Churches: How to read them COMPLETE (BBC Four) [HD]

Presenter Richard Taylor explains how churches were originally simple buildings intended to protect the altar and the most important Christian rite of all, the Eucharist. He visits Britain's finest early medieval churches to untangle the mystery of why the Anglo-Saxons and Normans seem to have been unwilling to shake off their pre-Christian past and to have continued to fill their sacred buildings with mysterious pagan images. An ancient book in an Oxford library helps Richard find an answer.

Note: These are very well seeded. By the time I started them and finished posting this post, I had completed all of them. Get em' while they're hot!

More Information (official website):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tnp8f


Download Torrents

Part 1 - Dark Beginnings (337.5MB):
http://www.newtorrents.info/torrents/BBC.Churches.How.to.Read.Them.1of6.Dark.Beginnings.PDTV.x264.AAC.%5BMVGroup.org%5D.torrent_%5Bwww.NewTorrents.info%5D.torrent

Part 2 - Medieval Life (334.5MB):
http://forums.mvgroup.org/torrents/BBC.Churches.How.to.Read.Them.2of6.Medieval.Life.PDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.mkv.torrent

Part 3 - Medieval Death (334.8MB):
http://forums.mvgroup.org/torrents/BBC.Churches.How.to.Read.Them.3of6.Medieval.Death.PDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.mkv.torrent

Part 4 - Reformation Chaos and Creation (337.6MB):
http://www.newtorrents.info/torrents/BBC.Churches.How.to.Read.Them.4of6.Reformation.Chaos.and.Creation.PDTV.x264.AAC.%5BMVGroup.org%5D.torrent_%5Bwww.NewTorrents.info%5D.torrent

Part 5 - Restoration and Reason (337.4MB):
http://www.newtorrents.info/torrents/BBC.Churches.How.to.Read.Them.5of6.Restoration.and.Reason.PDTV.x264.AAC.%5BMVGroup.org%5D.torrent_%5Bwww.NewTorrents.info%5D.torrent

Part 6 - The Victorians and After (337.2MB):
http://www.newtorrents.info/torrents/BBC.Churches.How.to.Read.Them.6of6.The.Victorians.and.After.PDTV.x264.AAC.%5BMVGroup.org%5D.torrent_%5Bwww.NewTorrents.info%5D.torrent

A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World

• Author: Carl Anderson
• Publisher: Publisher (2008)
• Language: English
• Pages: 226
• ISBN-10: 0061645141
• ISBN-13: 9780061645143
• Format: PDF

Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, surveys the exciting and history-changing ideas of Pope John Paul II in A Civilization of Love. By popularizing not only John Paul's vision but also that of his successor, Benedict XVI, Anderson hopes to inspire Christians to work toward creating a civilization of love. In such a civilization every person is a child of God. We are all intrinsically valuable. The battle today is between the culture of death (where people are judged by their social or economic value) and the culture of life. Anderson pushes aside religious differences in order to spread a message of hope to those who are weary of the constant turmoil of modern society. While he does specifically challenge Christians to take an active role in their faith, you do not have to be a Christian to participate in the movement toward a civilization of love.

By embracing the culture of life and standing with those most marginalized and deemed "useless" or a "burden" on modern society, Christians can change the tone and direction of our culture. Anderson demonstrates that regardless of our differences, we can come together on the centrality of loving and caring for others. He brings a message of inclusion and hope in the midst of a clash of civilizations and provides a road map for helping Christians understand their role in the world.

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Hotfile (Archive password is revelation)
http://hotfile.com/dl/83815751/00b9535/ACioLo.rar.html (1.2MB)

More Information on Amazon

Crossing the Threshold of Hope [Unabridged]

• Author: Pope John Paul II
• Narrator: Earl Hammond, William Bogert
• Publisher: Publisher (1994)
• Language: English
• Pages: n/a
• ISBN-10: 0679440860
• ISBN-13: 9780679440864
• Format: MP3

Sixteen years into his papacy, and on the eve of the millennium, Pope John Paul II brings to an accessible level the profoundest theological concerns of our lives. He goes to the heart of his personal beliefs and speaks with passion about the existence of God; about the dignity of man; about pain, suffering, and evil; about eternal life and the meaning of salvation; about hope; about the relationship of Christianity to other faits and that of Catholicism to other branches of the Christian faith.With the humility and generosity of spirit for which he is known, John Paul II speaks directly and forthrightly to all people. His message: Be not afraid!

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Hotfile (272MB MB - Archive Password is revelation)

Part 1:  http://hotfile.com/dl/83802516/ff1a00f/CtToH_ab.part1.rar.html (133MB)

Part 2: http://hotfile.com/dl/83792399/b2c372f/CtToH_ab.part2.rar.html (131.90MB)

God's Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church

• Author: George Weigel
• Publisher: Publisher (2005)
• Language: English
• Pages: 320
• ISBN-10: 0061118524
• ISBN-13: 9780061118524
• Format: PDF

George Weigel's bestselling biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope, set the standard by which all portraits of the modern papacy are now measured. With God's Choice, he gives us an extraordinary chronicle of the rise of Pope Benedict XVI as well as an unflinching view of the Catholic Church at the dawn of a new era.

When John Paul II lapsed into illness for the last time, people flocked from all over the world to pray outside his apartment. He had become a father figure to millions in a world bereft of strong paternal examples, and those millions now felt orphaned. After more than twenty-six years of John Paul II's guidance, the Catholic Church is entering a new age, with its bedrock traditions intact but with pressing questions to address in a rapidly changing world. Beginning with the story of John Paul's final months, God's Choice offers a remarkable inside account of the conclave that produced Benedict XVI as the next pope, drawing on George Weigel's unrivaled access to this complex event.

Weigel also incisively surveys the current state of the Church around the world: its thriving populations in Africa, Latin America, and parts of the post-communist world; its collapse in western Europe; its continued struggles in Asia; and the vibrancy of many aspects of Catholic life in the United States, even as the Church in America struggles to overcome its recent experience of scandal.

Reflecting on John Paul II's greatness, drawing on firsthand interviews to paint an intimate portrait of the new Pope, and boldly assessing the Church's current condition, God's Choice is an invaluable book for anyone seeking to understand the Catholic future and the larger human future the Church will help to shape.

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Hotfile 3.2MB (Archive Password is revelation)
http://hotfile.com/dl/83814815/9228f01/GoCh.rar.html


More Information on Amazon

L'Arpeggiata: Via Crucis (2010) [HD] / [SD]

Here I have an album I highly recommended purchasing. It is Via Crucis featuring Nuria Rial, Philippe Jaroussky and Christina Pluhar. I have provided a link to this product's Amazon page, as well as downloads of both MP3, and Lossless formats. Full description:

L'Arpeggiata, the French-based ensemble directed by Austrian-born harpist and lutenist Christina Pluhar, releases its second Virgin Classics album, following Teatro d'amore, a programme of Monteverdi which blended instruments and voices, score and improvisation in a kind of sublime Baroque jam session! Figaro magazine observed that "L'Arpeggiata invests Monteverdi with a dazzling array of vocal and instrumental colours. A touch of improvisation raises the singing to an incandescent level ... A unique distillation of explosive vitality," while the leading German news magazine Spiegel exclaimed: "Roll over, Monteverdi; it is a long time since classical music has held so many surprises or taken such a broad view."

L'Arpeggiata has made a speciality of exploring and exploiting the close links between Baroque repertoire and the traditional music of the Latin world and its characteristic forms such as the tarantella, the folia or the canario. In this new collection, Via Crucis, 'the way of the Cross', the focus is on the pervasive presence of religious feeling in Southern Europe. The Passion of Christ evokes the same fervour in composers such as Giovanni Felice Sances (1600-1679) or Tarquinio Merula (1594-1665) - both active in northern Italy -- as it does in the streets of Naples or the villages of Corsica. The two main works in the collection are Sance's extraordinary Stabat Mater and Merula's Hor ch'e tempo di dormire, in which the Virgin Mary lulls her baby to sleep while weeping for his future suffering and both enthrall the listener with a basso ostinato and hypnotic swaying rhythms.

Reviewing Teatro d'amore, L'Education musicale wrote that: "Ingeniously chosen vocal works are interspersed with important instrumental pieces, taking us on a supreme journey through Monteverdi. The communicative energy and the intense sculptural beauty of pieces like the final duet from L'incoronazione de Poppea or rich sequences of madrigals are transformed by an ensemble that is palpably composed of soloists. Most astonishing of all - and this is a significant discovery - is the modernity that lurks in this music ... A Venetian piece from 1664 makes one wonder whether it's a matter of Monteverdian style or jazz rhythms. ... The addition of two exceptional voices adds further appeal to this fusion of genres : Philippe Jaroussky, whose angelic timbre fills the lines blissfully and Nuria Rial, who brings a velvety tenderness. When they come together the mood reaches sensual heights. This is far more than a compilation ... it is music in its truest manifestation."

Tracklisting:

1.Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: L'Annonciation
2.Anonyme: Ninna nanna alla Napoletana
3.Traditionnel/Merlandi/Guissani: Maria (sopra la Carpinese)
4.Tarquinio Merula: Hor ch'e tempo di dormine
5.Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: L'Aria
6.Giovanni Legrenzi: Lumi, potete piangere
7.Traditionnel corse: Suda sangue
8.Benedetto Ferrari: Queste pungente spine
9.Luigi Rossi: Voglio morire
10.Traditionnel corse: Stabat mater
11.Giovanni Felice Sances: Stabat mater
12.Maurizio Cazzati: Passacaglia
13.Roccu Mambrini/Toni Casalonga: Lamentu di Ghjesu (sopra la Follia)
14.Tarquinio Merula: Ciaccona
15.Claudio Monteverdi: Laudate Dominum
16.Lorenzo Allegri: Canario
17.Anonyme: Ciaccona di Paradiso e dell'Inferno
18.Enzo Gragnaniello: 'Stu Criato

Download Now

Standard Definition (MP3, 200Kbps, VBR ~100MB)

Hotfile
http://hotfile.com/dl/40610691/ec82016/Crucis-2010.rar.html

Rapidshare
http://rapidshare.com/files/382069638/Crucis-2010.rar

High Definition (APE+CUE, 353MB, Lossless)

http://rapidshare.com/files/387934872/Via_Crucis.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/387934665/Via_Crucis.part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/387934741/Via_Crucis.part3.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/387934906/Via_Crucis.part4.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/387934973/Via_Crucis.part5.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/387935484/Via_Crucis.part6.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/387935596/Via_Crucis.part7.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/387935655/Via_Crucis.part8.rar.html


More Information on Amazon

Note: For those using jdownloader, it seems to be having issues with rapidshare lately. Alas, you will either need a premium account, or to use the rapidshare links in your browser (though Tucan may get around it). It's out of my hands.

Benedict.Trials.Of.A.Pope.WS.PDTV.XviD-FTP

In Benedict: Trials of a Pope (BBC2), the Catholic journalist (and former Dominican friar) Mark Dowd, investigated the manifold troubles besetting pope Benedict XVI, by all accounts an enigmatic and often contradictory figure. A native of Bavaria, he was conscripted into the Hitler Youth as a child, spent time as a prisoner of war, and was a progressive thinker and a popular university lecturer, who went on to become the doctrinally conservative Cardinal Ratzinger, otherwise known as God's rottweiler.

Dowd makes clear that he was no fan of the idea of the hardline Ratzinger becoming pope five years ago, but he is scrupulously fair when it comes to unpicking complex issues. His central question is not whether the Catholic church is in crisis – it is – but whether it is fair to blame the pope personally.

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Hotfile (549MB)
http://hotfile.com/dl/69650412/964c1d3/Benedict.Trials.Of.A.Pope.WS.PDTV.XviD-FTP.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/69650558/eb9ad89/Benedict.Trials.Of.A.Pope.WS.PDTV.XviD-FTP.part2.rar.html

The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century After Saint Francis

• Author: David Burr
• Language: English
• Pages: 444
• ISBN-10: 0271021284
• ISBN-13: 9780271021287
• Format: PDF

When Saint Francis of Assisi died in 1226, he left behind an order already struggling to maintain its identity. As the Church called upon Franciscans to be bishops, professors, and inquisitors, their style of life began to change. Some in the order lamented this change and insisted on observing the strict poverty practiced by Francis himself. Others were more open to compromise. Over time, this division evolved into a genuine rift, as those who argued for strict poverty were marginalized within the order.

In this book, David Burr offers the first comprehensive history of the so-called Spiritual Franciscans, a protest movement within the Franciscan order. Burr shows that the movement existed more or less as a loyal opposition in the late thirteenth century, but by 1318 Pope John XXII and leaders of the order had combined to force it beyond the boundaries of legitimacy. At that point the loyal opposition turned into a heretical movement and recalcitrant friars were sent to the stake.

Although much has been written about individual Spiritual Franciscan leaders, there has been no general history of the movement since 1932. Few people are equipped to tackle the voluminous documentary record and digest the sheer mass of research generated by Franciscan scholars in the last century. Burr, one of the world's leading authorities on the Franciscans, has given us a book that will define the field for years to come.

Download Now

Hotfile (Archive Password is: revelation)

http://hotfile.com/dl/80104092/91f8560/tSpFr.rar.html (2.9 MB)