Father Alban Butler - Hardcover - 538 pages - Illustrated
With reflections for every day of the year compiled from Butler’s Lives and other approved sourcesThis beautifully illustrated book is the perfect solution for so many Catholics anxious to get reacquainted with the lives of the saints, but who have too little time to read more thorough biographies. There are approximately five hundred entries covering the feast days for each day of the year with an accompanying pictorial sketch of the saint being honored, and some pious reflection useful for daily meditation. This is the original version of Butler’s Little Pictorial Lives first published in 1874 and largely taken from Butler’s original work. This work is a popular, but very scholarly, abridgement of the complete Butler’s Lives published in twelve volumes in 1847. That is the best edition of Butler’s work with no late 19th or early 20th century ‘modernizations.’This collection makes excellent reading at table or after the family rosary where in the bosom of intimate familial unity, the history of sanctity may be passed to young minds eager to hear stories of true heroism. Many saints, indeed some very well known and popular ones, took their first steps toward a life of heroic virtue by reading or hearing the lives of other saints who went before.Father Alban Butler was born in 1710, at Appletree, North-amptonshire, the second son of Simon Butler, Esq. Orphaned at the age of eight, he was sent to be educated at the English College, Douay, in France. In 1735, Butler was ordained a priest. At Douay, he was appointed professor of philosophy, and later professor of theology. It was at Douay, he began his principal work The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints. He also prepared material for Richard Challoner’s Memoirs of Missionary Priests, a work on the martyrs of the reign of Elizabeth.He labored for some time as a missionary priest in Staffordshire, and was finally appointed president of the English seminary at Saint Omer in France, where he remained till his death in 1773.
Fr. John Hugo - 422 Pages - PB
Fr. Onesimus Lacouture was a Jesuit who had the great gift of being a masterful director of souls. Being a Jesuit formed in the old mold of true Ignatian spirituality and deeply affected by the so-called “French School” of Cardinal Berulle, St. John Eudes, and St. Louis Marie de Montfort, his retreats, given to over 6000 American and Canadian priests, produced extraordinary results. His most well known disciple and good friend, Fr. Hugo, has produced for posterity, the Notes from those Ignatian retreats as given by Fr. Lacouture and subsequently by himself and many other priests.A Sign of Contradiction is Fr. Hugo’s apologia for the work of Fr. Lacouture and the “spiritual movement” that grew spontaneously from the ardent, enlightened, and effective preaching of the retreats. He describes the movement, its opponents and its supporters as well as the revelatory doctrines so convincingly presented by Fr. Lacouture. This book is spiritually motivating, historically informative, and powerfully illuminating in regard to the condition of the Church and the faithful in North America during the mid-twentieth century. The Gospel of Peace, and Applied Christianity (the retreat notes of Fr. Lacouture) by Fr. Hugo are also available from Loreto Publications.
BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF ALL THE SERMONS FOR MARY’S FEASTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR
By Bishop Jaques Benigne Bossuet
PB 164 pages
Translated by F. M. Capes
With an Introduction by Rev. William T. Gordon - Priest of the London Oratory
The great and learned Jacques Benigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux in France, was the author of many works, most prominent among them the Continuity of Religion, a compact history of the world from a Catholic perspective. This book is a translation of his sermons given on all of the principal feasts of Our Lady throughout the year. His profound knowledge of the scriptures and his excellent theological training combined with a deep love for the Mother of God was productive of these powerful insights and thoughts about the Theotokos. From Bossuet’s teaching we learn that, to quote Cardinal Manning’s words, “the titles of honor given to Mary are not metaphors but truths—they express, not poetical or rhetorical ideas, but true and living relations between her and her Divine Son and between her and ourselves.”
Fr. Denis Fahey, C. S. Sp. - Paperback - 72 pages
“I repeatedly promised Saint Peter that if I ever got the chance, I would teach the truth about his Master in the way he and his successors, the Roman Pontiffs, wanted it done. That is what I have striven to do and am doing.” —Rev. Denis Fahey
Mental prayer is, in a certain sense, the most important exercise of the spiritual life. Fidelity to it (saints tell us) will ensure salvation; its complete abandonment may lead to perdition; progress therein means a corresponding progress in the interior life of union with God.Hence, the special value of books which treat of mental prayer. The excellence of the present work lies in the source from which it is drawn. St. Thomas Aquinas holds a unique place among the Doctors of the Church. He has become the official theologian of Christ’s Mystical Spouse, her Universal Doctor. She has canonized his teaching, making it her own in all its essential elements.This is the first of of Fr. Fahey’s books to be published, and it remains one of his most important for it presents the foundation of his spiritual life of prayer that was so fruitful.
Composed by an Archbishop, this praiseworthy tribute to our Saviors holy Mother was actually written the very same year that Pope Pius IX defined the dogma of Our Ladys Immaculate Conception. Beginning where all great works on Our Lady should, with her exalted office and dignity, the author educates the reader that he or she might see the congruity, even the necessity, of Marys divine prerogative in the eternal plan of redemption, and also see the Immaculata as the fulfillment of the highest possible degree of excellence God could establish in a creature, perfecting through her the crowning glory in the gradation of all being outside of God. Archbishop Ullathorne is not original, but masterful, in his explanation of Marys royal relationship with the angels as well as men, for she it was who gave the Incarnate God the flesh and blood by means of which all the elect achieved their salvation. A true gift of charity for a Protestant friend in search of truth!
Father John J. Hugo - PB - 330 pages
This is the second of three books written by Fr. John J. Hugo concerning the great 20th century spiritual retreat master, Fr. Onesimus Lacouture S.J. and his work. The first published by Loreto was The Gospel of Peace, and the third to be re-issued is entitled A Sign of Contradiction.Fr. Lacouture was a Jesuit who had the great gift of being a masterful director of souls. Being a Jesuit formed in the old mold of true Ignatian spirituality and deeply affected by the so-called “French School” of Berulle, St. John Eudes, and St. Louis Marie de Montfort, his retreats, given to over 6000 American and Canadian priests, produced extraordinary results. His most well known disciple and good friend, Fr. Hugo, has produced for posterity, the Notes from those Ignatian retreats as given by Fr. Lacouture and subsequently by himself and many other priests.The Notes are entitled Applied Christianity and few spiritual writers of the 20th century have put in such clear and lucid language a precise (and practical) explanation of the true nature of a Christian life. This work will be compared to the works of such great writers on the spiritual life as St. John Eudes, Abbot Dom Marmion, Dom Chautard, St. Ignatius of Loyola and others.
Part One: Natural and SupernaturalI. The Two Principles of ActivityII. The Two Principles of Activity: ApplicationIII. The Harmony Between the Natural and the SupernaturalIV. The Conflict Between the Natural and the SupernaturalV. The Pagan MentalityVI. The Law of the Flesh VII. Jesus Speaks of the Supernatural LifeVIII. The Christian MentalityIX. Christian PerfectionPart Two: The Supernatural WorldI. The Glory of God: DoctrineII. The Glory of God: ApplicationIII. The Doctrine of the SamplesIV. The Doctrine of the Samples AppliedV. The Supreme Dominion of God: DoctrineVI. The Supreme Dominion of God: ApplicationVII. The Folly of the Cross: DoctrineVIII. The Folly of the Cross: ApplicationIX. Summary and ObjectionsPart Three: The SamplesI. The Love of GodII. The Contempt of the World: DoctrineIII. The Contempt of the World: ApplicationIV. Forbidden SamplesV. SinVI. The Remedies for SinVII. HellPart Four: The Supreme Dominion of GodI. The Supreme Dominion: God’s IntentionII. The Supreme Dominion in Persons: Blind InstrumentsIII. The Supreme Dominion in Superiors: ObedienceIV. Source of God’s Supreme Dominion: The Divine WillV. The Supreme Dominion of God in us: The Human WillPart Five: The Folly of the Cross I. Almsgiving: The Sowing of External GoodsII. Mortification: The Sowing of Bodily GoodsIII. Afflictions: The Sowing of Interior Goods IV. Death: The Sowing of EverythingAppendix I. Nature and GraceII. Are Natural Actions Meritorious?III. Christian Moderation