Books by AUSCP Members
Explore a list of published books by AUSCP Members. Many of our members and friends have published books ranging from reflection guides to historical fiction to personal memoirs.
If you are an AUSCP member and would like to see your book listed, please contact us at auscp.communications@gmail.com with the book’s title, a brief description, and information on where the book can be purchased.
Books Published in 2020

Jesus as Priest for Our Time: according to the order of Melchizedek
By Bob Bonnot
Published March 26, 2020
The sheen of Catholic priesthood in our time has lost its luster. Catholic priesthood needs re-imagining and re-rooting. This book offers a Scripture and history-based approach for renewed understanding of the only priesthood the Catholic Church recognizes, that of Jesus, the Christ.
In what sense is Jesus a priest? What is his priesthood? What does it mean for our time? What really is the role of a person baptized as a priest in Christ or ordained ‘priest’ in the Catholic Church? What is the value and function of an ordained priest’s presence in today’s Church and world? continue reading >>

Jesus’ Early Life: Historical Fiction
By Dennis Grabrian
Published August 30, 2020
This book looks at events in Judea while Jesus was alive, and also looks at its geography and culture at that time. It attempts to create an imaginary story of Jesus’ first thirty years before he began his public ministry

Thresholds of Creation: A Reflection Guide
By Dennis Grabrian
Published June 16, 2020
The book highlights various thresholds of creations in which we can sense the presence of Intelligent Love enabling passage into ever new and greater life.

Monks and Prophets: Visionaries of Our Time
By Dennis Grabrian
Published April 10, 2020
The book introduces ten contemporary voices from the Catholic tradition with some of their quotations for reflection. The book also contains color photographs to assist in reflection.

In December Darkness – ADVENT Hope!
By Fr. Frederick Kawka
Published June 1, 2020
Advent is a season of hope and joy. Fr. Frederick Kawka shares an article about the scripture readings for each of the four Sundays of Advent for all three years of the liturgical cycles. The articles connect the readings with our lived experience and are intended to give hope and joy during December darkness.

When God Butts In
By Tiffin Franciscan Sister Jane Omlor
Published 2020
“This compelling, inspiring, self-revealing memoir by a committed, adventuresome, creative Franciscan nun not only illumines the common struggle to reconcile difficult human relationships, but also provides a vivid insider’s view of the impact of Vatican II on the reform of women’s religious orders in the United States.” – Review by Father Jim Bacik
Books Published in 2019

Praying John’s Gospel: Gospel Verses for Meditation
By Dennis Grabrian
Published October 24, 2019
Following Pope Francis’ call for Christians to become more familiar with the scriptures, this book invites readers to enter prayerfully in the Gospel of St. John. It presents fifty selected quotations from John’s Gospel, along with photographs as food for prayerful reflection.

Opening to Prayer: Psalm Verses to Unlock the Heart
By Dennis Grabrian
Published August 31, 2019
This book offers one approach to prayer using Psalm verses and photographs. It also offers reflections on the prayer of Jesus and discusses the importance of prayer in our daily lives.

The Spirit Awakens Life: Reflections on the Holy Spirit
By Dennis Grabrian
Published February 10, 2019
Jesus was guided by the Spirit to initiate the Kingdom of God. The Spirit has been present throughout the ages. The book reflects on the presence of the Holy Spirit from the first moment of creation through the growth and renewal of the Church.

Clear Night, Bright Star: the joys, trials, and adventures of life in Appalachia
By Tiffin Franciscan Sister Jane Frances Omlor
Published 2019
“These wild, sometimes wildly funny adventures in Appalachia and beyond are filled with a lot of faith, hope, and love. Clear Night, Bright Star is a deeply personal look into the life of a contemporary Franciscan Sister.” – Review by Murray Bodo, OFM, Franciscan poet and author
Books Published in 2018

Major and Minor Chords: My Life in Poetry
By Rev. P J Murray S.J.
Published December 2, 2018
A book of poems drawn from different times in life, including poems celebrating childhood, nature poems, sonnets, odes, and urban happenings. Several decades of a spiritual journey, creatively composed by a Jesuit –grateful for his God-given “wondrously varied and challenging life!”

Gracias Perú: A Missionary’s Memoir
By Tom Shea
Published March 6, 2018
Tom Shea was ordained a Catholic priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross (C.S.C.) in 1967, and volunteered to assist the Church in Peru where there was a shortage of priests. In the letter and spirit of Vatican II, he endeavored to empower the laity to be a thriving Church in the absence of priests. Associated with a founder of Liberation Theology, which holds that the Church not only has an obligation to charity, but also the duty to work socially and politically to raise the poor out of their poverty, he lived among the poor to whom he was devoted. Essentially a teacher and religious organizer, he often found himself in conflict.

Maverick Priest: A Story of Life on the Edge
By Fr. Harry J Bury, PhD
Published September 27, 2018
This is the story of one man’s unique journey around the world, in the name of human connection, peace, and active nonviolence. Father Harry J. Bury, Ph.D. is a Catholic priest unlike any you have ever met. His travels through Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Costa Rica, Philippines, Africa, Palestine, and Israel span over 60 years. His life-long dedication has always been to interact lovingly with citizens of the world in pursuit of peace and nonviolence. His determination to help his fellow human beings put him in sometimes compromising and often dangerous situations with American law enforcement, foreign governments, and the church alike.
Books Published before 2018

Long Live the Weeds: A Haphazard and Brief Memoir of Sixty Years as a Priest
By M. Edmund Hussey
Published November 8, 2017
This essay is sub-titled “A Haphazard and Brief Memoir.” It is not an autobiography, although it contains much autobiographical data. It is not a reflection on the theology or the meaning of the priesthood, although it certainly contains some such reflections. It is a glance backward but also a glance forward. It is a history but not a complete history. It draws on my own memories but also on the memories of classmate and friends. It is “a haphazard memoir,” whatever that is. And it is a fairly brief memoir.

Awakening God’s Dream: Reflections on the Christian Way
By Dennis Grabrian
Published October 28, 2016
This first book by the author moves from the “big bang,” through the origin of life on earth, to the arrival of humans, and to a people willing to help advance God’s dream for the earth.

Unless Your Faith Is Strong: Our Ability to Trust Enough to Believe and Believe Enough to Experience, Learn and Mature Is Awesome
By Donald Horak
Published November 20, 2015
Our ability to believe is an awesome and empowering gift. It is the path to knowing and holds us in knowledge. It gives us courage to dream and to love. It allows us to go ever deeper into ourselves and into life. It takes us beyond the finite and opens for us glimpses of the infinite.
“Unless your Faith is Strong” attempts to identify our ability and need to believe as the source of empowerment to find meaning in every stage of our life…
…as young adults seeking meaning in the midst of family, friends, high school, changing familiar landscape (including separation), college, technical or military training and multiple career opportunities.
…as adults in mid-life seeking meaning again in family (but now as a parent, spouse, or adult child), friends (new and former), chosen career and transitioning careers.
…as adults in their later years continuing to seek meaning in family (perhaps now as grandparents), friends across generational lines transitioning into retirement, dealing with health issues and the death of family and friends.

The Art of a Virtuous Serve: Extraordinary Accounts of Faith and Service from a Tennis Perspective
By Samuel Monaco Jr
Published December 2, 2015
FOR ANYONE DESIRING TO HIT A VIRTUOUS SERVICE ACE. It is my personal intention, sole purpose and desire for this book, to draw attention to many of the outstanding tennis programs and organizations which continue to inspire, help and support countless others in their life and faith journeys. It is my hope that the inspiring stories of some of the tennis personalities, athletes, programs and charitable organizations mentioned in “The Art of a Virtuous Serve” may inspire your own life journey of faith, while helping you to develop and execute to perfection the kind of serve that we witness to each and every day of our lives on and off the tennis court. The true serve which improves lives, helps those in need, gives us hope and allows us to know of God’s unconditional and immense love for all of us. This book was written for tennis players and even non-players with the desire to hit an occasional service ace whether it is on the court or not.

God… Jesus… Religion…: Fact? Fiction? Myth? Mystery?
By M. Edmund Hussey
Published 15 October, 2014
Soon after my ordination the Second Vatican Council ushered in a period of great change in our apparently unchanging Church. Historical studies became important, indeed essential for theologians and biblical scholars and began to give us a clearer picture of the past which often challenged what we have been taught or at least the way in which some teachings have been presented to us. During my graduates studies after the Second Vatican Council historical theology was just beginning to come into its own. My classes and lectures then tried not only to help others know where we are but also help them understand how we got here and where we might be going. It is my hope that this collection of essays will be of some use for my readers in this regard.

The Mysterious Story of Gitano Cervantes: Vignettes of Life (and Death) under a Broken System of Criminal Justice
By Finbar Manghan
Published January 10, 2014
The United States imprisons more than two million men and women in federal prisons and city, county, and state jails. More than 150,000 individuals are incarcerated in each of the states of California and Texas. Calling attention to the flaws in the justice system, The Mysterious Story of Gitano Cervantes tells the stories of five men housed in Swest state units. Author Finbar Manghan, who has served as a volunteer chaplain in the prisons, looks at the cases of the five men who have been prison residents for a combined period of seventy years. Two are white, two are black, and one is Hispanic. Three of them claim to be innocent, while two admit their guilt; the sentences of the latter are such that they will almost certainly die in prison. One is innocent beyond any reasonable doubt. The experiences of all of them have been tragic. The Mysterious Story of Gitano Cervantes addresses a host of issues related to the men’s stories, including false imprisonment, medical mistreatment, misrepresentation of self due to life’s humiliations, mental harassment, medical bungling, and betrayal. Manghan reviews the court and prison experiences of these men and explores the need for reform throughout the criminal justice system in America.

The Idea of Christianity: An Introduction to the Theology of Karl Rahner
By M. Edmund Hussey
Published November 6, 2012
Karl Rahner (1904-1984) was a very influential but also a somewhat controversial twentieth-century Jesuit theologian. He made a creative attempt to express the Christian faith in such a way that it can speak to a greater number of persons in our scientific and culturally diverse society. Much of his work is in the form of essays which addressed specific theological questions and which have been published in over twenty volumes of his Theological Investigations. In 1976 he published his Foundations of Christian Faith which integrated many of his theological investigations into a comprehensive synthesis. My book is a reworking of Foundations of Christian Faith into a more readable and accessible form.

Success: Full Relating – Spirituality for the 21st Century and Beyond
By Justin Belitz, O.F.M.
Published March 29, 2010
Spirituality is nothing more than “how you relate.” This volume explains the dichotomy between the Servant Model of spirituality that Jesus gave us and the Patriarchal Model that was imposed on Christianity by Constantine (and which is still alive and well in the 21st Century).
Spirituality is nothing more than “how you relate.” This volume will help you discover how you relate. There follows 7 basic principles that are key to success in any relationships – with yourself, with others, with things, with life experience, with God etc.

Success: Full Thinking- Tapping into the Unlimited Resources of the Mind
By Justin Belitz, O.F.M.
Published May 31, 2006
All human beings are one with Divine, Cosmic, Unconditional Love Energy! Meditation is the means by which we connect consciously with Divine, Cosmic, Unconditional Love and where we can give direction to this Infinite Energy. Jesus said: “Whoever believes in me will do the thing I have done, and even greater works” provided that they are connected to the Divine Love Energy the way Jesus was. Meditation is where we make that Divine connection

A Struggle for Holy Ground: Reconciliation and the Rites of Parish Closure
By Rev. Michael Weldon
Published October 1, 2004
A Struggle For Holy Ground: Reconciliation and the Rites of Parish Closure (Liturgical Press, 2004) was a 2005 third place winner in pastoral ministry for the Catholic Press Association. It looked at the reality of Parish consolidation and closure across the US Catholic Church through the lens of ritual. The collection of rites have been most helpful to parishes at various stages restructuring. Since 2015, Michael has served as Rector and Guardian of St. Mary’s Basilica in Phoenix, Arizona and adjunct in pastoral Theology at the Franciscan School of Theology at University of San Diego.

Success: Full Living – A Contemporary Approach to Responsible Spirituality
By Justin Belitz, O.F.M.
Published June 1, 1991
This book is based on the quote from John: 10-10, “I came that you may have life and have it to the full.”
Those who choose appropriate goals and develop a positive attitude, will motivate themselves to act so as to be successful in creating a life that is satisfying.
Those who choose inappropriate goals and/or develop a negative attitude, will motivate themselves to act so as to be success in creating a life that is dissatisfying.
Meditation is the tool for choosing appropriate goals and for developing a positive attitude.