreigners – the Friendship Order by President Putin, Professor Müllerson, who lives in London, feels equally at home discussing the renewal of great-power competition, the problems of the European Union including Brexit, the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the negative impacts of political correctness both in the former USSR and today’s West. Having lived equal thirds of his life in three different worlds and worked in and visited many countries as a UN diplomat, he is a man who understands small country mentality, though being ‘spoilt’ by great-power mindset. 

London Heathrow Airport June 2021

125 years ago no one thought there would ever be such things as airports. An aerodrome was then built on a small part of the site during 1914 to 1918 which became derelict after 1918. Then it was opened as a private aerodrome in 1929, and then expanded to it present size but only for military purposes during the World War. It became London's passenger airport after the war. It was just a set of tents along the A4 in 1946, which gradually expanded to its present layout over the past seventy years, on very much a piece meal basis, with each development thought to be the "state of the art". Various projects relating to the airport have been seriously considered but aborted. No one can say for certain how the airport will develop in the future.

London's Firefighters

London's Firefighters is a wonderfully readable, lavishly illustrated
anthology of articles, fiction and verse about the London Fire Brigade,
most of it gathered from the Brigade's house magazines London Fireman
(1966-82) and London Firefighter (1982-2005).
The book's editor David C. Pike, himself a retired firefighter, has cleverly
selected material that delivers both a comprehensive history of the
London Fire Brigade and a fascinating portrait of individual firemen
and women, at work and (occasionally) at play. The book includes
vivid, occasionally harrowing articles on important events involving the
Brigade - the Sidney Street Siege of 1911, the London Blitz and the 1981
Brixton riots, to name just a few - as well as covering key figures within
the Brigade like James Braidwood and Massey Shaw. The more personal
sections provide a revealing insight into the bravery, commitment and
camaraderie of ordinary working firefighters and their families.
The numerous, often highly dramatic illustrations, many from the London
Fire Brigade's own collection, offer a lively commentary on the text.
All the profits from this book will go to the Fire Service charity,
Firemen Remembered.
David Pike was a London firefighter for more than 30 years, retiring at
senior rank in 1996. His first book, Beyond the Flames, was published by
Austin Macauley in 2013.
‘A fascinating peek into the world of the London Fire Brigade. A finalist
and highly recommended.'
The Wishing Shelf Book Awards 2014/15, on Beyond the Flames