Xavier Society for the Blind

Our Communications and Fundraising Manager Aisling Redican recently returned from the Camino in Spain. Look who she found inside a small church just outside Santiago - St. Lucy! Are you interested in learning more about this incredible pilgrimage and its ancient roots? Check out "And So I Walked: Reflections on Chance, Choice, and the Camino de Santiago" by Anne Gardner in braille. Here's a bit more about this great book:

Embedded in her vivid account of walking the 500-mile El Camino is the memoir of a life lived as resolutely and jubilantly as a painful slog on muddy trails opening to stunning vistas of northwestern Spain. If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to walk that far — or what might prompt someone to undertake such a journey — And So I Walked is the guidebook for you. It's available in our braille library!

Here's a bit more about this new title: What compels someone to walk 500 miles?
For Anne Gardner, the Camino de Santiago was more than a pilgrimage—it was a journey of transformation. With humor, grit, and raw honesty, Gardner takes you along the sacred and soul-baring path that tested her strength, renewed her spirit, and reshaped her understanding of what it means to move forward.

Part vivid travelogue, part deeply personal memoir, And So I Walked invites you into an unforgettable adventure that explores resilience, faith, and the quiet revelations found in every step. Through breathtaking landscapes, candid encounters with fellow travelers, and moments of profound self-reflection, Gardner delivers a story that will inspire and move you.

Sister Macrina Wiederkehr authored such bestselling books on Catholic spirituality as Seven Sacred Pauses and A Tree Full of Angels. In The Flowing Grace of Now—her first book in almost a decade—Wiederkehr offers weekly reflections that reveal the spiritual teachers at work in your life, inviting you to listen to these teachers and learn from their wisdom.

Here is a bit more about this book from Ave Maria Press : “There is an old proverb that says, ‘When the student is ready the teacher will arrive.’ I think I have been ready for a long time, yet perhaps I have spent too much time looking for the perfect teacher rather than seeing the teachers that arrive in unexpected ways.” With these words, retreat guide and author Sr. Macrina Wiederkehr begins The Flowing Grace of Now, a year-long companion that ushers you into the presence of teachers already at work in your life—teachers intent on helping you deepen your faith. These teachers are not necessarily saints, writers, or theologians, but rather ordinary people, events, and experiences whose presence already permeates your life.

These include: biblical characters, day and night, silence, the virtues, and joy in another person’s good fortune. These, Wiederkehr suggests, are the kind of teachers who are the result of the flow of grace in your life. She encourages you to become aware of how they are at work in you and what you might learn from them. Each reflection begins with a scripture text leading you into the spirit of the week. A brief meditation on this scripture serves as a catalyst for the Word to take root in your heart and a closing prayer sums up the week. A teacher is suggested for you.
The final quotation from a spiritual writer contains the spirit of your teacher and can assist you in embracing the wisdom of that teacher. Using this book as a year-long weekly guide can be an enriching opportunity to deepen and transform your faith life.

Get your week off to a great start with a braille book perfect for mind, body and soul. Check out "Spiritual Practices for the Brain: Caring for Mind, Body, and Soul" by Anne Kertz Kernion.

Here is more about this title published by Loyola Press : In "Spiritual Practices for the Brain," Anne Kertz Kernion relies on the most current research to link spiritual practices to improved health. Relying on her education and experience in brain development, positive psychology, and theology, Anne is able to relate seemingly simple practices such as focused breathing, gardening, practicing kindness, or going for a walk with powerful results for your mind, body, and soul. Her presentation is friendly and readable, and each chapter explores a specific topic such as the Breath, Gratitude, and Self-Compassion, and includes simple practices for readers to try. As an artist and an exercise instructor, she exudes encouragement and hope for the person learning a new practice or revisiting an old one.

Hot-off-the-press, ! Check out this lovely article from Faith Magazine on our clients Autumn and Bryan in the Diocese of Lansing! A devout parishioner of St. Isidore -, Autumn is passionate about braille and her faith. She volunteers at her parish teaching religious education to children, lectoring at Mass, and singing in the choir. Bryan, a convert from the Methodist tradition, joined the Catholic Church after many years of God calling him to explore the faith. Our braille and audio materials assist both Autumn and Bryan in learning about and participating in their faith! Read more in the article here:

God’s Word at the fingertips of the faithful The Xavier Society for the Blind

Looking for a great braille book to jumpstart your week? Check out "Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church" by Anthony Esolen . Here's a bit more about this title published by TAN Books :

"Real Music" is a comprehensive and delightful guide to the great traditional hymnody of the Church. In an age when sacred hymns of the past have either been "modernized" or utterly rejected as irrelevant, Real Music restores to us to a treasure trove, the vast heritage of glorious sacred music for congregations and choirs. In it, Professor Esolen masterfully illustrates how the traditional hymns combine elegant poetry with sound doctrine and music composed and arranged by great masters.

With the Church and Her precepts under assault from all sides, we need now, perhaps more than ever before, to contemplate the beauty and truth that these fine hymns proclaim. With noted literary scholar, poet, and translator Anthony Esolen as your guide and the St. Cecilia Choir as your muse, join the musical renaissance to recover and to restore to our churches the best that has been sung and played and prayed by Christians down through the ages. Real Music is arranged by events in the life of our Lord and the seasons and Sacraments of the Church.
Join Professor Esolen on a pilgrimage into the realm of glorious poetry and incomparable music, all written to bring Christians ever closer to the faith of our fathers and to the Author of our faith. Real Music is a book meant to be savored. Whether you read the book and listen to, or perhaps even sing along with, the CD at home in your favorite easy chair, or among friends in an informal class at your parish, Real Music will enrich your spiritual life with magnificent music through which we may all offer praise and honor to God.

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NCPD has been honored to provide the Large-Print Roman Missal to support priests and deacons with low vision in celebrating the liturgy.

We have transferred this important ministry to Xavier Society for the Blind, a longstanding leader in providing free braille, audio, and large-print Catholic materials for persons with visual impairments.

More information can be found here: https://loom.ly/tReweqk

When Paula D'Arcy lost her husband and baby in a car crash, she began an inner search for a faith that was stronger than fear. Learn more in her book "Gift of the Red Bird: A Spiritual Encounter."

In "Gift of the Red Bird" D'Arcy shares her remarkable spiritual adventure: Paula literally journeyed alone into the wilderness for three days, allowing the Creator to speak through that creation. As she surrendered to the power of God alone, a red bird appeared and, without words, began to teach...

Xavier Society is out and about! Our Production & Technology Director Donald Salvato along with the President of our Board of Directors Paul Fontaine are attending the Association of Catholic Publishers conference in Chicago. We look forward to working with our friends at Loyola Press, Ascension, Ignatius Press, Word on Fire, among many others to make their materials accessible to blind and low vision readers worldwide!

Just down the road in Columbus, our Executive Director Malachy Fallon and Communications and Fundraising Manager Aisling Redican are exhibiting at the Envision and VisionServe Alliance Conference. It's been great to catch up with old friends from all over the country and make new ones as well!

It's been a busy week for the team but these events are essential in helping us get the word out about our free offerings and services.