Catholic Books

The Psalmist wrote: "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10). Coming from the deep silence and asceticism of mediæval Carthusian monasteries, this book's prayers and meditations have a unique ardour that reflects the genuine spirituality of their authors. The piety of these monks, strongly grounded in Sacred Scripture and the early Fathers of the Church, cannot fail to impress and to inspire. Like that of Jesus, Carthusian prayer, but also any authentic prayer, is anchored in interiority,...

Neither a theological study of our Redemption nor a devotional commentary of the Cross and Resurrection, but rather an introduction to the liturgical celebration of Holy Week and Easter, this book is written in the double conviction that the depth of meaning of the Paschal Mystery is seriously weakened if it is not given its full liturgical and sacramental expression, and that the Holy Week liturgy demands from all who participate in it a more profound awareness of its biblical background and...

Conscience before Conformity tells the story of German students who dared to speak out against Hitler and the Third Reich, and died for their beliefs. Operating under the name of the White Rose, they printed and distributed leaflets condemning Nazism and urging Germans to offer non-violent resistance to the 'atheistic war machine'. By looking at the cultural and religious journey of the protagonists, Hans and Sophie Scholl, we can see what made them change from active participants in the Hitl...

St Philip Neri (1515-1595) is known as the Apostle of Rome and the founder of the Congregation of the Oratory. This translation of his maxims and sayings is the work of Fr Faber, first published in 1847. His Maxims emphasise the constant teaching of the masters of the spiritual life, going back to the Desert Fathers (themselves always the favourite reading of St Philip). Full of good sense, they present us with an essential spirituality, presented as easily accessible reflections for each mon...

This short, beautifully illustrated volume serves as an inviting introduction to St. Francis of Assisi through one of his most beloved works, the Canticle of the Creatures. As G. K. Chesterton observed, the Canticle is a “supremely characteristic work,” so rich with Francis’s spirit that much of his life and character can be discerned from it alone. For newcomers to Francis, the Canticle provides a perfect entry point; for Franciscans—especially members of the Secular Franciscan Order—it offe...

Pope John Paul II called Elizabeth of the Trinity “a vibrant prophet of the presence of God.” This book enters deeply into her life and spirituality to show why her message remains urgently relevant in a secular age. Attractive, lively, talented, and deeply human, Elizabeth was not a plaster saint. Her life shows how God works patiently with our real nature, transforming us gradually into Himself when we surrender to His grace. Far from presenting holiness as something reserved for religious ...

Born in Bilbao in 1907, Pedro Arrupe trained as a physician before a profound encounter with suffering and healing at Lourdes led him to abandon medicine for the priesthood. Entering the Society of Jesus in 1927, he set out to become, in his own words, a healer of souls. Assigned to Japan, Arrupe’s early priesthood was marked by extraordinary trials. During the Second World War he was imprisoned and interrogated as a suspected spy, an experience he later described as one of the most formative...

For more than fifteen centuries, Christianity has cultivated a profound tradition of interior stillness and contemplative prayer aimed at healing inner turmoil and restoring peace of heart. This work presents that tradition as a living response to the modern psychological struggle for calm, clarity, and meaning. Jean-Yves Leloup offers a clear and accessible exploration of the contemplative path known as hesychasm, drawing especially from the wisdom of the Desert Fathers, Evagrius, St John Ca...

The thoughts contained in this book were from the pen of one who, in the silence of the Charterhouse, had already arrived at the summits of the spiritual heights, and dwelt there unceasingly. Souls who have reached such perfection in this life are rare; not so rare, however, are those who ardently aspire thereto. It is chiefly for such as these - to encourage and help them to arrive at those same heights - that these thoughts have been preserved and collected. They Speak by Silences was first...

The seven sacraments stand at the heart of Christian life, where God’s grace touches human experience in a concrete and transformative way. In this accessible synthesis, Paul Haffner provides a unified overview of sacramental theology, showing how the sacraments reconcile us to the Father through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Haffner explains classical theological themes such as validity, efficacy, the roles of minister and recipient, and the spiritual effects of each sacrament. He ...

This concise and insightful study examines Aidan Nichols’s vision for an Anglican Uniate Church, a community united with Rome yet not absorbed into it. In 1993, Nichols argued that full corporate reunion of the entire Anglican Communion was unrealistic, given the Protestant and Liberal elements within Anglican history. Instead, he proposed the reconciliation of a smaller body that was sufficiently Catholic in identity while retaining authentically Anglican patrimony. His prediction proved pro...

Drawing on Evangelical and Catholic exegetes, the Church Fathers, ancient liturgies, and later theological masters, Deep Mysteries explores how the events of Christ’s life possess real causal power to transform human existence today. Uniting history, metaphysics, and contemplative meditation, the book reveals how the mysteries of Jesus are not merely past events but living realities that shape the believer’s present journey.

Thomas Aquinas stands among the greatest thinkers of the Western tradition, a towering figure whose influence continues to shape theology, philosophy, and contemporary intellectual debate. This accessible and engaging introduction presents both the life and the thought of Aquinas, showing how his synthesis of faith and reason remains profoundly relevant for modern discussions about the future of Christianity. The book highlights Aquinas’s major contributions, the development of his ideas, and...

What sacred images should surround the faithful at worship, and which images should be made available for instruction, meditation, and prayer? This historical study is driven by questions of genuine catechetical, doctrinal, and liturgical urgency. In this volume, Aidan Nichols examines the relationship between Christianity and the visual arts, focusing in particular on the development of spiritual art in Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Building on his wider body of work ...

This book examines the Christian liturgy as a visible manifestation of divine revelation, expressed through ritual signs, sacred space, imagery, sound, and poetic form. Treating the liturgy not merely as a set of texts or actions but as a total environment, it considers how architecture, iconography, and music shape the Church’s encounter with revealed truth. Aidan Nichols explores how the liturgy communicates meaning through beauty and symbol, and how this revelation invites a creative human...

This is the first comprehensive study of the theological significance of Paul Claudel, a poet frequently cited by literary-minded theologians in Europe and theologically-minded poets (such as von Balthasar, de Lubac and Eliot). His writing combines cosmology and history, Bible and metaphysics, liturgy and the drama of human personality. His work, which continues to arouse discussion in France, was acclaimed in his lifetime as the 'summa poetica' of a new Dante. Aidan Nichols' study demonstrat...

Nikolai Nikolaevich Afanas’ev (1893–1966), one of the most important priest-theologians of the Russian Orthodox tradition, stands at the center of this study by Aidan Nichols. Widely regarded as the most influential modern Russian thinker on the nature of the Church, Afanas’ev played a decisive role in shaping the contemporary rapprochement between East and West—especially the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Nichols highlights two major pillars of Afanas’ev’s thought. First is his conviction ...

This concise and insightful study examines Aidan Nichols’s vision for an Anglican Uniate Church, a community united with Rome yet not absorbed into it. In 1993, Nichols argued that full corporate reunion of the entire Anglican Communion was unrealistic, given the Protestant and Liberal elements within Anglican history. Instead, he proposed the reconciliation of a smaller body that was sufficiently Catholic in identity while retaining authentically Anglican patrimony. His prediction proved pro...

Following his acclaimed The Word Has Been Abroad: A Guide Through Balthasar’s Aesthetics, No Bloodless Myth by Aidan Nichols offers a lucid and accessible guide to the five-volume Theo-Drama of Hans Urs von Balthasar, one of the most ambitious theological projects of the twentieth century. In Theo-Drama, Balthasar presents the Christian revelation as a divine drama in which God and humanity are real actors, not abstract principles. Nichols carefully summarizes and interprets this vast work, s...

The Word Has Been Abroad serves as a clear and reliable guide to the theological aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar, one of the most original and demanding theologians of the twentieth century. In this volume, Aidan Nichols introduces readers to Balthasar’s conviction that beauty is not an optional ornament of theology but an essential dimension of divine revelation. Nichols carefully explains the central themes of Balthasar’s theological aesthetics, showing how the “form” (Gestalt) of Chri...

Hans Urs von Balthasar is widely regarded as one of the greatest Catholic theologians of the twentieth century. Few writers have so powerfully revealed the spiritual grandeur of divine revelation or shown how the Church’s art and historic liturgies bear witness to its beauty and depth. Yet for many students and nonspecialist readers, Balthasar’s vast body of work can appear daunting and inaccessible. This volume offers an ideal introduction to Balthasar’s theology. Written by Aidan Nichols, i...

Maximus the Confessor (580–662), one of the towering figures of early Byzantine theology, occupies a place in the Greek patristic tradition comparable to that of Thomas Aquinas in the Latin West. His profound influence as a spiritual and theological master is evident in the vast space dedicated to him in the Philokalia. For Maximus, dogma and prayer were inseparable, and his unwavering defense of orthodox Christology—against the heresies of his time—was grounded in this deep unity of truth an...

Aidan Nichols has been contributing to theological literature since the early 1980s. Now in his seventy-fifth year, he looks back not only on his writings but on the long arc of life from which they arose. Though nominally Anglican in childhood, his earliest sense of the transcendent came through an encounter with God in nature. A pivotal experience in a Russian Orthodox church in Geneva led him to become a confessing Christian. Orphaned as a teenager, Nichols returned home and journeyed from...

C. S. Lewis’s The Discarded Image offers a clear and engaging portrait of the medieval worldview, providing essential background for understanding the literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Lewis describes the grand “medieval synthesis” in which theology, science, and history were woven into a single, harmonious vision of the universe. This final book he wrote as a scholar reflects his characteristic clarity, wit, and deep learning. Through explanations of classical and medieval s...

The inspiration for the film starring Anthony Hopkins, journalist Matt Baglio uses the astonishing story of one American priest's training as an exorcist to reveal that the phenomena of possession, demons, the Devil, and exorcism are not merely a remnant of the archaic past, but remain a fearsome power in many people's lives even today. Father Gary Thomas was working as a parish priest in California when he was asked by his bishop to travel to Rome for training in the rite of exorcism. Though...

In Volume Two of Poe's masterpieces, journey deeper into the enigmatic realms of his mind. Unearth the psychological complexity of The Fall ofthe House of Usher and the eerie allure of The Masque of the Red Death. Each story and poem unveils Poe's unparalleled talent for captivating storytelling and haunting imagery.

In For God and Spain, Hugh de Blácam argues that the nationalist rebellion that ushered in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a defensive movement in response to years of unchecked Communist aggression. Focusing on the years 1923-1936, de Blácam chronicles the outrages committed by Red agitators against the Catholic Church that led to the Francoist response.

In this substantial collection of essays, Francis Russell Hittinger demonstrates that Catholic social teaching is not merely a defense of the dignity of the human person, but more fundamentally an articulation of the dignity of society itself. Hittinger shows that the dignity of the person cannot be properly understood apart from the dignity of the social forms in which human beings seek their fulfillment, namely the family, the political community, and the Church. These essays represent the ...

General Francisco Franco (1892-1975), ruler of Spain for nearly forty years, was one of the most powerful and controversial leaders in that nation's long history. This deeply researched biography treats the three major aspects of his life--personal, military, and political. It depicts his early life, explains his career and rise to prominence as an army officer who became Europe's youngest interwar brigadier general in 1926, and then discusses his role in the affairs of the troubled Second Sp...

Christopher Caldwell’s The Age of Entitlement offers a sharp, deeply researched examination of how the reforms and cultural revolutions of the 1960s reshaped American life — often in ways no one expected. Caldwell argues that many of the most celebrated changes of the era came with profound costs in freedom, social cohesion, and economic stability, costs that fell unevenly across classes and generations. Tracing the true political and cultural turning points of the last half-century, Caldwell...

From its founding in 1928, the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius created an unprecedented bridge between Russian Orthodoxy and the Christian West. Through its journal—first under the Fellowship’s name and later as Sobornost—it became the principal venue where the exiled Russian Orthodox intelligentsia engaged with Anglican theologians of the Catholic party, as well as, on occasion, with other Protestant traditions. In this deeply researched account, Aidan Nichols traces the journal’s evol...

In The Holy Eucharist, Dominican theologian Aidan Nichols, OP, presents a rich historical and theological study of the Church’s central sacrament. Tracing the development of Eucharistic doctrine from the New Testament through the Fathers of the Church and the medieval scholastics, Nichols offers readers a clear understanding of how the mystery of Christ’s Real Presence has been contemplated and celebrated throughout history. Drawing from Scripture, the writings of the saints, and the magister...

The Year of Consecrated Life invited Catholics to reflect on and celebrate the witness of those who have dedicated their lives entirely to God. But what exactly is the Religious Life? In this concise and insightful book, Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP, offers a clear introduction to its origins, development, and enduring spiritual significance in the life of the Church. Drawing from Scripture and the early Christian tradition, Nichols traces the emergence of Religious Life from the Gospels and the Apo...

This book serves as an introduction to the life, personality, and thought of Vladimir Sergeevich Solov’ëv, the founder of Russian sophiology—the theology and philosophy of divine wisdom. Widely regarded as Russia’s most significant philosopher, Solov’ëv’s ideas have inspired renewed interest since the end of the Soviet era and have influenced a modern “philo-sophiological” movement in the West. Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP, presents Solov’ëv’s thought in three major stages. In his early theosophical...

Redeeming Beauty explores the depth of the Christian tradition—both Western and Eastern—in its understanding of sacred aesthetics, the theology of beauty as it relates to divine revelation, creation, and art. Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP, examines how beauty serves as both a reflection of God’s creative power and a pathway to holiness. Nichols investigates five central themes: The foundation of beauty in the natural order as an expression of divine creativity Beauty as a quality of biblical reve...

Return of the White Canons recounts the remarkable yet little-known efforts of the Canons Regular of Prémontré—the Premonstratensians or “Norbertines”—to restore their Order in Victorian Britain. Once prominent across medieval England and Scotland, the Norbertines had long vanished from the British religious landscape. Drawing on fresh archival research in France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP, offers the first detailed narrative of this ambitious revival. He situates...

Sergei Bulgakov (1871–1944) was one of the most influential Eastern Orthodox theologians of the twentieth century. After beginning his career as a professor of political economy at the University of Kiev, Bulgakov underwent a profound intellectual and spiritual transformation. Moving from Marxism to Idealism and ultimately to a renewed Orthodox faith, he became one of the leading theological voices of his time. Following his ordination to the priesthood in 1918, Bulgakov fled Moscow during th...

This concise and accessible work offers a clear introduction to spiritual theology—the study of the spiritual life within the Christian tradition. Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP, explores how Christian spirituality unites biblical revelation, Church Tradition, and lived experience into a single path of holiness. Drawing from both Catholic and Orthodox sources, Latin and Byzantine alike, Nichols presents the spiritual life as it has been received from the Church Fathers and passed down through every ag...

In Holy Order: The Apostolic Ministry from the New Testament to the Second Vatican Council, Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP, presents a concise yet comprehensive study of the priesthood’s development throughout Christian history. This book traces the theological and pastoral evolution of Holy Orders from its biblical foundations to modern renewal. Nichols begins with the New Testament witness to apostolic ministry and continues through the writings of the Fathers, medieval scholastic theology, and the ...

Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Carthage, Edessa . . . These were some of the ancient cities that once raged against the Gospel and persecuted the Church but later came to admirable faith. Each city had its own unique commerce, culture, and institutions. Each city was different from all the others, and each became more perfectly itself through the influence of Jesus Christ. In the pages of this book, you'll climb the hills of ...

After the "mountaintop experiences" of the spiritual life, we all need a way to make daily progress in our lives, while holding onto the thread of faith. Combining the sciences of positive psychology with timeless Christian traditions, The Saintmaker is a one-of-a-kind guided spiritual journal and life planning system to help you create the life you dream of, become a more fulfilled person, and deepen your faith.

How to Master 12 Essential Virtues in 12 Months On every page Cultivating Virtue imparts the true spirit of the Catholic Faith. This book takes 12 Christian virtues one for each month, with a reading for each day of the year and shows you how to master each one. Featuring episodes and sayings from the lives of the Saints, it covers Perfection, Humility, Mortification, Patience, Meekness, Confidence, Charity, among others. Master the virtues and set out on your road to becoming a saint by lear...

Home is where the heart is At twenty years old, Pat Gardiner has never regretted staying at her beloved home of Silver Bush. She has the wild stories of housekeeper Judy Plum to amuse her, a countess to entertain, a cat named Bold-and-Bad to keep out of trouble, and her younger sister Rae to care for. But she does miss her friend Jingle Gordon, who's away at college. He's the only boy who ever truly understood her, and their little spot called Happiness is much lonelier without him. Eventuall...

A beautiful clothbound edition of Anne Brontë's most enduring novel, to accompany her sisters' greatest books in Penguin Hardcover Classics Gilbert Markham is deeply intrigued by Helen Graham, a beautiful and secretive young woman who has moved into nearby Wildfell Hall with her young son. He is quick to offer Helen his friendship, but when her reclusive behaviour becomes the subject of local gossip and speculation, Gilbert begins to wonder whether his trust in her has been misplaced. For mor...

"'Better be without sense than misapply it as you do.'" Emma Woodhouse— "rich, handsome and clever"— is every bit that rich and that handsome, but perhaps not as clever as she believes. Residing in the quietness of rural England at the turn of the 19th century, the young heiress has as yet no intention of marrying, but enjoys playing the matchmaker among her acquaintances. Supposing she arranged her governess's marriage, she then takes for a protégé Harriet, a simple-minded girl of humble and...

"Jane Austen's brilliantly sophisticated teenage writings constitute her beginnings as a writer. We see in the works in this volume the sheer fun of her early sketches and their ridicule of human foibles, her parody of the absurdities of romance and sentimental fiction, her decision-making over choice of word and incident, her changing attitude towards character and style, and especially her early fascination with wordplay and hidden meanings that reveal her sprightly imagination." —From the ...

A Summary of the Spiritual Life: Simplified and Arranged for Daily Reading, Reflection and Prayer Written with loving care by Father Anthony Paone, as a dialogue with Christ himself, this devotional will strengthen your love for Christ and his teachings. Father Paone leads the reader through the three ways of the spiritual life: Purification, Imitation, and Union. My Daily Bread overflows with reflections and prayers specifically designed to help you grow in the spiritual life and overcome fa...