Spiritual Life
by Fr. Francis Xavier Lasance
Reprinted from the 1906 edition.. This is a wonderful guide for Catholic young women; filled with many counsels and devotions.
It addresses many of the issues which face girls in their adolescent years. After admonishing the young lady to be a 'child of Mary,' Fr. Lasance builds a 'Maiden's Wreath' combining catechism and virtues with an appropriate flower (lily, rose, etc.). Should the religious state or married life be followed? Chapters discuss both alternatives with an additional section on family life. Extensive traditional devotions (novenas, prayers, etc.) end the book, which also contains detailed information about the Sodality of Mary. A classic, as is the Young Man's Guide.
Paperback, size 6" x 4", 680 pages
The Beatitudes
compiled by Fr Francis X. Lasance
This short work is a practical guide for daily living the beatitudes. Through quotations, stories and examples, Father Lasance simplifies each of the eight beatitudes and shows us the importance of practicing virtue, so we too may one day be numbered among the Blessed in Heaven.
Original 1940 reprint with improved formatting.
Paperback, size 7" x 5", 150 pages, Impr 1940
The Works and Ways of God
by Fr. Frederick William Faber
Fr. Faber's brilliant work on the Eucharist, The Blessed Sacrament: The Works and Ways of God considers the magnificent gift Our Lord has given us in this holiest of mysteries: the Mystery of His very Body and Blood. His aim is to inspire a reverential awe and love for God's greatest work, the compendium of all miracles, and Summit of the Sacraments. Included are Fr. Faber's insights into the theology of transubstantiation (rendered all the more useful by Fr. Faber's upbringing in and countering of Protestant denials of this truth), as well as descriptions of Our Lord's five Eucharistic sufferings. Fr. Faber urges reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
As usual, Fr. Faber ranges over the entire Catholic Faith in this work, not limiting his wisdom's scope, and enlightening our minds and inflaming our souls with a more deeply Catholic outlook on life.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 464 pages
by Fr Francis Xavier Lasance
A Guide for the young Catholic man.
In this book by Fr. Lasance, he provides counsels, reflections and prayers for young Catholic men. This is a good source for young men on a variety of subjects, including: how to conquer sin and the occasions of sin; virtues needed to fight in the battle for salvation; choosing one's state in life; and guidance to various devotions for Mass, Confession and Holy Communion.
ANGELUS PRESS has completely re-typeset this Catholic classic from 1905. This edition is printed on beautiful cream paper and encased in a gold-embossed hardback cover with a black ribbon.
Hardcover, 760 pages
by St Augustine of Hippo
“For you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” — Saint Augustine of Hippo
Of all the autobiographies ever written by mere mortals, Confessions by Saint Augustine of Hippo is the greatest. In this masterpiece, you will find a doctor of the Church longing for the true Doctor of the soul, Christ. Taking us from Augustine’s roots in Africa to his encounters with his spiritual father Saint Ambrose in Milan, from his battle against his concupiscence to his famed conversion, Confessions is itself a veritable pilgrimage to the threshold of the new Jerusalem. Indeed, its end is not biography but a breathtaking meditation on time and memory, on the human soul and the material world, and on the creative and redemptive power of God himself.
In Dr. Anthony Esolen’s new translation, the esteemed translator and author seeks to retain and reveal the figurative by hewing as closely as possible to the literal, both in the significance of individual words and in the manner of the author’s expression. Confessions is a work of literary art, “one of the most stupendous ever wrought,” he says, immensely rich in insights, and intricate in its returning, again and again, to the questions of a soul in search of truth and of answers ready to be found, if we will only seek, and ask, and knock.
Confessions is like no other book you will ever read. According to Dr. Esolen, “The Confessions is one continued and coherent prayer, a profound profession of faith, and a plea for more, ever more wisdom, ever more love. It is artistic in its whole conception, in its parts and their arrangement down to the merest sentence. It is closer to the Gothic cathedrals that would grace Europe eight hundred years later than to anything that you or I might write about ourselves and our lives.”
In Confessions, the reader does more than encounter Augustine, the boy, the promising youth, the sinner, the teacher, the intellectual wanderer, the hesitant catechumen, and the Christian man set free at last. Through this book, the reader enters into his own spiritual journey, as we cry out to the living God in the depths of our hearts, “Let me know you, O Lord, who know me; let me know you even as I am known.”
Also available in a deluxe version
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 392 pages
Not As the World Gives
by Fr Francis X. Lasance
This uplifting book by Father Lasance contains many reflections and instructions on peace of heart. Including prayers, poems, and scriptural quotations, this work will encourage you to realize the importance of peace and to practice a quality that is so dear to the Heart of Our Lord.
Original 1938 reprint with improved format and large print.
Flexi leather cover, size 7.4" x 5.3", 109 pages, Impr 1936
In the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola
by Fr. Ludovic-Marie Barrielle
Since 1533, the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius have been used by millions to deepen their Christian life. This booklet distills the wisdom of the 30-day retreat into 20 principles so you can discern the spiritual influences in your life that are from God from those that are from the devil. Father writes from 40 years of experience as a retreat master.
Booklet, size 8.5" x 5.5", 60 pages
The Story of a Soul
The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux
"Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk."
The Story of a Soul, better known to the English public as The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, was first published in 1899. Today it ranks amongst the greatest Christian spiritual classics and it has been translated into practically every well-known language. Almost every pope since its publication has proposed St. Thérèse's teaching to the faithful for their imitation — Pius XI declared her the greatest saint of our age and John Paul II made her a Doctor of the Church.
The Story of a Soul possesses in some degree a characteristic common both to the Gospels and The Imitation of Christ. Men and women open the book, often quite casually, and are caught by the vivid clarity or simple profundity of some sentence in such a way that their lives are completely changed. The style of St. Thérèse is extremely simple and spontaneous, having a charm that is hard to describe, especially when she rises to poetic heights. The final chapter, written for her eldest sister Marie, is simply a childlike outpouring of her heart to Jesus Himself. This spiritual classic will speak gently to your heart.
Leather Hardcover, size 8.5" x 5.5", 232 pages
The Way of Divine Love
by Sister Josefa Menendez
Sister Josefa Menéndez was born into a devoutly Catholic family in Madrid, Spain on February 4, 1890. Endowed with an aptitude for prayer and drawn to the religious life from childhood, she first had to support her povertystricken family as a dressmaker. In spite of many hardships her desire to completely offer herself to God never wavered. She left Spain in 1920 to enter a French monastery of the Society of the Sacred Heart, where she became a Coadjutrix Sister. In the convent she received numerous private revelations that gave her a distinguished place among visionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She died a holy death on December 29, 1923.
The Way of Divine Love is the definitive record of Sister Menéndez’s life and the heavenly messages that she received. It is one of the most complete chronicles of an individual’s extraordinary mystical experiences in the history of the Church. Despite many trials in her daily life, she recorded everything that she received from heaven as faithfully as possible, including her incredibly detailed visions of the Passion of Christ.
Everything in Josefa’s life is grace giving and profoundly moving. Her writings and her life confirm each other, as evidence that all that took place in her was divine in origin. Even the most extraordinary happenings have an aim and significance. There are no unessential details, no record of revelations that do not bring out in clearer light and force some dogmatic truth, giving us deeper insight into the Heart of Our Lord, His love, the value of souls, the happiness of heaven, the irreparable loss of the damned.
Leather hardcover, size 8.5" x 5.5", 584 pages
Roses Among Thorns
Simple Advice for Renewing Your Spiritual Journey
by St Francis de Sales
From the thousands of personal letters by St. Francis de Sales comes this short, practical guide that will develop in you the soul-nourishing habits that lead to sanctity.
St. Francis de Sales is widely regarded as one of the greatest spiritual advisors in the history of the Church, and we have drawn from his letters the wisest advice for those prepared to take the next step on their spiritual journey.
As he did for saints and sinners in his own time, St. Francis de Sales will strengthen your resolve, help you gain small victories over unruly passions, and restore in you a trusting confidence in Jesus Christ. Soon you’ll find yourself delivered from the chains of self-love as your soul opens to divine goodness and your heart shaped into a fitting place for Christ to dwell and reign eternally.
If you find it difficult to live amid the clamour of the world with your eyes fixed on Christ alone, let St. Francis de Sales teach you how to live as a true rose among thorns as you learn . . .
- What to do when you stop finding consolation during prayer
- How to place yourself in the presence of God
- How busy people should pray
- Do you fear vice more than you love virtue? A guide to discernment
- How to be patient with your family
- The dangers of too many devotions
- How to know when your feelings are from God or the devil
- What to do about repeated spiritual dryness
- The three things you must do to be at peace
- How to avoid thoughts that give us anxious and restless minds
Absorb the wisdom in these holy pages, and you’ll soon make true progress on your spiritual journey and navigate with confidence the treacherous waters of our secular world.
Paperback, size 7" x 5", 128 pages
by The Benedictine Convent of Clyde
Devotion to the Sacred Heart is a powerful little booklet filled with many of the treasures to be found in the veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Besides containing an explanation of the symbolism found within the Image of the Sacred Heart, it also includes explanations of the 9 First Fridays devotion, known as the Great Promise, and the miraculous cure of St. Gemma Galgani, as well as many profound exhortations to offer reparation to the Sacred Heart.
Our Lord instituted this authoritative and moving devotion Himself, saying, "I set neither limit nor measure to My gifts of grace for those who seek them in My heart."
In our age of religious indifference, when fervor and charity have grown cold, Jesus exhibits to the world His Sacred Heart as the symbol of God's infinite love showing His Divine Heart as a furnace whose burning rays of love are able to reanimate faith and rekindle love in hearts grown cold and ungrateful.
Booklet, size 6" x 3.75", 70 pages
By Dom Prosper Guéranger
The 19th century background of France during which time Dom Prosper Guéranger classic work, The Liturgical Year, appeared is fundamental to understand the importance of this multi-volumes set.
France was going through such a continuous series of political, social and ecclesiastical upheavals from 1789 (the French Revolution) up to the 20th century that one wonders how it was able to maintain its sanity. The governments changed no less than six times within that period. These wars, revolutions and depressions plagued the French people. And the Church suffered much during and after the French Revolution so that direction was needed to bring it back on track. Seeing the suffering and depression of the French Catholic Church and her people, Dom Guéranger began writing his monumental work in 1841. He died in 1875 after writing nine volumes.
The remaining volumes were completed by another Benedictine under Dom Guéranger's name. Dom Guéranger's belief was that the Mass and the cycle of the Church s year could help restore what had been forsaken. Indeed, one can say that the mission of Dom Guéranger was to restore the more than thousand-year tradition of Christianity and its forgotten riches which were abandoned during the French Revolution and its aftermath. He began in post-revolutionary France by founding the 1st Benedictine community in 1836. In 1841 he began the Liturgical Year to bring back Catholic culture and consequently Western Civilization by turning to the Catholic Mass which is the source of all graces and the soul of Catholic worship. His commentaries, explanations and historical observations as contained in this work are profound, devotional and instructive. Each Mass during the entire Church’s yearly cycle is analyzed and explained in simple terms so as to make the reader appreciate the vast treasure and importance of that particular Mass during the year. The Introits, Collects, Epistles, Gospels, Offertory prayers, etc. all have appropriate explanations which bring out the richness of the Mass.
Preserving Christian Publications’ reprint of this set is made to last many readings with a durable hardback light-blue binding that is sewn. Each volume is numbered on the spine for the season it covers.
Hardcover
by Rev. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
Catholic doctrine on the interior life of Christ as it relates to our own interior life. The profound explanation meaning of Our Lord's words and actions in a manner understandable by all, yet to a depth few doctors of theology would even guess was there! Each chapter is virtually a glorious essay that can stand alone.
Paperback, size 9" x 6", 398 pages, Impr.
by St Francis de Sales
translated by Allan Ross
Written for the layman surrounded by worldliness, this is a masterpiece of mystical and devotional literature, by a great and much loved Doctor of the Church. This book does what many similar books fail to do, teach the reader to grow in holiness, step by simple step.
Since its first publication in 1609 this book has never gone out of print. It has always occupied a privileged position in the Church: no guide ever written provides so complete, so balanced and so practical an approach to the spiritual life.
St. Francis de Sales was a master psychologist, with a special gift for teaching practical morality. His writings are characterized by sublime common sense. Even non-Christians have admired his prose. Above all, he is a spiritual genius, and thus was made a Doctor of the Church. This book is truly medicine for the soul.
Introduction to the Devout Life by Saint Francis De Sales, edited and translated by Allan Ross. This edition has been re-typeset using the text of the 1943 edition originally published by Burns Oates and Washbourne, London, under the imprimatur of Edm. Canon Surmont, Vicar General, Westminster, 20th November 1924.
Leather Hardcover, size 8.3" x 5.5", 332 pages
or, Considerations on the Eternal Maxims (The Ascetical Works, Volume 1)
by St Alphonsus Liguori
Covers the shortness of life, the certainty of death, the uncertainty of the hour of death, how with death all ends, the importance of salvation, the value of time, the eternity of Hell, the pains of Hell, the remorse of the damned, and the anguish of the sinner at death. Plus: the happy life of the virtuous, their peaceful and victorious death, the glories and happiness and eternity of Heaven, etc. Preparation for Death is a complete program for saving our souls that understands this life is principally the means for attaining our salvation.
Hardcover, 7 1/2" x 4 3/4", 473 pages
Finding Confidence in Times of Trial
Letters of St John of Avila
by St John of Avila
Indecision was not in his heart. Surrounded by clerical corruption and unprecedented consumerism, St. John of Avila (1500-1569) led the authentic effort to reform the Church and Christian society during one of its darkest hours.
When faced with spiritually bankrupt seminaries and lax universities, St. John simply founded new ones. When vast regions of his homeland lapsed into spiritual indifference, he spent a decade storming the cities and villages to reignite the Faith. He fearlessly denounced decadent leaders and withstood the subsequent interrogations of the Inquisition with perfect charity, winning over skeptics and melting the hearts of sinners.
For St. Francis de Sales, he was "the learned and saintly preacher." St. Francis Borgia called him "the Great Master" and St. Teresa of Avila named him "the Master of things spiritual."
Pope Benedict XVI recently declared that he would name St. John of Avila the 34th "Doctor of the Universal Church."
And yet, most Catholics have never heard of him.
Among the many lessons you will learn:
- The life-giving habits of an authentic Christian life, which are found not through false "conversions" and "visions," but in the slow and steady steps on the path of holiness.
- How suffering is frequently the means God chooses to reveal His mercy and His design for our lives.
- True beauty: for a Christian it will shine out in poverty, chastity, and fidelity, not in the luxuries and comforts of this world.
- The easy graces of the liturgical year: one of the surest ways to develop in sanctity, and how Christians should ready themselves for the gifts which the Holy Spirit will send.
- The dangers of personal resolutions: These are often built upon pride and mistaken notions, but God sends us every day trials to transform us into His spiritual champions.
- How a Christian should prepare himself for Holy Mass, how to approach the Blessed Sacrament, and what real participation in the Sacrifice means.
- That weakness, persecution, and infidelity are often found within the institutional Church, and what we can do to combat it or at least suffer it faithfully.
Paperback, 160 pages
by St. Francis de Sales
These sayings from St. Francis de Sales have been gleaned from his collected letters, homilies, conferences and publications. While almost always taken from within a larger context, these quotes provide convenient distillations of his rich insights on the love of God, self, others and the created order.
The foundation for all of DeSales' writings is the imitation of what Jesus called the "greatest commandment:" to grow in the love of God and neighbor. This love is strengthened through the celebration of sacraments, the practice of prayer, and a union of our will with God's will in even the most ordinary aspects of life. Love of God must deepen our love of neighbor, best expressed in the practice of gentleness; love of neighbor must deepen our love for God, best expressed in the practice of humility.
Booklet, size 8.5" x 5.5", 26 pages