E-Books

Fr. Nicholas Gihr - Small Book - 72 Pages - EBOOK - PDF, Kindle, & EPUB

It is a common and well grounded lament that in teaching the Word of God that the doctrine concerning the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity is to a large extent sadly neglected. Other spiritual writers are of the same opinion. These considerations justify every effort to further the devotion to the Holy Spirit among the clergy and the laity by a thoroughgoing explanation of the exceedingly meritorious Pentecost Sequence.

Saint Robert Bellarmine - EBOOK - PDF

Available in Paperback

After being called to the Cardinalate by Pope Clement VIII, Robert Bellarmine, one of only two Jesuit Doctors of the Church, found need for a reprieve from what were often tiresome temporal duties. Therefore, to exhaust his intellectual and devotional energies in writing, he prepared for posterity his very own commentary on each of the Psalms. Most of the Psalms of David, he said, read like a compendium of the whole of the Old Testament, a summation in poetic capsule. Others (Ps. 2, 21, 44 & 60) speak so clearly of Christ that they seem rather to belong to the Gospels. Yet, it is not the royal prophet, rather, it is the Holy Ghost, the true Author, Who desires to pluck this ten-stringed instrument of beauty called the Psaltery and bring our hearts to tears or jubilation as we sing praise to the Most High. This is a huge book of nearly four hundred pages, a spiritual goldmine.

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It was only eight years after our Sorrowful Mother appeared to the shepherd children in the south of France, that Bishop Ullathorne took up his pen to defend the authenticity of the visitation. With Rome's permission, the author writes as a contemporary chronicler of the events, conducting interviews with the seers and with ecclesiastics who were involved.

Written by
Rev. Charles B. Garside, M.A.
Preface by
Rev. Edward F. Garesché, S.J.

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Garnering his material from the last two of the four Books of Kings, Father Charles Garside, M.A., paints a portrait of a thundering visionary, who lights up the Old Testament perhaps more brilliantly than any other Biblical figure. A man of prayer and solitude, celibate and chaste, he moved courageously with every heavenly summons, never failing, never daunted. So much a contemplative and a teacher of eternal truth that, even though his inital mark on history falls in the Old Dispensation, he is nevertheless justly claimed as "the founder" of the Carmelite order. Taken by God, who came to seize him in a whirlwind, he was assumed into the heavens by way of a fiery chariot, and placed in the Garden of Eden from whence he shall come in the last days to do battle with the Antichrist.

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In this age of doctrinal latitude and speculative innovation there is a pressing need for a comprehensive source book on authentic Catholic dogma that is magisterially anchored while at the same time both practical and non-voluminous. You have such a book in this English translation of Father Heinrich Denzinger’s Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definitionum. Since it was first published a century and a half ago, this handbook or collection (enchiridion) of articles (symbols) of faith and morals has enjoyed universal appeal and approbation since the pontificate of Blessed Pope Pius IX. The Enchiridion has been updated periodically; the edition being offered here by Loreto is that issued in 1957. The collection includes all articles and creeds of the Catholic Faith beginning with that of the twelve apostles, all dogmatic definitions stamped with the Petrine authority of the apostolic See (ex cathedra), decrees of the solemn magisterium, papal bulls, encyclicals and letters, as well as some of the more weighty decisions of the Holy Office prior to 1957. Although not every entry in this 653 page compendium of Church teaching is definitional (i.e. ex cathedra) it still should be considered the "locutus est" for every wayfaring Catholic whose patria, this side of heaven, is Roma. In addition to a general index there is a scriptural index plus an invaluable systematic or topical index making for very easy reference. Note, too, this edition comes with a one page Corrigenda which is a list of sixteen corrections that must be applied to errors (usually omissions) that escaped the eyes of editors in previous editions.

Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB - EBOOK - PDF

There has never been a book that so well elucidates how the active participation in the Holy Sacrifice, which is the duty of all the laity, can best be accomplished. This was written after The Liturgical Year and was the last book translated by Dom Laurence Shepard, Guéranger’s disciple, before his own death. This book is meant to be a companion volume to the The Liturgical Year, and it perfectly matches the set.

The well-known translator of The Liturgical Year has gone to his rest, but in a twofold sense we may say: his works follow him. This, his last and unfinished work, must therefore come to the readers of The Liturgical Year as a loving farewell from him, a memento of him and of his life-long labors in the cause of Holy Church.
To many, it will be of consoling interest to know that, up to the day of his death, as long as speech was his, Rev. Dom Laurence Shepherd was full of the great passion of his heart — to gain souls to the love of Holy Church. Several times, within even the last month of his painful illness, did he strive to master sinking nature, and once more guide his trembling pen, to tell the faithful something more of the Bride of Christ, the Church of God. Those last pages which came from his failing hand close with the word Lucia, in the explanation of the Nobis quoque peccatoribus, page 158. Before the month was out, his friends had poured forth the consoling prayer put on their lips by Mother Church, et lux perpetua luceat ei! Hope had kindled in every heart the reverential confidence that the Champion of Holy Church had received the “corona justitiae” — had passed to the patria lucis aeternae.


St. Mary’s Abbey, Stanbrook,
June 14, 1885.

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Garnering what liturgical fragments he could from the words of the New Testament, and what tradition has provided from apostolic times and patristic times, Father Fortescue skillfully demonstrates the continuity of religious ritual rooted in the holy sacrifice as ordained by the Eternal High Priest and Victim, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The one sacrifice, liturgically re-presented in an unbloody manner, although it assumed devotional variations within the principal sees of ancient Christendom, always maintained the same essential form whatever the time or place it was offered in the Catholic world. As this great scholar proves in this admirable study, all Catholic rites come from the same apostolic parentage. If you love the holy Mass you will find this book a worthy companion to your missal. This book describes the ancient Roman Liturgy not the Mass in use since 1969.

Bishop David Arias- EBOOK - PDF

This is an American history book written from the Spanish perspective. The author, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ, David Arias, is a church historian, born and educated in Leon, Spain. This magnificent chronological itinerary through the history of the USA from 1492 to the present should be read in American history class and in every Catholic American home. Without it you are missing a very large part of the true picture of our nation's history. This is a great book for Catholic homeschoolers and highschool students.

380 pages - EBOOK - PDF, Kindle, & EPUB

Matthew Abraham Ryan (he changed his name to Abram because the name Abraham became distasteful to him when Lincoln declared war on his nation, the CSA), was born in Norfolk Virginia of an Irish Catholic family from County Limerick and is known not only as a mystic poet of the Catholic religion but also as the Poet Laureate of the Confederacy. He was the most popular and most quoted and recited poet of his generation in the South and in the North. This is an exact reprinting of the 12^th edition of his complete collected works that was issued at Baltimore in 1888.

Father Ryan worked as a chaplain to the troops of his nation during the long and brutal war that killed all of the hopes for freedom and nationhood among his people who rose so manfully to battle to defend their homeland in 1861. In the hour of defeat Fr. Ryan won the heart of the entire South by his poem Conquered Banner, whose exquisite measure was taken, as he told a friend, from one of the Gregorian hymns.

Beyond and above and permeating his deep and abiding love for the South was his love for our Lord and our Blessed Lady that is so powerfully expressed in his poetry and verse. His was the heart of a lover and a mystic, one who knows life and reality so well that anyone could say that he truly understood what Saint Augustine meant when he said that our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee O Lord! Take up this precious work of his and prepare to be truly moved in your heart and soul with the beauty and depth of these emanations of his beautiful Catholic soul.

From Fr. Ryan’s Sursum Corda:

Lonely hearts! lonely hearts! this is but a land of grief;

Ye are pining for repose—ye are longing for relief:

What the world hath never given, kneel and ask of God above,

And your grief shall turn to gladness, if you lean upon His love.

Lonely hearts! God is Love.

 Publishers’ Preface to the Second Edition.

For years the name of Father Ryan has been a household word. It is known wherever the English language is spoken, and everywhere it is reverenced as the appellation of a true child of song. It is especially dear to the people of the South, among whom he who bears it has lived and worked and touched his tuneful harp. These, his poems, have moved multitudes. They have thrilled the soldier on the eve of battle, and quickened the martial impulses of a chivalric race; they have soothed the soul-wounds of the suffering; and they have raised the hearts of men in adoration and benediction to the great Father of all.

When the announcement was first made that they were to be gathered together into a volume, the news was heard as glad tidings by the friends of the poet-priest, and the book had hardly appeared when the edition was exhausted. The ablest critics were generous in their praise of it, and predicted that it would be for its author a monument more enduring than brass.

Publishers’ Preface to the Twelfth Edition.

The publication of the poems of Father Ryan has reached the twelfth edition. To the Memoir, which found place in the eleventh edition, are now added many beautiful songs, some of which have not heretofore been published; and also many new illustrations.So popular have the writings of the poet-priest become, that many songs and ballads have been printed as emanations of his pen for which he was not responsible.

This edition is printed from new electrotype plates, and is greatly improved in style over all former editions. It includes all the poems written by Father Ryan which, if living, he would offer to the public. His death in 1880 stilled the sweetest voice that ever was raised in behalf of the faith and clime he loved so well.

A LOVE STORY FOR THE AGES . . Joseph Mary Plunkett and The Gifford Girl - 100 pages - EBOOK - PDF

A hero and a soldier, too, they buried him in lime.

Upon his wedding-morn they slew, a lover in his prime.

Into a burning ditch they threw, a poet and his rhyme.

The almost unbearable beauty of the love story of Joseph and Grace which encompasses not only their own love for each other, but also their love of God and of Ireland, has fascinated me for many years. The story of that love is told most succinctly and beautifully in the poem by Father Feeney at the beginning of this book. But there is much more to the story than that. Plunge yourself into the beauty and mysticism of the poems of Joseph Plunkett, the Military Commander of the Easter Rising and youngest signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic who stood with Pearse, McDonagh, and Connolly as they cast their fates upon the cause of freedom for Ireland. A famous priest once said that other than those committed to the life of religion, the two types of persons most likely to save their souls were poets and soldiers. Joseph Mary Plunkett was both.

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Everyone concerned with philosophy—the college undergraduate just becoming initiated into the fascinating realm of metaphysical inquiry, the interested adult anxious to grapple with questions of fundamental importance, or the busy teacher seeking to whet his student’s appetite for truth­—all will find this concise, reference book of the terms most commonly used by scholastic philosophers of remarkable value.

Arranged in dictionary form, this work contains over 1,600 entries and subentries of scholastic terms and phrases, and includes in addition over thirty charts and diagrams providing salient information on such topics as the divisions of act and potency, the kinds of appetites, the categories of being, the types of law and their relations one to the other, the powers of man, and many others.  Within an entry the sequence, in general, is as follows: term or phrase defined; its part of speech; its meaning; cross references to antonyms, synonyms, and related terms; abbreviation of the term; uses, particularly of adjectival terms; divisions of incidental terms and phrases using the main term; references; charts and diagrams. 

Preference is given to the definitions of terms as found in Aristotle and Saint Thomas, but abundant attention is given to important concepts of such thinkers as Scotus and Suarez. In addition, the author has cited references to the best of modern textbooks and to the pertinent works of prominent neo-scholastics, among them Maritain and Gilson.

What renders the volume so valuable is the fact that it provides in compact form the important concepts common to scholastic thought. By giving clear-cut definitions it helps beginners avoid needless controversies and aids them to see the value of a particular philosopher’s insight into reality.  Particularly valuable for the ever growing number of individuals clamoring for the truth handed down through the philosophia perennis, Dictionary of Scholastic Philosophy will be appreciated as a basic reference work of prime importance, one which helps all students of philosophy see the relationships between the separate branches of philosophical inquiry and to appreciate the value of definitions as a requisite for the sound philosophical analysis of reality.

Sidney Ohlhausen - Illustrated - EBOOK - 462 pages

This collection of documents and letters grant us an intimate look into the life of an extraordinary priest.
Rev. Haydock is most often remembered today as the author of the famous “Haydock” bible which contains the Douay-Rheims text along with the copious footnotes and commentary by Haydock himself. His purpose was not merely to give the persecuted Catholics of England the best in scriptural text and exegesis taken from the Fathers and Doctors for their own education and edification, but also to give them scholarly ammunition to assist them in the conversion of their protestant family and friends who had been so confused by the various heretical texts and sermons available to them.
The life of Rev. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849) neatly enclosed some of the most remarkable decades in the history of the post-Reformation English Catholic community, as its lay and clerical members moved forward from an ad hoc tolerance to a fuller legal equality. Three years after Haydock’s death, in 1852 St John Newman (1801–90) was to hail the period that took in his own conversion in 1845 as embracing a ‘second spring’, in which England’s Catholic Church re-emerged from centuries of oppression and obscurity, since the Tudor Reformation of the 16th century.

Frances Carpenter - Ilustrated in Color and Black & White - EBOOK PDF ONLY - 312 pages

Frances Aretta Carpenter (April 30, 1890 – November 2, 1972) was an American folklorist, author, and photographer. She traveled to, and published collections of folk stories from, nations on five continents.
This is the second in a series of five ‘Grandmother tales’ published by Frances Carpenter in the 1930s and 40s. They were very popular in their time, and they have proved their enduring value to several generations of American children since then. The author spent years researching and preparing these collections of some of the most culturally significant and typical tales from the oral traditions of several nations. Delightfully illustrated and typeset, these stories are perfect for reading to the children by the fireside or after the family’s evening meal or prayers.