Lenten items
Thoughts on the Passion
for Each Day in Lent
As the title suggests, there is a thought or meditation for each day of Lent. Each thought is short - a minute or two - so that even the busiest followers of Christ will find the time.
The meditations end with a short petition, like "O Strength of the Weak! help me to find comfort in Thy sorrows!" (Second Day), or, words from Christ, like " Lose not this precious blood which is shed for you! Let it purify your souls, strengthen your wills, regulate your passions, heal all your wounds." (Third Day).
When Lent arrives, this booklet will provide a quick and easy way to remember the reason for the season.
Booklet, size 8" x 5", 31 pages, Impr 1887
A Thought a Day
by a Religious of the Cenacle
From the Foreword:
"Christ wishes us to remain as little children. Does that mean we must never grow up: never get taller and stronger: never stop going to school? No; it means we must go to Him always as children, in innocence, in confidence, in love. He knows each one of us, knows our faults, knows each things we do and each thought we have. But He not only knows us; He loves us, and because of that love He can understand whatever we may say to Him. He is eager that we go to Him, little children that we are: and the author of this booklet shows us how we may do so particularly during the Holy Season of Lent."
Booklet, size 7.5" x 5.1", 64 pages, Impr 1931
by Marigold Hunt
Dear Children:
"The Gospels are four very short books that tell you about our Lord's life. You can read them quite fast. The reason the same story takes so much longer to tell in this book is that the men who wrote the Gospels just went straight on and hardly even stopped to explain anything. They couldn't be expected to know how we would live, and that we would have forgotten how people dressed and spoke and built houses, and the other customs they had in those days. So in this book, I have to stop and explain all the time, but after you've read it, the explaining will have been done, and you can start reading the Gospels yourself any time you want."
So says the author of this rich retelling of the life of Christ, a tale that possesses the interest, lucidity, and dignity that marks the best of books for children.
Marigold Hunt begins with Adam and Eve and goes quickly through the Old Testament to Jesus, whom she presents simply but not trivially, so children encounter Him in His goodness, His suffering, and His majesty.
Hunt speaks in words and phrases that young children understand and explains terms they may not know. She includes devotions from the Bible (such as the Magnificat, the Beatitudes, and the Canticle of Zachary) along with many of Christ's parables (which she explains).
A Life of Our Lord for Children will make sense of Scripture for your children and help them be more attentive during Mass when they hear the same tales directly from the Gospels.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 189 pages
Revelations of St. Bridget
on the Life and Passion of Our Lord and the Life of His Blessed Mother
by St. Bridget of Sweden
Saint Bridget of Sweden was one of the most privileged mystics in the history of the Church. Born to a wealthy family, she was given in marriage to a pious and good-hearted nobleman, with whom she raised eight children, including the future Saint Catherine of Sweden. When her husband died, Bridget founded an order of nuns, the Order of the Most Holy Savior, more commonly called the Bridgettines. She laboured until her death to spread her order and boost morality and devotion in the decadent 14th century Church. She also labored to bring the papacy back to Rome from Avignon. In all her efforts, she was wise, charitable, and outstanding in sanctity.
Devout from a young age, Saint Bridget also received numerous visions of Our Lord and Our Lady, including intimate details of Our Lady's early life, the Holy Family in Nazareth, and the Passion, first recorded in 1492. Revelations of St. Bridget provides excerpts from these eye-opening visions, which bring into focus many unknown facets of the hidden life of Our Lord and His Mother. These visions have been approved as orthodox and worthy of pious belief by the Holy See. The insights received by Saint Bridget are matched by very few other mystics', showing her privileges before the Throne of God. This volume also includes the famous 15 Prayers attributed to her, popular devotions in the late Middle Ages and our own era.
Do not miss these stirring and vivid accounts from one of the greatest foundresses of the Church's history. Imbued throughout her visions is the undeniable spirit of piety, devotion, and saintliness that characterized St. Bridget's earthly life—and by which she merited to become privy to such sublime mysteries.
Paperback, size 6" x 4", 96 pages
With the Church, Volume 1
Advent to the Ascension
by Mother Mary Loyola
Now for the first time in nearly a century, this classic set of meditations on the Liturgical Year are back in print! Written while Mother Loyola was bedridden with a hip fracture, these devotions bring us the urgency of living our life With the Church, for we "know not the day nor the hour."
The Irish Monthly back in 1924 had this to say about With the Church: “Father Thurston tells us that forty years ago Mother Loyola, when bringing out anonymously her first book on Holy Communion, and being anxious to get ecclesiastical recommendation for it, asked him to write a short preface. The favourable reception accorded by the Catholic public to the numerous books which she has brought out since that time has amply justified Fr. Thurston’s judgment in recommending the authoress’s work. This latest book of hers consists of a series of reflections on the feasts of the year from Advent to the Ascension. Her thoughts are always well-grounded and ingenious, and their expression is clear and graceful, with a strong personal charm. They are musings jotted down just as they occur to her devotional spirit and not simply as dictated by a resolution to follow a certain line.”
Paperback, size 5.5" x 8.5", 380 pages
With considerations on the Passion.
Translated from the Italian of St. Alphonsus Liguori by a Catholic Clergyman.
Described in simple language, according to the narration of the Holy Evangelist. This book is filled with the events of Christ’s crucifixion with bible verses placed in appropriate areas for explanation. Also, has many prayers. As you read this unusual book you will feel that you are right there with our Lord and follow Him all the way.
Paperback, size 8" x 5.25", 256 pages
by Archbishop Alban Goodier
This absorbing account provides you with an intimate look at the sufferings of Our Lord through the minds and hearts of those closest to Him. You’ll see Jesus through the eyes of His apostles, of those who condemned Him, of His executioners, and of those He met along the way of the Cross. Drawing from historical research, culture, and his own profound spiritual insights, Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J., masterfully intersperses scriptural accounts and narration to bring the Passion of Jesus fully to life.
You will be moved by subtle observations, emotions, and actions swirling around Jesus as He endures His most terrible and triumphant moments. You will come to understand Judas Iscariot’s thoughts and motives in betraying Jesus, St. John’s personal intuitions about the agony of Jesus’ Heart, St. Peter’s impetuousness, and Jesus’ unconditional love.
As he guides you through this introspective contemplation of the Gospels, Fr. Goodier reveals Jesus’ thoughts, feelings, and actions and explains the sufferings Jesus felt in His soul.
Most significantly, you will see who Jesus is for you and who He longs you to be both for Him and for others. We need “active compassion,” explains Archbishop Goodier, to unite our sufferings to those of Jesus and to relate to the anguish of His Heart. Reflecting upon the agony of Jesus in the garden, the travesty of His condemnation, and the diabolical tortures that He endured, you will see as never before the immense sufferings that only the God-Man could abide.
Through the eyes of the saints, the great lovers of God, you will begin truly to see Jesus, the pain He bore, and why He suffered. Our Lord’s words challenge and comfort contemporary believers as much as they did those who first followed in the footsteps of Christ and His apostles. Once you enter into Archbishop Goodier’s meditations, your understanding of the humility, mercy, and love of Christ will deepen, and you will never experience His Passion in the same way again.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 368 pages
by Sister Monica
Explains the 14 Stations of the Cross with simple words the child can understand, followed by simple prayers. This book will surely emphasize the great mercy of Our Lord towards mankind and will help them to understand the seriousness of all sin.
Booklet, size 11" x 8.5", 32 pages
Meditations for Septuagesima and Lent
by Fr Joseph de Dreux O.F.M. Cap.
This little book, which brings us from Septuagesima Sunday right through to Holy Saturday, is both rich in theology and eminently practical.
By means of short daily meditations, Father de Dreux helps us to prepare ourselves spiritually for the Passion and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Taking each event recorded in the Gospels, Father brings us into the mystery of the Passion, simply but profoundly.
This work was first written in French in the middle of the 17th Century, but was not actually published until 1887, having been lost during the turmoil of the French Revolution. It has been republished in French in recent years. This is the very first English edition.
Paperback, size 6" x 4", 142 pages
The Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary
by E. Mary Christie
This is the story of Jesus’ triumph over death and sin, presented in a format your child will love and treasure.
Each mystery is narrated as a poem and accompanied by a hand-painted illustration.
A prayer to Mary, asking for a virtue, concludes each mystery.
“The Rosary…the prayer that touches most the Heart of the Mother of God.”
~ Pope Saint Pius X
Paperback, size 6" x 6", 26 pages
by E. Mary Christie
This is the story of Jesus’ Passion and Crucifixion, presented in a format your child will love and treasure.
Each mystery is narrated as a poem and accompanied by a hand-painted illustration.
A prayer to Mary, asking for a virtue, concludes each mystery.
Paperback, size 6" x 6", 26 pages
by Fr Raymond, O.C.S.O
Man was made to share in the glory of God in this life as well as in the next. With this thought as his theme, Fr. Raymond presents this book on the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, completing a trilogy that includes Love Does Such Things on the Joyful Mysteries, and God, a Woman, and the Way on the seven sorrows of Mary. Fr. Raymond explains why every minute of life should be glorious. Minutely examining each of the Mysteries, he cites references from the Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, and the Councils to show that we who have been baptized live by, in, and through the Resurrected Christ. Therefore, the Resurrection is ours today as well as tomorrow.
Paperback, size 9" x 6", 242 pages
by Fr Raymond O.C.S.O
With time a precious commodity at Gethsemani Monastery in Kentucky, Fr. Raymond found that “a Trappist author must resolve when each day breaks to use the pieces in bringing his message of peace to the noise and commotion beyond his cloistering walls.” How well he used these fragments of time can be judged by the esteem he has won among the thousands who have read his books: The Family That Overtook Christ, The Man Who Got Even With God, The Less Traveled Road, God Goes to Murderer’s Row, Burnt Out Incense, and others.
In everything he wrote, this doctrine was illustrated. He claimed that it was not only the heart of theology but the only satisfying explanation of life, since it gives man his true dignity, his destiny, and points out his duty.
Nowhere is this more evident than in God, a Woman, and the Way where he often repeats that “We are His members; she is our Mother”—the Mediatrix of all grace who is the hope of our times. This book follows the footsteps of Our Lady on her seven sorrows during her sojourn on this earth. Fr Raymond provides us with his illustrated, meditative approach to understand the sufferings of Mary as Our Mother, Mediator and Medatrix.
Paperback, size 9" x 6", 184 pages
by Caryll Houselander
In The Way of the Cross, Caryll Houselander accomplishes two things: first, by her imaginative re-creation of the Passion and Death of Our Lord, realized with intensity, detail, and depth, she brings a drama of anguish and tragedy to our immediate awareness; secondly, she shows us the Passion reflected in all human suffering.
We can no more be detached spectators of the Passion than we can be detached spectators of the griefs and travails of the contemporary world. As Caryll Houselander writes, the part we are called to play is that of Veronica, coming forward to wipe the tears and sorrows from every stricken face we meet. And each time we have the courage and compassion to do so, we find the same image left on the veil. These profound meditations on the Stations of the Cross allow the reader to walk in the footsteps of Christ on that distant yet ever-present Good Friday.
Also available in hardcover on request (additional cost)
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 110 pages