Spiritual Life
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
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
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
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
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
by Marguerite Duportal
These pages will help you gain happiness and peace by showing you how to understand - and conquer - any trouble, no matter how great. Here you'll learn how to avoid the mistakes most of us make when we're suffering - mistakes that only make our burdens heavier. You'll come to see that misfortunes are not the blind workings of chance, but are vital elements in God's loving plan. With the wisdom in these pages, you'll soon be using your troubles as instruments to unleash God's healing power in your soul.
Here you'll discover:
- How to preserve your peace even amid troubles you can't avoid
- Pain: the surprising role it can play in God's loving plan for you
- Suicidal? Why this suffering world is better than no world at all
- How to find the beauty hidden in the most unappealing duties
- Peace with God: how bearing your suffering well can lead you to Him quickly and directly
- The very worst temptation you'll face in your troubles - and how to prepare for it in good times
- Hope: how you can gain the life-transforming power of this virtue
- How you can bring Christ's light to others in their own sorrow
- How to turn even your worst troubles into opportunities for good
- Why suffering is no compelling argument against Faith
- Despair: the amazing way you can avoid giving in to it, no matter how heavy your burdens
- And a wealth of practical wisdom to help you sing God's praises even in the worst of times!
Paperback, size 7" x 5", 128 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
This book is an attempt to outline that love story of God and man, which achieves its consummation in the unity of the whole Christ; and to show that the spiritual life is a partnership of love between God and man which can be summed up in one word: Christ.
- Dom Eugene Boylan OCSO
Can married couples become holy? Can anyone who is not a priest or a member of a religious institute reach the heights of mystical union with Christ? In this book, Dom Eugene Boylan, Trappist abbot and spiritual writer, shows how the faithful are invited into this intimate union with Him, regardless of their state in life.
Few works can match the completeness of Dom Eugene’s treatment of God’s loving plan for mankind in This Tremendous Lover. He explains how the doctrines of the Redemption and of the Mystical Body form us in holiness through our membership in His Church. A chapter on the Blessed Virgin Mary outlines her essential role in the spiritual life, while a chapter on Marriage and Holiness explains just how exalted and yet attainable, is the ideal of holiness for married couples.
First published in 1946, This Tremendous Lover sold more than a million copies. Decades after it was written, it remains a sure guide to understanding what the love of God for man truly entails.
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
A Golden Key of Heaven
by Rev. J. Von Den Driesch
“Acts of perfect Contrition and Charity are the great means of salvation; they are more closely related to the attaining of salvation than prayer alone. I desire this little booklet be in the hands of all – convinced that by the attentive reading of it, and by practicing its maxims, the gates of Heaven will be opened to many, very many for whom otherwise they might have been closed forever; and that many more remaining in God’s grace, will preserve their right to Heaven, and their eternal happiness will grow and be increased immeasurably.” Fr. Lehmkuhl, S.J., Preface.
Booklet, size 8x.5”x5.5”, 32 pages, Impr 1904
by St. Paul of the Cross.
These little “Flowers of the Passion” are a collection of devout thoughts and sentiments gathered mostly from occasional letters of that great lover of Jesus crucified, St. Paul of the Cross. They are a treasure to humble and simple souls, and show what sweetness, comfort, graces, and virtues can be drawn from devout meditation on the Passion and death of Jesus Christ. It is only from constant and loving reflection on the love shown towards us, and bright examples of every virtue given us by our suffering Lord, that such beautiful and affecting sentiments could so spontaneously spring.Impr, 1893,
Paperback, 241 pages
by Matthew R. Plese
This book explains fasting and how it has changed over the centuries in one of the most complete compilations yet written. Unfortunately, most summaries of fasting are either inaccurate or incomplete. However, rather than being a mere academic exercise, the purpose of studying the history of fasting is ultimately to help us rediscover these more ancient practices in an attempt to better observe Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother’s call for penance and reparation for sins.
As Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once remarked, “It is a long-established principle of the Church never to completely drop from her public worship any ceremony, object or prayer which once occupied a place in that worship.” The same may be said for matters concerning either Holy Days of Obligation or fast days. What our forefathers held sacred should remain sacred to us in an effort to preserve our catholicity not only with ourselves but with our ancestors who see God now in Heaven.
The 2nd edition features the following topics which were not covered (or covered only briefly) in the first edition, including detailed explanations of how fasting changed in other countries besides America, including Spain and the Philippines, a detailed explanation of who was exempt from fasting and/or abstinence and how those changes were documented and taught in various catechisms over the centuries. Mr. Plese also cover Easter Week food traditions, highlighting their connection with the Lenten fast, Armenian fasting and abstinence rigors, Maronite fasting guidelines, the heroic example of St. John of the Cross and the Primitive Rule of Pope Innocent IV vs. the mitigated rule approved by Pope Eugenius IV, how the time of the meal on fasting days differed (e.g., sunset for Ember Days but 3 PM for the weekly devotional fasts), and so much more.
Even priests have said that 95% of the book's content is new and was not taught to them!
Paperback, size 9" x 6", 197 pages
Toward Easter
Daily Readings and Meditations to Pray Alone or as a Family
by Fr Patrick Troadec
“O God, who desirest not the death, but the repentance of sinners, in Thy goodness vouchsafe to bless these ashes which we purpose to put upon our heads in token of our lowliness and to obtain forgiveness: so that we who know that we are but ashes…may deserve to obtain from Thy mercy the pardon of all our sins, and the rewards promised to the penitent.” – Meditation on Ash Wednesday.
Fr. Troadec’s best-selling series continues in this third book Toward Easter. Father uses the liturgy of the Lenten season to assist us in our daily prayer, meditation and spiritual growth.
Each of the daily meditations covered in this book includes a:Quote: Taken from Scripture, the Mass, or the Spiritual Fathers.
Meditation: A particular truth of the Faith and how it applies to us.
Prayer: Two short daily prayers for the reader to choose from.
Thoughts: Daily recollections that illustrate a profound point
Resolution: Three simple and practical resolutions.
Anyone looking to draw closer to God through the liturgy of His Church while developing the habit of daily spiritual reading and meditation needs to read this series! It continues to be a wonderful and trusted aid for Catholics of any age or walk of life. A profoundly Catholic and truly practical guide to daily growth in holiness.
The series includes:
From Advent to Epiphany
From Epiphany to Lent
Toward Easter
Eastertide Day by Day
From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
From the Assumption to Advent
Paperback, size 9" x 6", 218 pages
by Caryll Houselander
First published over half a century ago, The Reed of God is a spiritual classic that deserves to be rediscovered by a whole new generation of readers. Houselander's beautiful and profound mediation depicts the intimately human side of Mary, Mother of God, as an empty reed waiting for God's music to be played through her. She shares her insightful and beautiful vision of Mary on earth, Mary among us, Mary as a confused but trusting teenager whose holiness flowered with her eternal "Yes."
Confronting the static, surreal “Madonna of the Christmas card,” Houselander provides instead an intuitive, warmly human, and approachable image of the Mother of God. Through the central image of a reed that is played for music, Houselander demonstrates how Mary chose to make herself an instrument for the divine plan, giving her inmost being to the proclamation of God’s greatness. In sharing her distinctive vision of Mary, Houselander offers the Mother of God as a model for all people seeking to be instruments of the Divine.
The essays and poems in The Reed of God also reflect on the mysteries of Mary’s life and her impact on salvation history. In the book’s four parts, Houselander explores key events of Mary’s life, including her fiat, finding Jesus in the Temple, and the Assumption, as well as the themes of fruitful emptiness and the eternal search for union with God.
Paperback, size 7" x 5", 187 pages