Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen PH.D., D.D., LL.D., Litt. D. — Small book - 60 pages - EBOOK - PDF, Kindle, & EPUB
“The most sublime act in the history of Christ was His Death. Death is always important for it seals a destiny.” “Any dying man is a scene. Any dying scene is a sacred place. That is why the great literature of the past, which has touched on the emotions surrounding death, has never passed out of date. But of all deaths in the record of man, none was more important than the death of Christ. Everyone else who was ever born into the world, came into it to live; our Lord came into it to die. Death was a stumbling block to the life of Socrates, but it was the crown to the life of Christ. He Himself told us that He came ‘to give his life a redemption for many’; that no one could take away His life; but He would lay it down of Himself.”
—from the Prologue
The primary act of Christian worship is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass—the death of Our Lord on Calvary re-enacted daily on our altars. Archbishop Fulton Sheen here gives us a series of sublime meditations on Calvary and the Mass. They are arranged in seven sections. Each section of the Mass is paired with the seven last words of Our Lord from the Cross. The book is subtitled A Missal Companion. You will find by using it that way, that your devotion to the Holy Sacrifice will be deepened and your prayer life enriched.
Rev. T. J. O'Kane - Small book - 88 pages - EBOOK - PDF, Kindle, & EPUB
This Catechism of 84 pages was originally published by the Catholic Social Guild of Oxford England in 1936. It contains all of the essential teachings of the Church on man’s nature, purpose, and destiny, as well as his fall and redemption. There are sections on the divine and natural law, the right to life—one’s own and that of others— as well as extensive Q&A sections on education, marriage, private property, wages, the family home, the state and Catholics in politics. This is a great teaching tool and very much needed today in America.
Benedict Avery O.S.B.—40 pages - EBOOK - PDF
The life of every Christian soul on it’s pilgrimage through this vale of tears must be fed primarily on two foods. The origin of these two foods is the two trees in the Eden of our first parents, of which trees one was allowed to their use and one was forbidden. The Tree of Life was intended to feed the life that God had breathed into Adam and Eve. We now have a replacement for the food of that tree. That food is God Himself as the Bread of Life in the Eucharist. Adam’s disobedience regarding the command not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the cause of mankind’s fall from grace. Now that man knows of evil, God has given us something to teach us to distinguish the evil from the good. Of this tree we also have a new bread to eat, as Jesus himself told us, “Not by bread alone (temporal bread) doth man live, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” The word of God is two things, scripture and Jesus—especially in the Eucharist. These two foods are essential to us to sustain our life of grace that will, hopefully, lead us to eternal life.
Loreto suggests the Douay Rheims version of the English bible as the very best translation available from which to read scripture. It corresponds more accurately to the original Vulgate than any of the more recent translations and the language is most beautiful. The Haydock version also has copious footnotes and commentary from the Fathers.
Heart of Jesus Families Novena - EBOOK - PDF, Kindle, & EPUBAccording to the revelations of the Sacred Heart and with prayers composed by Saint Margaret Mary AlacoqueFor the spread of the kingdom of the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so as to renew all things in ChristThis novena also serves as the Perpetual Novena of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Families
"I began to pray the "Heart of Jesus Families Novena" as soon as it arrived. Its content and size invites one to pray at first sight. Having prayed the Novena now for three days, I will pray this novena every day as part of my morning prayers. Every Catholic who desires to deepen their faith must have this book. There is much solace on every page and the love of the Sacred Heart issues forth with every word. Thank you for such a beautiful treasure. May the Lord Jesus and our Blessed Mother bless your apostolate of saving souls."~Anthony (one of our first book orders)
Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson - EBOOK - PDF
(18 November 1871 – 19 October 1914) was the youngest son of Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, and younger brother of Edward Frederic Benson. Benson was educated at Eton College, and then studied Classics and Theology at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1890 to 1893. In 1895, he was ordained a priest in the Church of England by his father, Edward White Benson, who was then Archbishop of Canterbury and therefore head of the Anglican Church. As such, his son's conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1903, and his subsequent ordination, caused a sensation.
His father died suddenly in 1896, and Benson was sent on a trip to the Middle East to recover his own health. While there, he began to question the status of the Church of England and to consider the claims of the Roman Catholic Church. His own piety began to tend toward the High Church variety, and he started exploring religious life in various Anglican communities, eventually obtaining permission to join the Community of the Resurrection. Benson made his profession as a member of the community in 1901, at which time he had no thoughts of leaving the Church of England. But as he continued his studies and began writing, he became more and more uneasy with his own doctrinal position, and on 11 September 1903 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. Not since Newman's conversion almost 60 years earlier had the reception of a convert into the Church caused such a commotion. Shudders of shock shook the Anglican establishment. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1904 and sent to Cambridge. He continued his writing career along with the usual elements of priestly ministry. He was named a monsignor in 1911. Before his untimely death in 1914 at the age of 43, he would write 15 highly successful novels as well as many other books on the Catholic faith. He was a friend of Chesterton and they were in mutual admiration of eah other’s literary works. Both Chesterton and Ronald Knox admitted the influence of Benson on their own conversions. Robert Hugh Benson: Life and Works , a biography by Janet Grayson was published in 1998. This 68 page book is an abridgement of his famous work titled Christ and His Church. Two of his best known novels are Come Rack, Come Rope and Lord of the World.
Staff Sergeant Eugene DeLalla - EBOOK - PDF, Kindle, & EPUB
88 pages - Small book format
Air power was a key to the American war strategy throughout the Vietnam war. Numerous air bases were constructed throughout Southeast Asia for the use of our Air Forces during the war. The protection of the personnel, planes, and other materiels of war housed at those air bases was essential, and the task fell to the Air Force Security Police. They did their job well and had a hard earned reputation on both sides of the conflict. They were considered “hard nuts to crack”. This is a fictionalized account of how some of those airbase perimeter defenders kept that reputation during one tough encounter shortly after the famous “Tet” offensive in the winter and early spring of 1968. The Battle for Oscar Six takes place at Tuy Hoa air base in the II Corps theater of the war, but it could have been at any air base, and the men depicted here who fought that skirmish could have been any of the hundreds of thousands of American boys who gave their youth, their blood, and oftentimes their lives in that protracted struggle known as “The Vietnam War."
Richard Clarke, S.J. - 32 pages - EBOOK - PDF, Kindle, & EPUB
Patience, although neither the highest, nor the most fundamental virtue (those would be charity and humility) is first of all a first-fruit of humility and a bridge to charity. It is a first-fruit because those who are possessed of humility know the fragility of their own nature and accomplishments and how they are totally dependant upon God’s grace in all things and are therefore patient with their own failings. This leads to their learning how to be patient with other things, the so-called physical sufferings of life, and patient with others, since they know how to suffer patiently within themselves and for God, thus acting as a bridge to the fruitful practice of charity, the highest of virtues.Patience and suffering go hand in hand, and since the most important work that we do in this life is to suffer well and in offering that suffering in union with the redemptive sufferings of Our Blessed Lord and his most Sorrowful Mother, patience—that which makes suffering rational, bearable, and fruitful—is one of the most important virtues to acquire and practice magnanimously.Father Clarke makes this, and so much else clear and understandable in this short but potent explication of patience.