Here are stories of princes and gypsies, bishops and bears, tales of Catholic boys and girls that remind us that especially in young souls the faith is quite strong, and evil is never a match for goodness. Among others , you'll meet: Bernard, the boy who walks three miles to school and meets Christ on his way; Nickie, the young prince who learns from a dancing bear a strong lesson in love; Tommy, who uses kindness and two minnows to heal a bishop and save a school; Osbert and Rupert, gypsy twins wo make a donkey of themselves to bring peace to the world; Joey, the stable boy whose coat is transformed when his donkey bears Jesus to Jerusalem; Kathleen, who goes withut candy and brings a shopkeeper back to the Faith and many more . . . Soviet cows, Marian icons, pet mice, Easter roosters, Noah and the ark, fish, donkeys, and even a dinosaur: they're all here in a dozen charming tales of children living their faith while having great Catholic fun!
The words, spoken or written, of a soul that genuinely loves God have a tone to them which always rings true. Couple this truth with literary genius, deep spiritual discernment and childlike simplicity and you are close to describing Father Leonard Feeney, the author of Fish on Friday. These fourteen Catholic essays, Father Feeney’s youthful best, mirror a heart that is as light and humorous as it is religiously profound. Loreto Publications is delighted and proud to put this American Catholic classic back in print. Too many generations have been deprived of Father Feeney’s winsome literary sagacity when his poems and essays were mysteriously removed from Catholic schools on account of his heroic defense of a defined doctrine of the faith. No one can possibly read "Fish on Friday," The Queen of Hearts," "Charlie Maloney," or any of the other eleven essays in this book without frequent bursts of wholesome laughter and (be forewarned) without a welling of those kind of tears that expand the soul. After reading this book one will clearly see that our Lord and 0ur Lady were preparing this priest and theologian all along with superabundant graces to become what he became — one of the greatest apostles of the twentieth century. In the February 17, 1994 issue of Catholic New York, John Cardinal O’ Connor began "An Informal Pastoral on Lent" with this paragraph:
"Long before he ran into a bit of trouble, from which it was obvious that he would recover, given his whimsical sense of humor, Fr. Leonard Feeney, S.J., wrote some of the most delightful things ever published in our land. Fish on Friday was one of the best. It first appeared 60 years ago, and never a Lent goes by without my renewing my friendship with it . . ."
Rev. G. E. Phillips
This history of the Holy House of Loreto is the most decisive work in English defending the authenticity of this most hallowed shrine in all Christendom. Our Lady’s Holy House at Nazareth was taken by angels to Dalmatia (Croatia) in 1291 to prevent its desecration by the infidels. Three years later it took flight again to rest in Loreto, Italy, where it remains. Rev. Phillips provides the facts, and excitement behind the story. Many cures, apparitions, and miraculous conversions, have happened within the limestone walls of the Santa Casa.
Saint John EudesOne of the most prolific ascetical writers of the seventeenth century, Saint John Eudes was an inexhaustible reservoir of holy wisdom and devotional fervor. Loreto Publications considers it a foremost priority to help make the spiritual doctrine of this great apostle of devotion to the Sacred and Admirable Hearts of Jesus and Mary more widely known. Perhaps no book of his better exemplifies that profoundly incarnational doctrine than The Admirable Heart of Mary. Eudes reveals to his disciples this most pure and maternal of all hearts both in its corporal and spiritual pulsations, while demonstrating with a dozen unforgettable natural and scriptural analogies, how this human heart was so inexhaustibly divinized by the one Divine Heart of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The Admirable Heart of Mary was given to us from the Cross by Jesus Christ. Truly this heart was the first-fruit of His Passion, given to all of Marys children, that it might be honored, cherished, invoked and, ultimately, with that of her Son, reproduced in them. This is the essence of the spirituality of Saint John Eudes.
Monsignor Gaumé
Advocate of God and consoler of Mary, this is the story of the "first" thief, whose wonderful eleventh hour conversion and defense of the holy Kingship of Christ on Calvary, merited him the everlasting title, "The Good."
Monsignor Gaumé opens his book with a graphic, even ugly, description of the true face of a highway brigand in the days of the Caesars. He presents the first meeting of our Egyptian thief and the Son of God in the idolatrous land of the Pharaohs on the occasion of the flight of the impoverished Holy Family away from the sword of Herod.
The rest of this profoundly inspiring account begins on the "Mount of the Skull." It is the story of the Passion as seen through this most unlikely of characters. Meet Dismas; a dying man whose only request from his "Lord" was but a "remembrance" in His Kingdom! Rejoice for a man who was the first to be with Christ "in Paradise."
