Catholic Books

This work introduces the fundamentals of logical thinking by examining how the human mind forms ideas, evaluates evidence, and arrives at sound conclusions. William Walker Atkinson explains the major modes of reasoning—deductive, inductive, and hypothetical—using clear language and accessible examples designed for the general reader. Beginning with the formation of ideas and concepts, the book distinguishes between concepts and mere terms, showing how memory supplies names while reasoning det...

Reverend James L. Meagher explores how Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles offered the first Mass and what Christ’s own example reveals about the nature, structure, and origins of Christian worship. Meagher begins by correcting a widespread misunderstanding: that the Mass began solely at the Last Supper as a symbolic ritual of bread and wine. While the Last Supper is momentous, Meagher shows that the roots of the Mass reach far deeper into centuries of Jewish liturgical and temple tradition....

St. Felix of Cantalice was a Capuchin Franciscan in the 16th century. Placed among great personages such as St. Philip Neri, St. Charles Borromeo, and others, St. Felix lived a life of poverty and fidelity to the rule of St. Francis. Born in 1515, he lived as a farm worker until he was 28, when he became a Capuchin. He not only begged alms, but gladly distributed them to the poor. It was said that his alms sack was as bottomless as his heart. He walked bare-foot through the streets of Rome, a...

There are two reasons to rejoice at the publication of this new edition of Hugh Ross Williamson's important work on the evidence for Shakespeare's Catholicism. The first is its restoration of the author to his rightful place in the Catholic cultural conversation, a place he held for a full forty years from the 1930s to the 1970s; the second is the restoration of the present volume to its rightful place in the scholarly conversation on the nature and importance of Shakespeare's faith. -Joseph ...

Today's world is rocked by claims and counter-claims made by the most diverse groups. The result is ideological conflict, violence, destruction and always the threat of a wider war, often based on contested land and boundaries. At bottom, all these disputes resolve themselves into conflicts about justice. But what is justice? Does it even make sense to talk about justice today, when so many use and misuse the concept for their own ends?In this ever timely book, the Belgian philosopher, Marcel...

The chequered life of Ludolph the Carthusian (c. 1295-1378) found its spiritual contentment in the writing of his colossal work on the Vita Jesu Christi in Latin. The book on the Life of Christ occupied some forty years of Ludolph's life in a charterhouse in Mainz. It has been styled as a summa evangelica and as it contains a series of meditations, spiritual instructions and prayers, it has also served to many a medieval scholar as a collation of dogmatic and moral dissertations. These are st...

This collection of sonnets confronts the tension between human weakness and the call to holiness with honesty, reverence, and poetic restraint. Written against the backdrop of modern religious speech that can feel sanitized or self-consciously pious, these poems insist on a more truthful Christian voice—one that acknowledges sin, failure, and the costliness of grace. The sonnets move along the fault line between aspiration and inadequacy. They reach for Christ not by denying the human conditi...

Domine Exaudi is the fifth of six volumes of Denis the Carthusian’s monumental Commentary on the Davidic Psalms. Denis (1402–1471), known as the “ecstatic Doctor,” devoted himself to expounding all 150 Psalms according to the traditional fourfold sense of Scripture: literal, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical. This volume continues the effort to make his rich spiritual and theological insights available in English for the first time. Denis understood the Psalter to be the heart of Chri...

This learned and historically grounded work traces the development of mystical theology leading up to John of the Cross. The author offers a careful study of the principal figures and texts that shaped the medieval mystical tradition and prepared the way for its great synthesis in the Carmelite reform. The book examines the contributions of Hugh and Richard of St Victor, St Bonaventure, and a number of influential works long attributed to other authors. It includes substantial treatment of Hu...

Abbé Georges Michonneau (1899-1983) was a dedicated and zealous parish priest among the working class of Paris. In his three works of this anthology the reader will find a profound awareness of the full reality of the Church of Christ, its role in the world, and the service it must render to the people who make up the Body of Christ on earth. For that reason, and because his priestly heart was very much in the right place, and also because the pre-conciliar pastoral problems he sought to addr...

The figure of Girolamo Savonarola looms large over Italian secular and ecclesiastical history, but remains obscure to the English-speaking world. Now, as part of a larger project dedicated to the translation and study of the life and works of Savonarola, this highly accessible biography of the Friar of San Marco has been republished in the hopes of introducing faithful Catholics to a man that Pius XII called "an apostle who has a lively sense of things divine and eternal, who takes a stand ag...

This volume gathers a series of short theological pamphlets originally published between 1941 and 1946 by the National Headquarters of the Holy Name Society with ecclesiastical approval. Slightly edited and unified here in book form, the chapters were designed specifically for lay readers seeking a deeper and more systematic understanding of the relationship between God and man. Based on the structure and thought of the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas, the series presents theology not ...

For too many of us, life is harder than it needs to be. We have forgotten the ancient system of "super habits" -- a specific set of habits for making decisions, managing our emotions, and dealing with other people that fosters lives of greater ease, happiness, and power.Ancient civilizations relied on these habits to produce some of the greatest achievements in human history. Now, contemporary researchers in psychology, education, and management are rediscovering these habits and empirically ...

How recollected are you during the Collect, the Opening Prayer at Mass? To assist you in entering more deeply into the Mass and the mysteries of this sacred season, Fr. Edward Looney offers short daily meditations and reflection questions so that you may absorb all the richness of the prayers in the liturgy.Whether over a cup of coffee or while resting in the Lord's Presence before or after Mass, these meditations inspire both fruitful contemplation and vibrant group discussion. Fr. Looney re...

Society no longer encourages wonder or spending time pondering the big questions of life. Indeed, the childlike gifts of curiosity and gratitude have been trampled over by technology and benumbed by complacency.In these engaging pages, Bobby Angel reveals how and why your life has meaning. Drawing from major thinkers from ancient to modern times, personal stories, historical lessons, and popular movies, he assists the layperson in absorbing vital philosophical concepts in an easily digestible...

In the eternal battle for souls, prayer is our greatest weapon.In this book on spiritual warfare, acclaimed author and radio host Jesse Romero emphasizes the importance of prayer in facing our modern crises, especially for men who are the heads of their households.He reminds us that the faculty of prayer is both a gift and a protective weapon from God. Far from a passive routine, it is an intrepid action in which we directly encounter the divine and drive away the diabolic.Romero identifies t...

Surveys show that the leading cause of Catholics leaving the Church is not receiving solid, timely answers to questions about their Faith. Heightening this problem is a hostile secular culture that perceives faith as being at odds with science and the modern world.In these incisive pages, David Bonagura directly answers one hundred hot-button questions about the supernatural life and Catholicism today. The questions, which were submitted anonymously by young adults in New York City, leave no ...

With "game plans," life flows more smoothly and victories are more readily achieved. This is why we keep calendars, daily planners, and notes -- to remind us to prioritize our duties and schedules, increase our productivity, and avoid forgetting the people, appointments, and events that are important to us.What if we applied this same attentiveness to structuring our spiritual lives? Would it not help us to attain greater peace of heart on the road to eternity?This thirty-day journey will pro...

Embark on an enlightening journey through the wonders of transformation and renewal in this delightful children's book that unlocks the profound mysteries of the Eucharist in a way that is understandable, engaging, and deeply meaningful for young readers.Through charming rhymes and vivid illustrations, bestselling author Anthony DeStefano explores the many evolutions that take place in the world around us -- from the shifting seasons to the growth of plants to the metamorphosis of caterpillar...

He played video games, excelled athletically and academically, manifested contagious joy and wit -- even in suffering -- and befriended all those he met. St. Carlo Acutis (1991-2006), already hailed "the greatest saint of the century," was a Thomas Aquinas in blue jeans.It's almost unheard of that parents take part in the beatification of their own child. So, too, is it uncommon for parents to miraculously be brought back to the Faith and dedicated Christian living by their child. All this ha...

Did you know that the latest research shows that one in three people will meet the criteria for anxiety disorder at some point in their lives?Even those of us who do not require professional help have certainly experienced the crippling effects of anxiety.World events, lockdowns, the destruction of traditional values, the rise of omnipresent screens and social media have all certainly contributed to the climbing levels of anxiety in today's world.Catholics are not immune and may be searching ...

Leaving no stone unturned, this authoritative book offers fresh perspectives on the life, times, and zealous ministry of St. Paul. Historian and professor Rev. Waldemar Chrostowski provides the chronology of the luminary apostle's life in fascinating detail, from his transformation at Damascus to his numerous escapes from mortal danger that rivaled those of an action-film hero. But these stories of persecutions, trials, sentencings, tumultuous missionary journeys, and encounters with remarkab...

"[I]t could be well said that a country, preserved at the sacrifice of all the cardinal principles of liberty, is not worth the cost of preservation." -- The Supreme Court in Ex Parte Milligan, 1866 This firsthand account by Jeffrey M. Trissell, Esq., one of the attorneys who fought on "the front lines" in the heroic legal battles during the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic, unravels the controversies surrounding the unprecedented lockdown of churches. He served on a legal team that represented chur...

"I know I am not worthy of her help, yet she is to me in my darkness of sin what the bright and shining star is to the mariner, for her pardon gives me hope." -- Alessandro Serenelli Through vivid storytelling, this historical account reveals the disturbing influences and grim motives that possessed Alessandro Serenelli, St. Maria Goretti's murderer. Yet it is much more than a chilling tale; this true narrative is a testament of transformation and redemption -- God's mercy shining forth throu...

The Truth of Mankind draws on Cesáreo Bandera's long lifetime of critical experience and literary scholarship. Bandera is not only a celebrated and distinguished interpreter of Latin and Greek literature, of Cervantes and Calderón, and many other seminal figures, but was also a friend and colleague of the late René Girard, the celebrated Catholic theorist of the "scapegoat mechanism" as the fundamental logic underlying all human communities and polities; and in the field of literary studies, ...

Olier's The Mystical Meaning of the Ceremonies of the Mass, first published in 1657, and presented here with an Introduction by Abbé Claude Barthe, is an outstanding example of the application-to the liturgy and its actions-of the search for a deeper meaning that has also been so influential throughout the history of contemplative Christianity in the resonant, anagogical reading of the Bible. Olier shows us that there is nothing in the traditional Catholic Mass that lacks its own progressivel...

"It seems to me that there is room for a book which has for its purpose to point out the true setting of the Eucharistic mystery in the economy of the supernatural life, and this is the task I have laid upon myself." So begins A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist, the most notable work by abbot and theologian Dom Anscar Vonier. Throughout this book, Vonier contemplates the true nature of the sacrifice of the Mass, examining precisely what is meant when the priest proclaims, "This is My body...

"Whoever contemplates our Mother Nature in her full majesty and luster is alone able to value things in their true estimate." Written in 1943, The Tree of Life, by H. J. Massingham, is a passionate and theologically based plea for preservation of the English countryside. With a deep concern for increasing environmental degradation, this work calls on the Christian church to unite in countering the destruction of natural, domestic, and sacred landscapes. Massingham also analyses the historical...

Warriors of God: The Great Religious Orders and Their Founders, by church historian Walter Nigg, is a detailed and lively account of eleven of the great Christian monastic and religious orders and the fascinatingly diverse figures who launched them. The author begins with St. Anthony and the desert fathers, and continues with St. Pachomius and the development of cenobitic monasticism, St. Basil, St. Augustine and the common life of the clergy, St. Benedict and the Rule, St. Bruno and the Cart...

Stella Tęsknota was ready to marry Blake Yourrick, the troubled if earnest protagonist of Infinite Regress. In this stand-alone novel (and loose sequel), set after Blake abruptly-and inexplicably-breaks off their engagement, Stella throws herself into a tough South Chicago teaching assignment. There she meets Peter Clavier (P.C.), a psychologist-activist whose uncle-a pastor-has long prophesied for Peter a future of otherworldly greatness. As Stella draws out Peter's past, the novel follows P...

One of the most eminent poets and essayists of the last century in Italy, Tito Casini (1897-1987) devoted the last years of his life to a passionate protest against the desecration of the centuries-old Roman liturgy, the spiritual home of millions and a cultural treasure that could never be rivaled, let alone replaced. His defense of tradition was unique in mode, combining lampoon, lamentation, and lyricism in a philosophic poetry that transcends mere polemic. Perhaps the most unique of his w...

The End of the Modern World, by the Italian-German priest Romano Guardini, is a somber, even dire, treatise on the future of modernity. Written in the aftermath of the Second World War, it argues that the modern world has emerged from the values of the medieval world, while rejecting the faith that gave rise to those values. For Guardini, we now inhabit a world unhinged and untethered, where ideology and materialism have replaced the meaning and certainty found in Christ. As Frederick Wilhelm...

This book is the result of a life-long companionship with William Shakespeare. Annie-Paule de Prinsac has never been in doubt about his mannerism, whose many guises she reveals through close readings of selected plays. Such mannerism, however, in a kingdom torn by religious conflicts, violent oppression, and censorship raises questions. It seems out of step with the spirit of the Elizabethan Court, but also seems to belie the views of so many critics regarding his alleged social background an...

The history of mysticism has always been accompanied by reports of otherworldly bodily phenomena such as levitation and luminosity. While many may be inclined to relegate such accounts to the realm of rumor and superstition, Patricia Treece here argues that the physical phenomena of mysticism are reflective of the body's participation in extraordinary holiness. Treece spent over ten years thoroughly investigating nineteenth- and twentieth-century occurrences of these mystical experiences, the...

Metaphysics for Everyone is the first in an exciting new series of interviews with prolific French religious philosopher and metaphysician Bruno Bérard, whose work Angelico Press first introduced to anglophone readers with the publication in 2018 of his important work, A Metaphysics of the Christian Mystery: An Introduction to the Work of Jean Borella. Further volumes of this series will include Theology for Everyone, Esotericism for Everyone, Jean Borella for Everyone, and Wolfgang Smith for...

Is free will a reality, or just a popular belief discredited by science? Whether the will is free or not, it can have uncomfortable consequences in either case; but in this book these alternatives are not regarded as evenly balanced. The author is guided, rather, by a conviction that a denial of free will means as well a denial of the intelligence needed for this purpose. He concludes that the possibility of knowing the will to be free is a genuine one, while knowing that it is not free leads...

While much modern poetry seems to deny or ignore our culture's religious heritage, Gene Fendt's Eternal Life and Other Poems boldly celebrates biblical figures, Church fathers, and saints. They grapple with the glittering, erotic, crisp cruelty of the physical world-all the time demanding the angelic blessing of the numinous within.

In the catechetical ressourcement now underway, the Church is recovering traditional Christian wisdom for her practice of the craft of catechesis. In this new work, Petroc Willey argues that the Church in Alexandria offers a rich and compelling vision of Christian culture to assist in the renewal of pedagogy and the mending of ecclesial life. Under the leadership of Clement and Origen, the Christian community of Alexandria founded a catechetical school that shaped a distinctive Christian paid...

One day in the early 1990s, while praying the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary on his knees in front of the Tabernacle, Fr. Bradley heard the Holy Spirit telling him: "Write this down!" He was given a meditation about the Annunciation. Thus was born a 10-year journey of inspired meditations on every bead of the Traditional Rosary. From then on, not knowing when the Holy Spirit would give him another meditation, Father brought a yellow legal pad with him for his Rosaries by the Tabernacle. He sa...

At a time when poetry has little regard for anything beyond the commonplace realities of everyday perception and sentiment, these studies propose a restoration of balance as between outer and inner worlds. For too long, in the wake of our attempt at a rational, scientific civilization, it has been readily assumed that the centre of gravity of reality and truth falls within the realm of the physical world. But for the poets discussed in these pages the opposite is the case. For them the centre...

Marriage for God's Sake, a practical guide for Catholic couples to live marriage according to God's plan, is filled with examples of spouses overcoming difficulties and living out their holy vocation of matrimony by serving each other in generosity and bringing forth and nurturing holy children. Fr. Morrow includes in the book as well an explanation of Pope St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body. Author Bio: FR. THOMAS MORROW graduated from St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia and was ordain...

What is truth and what is fiction? In this optimistic play, of uncertain origin, Goobet enquires into the nature of truth, encountering a range of philosophical characters who happen to be passing by the village green. The play is upbuilding for Goobet, an unlettered bumpkin, but also for us in our own day. It turns out that a "walkynge-trewth" is one that is lived and performed in real time, rather than statically mirrored, which means that our work of reading is implicated in the general af...

The final published book by Nobel Prize-winning author and philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941), La pensée et le mouvant, "Thought and Movement"-here translated as The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics-is a masterly "autobiography" of his philosophical method. Through essays and lectures written between 1903 and 1923, Bergson retraces how and why he became a philosopher, along the way crafting a fascinating critique of philosophy itself. Until it leaves its false paths, he demons...

In Grace and Glory, Eric Mascall insists that "if we are living in the grace of God, heaven is the destination to which our journey is leading us. It is therefore the merest folly for us to behave as if our whole destiny was contained within the limits of this present life." Secularists, whether committed to individualism or collectivism, err in thinking that this worldly happiness, prosperity, and welfare constitute the final end of man. Mascall offers a sobering rejoinder to this immanent f...

In The Importance of Being Human: Some Reflections on the Christian Doctrine of Man, Eric Mascall explains how the Christian account of creation, the fall, the incarnation, and the redemption of human persons in Christ provides the fullest and most truthful explanation of man's present condition and eternal purpose. Addressing the key distinction between human persons and other animals, Mascall insists that humans are not only highly evolved biological organisms. They are highly evolved biolo...

The central theme of Via Media is that, on each of the cardinal points of Christian faith, orthodoxy consists in holding together two notions which, though not in fact incompatible, at first sight appear to be so. It is by enquiring in each case how this apparent irreconcilability is to be removed that a real understanding of the doctrine is achieved. The theme is illustrated by a lucid discussion of the four fundamental doctrines of Creation, the Trinity, the Incarnation, and Grace. In the c...

Finally, the True, Untold Story of the Wise Men... They were not three kings. Nor were they from the Far East, or even Persia... In this thrilling, visual adventure capturing the wonder of the Christmas season, New York Times bestselling author Raymond Arroyo shares the true, hidden story of the mysterious Magi, who risked everything to discover the truth. Based on new historical evidence, The Wise Men Who Found Christmas is the miraculous, untold tale of three seekers who followed a star and...

Though they escape the notice of many, stunning miracles of healing take place each and every day at Our Lady's Grotto in Lourdes, France. Inexplicable, biblical-like healings of body, mind, and spirit leave visitors with the gifts of peace and renewed faith. Here is the book that will move you, deepen your faith in Our Lady's active involvement in our world, and help you personally encounter Our Lord. Marlene Watkins recounts twenty astounding true stories of miracles at Lourdes, including h...