Catholic Books

Research shows again and again that when families openly live and share their faith together, their marriages are stronger, children and parents get along better, and children are less likely to succumb to drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, or negative peer pressure. In this book, experienced psychotherapists Greg and Lisa Popcak show how you can transform your family into a joyful place where each member experiences life as a gift from God. From tapping into the rich beauty of Catholic traditions ...

75th Anniversary Edition  The gorgeous 75th-anniversary edition of Brideshead Revisited, the novel selected by Modern Library as one of the 100 best of the century and called "Evelyn Waugh's finest achievement" by the New York Times. The wellsprings of desire and the impediments to love come brilliantly into focus in Evelyn Waugh's masterpiece -- a novel that immerses us in the glittering and seductive world of English aristocracy in the waning days of the empire. Through the story of Charles...

Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis By early 1943, it had become increasingly clear that the Allies would win the Second World War. Around the same time, it also became increasingly clear to many Christian intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic that the soon-to-be-victorious nations were not culturally or morally prepared for their success. A war won by technological superiority merely laid the groundwork for a post-war society governed by technocrats. These Christian intellectuals-Ja...

We're all starting to hear people ask how the world has gotten to be the way it is. Grafted onto the usual complaints about why people are so greedy, self-absorbed, and callous toward one another are new expressions of frustration about even more fundamental concerns. Why can't we agree on concepts that used to be basic common sense? Why does our very language now seem to be a minefield that only the most wily and tactical (or cynical) among us can navigate? The only way to understand fully h...

Many are well aware of St. Thomas Aquinas's intellectual prowess -- his genius in metaphysics and supernatural theology that pierced the depths of truth. However, few know about the private spiritual life of this illustrious Doctor of the Church. This work, written by Msgr. Martin Grabmann, a foremost authority on Aquinas, is unique in its telling of the holiness of St. Thomas's priestly soul. Neither a purely devotional nor a strictly scientific treatment of the interior life of St. Thomas, ...

"The Sexual Revolution: History, Ideology, Power" by Peter J Elliott explores the profound shifts in sexual ethics over the past two centuries, examining the ideological underpinnings of these changes and their impact on society. Drawing from his extensive experience, Bishop Elliott provides a comprehensive history of the sexual revolution, from Enlightenment thought through Marxist movements to contemporary debates. Highlighting the Catholic Church's steadfast position amidst changing societ...

Is truth knowable? If we know the truth, must we hide it in the name of tolerance? Cardinal Ratzinger engages the problem of truth, tolerance, religion and culture in the modern world. Describing the vast array of world religions, Ratzinger embraces the difficult challenge of meeting diverse understandings of spiritual truth while defending the Catholic teaching of salvation through Jesus Christ. "But what if it is true?" is the question that he poses to cultures that decry the Christian posi...

Robert Louis Stevenson's short novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, first published in 1886, became an instant classic, a Gothic horror originating in a feverish nightmare whose hallucinatory setting in the back streets of London gripped a nation mesmerized by crime and violence. Its revelatory ending is one of the most original and thrilling in English Literature. This new edition of Stevenson's most famous work includes three additional short stories, two short essays, and ex...

This collection of testimonies by people who’ve found new life in the Catholic Church is one of the most potent weapons for the Faith ever crafted! These authors don’t just tell their stories — they also give you an insider’s view of the fatal weaknesses in the creeds and belief systems that beckon unwary Catholics every day: Fundamentalism, New Age paganism, Mormonism, materialistic hedonism, and many others. You’ll discover why these converts forsook beliefs cherished by their families and ...

Written by a foremost expert on the life of the beloved St. Thérèse of Lisieux, this work is widely considered as the most definitive and popular presentation of her life. St. Thérèse is the most popular modern saint of our times.Who was this young French Carmelite who died in 1897 of tuberculosis at age twenty-four? At a time when extreme physical penance was widespread in many religious orders, Thérèse would have none of it. Her passionate love of Jesus led her to concentrate entirely on hi...

New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law (Study Edition)  An entirely new and comprehensive commentary by canon lawyers from North America and Europe, with a revised English translation of the code. Reflects the enormous developments in canon law since the publication of the original commentary.  

"Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape." C.S. Lewis Lorene Duquin, an experienced grief counselor was no stranger to understanding and explaining grief, and had helped many people work through it. But when she lost her mother she found herself living in an entirely new space. Grieving the Loss of a Loved One contains 52 powerful, one-page meditations that will help you work through the various aspects of grieving as they did for Lorene...

Meditations for a Post Post-Christian Era The book you are holding is a kind of a war journal, written between 2020 and 2021 during "the COVID Interruption" and the violent outbursts in cities across America. Witnessing cultural collapse in every direction, philosopher Father Robert McTeigue, S.J., offers meditations on what it will take to build Christ-centered cultures in our time--what must be retrieved and what must be renewed.

"The Singing-Masters: Church Fathers from Greek East and Latin West" by Aidan Nichols offers a passionate account of the theological achievements of eighteen Church Fathers. The selection includes ten from the Greek East and eight from the Latin West, figures who have been authoritative for Catholic doctrine or influential in Church life. Nichols provides a dramatic, humanized account of patristic thought, enriched with biographical details and a serious discussion of their theological doctri...

Very few Catholic writers indeed can touch the minds and hearts of all Catholics-whatever their background -and Fr. Paul O'Sullivan happens to be one of these rare few. In How to Be Happy-How to Be Holy, Fr. O'Sullivan teaches all Christians about prayer: 1) how to pray, 2) how to derive immense benefits from prayer, and 3) how to enjoy the deep consolation of prayer. In the process, he focuses first on the profound meanings of our basic Catholic prayers: The Sign of the Cross, The Our Father...

In his raw and tender memoir, biographer Kevin Wells pulls readers into the unforgettable story of a parish priest turned hermit, Father Martin Flum, who orchestrated the slow resurrection of his wife, Krista, from the nightmare of her deep wounds and addiction. In gripping fashion, Kevin tells the story of his family's own long suffering, which culminated in the dark spring of 2020, as a strange fear pressed down upon the world and his wife spent most nights drinking away long-held shame. Wh...

Meet the Sisters of the Last Straw, a community of Sisters working hard to overcome their bad habits. Join these loveable misfit nuns as they learn to love God and forgive one another. When Amanda Kate comes to visit, Sister Krumbles gets the idea to run the Saint Patrick's Day Marathon. But will she be up to the challenge? What is Mr. Lemon up to? Will he win the prize money for himself? Will the Sisters solve the mystery of the missing items?

In An Exemplary Couple: Saint Gianna Beretta and Pietro Molla, you will read the story of the spouses Saint Gianna Beretta and Pietro Molla, and with an account, through direct testimonies, of the most significant moments of their married life. This is followed by an analysis of their marital journey through their own correspondence, highlighting the distinctive features of their relationship as fiancés, spouses, and parents. Finally, their daily spirituality is linked with the texts of the M...

Turned Around: Replying to Common Objections Against the Traditional Latin Mass is a practical and clear book that examines the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) through a fresh lens. In each chapter, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski addresses common objections to the TLM, transforming these challenges into gateways for a deeper understanding and appreciation of its timeless beauty. From the reasons we worship facing East, to the profound significance of praying in Latin, and the ritual separation of priest ...

A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning Is secularism a positive force in the modern world? Or does it lead to fragmentation and disintegration? In Saving Leonardo, best-selling award-winning author Nancy Pearcey (Total Truth, coauthor How Now Shall We Live?) makes a compelling case that secularism is destructive and dehumanizing. Pearcey depicts the revolutionary thinkers and artists, the ideas and events, leading step by step to the unleashing of secular worldviews...

The tradition of praying litanies can be traced back to the early centuries of the Church. Of all the litanies to Mary, the most used and well known is the Litany of Loreto. It is named after its place of origin, the Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto in Italy, and was approved by Pope Sixtus V in 1587. Since then, the Litany of Loreto has been a source of inspiration not just for the faithful but for poets, artists, musicians, and builders. Mother Most Powerful reflects on each of the fifty-four t...

Do you find yourself struggling to explain the Catholic faith when you're faced with tough questions? If so, look no further than The Essential Catholic Survival Guide from Catholic Answers. This comprehensive book has been created to provide clear, concise answers to seventy of the most commonly asked questions about Catholicism. Having a solid grasp on these topics can be invaluable in any number of situations – whether it’s responding to doubts or challenges at work or in social settings, ...

Saint Jerome was a born writer, individual, fresh, sparkling with verve and (at times) vitriol; a great scholar, accomplished in languages, exegesis, and history; and, above all, an ingenious translator, whose Vulgate is the Church's official Latin Bible. Despite the longstanding fame of his literary and spiritual legacies, however, the saint's historical life has not always received equal care. In this equally instructive and entertaining study, Paul Monceaux balances the biographical accoun...

If the old toy soldier hadn't come to life, Roger would never have discovered the magic. And that would never have happened if he and his sister, Ann, hadn't been sent to stay with their bossy cousins for the summer. And that wouldn't have happened at all if their father hadn't gotten sick and gone into the hospital. But all of that did happen, and now Roger, his sister, and their cousins find themselves in a bygone world of chivalry and knighthood, of Robin Hood and Ivanhoe. In this knightly...

The spirited daughter of Bohemian immigrants, Ántonia must adapt to a hard existence on the desolate prairies of the Midwest. Enduring childhood poverty, teenage seduction, and family tragedy, she eventually becomes a wife and mother on a Nebraska farm. A fictional record of how women helped forge the communities that formed a nation, My Ántonia is also a hauntingly eloquent celebration of the strength, courage, and spirit of America's early pioneers.

With contributions from Leo Darroch, Fr. Gabriel Díaz-Patri, Philippe Maxence, Sebastian Morello, Matthew Schellhorn, and Erik Tonning What do Evelyn Waugh, Lanzo Del Vasto, Nancy Mitford, F.R. Leavis, Agatha Christi, Yehudi Menuhin, René Girard, and Franco Zefferelli have in common? Along with scores of others-artists, musicians, scholars, writers, actors, politicians, and business people-they signed petitions to save the Catholic Church's ancient Latin liturgy, between 1966 and 2007. This i...

Per Étienne Gilson, "philosophy is a collective enterprise in which no one can pretend to take part unless he is first properly introduced." To provide that proper introduction vis-à-vis the modern period, Gilson and Langan move systematically through the landmark figures and ideas of the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Beginning with the vestiges of medievalism in Montaigne and Bacon, they then cover the interplay of science and philosophy (Descartes, Newton, and Vico); the emergen...

The Philosophy of Existence, among the first translations into English of the Catholic existentialist Gabriel Marcel, is composed of four distinct essays--"On the Ontological Mystery"; "Existence and Human Freedom"; "Testimony and Existentialism"; and "An Essay in Biography." Together, the essays articulate the integral elements, constitutive terminology, and characteristic anthropology of Marcel's philosophy of existence, and describe its marked differences with the atheist existentialism of...

When one lists the influential figures who gave shape to the modern psychological disciplines, a thirteenth-century philosopher and theologian does not immediately come to mind. After all, what illuminative value could the philosophical treatises of St. Thomas Aquinas claim for the case studies of Sigmund Freud, for example? In Thomistic Psychology, Robert Edward Brennan, O.P., explains how philosophical principles influence psychological practice and inquiry. Although Thomistic Psychology fi...

"Seek out the Lord and his might; constantly seek his face." This concise admonition from the Book of Psalms captures the impetus of Seeking God's Face. In these meditations, Joseph Ratzinger reflects upon the major feasts and the Sundays of the year, inspired by Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the lives of the saints. The seasons of Advent and Christmas receive particular attention, with an address on the mystery of suffering, a sermon on the "Word Made Flesh," and a consideration of the ...

Only Jesus, first published in English in 1962, is the last of Luis M. Martínez's writings, and widely hailed as his magnum opus. Combining robust doctrine and authentic mysticism, Martínez leads his readers through a quadripartite meditation on the person of Jesus Christ. In Part One, he considers the unfolding of revelation through the Incarnation, public ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Parts Two and Three reflect on the union between Jesus and the Christian faithful,...

Evolutionary theory has raised numerous disputed questions among Catholics and other Christians concerning the relationship between faith and reason and between religion and science. Thomistic Evolution shows that the Thomistic intellectual tradition provides insightful and compelling responses to these questions. This second edition includes a revised account of human evolution, an expanded defense of the the historicity of an original human being, and a new chapter in response to criticisms...

To survey the history of the Catholic Church is, in the words of Eamon Duffy, to be left with "a sense of the intractable complexity of the historical reality of the Church and its institutions." To do justice to this complexity, Philip Hughes wrote an ambitious, three-volume survey of Church history-comprehensive in scope yet accessible in detail. In Volume I: The Church and the World in Which It Was Founded, Hughes dispenses with the chronological method, instead following the organic divis...

This second volume carries the history through to the time of St. Thomas Aquinas.

To survey the history of the Catholic Church is, in the words of Eamon Duffy, to be left with "a sense of the intractable complexity of the historical reality of the Church and its institutions." To do justice to this complexity, Philip Hughes wrote an ambitious, three-volume survey of Church history-comprehensive in scope yet introductory and accessible in detail. Volume III: The Revolt Against the Church surveys the critical period of 1270 to 1517 and the key figures and events which preced...

"Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign of contradiction." For the 1976 Lenten retreat to St. Paul VI and the Roman curia, Karol Wojtyla set this prophecy of Simeon to the Holy Family at the heart of his preaching. Over the course of twenty-two meditations, Wojtyla examines and tests the apparent contradictions in the words and deeds of Jesus Christ-all of which are occasions for profound encounters with God himself. Indeed, the "words a sign...

"And people go round saying, 'At least Catholics know what they believe, '" sarcastically remarks Charles Ryder of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. With The Belief of Catholics, Ronald Knox offers a stirring credo which puts the sarcasm of his friend and biographer Waugh's protagonist in its proper place. Building up the vast, intricate structure of Catholic doctrine from its foundation to its summit, Knox begins with a scrutiny of modernity's ill-founded aversion to religion and then pro...

The first of Ronald Knox's three "Slow Motion" collections, The Mass in Slow Motion comprises fourteen sermons preached during World War II to the students of the Assumption Sisters at Aldenham Park. Modest yet arresting in style, Knox explains the Mass from the opening psalm to the solemn words of conclusion: Ite missa est. While the liturgy Knox contemplates is that of the Tridentine Rite, the abundant fruits of his contemplation can be easily translated to the Ordinary Form of the present ...

Augustine's Quest for Wisdom, originally published in 1945, is a veritable encyclopedia of Augustinian thought. Meticulously tracing the saint's intellectual and spiritual conversions toward God, Vernon J. Bourke develops a rich study of Augustine as the original Christian philosopher--a man wholly devoted to the love of wisdom. This study has two parts: first, the scholarly career of one of the brightest intellects the Western world has ever known; second, the ecclesial and pastoral ministry...

Under the Sun of Satan, Georges Bernanos's powerful debut novel, throws the reader headlong into the mystery of evil and the drama of salvation. Saturated with dramatic intensity and marked with Bernanos's inimitable fitful style, the novel follows young Fr. Donissan, a man of fervent faith but limited intelligence, striving to serve the Lord in his rural ministry. The priest's ability to plumb the depths of his flock's inner lives, along with his awareness of Satan on the prowl, grant him fo...

The Church of Apostles and Martyrs is the first installment in Henri Daniel-Rops' magnificent and enormously popular History of the Church of Christ. This volume includes the first six chapters of that work, surveying the first years of the Church until the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70; the peerless contributions of St. Paul; the relations between imperial Rome and the fledgling Church; the persecutions and first martyrdoms; the catacombs and development of the liturgy; and the genesis...

The Church of Apostles and Martyrs is the first installment in Henri Daniel-Rops' magnificent and enormously popular History of the Church of Christ. This volume includes the first six chapters of that work, surveying the first years of the Church until the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70; the peerless contributions of St. Paul; the relations between imperial Rome and the fledgling Church; the persecutions and first martyrdoms; the catacombs and development of the liturgy; and the genesis...

The Church in the Dark Ages is the second installment in Henri Daniel-Rops' monumental History of the Church of Christ. This volume includes the first five chapters of that work, skillfully studying St. Augustine of Hippo, whose genius governed Christendom for centuries; the "Great Invasions" of the Barbarians and their conversion under the great popes, Gregory and Leo; the sanctifying influence of such saints as John Chrysostom, Patrick, and Boniface, and the scholars and missionaries of Eas...

The Church in the Dark Ages is the second installment in Henri Daniel-Rops' monumental History of the Church of Christ. This volume includes the last five chapters of that work, surveying the threats to the Christian East, from the rise of Islam and onslaughts of jihad to the Iconoclastic Controversy, burgeoning heresy, and imminent schism; the greatness of Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance; the subsequent era of disorder in the West, counteracted by the first great medieval pope, S...

The Church of Cathedral and Crusade is the third installment in Henri Daniel-Rops' monumental History of the Church of Christ. This volume includes the first seven chapters of that work, surveying the salient characteristics of the period 1050 to 1350; the religious foundation of the age and its expressions in prayer and pilgrimage, liturgy and sacrament; the archetype of medieval manhood, St. Bernard of Clairvaux; the leavening labors of reform and renewal by Popes Gregory VII and Paschal II...

The Church of Cathedral and Crusade is the third installment in Henri Daniel-Rops' monumental History of the Church of Christ. This volume includes the last seven chapters of that work, surveying the rise of the universities and triumph of scholasticism in Sts. Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas; the emergence of that "perfect expression of a faith," the cathedral; the callings, conflicts, and controversies of the Crusades; the ascent to glory and decline into schism in the Christian East; the ad...

The Christian life demands both action and speech. Christians must, in the words of St. James, "live by the word, not content merely to listen to it." And St. Peter exhorts: "If anyone asks you to give an account of the hope which you cherish, be ready at all times to answer for it." The "Slow Motion" collections of Monsignor Ronald Knox take up these admonitions and provide indispensable assistance for the proper fulfillment of these Christian duties. Whereas The Mass in Slow Motion endows i...

In his own variation on C. S. Lewis's trilemma of "Lunatic, Liar, or Lord," Ronald Knox writes: "I do not believe that, human nature being what it is, the immediate impression made by the preaching of the Gospel could have been so profound, if its first missionaries had only told to the world the story of a Man, clearly not mad, clearly not an Impostor, who was nevertheless prepared to accept the worship due to a God." The Gospel possesses a unique power to persuade its hearers to believe in ...