Father Michael Mueller, C.SS.R., was born in 1825 in Germany. He later joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, and was one of eleven clerics sent to the United States by the American Redemptorist Provincial. Upon completion of his theology studies in Maryland, he was ordained in 1853 by John Nepomucene Neumann. He served the Redemptorist communities in the U.S. as Consulter to the Provincial, as well as Superior and Novice Master. Father Mueller is the author of The Blessed Eucharist, Prayer: The Key to Salvation, Triumph of the Blessed Sacrament, The Prodigal Son, and God the Teacher of Mankind. He died in 1899.
Laura S. Jansson is an Orthodox Christian doula, childbirth educator and mother living and writing at the intersection of birth and faith. She earned her Masters degree in Theology and Philosophy from the University of Oxford (UK) and has also resided in the USA, Serbia, Germany, and Fiji. Since 2005 she has guided scores of expectant mothers on the path to parenthood, witnessing with wonder as bellies and souls grow along the way. Her book, Fertile Ground: A Pilgrimage Through Pregnancy (Ancient Faith Publishing 2019), is the first book for pregnant women arising from the Orthodox tradition.
Born Joseph David Flanagan in 1903, he grew up in Massachusetts. He joined the Jesuits in 1920, teaching at Holy Cross College from 1927 to 1930 and later serving as retreat master. In 1936, he joined the Order of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists) at the cloister of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane in Kentucky where he received the name he is most know by today, Fr. Mary Raymond. He wrote twenty-two books as a Trappist, many dealing with the subject of how the laity could achieve sanctity.
Luis María Martínez y Rodríguez was the Catholic archbishop of Mexico and a member of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua ("Mexican Language Academy").
He was born in Molinos de Caballeros, Epitacio Huerta, Michoacán. A philosopher of the scholastic tradition, his focus on the ultimate nature of things led him to theology. He was also a writer of spiritual poetry.
While his traditional values provoked his criticisms of some aspects of Mexico's modernization, he always retained a special relationship with the people. He presided over the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the coronation of Our Lady of Guadalupe, declaring, "I am Zumárraga" in order to draw Mexicans who has "wandered" back to the church. He joined the Academy in 1953,
