Catholic Books

"These pages do not pretend to furnish theologians and doctors with a new Mariology. My aim is much more modest; I am trying to reach many small souls, for whom a few rays of Holy Mary's beauty will suffice; that they may endlessly admire and better pronounce her name-after the Name of Jesus, the most beautiful of names." Dom Eugene Vandeur's Hail Mary is not another scholarly exegesis on each part of that ancient prayer; it is a poetic, passionate, expressive, rhythmic hymn of praise. In the...

"If my correspondence is anything to go by," writes Benedictine artist and author Dom Hubert Van Zeller, "the problem which men and women living in the world most want to discuss is that of how to handle the affections." The fruit of Dom Hubert's experience as a spiritual director, these 42 short reflections are culled from his correspondence, and engage with questions surrounding the cultural upheaval which followed World War II, the first stages of the sexual revolution, and the modern worl...

An Historical, Liturgical and Devotional Explanation of the Mass according to the Roman Missal "In a word, the service of God is meant to be beautiful, because a true instinct of man makes him realize, even when he is in a state of retrogression and barbarism, that all that is best and noblest must be made subservient to the worship of the Lord and Creator of all." Dom Ernest Graf begins his work The Priest at the Altar with this declaration that beauty is the fundamental form of the Liturgy....

On re-reading this book, Dom Hubert confessed "to being surprised at the tone of attack which runs through a lot of it." But he continues, "I would like to say in this connexion that any blows which are met with in these pages are primarily aimed at myself. All the more combative passages were occasioned by my saying to myself: 'This won't do-it's a misconception (or a mood or a willy) and must be exploded at once.' Then I have sat down and written my piece." Such a candid effort on the autho...

Spiritual Conferences on the Monastic and Religious Life "Every vocation, even the simple Christian vocation, comes from God. Our Lord Himself says 'No man can come to Me, except the Father draw him.' But it is God's love for us-and as we are born miserable, it is His merciful love-which is the origin of this call." A work which goes to the heart of the Rule of St Benedict, this classic of the Irish Benedictine Blessed Columba Marmion has fed generations of God-seeking souls. Capable of touch...

"Prayer must necessarily involve a discipline, but it need not involve a system...In our prayer we must return to the primary purpose of what we are trying to do: we are trying to bring worship to God. The greatest act of worship that man can give to God is to refer back to him what God has already given. Man has nothing of his own to offer, nothing that has not been lent by God." Almost everyone who has believed in God has wondered how to pray to him. But in the same way that no two relation...

Dom Columba Marmion's classic work Christ the Life of the Soul aims at showing forth "the fundamental character of the Christian life, according to the Gospel, the Epistles of St Paul, and the conclusions of theological teaching." Marmion wanted to emphasize that the "Christian life is essentially supernatural, and can only be found in Christ," who is both the model and cause of all holiness. Christ in His Mysteries continues this teaching, demonstrating that Christ's life is manifested to us...

New Nations and a Transatlantic Discourse of Empire Why is the capital of the United States named in part after Christopher Columbus, a Genoese explorer commissioned by Spain who never set foot on what would become the nation's mainland? Why did Spanish American nationalists in 1819 name a new independent republic "Colombia," after Columbus, the first representative of the empire from which they had recently broken free? These are only two of the introductory questions explored in The Lega...

Writing of his real-life pilgrimage on the Camino, Nick Maione offers sharp-eyed detail and characterization, incisive poetic image, humor, and wisdom.

City of God, cities of men "If God is one, the worlds are many." Meta-Politics: City of God, cities of men explores the philosophical and spiritual basis for political representation and pluralism. Drawing on ancient as well as modern sources, it traces how universal functions have been understood to be "indexed" to particular persons and institutions, and why universals must manifest in a plurality of forms. It argues that, ultimately, the idea of absolute transcendent oneness is the necessa...

This is the second edition of Dom Hubert van Zeller's short commentary on the Hail Mary which was part of his "In Other Words" series. Originally published in 1963, it has long been out of print. Permission has been granted by Downside Abbey Trustees to republish this wonderful work.

The Memoirs of Antonio Cardinal Bacci Antonio Bacci was rector of the archdiocesan seminary of Florence when his exceptional knowledge of Latin caused him to be summoned to Rome in 1922 to join the office of the Secretary of State as an assistant, first to Aurelio Galli and then to Nicola Sebastiani, the chief Latinists of the Holy See. Bacci succeeded Sebastiani as Secretary of Briefs to Princes upon the latter's death in 1931. In the first half of the memoirs here translated, Bacci discusse...

Historical & Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal When Ildefonso Schuster (1880-1954) transformed his copious and insightful lecture notes on the Roman liturgy into the five volumes of Liber Sacramentorum— known to us in English as The Sacramentary, and presented here for the first time in a modern reprint— he stated his purpose: "sharing with devout and studious souls, especially among my brother priests, whatever sentiments of faith and reverence Our Lord may have deigned to grant me, H...

Historical & Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal When Ildefonso Schuster (1880-1954) transformed his copious and insightful lecture notes on the Roman liturgy into the five volumes of Liber Sacramentorum— known to us in English as The Sacramentary, and presented here for the first time in a modern reprint— he stated his purpose: "sharing with devout and studious souls, especially among my brother priests, whatever sentiments of faith and reverence Our Lord may have deigned to grant me, H...

Historical & Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal When Ildefonso Schuster (1880-1954) transformed his copious and insightful lecture notes on the Roman liturgy into the five volumes of Liber Sacramentorum— known to us in English as The Sacramentary, and presented here for the first time in a modern reprint— he stated his purpose: "sharing with devout and studious souls, especially among my brother priests, whatever sentiments of faith and reverence Our Lord may have deigned to grant me, H...

Historical & Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal When Ildefonso Schuster (1880-1954) transformed his copious and insightful lecture notes on the Roman liturgy into the five volumes of Liber Sacramentorum— known to us in English as The Sacramentary, and presented here for the first time in a modern reprint— he stated his purpose: "sharing with devout and studious souls, especially among my brother priests, whatever sentiments of faith and reverence Our Lord may have deigned to grant me, H...

Historical & Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal When Ildefonso Schuster (1880-1954) transformed his copious and insightful lecture notes on the Roman liturgy into the five volumes of Liber Sacramentorum— known to us in English as The Sacramentary, and presented here for the first time in a modern reprint— he stated his purpose: "sharing with devout and studious souls, especially among my brother priests, whatever sentiments of faith and reverence Our Lord may have deigned to grant me, H...

The Ancient Church, The Middle Ages, The Beginnings of the Modern Period "The task of condensing the History of the Church within a few hundred pages is a delicate one. We have undertaken it in the hope that our efforts will benefit both seminarians and college students. Our chief concern throughout has been clearness, precision, and brevity, and for this reason we have carefully eliminated unnecessary details. On the other hand, we have thought it our duty to stress the dogmatic controversie...

The Modern Period: Contemporary Church History So vast is the material to be controlled, digested and presented in the work of preparing a manual of Church History for the use of students in colleges, seminaries and universities or for the enlightened portion of the general public, the historian who undertakes the task is always confronted with the problem of knowing what to leave out as non-essential details or events of secondary importance and what to include as matter of capital importanc...

Design, Theme, and Symbol in Worship Today there is a growing eagerness to enter into a deeper knowledge of the Mass, the sacraments and the whole life of the Church. A particularly rewarding insight comes from a penetration of the actual words, gestures and symbols used in worship. "The Church wants us to stop and look and be enriched by the glories she presents for our contemplation," writes Sister Laurentia. "The liturgy is God's art. For His material He uses our familiar earth, air, fire ...

Theology is in fact the intellectus fidei-the intelligence of the one faith, the same yesterday and today, composed of distinct but analogical mysteries. The truth is symphonic, as Hans Urs von Balthasar says. It is like one piece of music played by many instruments. The greater the variety of instruments playing the same piece, the better they express the beauty of that one musical score. The same should be true of the multitude of believers around the world. If this is not the case, there i...

Volume 1: A Manual for Priests, Teachers and Normal Schools From the Preface: Motivation may be a concomitant step in the teaching procedure, or it may be an independent effort at the conclusion. All through the teaching procedure the teacher will find story and example occurring frequently, in order to motivate the will. Again, at the conclusion of each section she will find a paragraph presenting a particular idea for motivation as if she would say to the class, 'You have learned something...

Volume 2: A Manual for Priests, Teachers and Normal Schools From the Preface: Motivation may be a concomitant step in the teaching procedure, or it may be an independent effort at the conclusion. All through the teaching procedure the teacher will find story and example occurring frequently, in order to motivate the will. Again, at the conclusion of each section she will find a paragraph presenting a particular idea for motivation as if she would say to the class, 'You have learned something...

Volume 3: A Manual for Priests, Teachers and Normal Schools From the Preface: Motivation may be a concomitant step in the teaching procedure, or it may be an independent effort at the conclusion. All through the teaching procedure the teacher will find story and example occurring frequently, in order to motivate the will. Again, at the conclusion of each section she will find a paragraph presenting a particular idea for motivation as if she would say to the class, 'You have learned something...

Ten Short Stories Based on Actual Events  Can priests miss Mass? This little book light-heartedly depicts ten Holy Masses nearly missed by priests due to some opposition from within Holy Church, not from without. From Kilimanjaro to Loch Ness, from Burma to Paris and more, the ten humorous short stories describe hindrances to the celebration of Holy Mass inflicted on innocent priests by sacristans, shrine rectors or even bishops. Those failed to recognise that, given a suitable time frame and...

From the Preface: The Renaissance was a time of realization, continuity and rebirth that began in fifteenth-century Italy. The name Renaissance or Classical is given to that manner of building and style of ornament which is an adaptation of the models of ancient Greece and Rome. These ancient classical models helped influence the new architecture and painting of Sant'Onofrio. It is my hope this little book will inspire you, dear pilgrim, and help create a conversation among other pilgrims to ...

This is the first of a series of reprints by Arouca Press. It features an exact reproduction of the interior from the original work published in 1961. It includes a new and classically designed cover. Excerpt from the Preface:The term "dialogue" crops up today more and more frequently. It emerges before the reading public in publications as diverse as Theological Studies, Time, Harper's, or the New Yorker. While this book was never intended by its author as a contribution to the dialogue betw...

Volume 1 Edited by Canon George D. Smith, D.D., Ph.D. Contents: Faith and Revealed Truth An Outline of Catholic Teaching The One God The Blessed Trinity The Holy Ghost God the Creator Divine Providence The Angels Man and His Destiny The Fall of Man and Original Sin Jesus Christ, God and Man Jesus Christ, The Model of Manhood Jesus Christ, Man of Sorrows Christ, Priest and Redeemer Mary, Mother of God Sanctifying Grace Actual Grace The Supernatural Virtues Contributions by Rev. J. P. Arendzen ...

When confronted with the message of the Gospel, the Jews on the day of Pentecost were cut to the heart and said, "Brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37) Catholics today are asking themselves the same question. Phillip Campbell's The Way of Life offers a response. Drawing on the spiritual heritage of the Church, the essays in this book call us to refocus our sight on the Lord, cultivating "eyes to see" that we might have confidence in God's providence. Covering a host of subjects ranging fro...

The Liturgical Year in Word and Symbols In his Motu Proprio on sacred music issued in 1903, the saintly Pope Pius X urged a deeper understanding and an "active participation in the most holy mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer of the Church" (that is the liturgy of the Church). The word liturgy is of Greek origin and means public work or service. In Greece it was used to designate every citizen's contribution to the welfare of his country, work for which he was obligated according t...

(and A Young Poet's Elegy to the Court of God) A Traditional Play in Blank Verse The preternaturally great poet Orpheus has responded to the loss of his wife Eurydice to the Underworld by forsaking the society of his fellow men in Thrace, where he was a poet-king, and endlessly wandering through field and forest, using his poetic genius to lament his loss. Apollo, the god of poetry, urges him to give up his excessive mourning and return to Thrace and once more sing the deeds of the great hero...

On the Rule of St. Benedict The Commentary on the Rule takes into account the long history of commentary on St. Benedict's rule and discusses this history at length in the introduction. Each chapter has a selection of the rule, following the divisions of dates on which sections of the rule are read in monasteries, then a commentary on that section, followed by an application, through 72 chapters completing the entire Rule. The commentary makes use of the very lengthy Monastic Tradition, works...

Anselm Stolz, the author of this book, was a Benedictine monk of the German abbey of Gerleve. He was called to Rome to teach theology at Sant'Anselmo, the Roman Benedictine college, until his early death from typhus in 1942. In his life and teaching, as his confrère Elmar Salman points out, he united Christian belief and Christian living, he not only talked the talk in books and lectures, he walked the walk, in his life and death. A lifetime later, another Benedictine professor, Gerardo Békés...

Faith as a door is a fascinating image. A new horizon appears at precisely the moment when a man decides to cross the threshold and look out at the reality that is beyond his doorstep. Yet, faith turns out to be an absurdity in today's post-Christian society. Reason would no longer be able to furnish us with certainties, such as the foundational role of truth to undertake the study of any discipline. Consequently, God is nonsensical. But while reason has seen its oblivion, there is however an...

Sermons on the Gospels for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany In these modern days of the six-minute homilette, some may question the use of translating musty old sermons. Why bother with the past? Yet if we want to be whole Catholics, we need to know what went before us, as well as our present. In these confusing times where some in the Church are trying to erase any reminder of the past, it becomes all the more necessary to be familiar with the Faith as handed down through the centuries, in or...

An Arouca Press Reprint of Msgr. Van Noort's classic work that was originally translated into English in 1955. It features an exact reproduction of the interior with a newly designed cover. Excerpt from the Preface: All priests know of many excellent manuals of theology in Latin. Many, however, confess that their long years in the ministry have seen them lose their mastery of that language and, as a consequence, the urge to pick up their seminary textbooks is not too strong. Our own teaching...

The Sanctoral Cycle I In these modern days of the six-minute homilette, some may question the use of translating musty old sermons. Why bother with the past? Yet if we want to be whole Catholics, we need to know what went before us, as well as our present. In these confusing times where some in the Church are trying to erase any reminder of the past, it becomes all the more necessary to be familiar with the Faith as handed down through the centuries, in order to better explain what we believe...

This is the first of a series of reprints by Arouca Press. It features an exact reproduction of the interior from the original work published in 1957. It includes a new and classically designed cover. From the inside of the original book:This volume is one of the most interesting in the series. It gives a full treatment of the Church, how it was considered through the ages, what others object to in Catholic teaching and what true theology can prove to be the case. While accurately adhering to...

Sermons on Septuagesima, Lent, & Eastertide In these modern days of the six-minute homilette, some may question the use of translating musty old sermons. Why bother with the past? Yet if we want to be whole Catholics, we need to know what went before us, as well as our present. In these confusing times where some in the Church are trying to erase any reminder of the past, it becomes all the more necessary to be familiar with the Faith as handed down through the centuries, in order to bett...

Compiled in 1782 by St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St Makarios of Corinth, the Philokalia is a rich collection of spiritual writings from the fourth century on to the fifteenth from various saints and great minds giving counsel to monastics in their ascetic struggles. Though mostly written for monastics, under good spiritual guidance there is much to be gleaned by commonplace Catholics— in particular Eastern (Byzantine) Catholics, as most of the authors presented here were of the Easte...

Sermons for Pentecost and the Time after Pentecost In these modern days of the six-minute homilette, some may question the use of translating musty old sermons. Why bother with the past? Yet if we want to be whole Catholics, we need to know what went before us, as well as our present. In these confusing times where some in the Church are trying to erase any reminder of the past, it becomes all the more necessary to be familiar with the Faith as handed down through the centuries, in order to b...

Separating the occasional high points of the formal sessions of Vatican II were long stretches of procedural tedium and usually ponderous Latin speeches. Some of the anglophone council fathers found fleeting relief in recording their reactions, frustrations and opinions in limerick form. Many of these were collected in a typed manuscript together with their translations into Latin by Bishop Bernard Wall of Brentwood. The English limericks are a whimsical primary source for the history of Vati...

Dom Virgil Michel's book gives a complete expository survey of the liturgy of the Church as viewed by one of the leaders of the liturgical movement. The liturgy, he believes, is something more than a collection of formal regulations and ceremonies; it is the very core of the spiritual life and activity of the Church. The present book contains chapters describing the special significance of important liturgical periods in the Church year; it covers the theological implications of the rites and...

This book consists of a series of daily meditations written by the eminent Latinist Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1885-1971) who served as the Vatican's chief Latinist for over 40 years. The English edition has been out-of-print since 1965. In it, Cardinal Bacci explores vast areas of Catholic principles on the spiritual life using such sources as: Sacred Scripture, the writings of the Saints with particular emphasis on St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church Fathers, many passages from Thomas a Kempis' "Th...

​"Suppose for a moment that Catholicism had been dead for centuries, that the traditions of its worship had been lost. Only the unspeaking and forlorn cathedrals remain; they have become unintelligible yet remain admirable." So begins Marcel Proust's Death Comes for the Cathedrals (La mort des cathédrales), originally published in Le Figaro (1904). Proust addresses the political and religious debate concerning the "the Briand bill," a parliamentary proposal which imperiled the fate of French ...