Priesthood and Religious Life
The Sources and Story of the Discalced Carmelites
by Peter-Thomas Rohrbach
First published in 1966, this book chronicles a full eight centuries of the Carmelite tradition, from the order's beginnings as a group of lay hermits on Mount Carmel through St. Teresa of Avila's Discalced Carmelite Reform in the 16th century, to Carmel's rich diversity today.
Since the appearance of this work, important new discoveries in the study of Carmelite history have come to the fore. New scholarly research, for example, would call for a revision of some sections of this book, notably the account of the origins of the Carmelites and related dates and figures, as well a more nuanced picture of the beginnings of the Teresian Reform. In the meantime, Journey to Carith remains unsurpassed as a concise and readable overview both of the origins of the order and of the Discalced Carmelites in particular. It is a fascinating account of one of the oldest religious families in the Christian West, with a uniquely important spiritual tradition.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 381 pages
His Dignity and Duties
by St Joseph Cafasso
If every priest in the Church knew this book and practiced what it says, we would have a different Church. Says the priesthood admits no mediocrity: A priest will either be a true priest and do immense good, or he will be an instrument of great evil. Gives firm, practical instruction to priests for both their personal lives and their ministry on topics including delicacy of conscience, hearing confessions, providing a good example, etc. Written by one of the greatest priests who ever lived. Our laymen should put this providentially provided book into the hands of every priest.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 280 pages, Impr.
Containing a Message From Our Divine Lord For the Clergy of the World
by Venerable Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche
Messages given by Our Lord to Mother Louise Margaret (1868-1915) about the burning love of the Sacred Heart for men. 274 short extracts from her intimate notes, conferences and letters. Says God demands docility to His will and absolute confidence in His paternal love and that His very essence is "Infinite Love."
Paperback, size 8.25" x 5.5", 231 pages, 7 Illus, Impr.
by Venerable Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche
"My priest is My other self; I love him, but he must be holy."
Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche (1868–1915), a Visitation sister, was commissioned first by Our Lord, then by her religious superiors to write The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood based on her lifetime of conversations with the Divine Master. Its purpose is to strengthen the souls of priests in the love of their sublime vocation, to unite them more than ever to Jesus Christ, the eternal Priest, and to give the faithful a greater confidence in and more religious and filial respect for the orders of the sacred hierarchy. (p. xxxii)
The Holy See has declared Mother Louise Margaret's writings to be in conformity with the teachings of the Church and has sanctioned the organization of priests she had drawn up under the name of the Priests' Universal Union of the Friends of the Sacred Heart. A gift for seminarians, priests, and anyone who wishes to deepen their understanding of this vocation, The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood is a profound exploration of Holy Orders made between a mystic of the Church and Our Lord Himself. Impr.
"To do My work, to extend the reign of love, priests must be full of it themselves, and it is to My Heart that they must come to draw it." Christ to Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 224 pages
The Needs of Our Time - A Little Treatise of Infinite Love
by Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche
THE LITTLE BOOK OF THE WORK OF INFINITE LOVE is a brief summary of the life and mission of Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche (1868-1915), a Visitation sister to whom Our Lord gave many intimate details concerning the love of His Sacred Heart for men.
Of special importance are her revelations about the Sacred Heart and the priesthood, showing how Our Lord desires to transform the world by love in particular, by the superabundant supernatural love He desires His priests to show mankind.
This Little Book also contains a description of the Priests Universal Union of the Friends of the Sacred Heart, which Mother Louise founded, an outline of their duties, and selections from her writings. This last will be found suffused with simplicity, directness, and holy penetration common to all the Saints.
Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche lived from 1868-1915. She entered the Visitation convent in 1890 at Romans, France and is the artist of the "Picture of Jesus Merciful" painting, which she transcribed after an interior vision. She wrote her Autobiography from 1904-1905 as ordered by Father Alfred Charrier, her spiritual director. She was named superior of her convent two years later and retained the position until 1913. Mother Louise Claret is the author of The Little Book of the Work of Infinite Love, The Love and Service of God, The Book of Infinite Love, and The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood. She died in Vische on the fourteenth of May, 1915, and subsequently earned the title of Venerable.
Paperback, size 7" x 4.5", 64 pages
by Bl Dom Columba Marmion, OSB
This book on monastic spirituality ranks among the classics and has won for it's author, from theologians and spiritual writers belonging to various schools, the title of Master and even of Doctor of the Spiritual Life.
A superb and essential volume for those who wish to understand and live the monastic life.
Hardcover, size 9" x 6", 463 pages
First published in 1949, The Spiritual Life of the Priest was written as a guide for busy priests working in the U.S., specifically with American conditions in mind. It reads easily in a way that can only come from the pen of a true spiritual master.
It focuses on the practical aspects of the priest’s interior life such as mental prayer, the prayerful recitation of the Office, the devout celebration of the Mass, Marian devotion and consecration, recreation and the exercise of self-denial. The book concludes with chapters that provide theological foundations for the interior life, so that priests can truly live their priesthood as friends of Christ.
This book remains a “must-have” for priests who, due to heavier workloads, are challenged more than ever in maintaining their lives of prayer and the exercise of virtue. Laypersons who want to develop deeper lives of prayer and virtue will also have much to learn from this short but meticulously detailed book.
Hardback, 176 pages, size 5 1/2" x 8 1/3"
How can a priest become more like Christ? How can a priest maintain his zeal for holiness as his youthful idealism fades away? Numerous books have been written on priestly holiness, yet few apart from The Priest’s Way to God successfully bridge the gap between the age-old traditions of priestly spirituality and the realities in which modern priests live.
First published in 1961 (only a few years before the author’s untimely death), The Priest’s Way to God combines chapters giving practical advice on every facet of the priestly life – prayer, the Holy Mass, and the exercise of virtue. It concludes with short but rich chapters on the theological truths that lie at the root of all spirituality – charity, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our soul, and total union with Christ. It is a summary of the message with which Dom Eugene Boylan sought to inspire priests and laity alike – that all are called to holiness, and are given the means and the graces to attain it as long as we cooperate with God.
Hardback, 192 pages, size - 5 1/2" x 8 1/3"
SET SAIL FOR THE GOLDEN CITY TO MEET THE KING!
Now the whole family can join the wise Captain and the young Mariners of the good ship Pax on their perilous journey to the Golden City. By employing the dangers of a long sea voyage as a powerful allegory for the way of salvation, English Benedictine dom. Bede Camm (1864-1942) created an exciting way to introduce young hearts to the joys and challenges of the religious life. It was the author's hope that, "Perhaps indeed [The Voyage of the Pax] may help to develop in some young heart the germ of a nascent vocation."
Originally written to be read aloud, this new audio presentation of The Voyage of the Pax features music, sound effects, and a talented cast of young voice actors to bring dom. Bede's classic tale to life as never before. This presentation is sure to join Mother Mary Loyola’s beloved The King of the Golden City as another family favourite.
by Mother Mary Francis P.C.C.
Can life really be "merry" inside a Poor Clare cloister? This happy book reveals the challenges, cares and joys of that cloistered life from an "insiders" view.
The poet's cry, "O world, I cannot hold you close enough!" is the heart's cry of the enclosed contemplative. No one who has not lived in a cloister can fully understand just how intertwined are the lives of cloistered nuns. Their hearts may be wide as the universe and bottomless as eternity, but the practical details of their living are boxed up into the small area within the enclosure walls. Cloistered nuns rub souls as well as elbows all their lives, and if they do not step out of themselves to get a true perspective, they can become small-souled and petty and remain immature children all their lives long.
But, as Mother Mary Francis points out, they also have "as great a right to be merry as any lady in the world." Nor is merriment all. "Hidden away from the glare and noise of worldly living," Mother Mary Francis writes, "we are enclosed in the womb of holy Church. I walk down the cloisters, and my heart moves to a single tune: Lord, it is good, so good to be here!"
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 232 pages
by St. Benedict
Apply the Rule of St. Benedict to any community setting, whether in the monastery or in your family! Written in the sixth century by the father of Western monasticism himself, St. Benedict, this common-sense guide to living a truly Christian life is applicable to anyone, in or outside of the cloister. Learn from the Rule's wonderful discretion, moderation, and keen insight into the capabilities and weaknesses of human nature. Here is a practical approach to arranging life so that Christian spirituality and virtue can be lived out anytime, anywhere.
Paperback, 128 pages
by St John Fisher
To the extent that St. John Fisher is remembered at all, he is remembered as the one Bishop that refused to pinch incense to Henry VIII. Yet, he was also a holy Bishop and an expert Theologian. Those familiar with the Mediatrix Press reprint of the Life of St. John Fisher by E.E. Reynolds, will know that St. John Fisher was a model for all Bishops. Yet his theological writings, which are mostly in Latin, had not been translated at all until the 1930’s. Fr. Hallet translated the shortest but no less important of St. John Fisher’s works, his defense of the priesthood against Martin Luther.
In these pages we see that it is Fisher, not Luther, who is the true witness to the gospel, defending the Catholic priesthood by the Scriptures, the Fathers and reason, while quoting Luther directly in his refutation.
While responding to Luther, Fisher lays out several Axioms and proves them one by one in order so that as the pages turn, it is abundantly clear that Fisher is following the Scripture completely, while Luther’s position is increasingly indefensible. It is no wonder that Fisher was the only opponent of Luther that that the latter did not and could not answer.
Given that it is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, what better work could be published, to help dispel some of the confusion engendered by those who wish to celebrate Luther in ignorance of what the great heresiarch had actually taught. Anyone seeing this will immediately see that it is Fisher who is the witness to the Gospel.
Paperback, 190 pages
The Priest: His Dignity and Obligations
by St John Eudes
Herein are delineated not only the standards, but also sound advice on how to maintain them and how to achieve, for the greatest possible glory of God, the heights of efficacy and sanctity possible through the sublime office of the priesthood. Primarily directed to the priest, this incomparable series of treatises and meditations should also be profitably read by all Catholics and even those non-Catholics who are interested to discover what the Church holds and teaches regarding the priesthood. Nothing but good can come from a wide dissemination and a thorough understanding of the principles and admonitions enunciated here by one of the great French priests of the 17th century.
Paperback, 306 pages
Prayer Crusade for Priests has helped to unite the faithful to priests labouring in the vineyard of the Lord. Now, for the first time, all the prayers necessary to participate in this Crusade are easily accessible.
Even if you are not formally a member of the Prayer Crusade, you will find the devotions herein edifying and beneficial to your spiritual life.
- Rosary for Priests - Prayers for Confessors - Deceased Priests - Seminarians - Vocations̴ - Holy Hour for Priests - Litanies - Way of the Cross for Priests - Ejaculatory Prayers
"By our prayers, words and example may we draw many souls to this sublime ideal of the Catholic Priesthood and to its essential act, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. I encourage you to consider joining the Prayer Crusade for Priests. Here is one way to guarantee the supernatural in your daily life: by praying every day prayers for priests..."
96pp. Softcover.
Translated from German by Michael J. Miller
Based on the 6th French edition. This book was composed shortly after World War I by an Italian priest who wished to remain anonymous.
“Manete in dilectione mea”? Our Blessed Lord tells us all, but especially is this counsel given to his chosen vessels, those men of his royal priesthood, so that their priesthood may be one of power and fruitfulness beyond measure. Abide in his love and all power will be given unto you, O Royal sons of David!
This jewel, this precious book, speaks to the heart of every zealous, but sometimes timid, priest who desires to do the will of God and to glorify Him in the infirmity of their humanness. You know who you are my brothers in Christ! You have been called to the most sublime office on earth. You feel unequal to the task. You yearn to do great things for God. You thirst to help souls! Rejoice! Here is the recipe for all you desire. Recommended by Pope Pius XI and penned by an anonymous Italian priest who had just passed through the fire and agony of World War—“the Great War”—this book shall be a light unto your path.
Cast yourself upon the breast wherein beats the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Place yourself in the Eucharistic presence of Him to whom all power in heaven and in earth is given. Here is the exhortation and the instruction. The world needs you more than ever. Become a heroic priest. Deus vult!
Softcover, 186 pages
