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New: "Humility Rules: Saint Benedict's Twelve-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem" by J. Augustine Wetta, O.S.B.

Now available from Ignatius Press: 

Humility Rules: Saint Benedict's Twelve-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem

by J. Augustine Wetta, O.S.B.

Saint Benedict's fifth-century guide to humility offers the antidote to the epidemic of stress and depression overwhelming modern young adults. But the language of The Rule by Saint Benedict is medieval, and its most passionate advocates are cloistered monks and nuns. How then does this ancient wisdom translate into advice for ordinary people?

With candor, humor, and a unique approach to classical art, Father Augustine, a high school teacher and coach, breaks down Saint Benedict's method into twelve pithy steps for finding inner peace in a way that can be applied to anyone's life.

Drawing upon his own life experiences, both before and after becoming a Benedictine monk, the author explains every step, illustrating each chapter with color reproductions of sacred art that he has embellished with comic flourishes. The winsome combination is sure to keep readers from taking themselves too seriously—which is already a first step on the path to humility.

J. Augustine Wetta, O.S.B., is a monk of Saint Louis Abbey.  He serves as the Director of Chaplaincy at the Saint Louis Priory School, where he teaches English and Theology, and coaches rugby.  During his spare time, Father Augustine supervises the juggling team, cultivates carnivorous plants, raises carpenter ants, and surfs.

"This book could not be more perfect. The author shares with C.S.Lewis his rare talent of taking profound thought and turning it into the language ordinary people understand. Many have tried to do as Lewis did, but of those who have achieved it, Fr Augustine is the most successful."
— Walter Hooper, Literary Adviser to the Estate of C.S.Lewis

"My apostolate has worked with many thousands of teens and young adults. I know how real self-esteem challenges are for them.  Fr. Augustine's book is a good antidote to this. It is full of practical, relevant advice based on a rule that's been road-tested for 1,500 years.  I highly recommend this refreshing and engaging read!"
— Curtis A. Martin, Founder and CEO of FOCUS

"With warmth, wit, and honesty, Humility Rules presents a fascinating window into the way of the monk, showing how St. Benedict's wisdom enables us to find freedom in Christ wherever we make our home. The depth of this book's spirituality makes it an engaging introduction to the Benedictine way for readers of any age." 
— Dawn Eden, Author, Remembering God's Mercy

"Secular culture loves things monastic like monk-made bread and calming meditation. But the heart of the Benedictine life is humility. This deceptively light hearted book offers a series of enlightening contrasts to make humility an attractive proposition today. This is an excellent introduction to truthful living for a culture steeped in illusions."
— Dom Christopher Jamison, Monk, Writer, Broadcaster

"Humility rules. It really does! This fun and insightful look at the Rule of Saint Benedict brings ageless wisdom to everyday life. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book! Then ask God to help you live it. For in His kingdom, the way down is truly the only way up."
— Joanna Weaver, best-selling author of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World

New: "Leonie Martin: A Difficult Life" by Marie Baudouin-Croix

Now available from Ignatius Press: 

Leonie Martin: A Difficult Life

by Marie Baudouin-Croix

A sister of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Léonie Martin (1863-1941) was one of the five daughters of Zélie and Louis Martin, who were canonized by Pope Francis. She was the least gifted of the five Martin sisters, an emotionally disturbed child who suffered much and caused much anguish in her family.

Marie Baudouin-Croix has carefully researched Léonie's life, including her mother's voluminous correspondence about her family life. In letters to her daughters, sister, brother, and sister-in-law, Zélie confided the challenges she faced in raising L‚onie. Yet Léonie was the first one in the Martin family to understand and to follow Thérèse's Little Way.

After three valiant but unsuccessful attempts to enter consecrated religious life, Léonie was finally accepted by the Visitation Order in Caen. As a Visitation nun she succeeded in conquering a difficult temperament and other personal challenges, so that by the time of her death at seventy-eight years old she was regarded by many as a saint. Her convent at Caen has been inundated with letters testifying to her posthumous intercessory aid.

How did this troubled child turn into the nun remembered by many as so kind, serene, and happy that they could not believe she had such a difficult childhood? She discovered God within herself, in her weakness and suffering, and she became a great disciple of Thérèse's "way of confidence and love". Léonie practiced the Little Way so deeply that in 2015 the cause for her sainthood was officially opened by the Church.

Marie Baudouin-Croix is a popular French poet and author.

"The 'lame duck', as Léonie was aptly nicknamed, grew in tremendous virtue, overcoming failures and disabilities, abandoning herself to God's mercy. A fascinating read!"
—Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle, EWTN TV Host; Author, The Kiss of Jesus

"An essential read for anyone with a devotion to the Little Flower or with an interest in the science of the saints. It shows that problematic behavior in children can happen in any family, and that our imperfections can be very much a part of our journey to sanctity. A deeply moving book." 
—Sally Read, Author, Night's Bright Darkness: A Modern Conversion Story

"For those seeking sanctity amidst life's struggles, Léonie Martin is a gift that helps us to apply the Little Way when the way we must travel is less than perfect. In Léonie's story we discover the truth that each of us, regardless of our station in life, is called to strive for sainthood." 
— Lisa Hendey, Founder of CatholicMom.com

"It is reassuring to learn that even a family with three canonized saints was not without its painful human limitations. The woman once known as 'poor Léonie ' played her own essential role in the sanctification of the entire Martin Family."
— Fr. Sean Davidson, Author, Saint Mary Magdalene: Prophetess of Eucharistic Love

The Gospel of St. Matthew: The Unity of the Life of Jesus

The Gospel of St. Matthew: The Unity of the Life of Jesus | Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis | From the Introduction to Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word (Vol. II): Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew

The Gospel according to St. Matthew is not a text simply stringing together haphazard events and occasions that present Jesus teaching valuable and true things. Beyond this, the Gospel text portrays the unity of Jesus' whole life. Very likely the earliest nucleus of the Gospel text is what is now its conclusion, that is, the narrative of Jesus' Passion, death, and Resurrection, which narrative no doubt constituted the heart and substance of the primitive oral kerygma, or "proclamation" of the faith by the apostles and their successors. Everything else in the Gospel text came later, composed to show how everything in Jesus' life and teaching eventually had to lead to his atoning death out of love.

In Matthew's Gospel we see how, against all obstacles and opposition, Jesus moves with a sovereign sweep from the promises of God in the Old Testament, fulfilling them in his Incarnation as Messiah, to his identity as a man who does divine things and speaks divine words (parables, miracles, encounters, discourses), to the culmination of the story in his Passion, death, and Resurrection, and, finally, to the conclusion of the story in Jesus commissioning the apostles to do what they have seen him do and teach what they have seen him teach. In the end, they are to become what they have seen him be.

Thus, the main message of Matthew's Gospel is that we are not saved by detached "doctrines" or "truths", but by the whole life of this man, Jesus of Nazareth, in all its fullness and unity. All Christian theology is but a systematic reflection on this life, on everything it reveals about God and us and on everything this revelation implies for our own future life and behavior.

In the Gospel, Jesus Christ the person and his action in our lives have absolute primacy over anyone's teaching about Jesus Christ.

A comparison of the very beginning of the text with its very end may serve to detail the overarching unity of Matthew's Gospel and its fundamental message. At 1:23 Matthew inserts a quotation from the prophecy of Isaiah (7:14): "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel (a name which means 'God with us')." If we then turn to the last sentence in Matthew, we read: "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (28:20). Now, these are words that only an incarnate God can speak with truth, and we suddenly realize that everything between these two quotations-the promise and its everlasting fulfillment--is meant by Matthew to represent an unfolding of what it means for "God to be with us" in the person of Jesus. Between these two passages there are five major sections of the Gospel, perhaps symbolic of the five books of the Pentateuch that constitute the Torah. Matthew's Gospel, thus, through its symbolic structure, is apparently claiming to contain God's definitive words and deeds, which fulfill and surpass the Torah but only through the presence and action of Jesus, the living Word made flesh: "It was said to you .... But I say to you" (cf. Mt 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-34, 38-39, 43-44).

Many other such layers of deliberate structuring may be discovered in Matthew's Gospel. It is possible to describe its total design as follows: The text consists of a body in five major segments, preceded by an introduction (Jesus' genealogy and infancy, 1:1-2:23) and culminating in the heart of the Gospel-the Passion, death, and Resurrection narrative (26:1-28:20). Each of the five central sections (3:1-7:29; 8:1-10:42; 11:1-13:52 13:53-18:35; and 19:1-25:46) may in turn be subdivided into a "narrative" and a "discourse" component (see tabulation on page 329), and it is possible to detect a correspondence between the events of the narrative and the theme of the discourse that follows it. And each of these five sections concludes with a formula such as "And when Jesus finished these sayings" (7:28).

There may well be an important theological point being made here through this structural arrangement, namely, that the Gospel is first and foremost about the interactive encounter between Jesus and humanity, portrayed in a narrative. All subsequent words of teaching and instruction, even those coming from Jesus himself, are but a persuasive reflection that seeks to delve more deeply into that primordial encounter in order to help the reader make it his own.

For instance, in the fourth central section (13:53-17:27) we read in the narrative portion about the feeding of the five thousand, then of the four thousand, about Peter's confession and his commission, and about the Transfiguration. Clearly, these are all events that portray different aspects of "church"--how Jesus fashions a community of believers out of the random scattering of humanity. What then follows in the discourse portion of section four is a formal exhortation sometimes called the "Sermon on the Church" (18:1-35), which deals with the qualifications for membership in the Kingdom, fraternal relations of either scandal or edification, and above all forgiveness.

Such a structural feature as we here describe--this thematic correspondence between "narrative" and "discourse" in each section--reminds us from a fresh angle that the Gospel is never mere philosophizing but always a portrayal of the Word incarnate, the eternal Son and Wisdom of the Father in whom event and word, prayer and deed, are one. Christ Jesus is no mere brilliant teacher and itinerant prophet; he is the divine Son made flesh, the person who, all at once, is cosmic Event, Word of truth, and Deed of salvation, and this dynamic richness of identity in Jesus is what the Gospel manifests at each step, both in its individual parts and in its total structure.

If, in our imagination, we put the Gospel text back into its original context of oral transmission, before it evolved into the form of a written text, we will begin to see its character as the record of an encounter between persons. The Gospel is not primarily words written in a book: this is only the final stage of a process that began with Jesus' real historical presence and interaction with people in the world. When the Gospel is proclaimed in the praying assembly of believers, we participate in the living memory of the Church from the beginning, the Church that was so careful to communicate in a living way and hand down to each generation of Christians the treasure of her experience of the Lord's presence in her midst.

The Gospel is a living tradition, something alive in our hearts and memory insofar as we are Christians, something continually shaping and nourishing our faith, thoughts, and deeds. This is why the Gospel is never more itself than when it is publicly proclaimed, heard, and commented upon during the Liturgy of the Word.

For instance, when we hear the Gospel of the Beatitudes (Mt 5:1-12) proclaimed on a given Sunday, we sense that that is the original setting in which the Gospel was meant to be read. Such a text communicates to us, not a historical sketch of someone who lived in the past and is interesting for a number of good reasons. Rather, such a text evokes a presence, not only by stimulating the power of imagination and memory, but by the power of the sacramental action of the Church in the Eucharist. The words of Matthew's Gospel are inseparable from the Eucharistic Sacrifice, because in his Gospel Matthew is proclaiming an event and a person that want to become a saving reality here and now in my life and in the life of all mankind. [3]

We must conclude, then, that the genre of the Gospel is not that of pure "history"; but neither is it that of myth, fairy tale, or legend. In fact, evangelion constitutes a genre all its own, a surprising novelty in the literature of the ancient world. Matthew does not seek to be "objective" in a scientific or legal sense. He is writing as one whose life has been drastically changed by the encounter with Jesus of Nazareth. Hence, he is proposing to his listeners an objective reality of history, but offered as kerygma, that is, as a proclamation that bears personal witness to the radical difference that reality has already made in his life. Whether this encounter with Jesus of Nazareth occurs literally in the flesh or spiritually through the faith of the Church is not as important as the fact that it does take place.

We, living twenty-one centuries later, are at no disadvantage! We should not want to answer questions that the evangelists themselves did not raise: the color of Jesus' eyes and hair, his height, and so on. Nor is it essential to ask: Did this or that occur precisely in the way described in the text? The historical nucleus obviously at the very center of the Gospel narrative is inseparable, in keeping with the genre of the evangelion or "good news", from the response of faith with which Matthew presents it so as to persuade his listeners to enter into the same experience of encounter with Jesus. This encounter will hopefully result in the transformation of their lives. When we approach the text of Matthew we must come to share in his own faith if we are fully to understand what he has written.

ENDNOTES:

[3] The unity of word, sacrament, and Christian life as constituting the total Mystery of Christ has seldom been explored so profoundly as in Jean Corbon, The Wellspring of Worship (Mahwah, NJ.: Paulist Press, 1988; new edition by Ignatius Press, 2005).

New, updated editions of classic works by mystic Adrienne von Speyr now available

 San Francisco, May 3, 2017 – Ignatius Press has long published the writings of Adrienne von Speyr, a contemporary Swiss convert, mystic, wife, medical doctor, and prolific spiritual writer, who was under the spiritual direction of renowned theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. Now three books have been released as new editions, each updated with a new Foreword, bringing renewed attention to her insightful life and work.
 
First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr
 
This second edition of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s book on Adrienne von Speyr is his personal introduction to the mystic, First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr, whose message and mission he believed to be vitally important for the Church. Von Balthasar was the spiritual director of von Speyr for almost thirty years as she progressed in the life of grace. She helped him to found the Community of Saint John, an international secular institute, and she wrote more than sixty books on various topics, including prayer, Scripture, sacraments, and saints, which continue to bear fruit for those seeking to deepen their understanding of Catholic spirituality and theology.
 
This book contains three main sections. The first includes a short account of Adrienne’s life, which describes her childhood, conversion, and mission; an analysis of her most important theological concerns; and an overview of her published and unpublished works.  The second is a collection of enlightening statements that Adrienne made about herself, which illuminate both her exterior and interior life. The third section contains prayers that she herself wrote, which best reveal her spirit.
 
Hans Urs von Balthasar writes, “On the whole I received far more from Adrienne, theologically, than she from me. As her confessor and spiritual director, I observed her interior life most closely, yet in twenty-seven years I never had the least doubt about the authentic mission that was hers. Her work appears far more important to me than mine. I am convinced that when her works are made available, those who are in a position to judge will concur with me about their value and will thank God that he has granted such graces to the Church in our time.”

Adrian Walker, Ph.D., Professor of Theology at the John Paul II Institute and author of the Foreword of this new edition, says, “Von Speyr was one of the great Catholic converts of the twentieth century. Her great passion was what might be called ‘the thirst for catholicity’ — the unreserved, joyful adherence to all the teachings of the Church and the attitude of total surrender to the Truth.”
 
“The abundant harvest of graces hidden in this theological mission for our times still waits to be more fully carried into the storehouses of the Church for whom Adrienne von Speyr was sent. Now, however, a century after her birth, there are many signs to indicate that the moment of her ‘reawakening’ is at hand!” says Jacques Servais, S.J., Director of the Casa Balthasar in Rome.
 
Confession
 
In this second edition of her profound book on confession, which Hans Urs von Balthasar calls “one of her most central works”, Adrienne von Speyr discusses the moral and practical aspects of this sacrament in great depth. The most complete spiritual treatise on confession ever written, the book covers conversion, scruples, contrition, spiritual direction, laxity, frequency of confession, confessions of religious and lay people, and even confessions of saints.
 
The most intriguing element in von Speyr’s understanding of confession, fully developed in this volume, is its trinitarian and christological basis. The Cross is the archetypal confession, and Christian sacramental confession is thus an imitation of Christ in the strict sense. Confession examines the enormous fruitfulness of this dogmatic basis from many perspectives, giving a wealth of suggestions that both the theological expert and the layman will find very helpful. Its practical applicability to one’s own confession emerges from every page.
 
Fr. John Riccardo, the author of the Foreword, writes, “Few writers have impacted me like von Speyr has. I use Confession every year in RCIA to teach on this great gift that Jesus left to the Church on the day He rose from the dead. Whether you are a frequent celebrant of this Sacrament or, like I once was, have been away for many years, I pray that this book will profoundly change your life.”
 
Handmaid of the Lord
 
In this profound book on the mystery of Mary, Adrienne von Speyr reflects on the life, attitude, and prayer of the Mother of God. She shows how Mary’s assent to God’s will—her Fiat: “Let it be done to me according to thy word” — is what defines and sanctifies every aspect of her life. She gives new insights into Mary’s holiness, suffering, prayer, and role of spiritual motherhood for all mankind.
 
Handmaid of the Lord is not a biography detailing the daily life of the Mother of Jesus, filled with the sights and the sounds found in the holy imagination of a saintly visionary. Rather, it responds to our desire to know Mary in a penetrating and personal way, opening us to the mystery of her inner life, which can be revealed only by the Word himself and pondered in the heart, just as Our Lady herself did.
 
Humility, obedience, availability, joy, suffering, and transparency before God are some of the key spiritual attributes of Our Lady found in this timeless work. As with her other books, von Speyr helps us to savor and to appreciate each word of Sacred Scripture as self-revelation from the Father through the heart of the Church, the Bride of the Son, in a loving exchange of the Spirit. In this way, the Word may be absorbed into the very core of our being, as it was for Mary, the Mother of God.
 
Kris McGregor, founder of Discerning Hearts, writes in the Foreword, “This work offers a doorway into the heart of one of Christianity’s greatest mysteries - the mystery of Mary - and there is no better spiritual guide through that door than Adrienne von Speyr. She is a grand spiritual master of the practice of Lectio Divina and a beneficiary of its fruits. Handmaid of the Lord is Lectio Divina par excellence. It reveals the sheer beauty of Marian contemplation like no masterpiece of temporal art or music ever could; hence its status as a spiritual classic.”
 
About Adrienne von Speyr
 
Adrienne von Speyr (1902–1967) was a Swiss medical doctor, a convert to Catholicism, a mystic, and an author of more than sixty books on spirituality and theology. She collaborated closely with theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, her confessor for twenty-seven years, and together they founded  the Community of Saint John. Her numerous books, published by Ignatius Press, are a major contribution to the wisdom of the Church. Among her most important works are Book of All Saints, Confession, The World of Prayer, Handmaid of the Lord, and The Passion from Within.
 
Kris McGregor, the author of the Foreword of Handmaid of the Lord, is available for interviews about these three books. To request review copies or an interview with Kris McGregor, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or [email protected]
 
Kris McGregor is the Founder/Executive Director of Discerning Hearts, a non-profit broadcast media apostolate dedicated to evangelization and spiritual formation. She has produced/hosted a wide range of series programs under the banner “Discerning Hearts presents”, as well as hosted “Inside the Pages”, interviewing hundreds of today’s leading Catholic authors and spiritual leaders. Her programs are prominently featured on the Spirit Catholic Radio Network line-up and on DiscerningHearts.com. In the past, she has served as a Director of Religious Education, Director of Liturgy, and Director of Pastoral Ministry in parishes located in the Archdiocese of Omaha.  Kris and her husband of 34 years, Bruce, are Benedictine Oblates and parents of 3 children.  
 
Product Facts:
                                                                                        
Title: First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr
Author: Hans Urs von Balthasar
Release Date: May 2017                                                                
Length: 228 Pages
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-162164-180-3
                                               
Title: Confession
Author: Adrienne von Speyr
Release Date: May 2017                                                                 
Length: 295 Pages
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-62164-182-7
                       
Title: Handmaid of the Lord
Author: Adrienne von Speyr
Release Date: May 2017      
Length: 203 Pages
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-62164-181-0
 
To Order: 1-800-651-1531 or www.ignatius.com

New: "Fatima Mysteries: Mary's Message to the Modern Age" by Grzegorz Gorny and Janusz Rosikon

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Fatima Mysteries: Mary's Message to the Modern Age

by Grzegorz Gorny and Janusz Rosikon

400 pages | Hardcover

"The tragedies foretold in Fatima did not come to an end with the demise of Communism. The crisis has not been resolved. From a certain point of view it is still as serious as it ever was, as it is primarily a crisis of faith, hence a moral and social crisis."
— Pope Benedict XVI

The apparitions in 1917 of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three peasant children in Fatima, Portugal, are perhaps the most important private revelations in the history of the Church. At the height of World War I and on the eve of the Russian Revolution, Our Lady appeared in Fatima to warn us of another even greater world war, the spread of Communism, and a terrible persecution of the Church unless people returned to God. She asked for us to offer daily prayer and sacrifice for conversion of the world and salvation of souls.

Because of the prophetic nature of Our Lady's messages and their potential significance for the entire world, they have been the subject of much study and controversy, and they have influenced the decisions not only of many individuals, but also of Popes, Bishops, and heads of state.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of these important apparitions and messages for the modern world, renowned author-photographer team Grzegorz Górny and Janusz Rosikon traveled throughout Europe to tell the story of Fatima and its impact on the destiny of both individuals and nations. With stunningly beautiful four-color photographs on every page, and in-depth detail and insights on all aspects of the story and message of Fatima, they probe the mysteries of Fatima and their continued relevance for our modern age. Lavishly Illustrated.

Grzegorz Górny is a reporter, essayist, and film and television producer. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the quarterly Fronda, and from 1994 to 2001 he co-authored a program under the same title that aired on the Polish national television. He has produced various documentary television series and authored numerous articles for European publications. His books include Battle for Madrid (2010).

Janusz Rosikon is a photographer and a member of the Association of Polish Artistic Photographers. His photographs have been featured in Time, Newsweek, and Reader's Digest.

"This is a very special book on the whole story, messages and meaning of Fatima. It is a great treasury of information and inspiration for the 100th anniversary of Fatima, filled with stunning photos and images. This book will help you to do what Pope Benedict XVI asked of us all - to learn, live and spread the message of Fatima!"
- Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R., Author, Fatima For Today

"What a masterpiece! Fatima Mysteries is the most comprehensive and thoroughly researched book I have ever read on the Fatima apparitions. It offers an historical, cultural, and theological presentation of everything there is to know about the importance of one of the greatest events in modern times."
- Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, Author, Champions of the Rosary: The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon

New: "Marian Veneration: Firm Foundations" by Francis Cardinal Arinze

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Marian Veneration: Firm Foundations

by Francis Cardinal Arinze

The Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated by many followers of Jesus Christ as an important part of their practice of the faith. Believing that she is the Mother of God because her Son is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, who for our salvation took on human nature, Christians of both East and West honor Mary in various ways. They strive to imitate her as a great model of Christian discipleship.

Cardinal Arinze wrote this book for both those devoted to the Blessed Mother and those who do not yet know or understand her. Based on the Scriptures, the teachings of the Church, and the sacred liturgy, the cardinal provides a solid foundation for Marian veneration—one that can benefit all Christians, regardless of their church affiliation.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, the former Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship, is a highly regarded prelate, teacher and churchman. He has written numerous books on theology, spirituality and prayer, including Meeting Jesus and Following Him, Radical Discipleship, The Layperson's Distinctive Role, and his biography, God's Invisible Hand, all published by Ignatius Press.

"An extraordinary blend of rigorous scholarship and filial devotion, Marian Veneration gives all the reasons for why the Virgin Mary is – and will always be – at the heart of Christianity.  This book will serve as a reference work for generations to come!"
— Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, Author, Champions of the Rosary: The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon

"To praise the art is to praise the artist. Mary is the greatest work of art ever created by God. Cardinal Arinze helps us to see the pierced Hand of the Master holding the brush that created Mary, his greatest Icon of the Church."
— Mark P. Shea, Author, Mary, Mother of the Son

"The Second Vatican Council urged theologians and preachers to present the authentic image of the Virgin as it is given us in the Scriptures, the sacred liturgy, and the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church. That is precisely what he does in this excellent work."
— Fr. Michael Gaitley, M.I.C., Author, 33 Days to Morning Glory

"Simply the best book of its kind in print today. Cardinal Arinze not only masterfully provides the essential foundation for the veneration of Mary but also dispenses with manifold errors concerning Marian theology and devotion both inside and outside the Church."
— Tim Staples, Director of Apologetics and Evangelization, Catholic Answers

New: "Saint Mary Magdalene: Prophetess of Eucharistic Love" by Fr. Sean Davidson

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Saint Mary Magdalene Prophetess of Eucharistic Love

by Fr. Sean Davidson

Adoration is love, and eucharistic adoration is love of Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament. In the Gospels there are few people who understand love for Jesus as well as Mary Magdalene, which is the reason she is a prophetess of eucharistic love.

This work is an extended meditation on the life of Saint Mary Magdalene, known as the "Apostle to the Apostles" because the Risen Christ appeared to her first and then sent her to announce the Resurrection to the apostles. Based on the biblical texts traditionally associated with Mary Magdalene, this book helps readers to learn from her inspiring example and to enter more deeply into adoration of Jesus Christ truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.

In telling the story of Mary Magdalene's profound conversion after the Lord had to expel seven demons from her soul, this book shows how she is a shining witness to the transforming power of an encounter with Jesus Christ. Mary Magdalene is the perfect model for those who have experienced the redeeming love of Christ and who seek to deepen their devotion to him and to the Eucharist.

Father Sean Davidson is a member of the Missionaries of the Most Holy Eucharist.  He spent two years serving at the magnificent Basilica of Saint Mar y Magdalene in Provence, France, where he received the inspiration for this work. He is currently serving at the Eucharistic Retreat Center in the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, Long Island.

"Saint Mary Magdalene reminds us of the need to recover the primacy of God and the primacy of adoration in the life of the Church and in the liturgical celebration."
— Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Author, God or Nothing: A Conversation on Faith

"Saint Mary Magdalene has finally been given her deserved praise and understanding. Her amazing story of renewed life, restored love and relentless devotion to Christ as Savior is deeply inspiring!"
— Mother Dolores Hart, O.S.B., Author, The Ear of the Heart: An Actress’ Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows

"This bracing immersion into the life, heart and soul of one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented of saints, is rooted in Scripture, history, and deep contemplation. It calls us to emulate Magdalene's 'holy recklessness' and her radical adoration of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament."
— Carl Olson, Author, Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?

"Those longing to sit quietly 'at his feet' in times of eucharistic adoration will find Saint Mary Magdalene already there, with her tears, her ointment, her devoted love  and her deep attentiveness to his hidden presence. This thoughtful exploration of Magdalene's life and her gifts of contrition, gratitude and adoration will inspire all who long to dwell quietly in his presence in the company of the saints."
— Dan Guernsey, Author, Adoration: Eucharistic Texts and Prayers throughout Church History

"Drawing from Scripture and scholarship, Father Davidson paints a soul-stirring portrait of the 'Apostle to the Apostles' that speaks directly to the heart of the reader. Filled with remarkable insights, this is a highly engaging and deeply moving look at how the encounter with Christ can truly change your life."
— Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, Author, Behold the Man: A Catholic Vision of Male Spirituality

"The life of Saint Magdalene bears witness to the infinite mercy of Christ, and our world stands in great need of an outpouring of divine mercy today. This work goes to the heart of the identity of this holy woman who was above all an ardent adorer in spirit and in truth. May her example enkindle a new fire of love for Christ in our hearts."
— Father Florian Racine, Rector of the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene, France, Author, Could You Not Watch with Me One Hour?

Mary was no ordinary woman: An anthropologist unearths the life of Jesus’ mother

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6, 2016 – For the first time ever — and just in time for Advent — a new release presents an archeological and historical biography of the most adored and remarkable woman in history: MARY OF NAZARETH: History, Archeology, Legends, by author Michael Hesemann, digs into the heart of the life lived by Mary, the mother of God. From her earliest days as a small child, to the Annunciation and her life raising and loving Jesus, the most beloved, along with the lesser known chapters in the Blessed Mother’s life, Mary is examined in new and impressive detail in Hesemann’s book. Popular legends are explored, ground unearthed and contemporary sources scoured.
 
Hesemann, an accomplished author of 38 books who studied history and cultural anthropology in Germany, is uniquely situated to tell this important story of the Blessed Mother. He has participated in archaeological excavations in the Holy Land, and has helped to date discoveries in Nazareth as well as several Christian relics. Hesemann has advised and participated in TV programs for the Discovery and History Channels as well as EWTN.
 
The author’s impressive background is on display in MARY OF NAZARETH, as the reader is taken on a virtual expedition to the places where Mary lived or traveled. Included in the book are vivid, color images of the places described and investigated by Hesemann, including the Advocata icon (the oldest known Marian image), the interior of the Holy House of Loreto, Mary’s Well (the scene of the Magnificat), Mary’s tomb in the Kidron Valley and many more that bring to life in a special way the locations that played important parts in the daily life of Mary.
 
MARY OF NAZARETH provides the millions of Marian follower’s new insight into the fascinating woman who was the Mother of Jesus and the context for and the answers to many long-held queries about Mary. Hesemann also delivers the truth behind the real Christmas story, including the Three Wise Men and the Star of Bethlehem, just in time for the Advent season.
 
Says Paul Thigpen, Ph.D., author of A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God: “Through historical, archaeological and textual research, Hesemann takes us on a lively adventure that sheds fascinating new light on the mother of Jesus. His personal devotion to the Virgin shines through his extensive scholarship to create a delightful and enchanting portrait of the Mother of God.”
 
For more information, to request a review copy, or to schedule an interview with Michael Hesemann, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or [email protected]) of Carmel Communications.  

St. John the Baptist, prophet of Advent and preacher of repentance

"The Preaching of St. John the Baptist" by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1490)

Carl E. Olson | On the Readings for December 4, 2016, the Second Sunday of Advent

Readings:
• Isa 11:1-10
• Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
• Rom 15:4-9
• Mt 3:1-12

If you saw John the Baptist preaching on a street corner, what might you think of him? He would be a wiry man, wild in appearance, bearded and dressed in rough clothing. His message would be direct, but also mysterious: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” He would offer free baptisms and would, from time to time, have less than kind words for various authorities who watched him baptize.

He would be, in today’s terms, a troublemaker, a religious fanatic, a fundamentalist, a narrow-minded zealot.

Jesus, however, told His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist…” (Matt 11:11). This wasn’t merely the affection of the Savior for His cousin, but a striking assertion of John’s place in salvation history. John the Baptist, like so many of the Old Testament prophets, was contrary and confrontational. He drew attention to things usually passed over in polite society, especially the reality of sin and the need for repentance. He denounced hypocrisy, spiritual sloth, and injustice. And today’s Gospel reading—which contains the first mention of John in Scripture—describes him as the final and greatest forerunner of the Messiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert…”

In his book The Advent of Salvation, the great biblical scholar, Jean Cardinal Daniélou, wrote, “Since the coming of Christ goes on forever—He is always He who is to come in the world and in the Church—there is always an Advent going on, and this Advent is filled by John the Baptist. It is John the Baptist's peculiar grace that he prepares the way for what is about to happen.” The Church has long made the connection between John the Baptist and Advent because John perfectly symbolizes—or, better, lives and expresses—the key themes of this season: anticipation, preparation, humility, repentance. His baptism was one of repentance, but he readily acknowledged that it would give way to the baptism of “the Holy Spirit and fire” offered by Jesus.

John, who was filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born, knew that his work was to prepare himself and others for the One who would offer the fullness of the Holy Spirit. “The fire of the Spirit dwells in him,” states the Catechism, “and makes him the forerunner of the coming Lord” (CCC 718). He, like all of the prophets, pointed to the Messiah. And he, like all of God’s faithful, did the bidding of the Savior. But John, the Catechism also points out, was more than a prophet, for “with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to man of ‘the divine likeness’” (CCC 720).

Drawing again from modern parlance, we might say that John the Baptist worked himself out of a job. Jesus, having declared the greatness of John, remarks, “yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matt 11:11). How so? The greatness of John was in his faithfulness to the call of proclaiming the Son of God. But that does not match the greatness of those who, by grace, have been baptized into the life of the Son of God. They are filled with the divine life of God, made possible by the redemptive work of the Cross. The New Covenant is greater than the Old Covenant, and it establishes the Kingdom of God, which is what John the Baptist and the other prophets anticipated and desired.

The heart of John is revealed beautifully in his statement, found in John’s Gospel, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). That is, I think, a perfect prayer for Advent. It speaks of a heart completely given to the Holy Spirit. It describes the essence of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It reveals a man who speaks the truth in the wilderness, regardless of what everyone else on the street corner might think of him.  

New: "Mary of Nazareth: History, Archaeology, Legends" by Michael Hesemann

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Mary of Nazareth: History, Archaeology, Legends

by Michael Hesemann

This is the first archaeological and historical biography of the most fascinating and revered woman in history, the Mother of Christ. Millions of faithful around the world invoke her as their Queen, Protectress and Advocate. But who was this extraordinary woman chosen by God to give birth to the Savior? Michael Hesemann searched for her traces in Italy, Israel, Turkey and Egypt. Based on biblical traditions, legends and archaeological discoveries, he reconstructs the life of Mary of Nazareth, the Mother of the Messiah.

From the most ancient icon of Christianity to the Holy House in Loreto, from the Grotto of Nazareth to the refuge of the Holy Family in Egypt, from Mary's residence in Ephesus, Turkey, to Mount Zion and her empty tomb in Jerusalem, this is a journey of discovery, full of surprising insights that deepen our faith in the great mystery of the Mother of God.

Michael Hesemann studied History and Cultural Anthropology at Goettingen University, Germany. His 38 books have been published in 14 languages. He lives in Duesseldorf and Rome where he teaches Church history. He participated in archaeological excavations in the Holy Land, and helped to date discoveries in Nazareth as well as several Christian relics. He advised and participated in TV programs for the Discovery Channel, the History Channel,and EWTN. Together with Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, he wrote the international bestseller on Pope Benedict XVI, My Brother, the Pope.

"Michael Hesemann brings the work of careful scholarship to bear in Mary of Nazareth, and gives a book rich in research and redolent of a healthy respect for Our Lady and her only Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord."
— Mark P. Shea, Author, Mary, Mother of the Son

"Through historical, archaeological and textual research, Hesemann takes us on a lively adventure that sheds fascinating new light on the mother of Jesus. His personal devotion to the Virgin shines through his extensive scholarship to create a delightful and enchanting portrait of the Mother of God."
— Paul Thigpen, Ph.D., Author, A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God

"We pray to her and hold her up as an example of faith and virtue, but what do we really know about Mary and her life? Michael Hesemann has studied the texts, searched the world for clues and compiled the details of Mary's life in a readable and exciting story. He introduces us to the real Mary and all the details of her unique and exemplary life."
— Steven Ray, Author, Crossing the Tiber

"I'm thrilled to have discovered this work, which provides a context for and answers to many of my long-held queries about Mary. Meticulously researched yet accessibly written. I strongly recommend it!"
— Lisa Hendey, Founder, CatholicMom.Com

 

Catholicism embodied: “The Pivotal Players”

Catholicism embodied: “The Pivotal Players” | George Weigel | Catholic World Report

In Bishop Barron's new DVD series, six of the most striking personalities in Catholic history take center stage, the adventure of their lives serving to deepen our understanding of the “faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).

Looking for some uplift after this tawdry election cycle? Some inspiration for tackling what lies ahead? A good way to enrich Advent? Examples of sanctity to help you be the missionary disciple you were baptized to be? Then let me recommend Bishop Robert Barron’s new DVD series, Catholicism: The Pivotal Players.

Pivotal Players is a follow-up to Bishop Barron’s immensely successful, ten-part mega-series, Catholicism, the most compelling presentation of the symphony of Catholic truth ever created for modern media. Key figures in Catholic history appeared throughout the original series to illustrate this truth of the faith or that facet of the Catholic experience. Now, with Pivotal Players, six of the most striking personalities in Catholic history take center stage, the adventure of their lives serving to deepen our understanding of the “faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).

 

The six are Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena, Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, G.K. Chesterton, and Michelangelo Buonarroti: the reformer, the mystic, the theologian, the convert, the evangelist, and the artist. Two are doctors of the Church – and a third may be one day. Several of them inspired successors of St. Peter; another told a pope off in no uncertain terms. Two were Englishmen and converts from Anglicanism: one, will-o-the-wisp slight and the other gargantuan; one the quintessential Oxford don, the other, the quintessential Anglo-eccentric genius. One grew up a wannabe knight errant before his abrupt turn into radical evangelicalism. Still another was arguably the greatest genius in human history, his extraordinary talents ranging across sculpture, painting, architecture, poetry and other fields. Four were Italians (if you’ll permit the anachronism for an Umbrian, a Sienese, a sort-of Neapolitan, and a devout Florentine). Each of them was the human analogue to what astrophysicists call a “singularity,” someone to whom the old rules of spiritual gravitation didn’t apply.

And they shared something else in common besides the passionate intensity of their Catholic faith: each lived at a time of crisis for the Church, and each helped the Church address that crisis creatively while remaining true to itself.

Francis of Assisi and Catherine of Siena lived at times when institutional Catholicism had become complacent, losing its evangelical edge. By creating something utterly new in Catholic life – the mendicant religious order dedicated to evangelization – Francis inspired in the Church a new Gospel radicalism centered on the joyful experience of salvation. By persuading (perhaps better, shaming) Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome from his political exile in Avignon, Catherine of Siena made it possible for the papacy to be again the center of unity for the entire Catholic world, as Christ intended it to be. 

Thomas Aquinas, for his part, grafted the “new learning” of Aristotle into Catholic theology in a creative synthesis that gave the Church conceptual tools that remain powerful today. In doing so, he helped create what we know in the West as higher education, even as he showed the Church how to incorporate the best of the  “modernity” of his time into its intellectual and spiritual life without losing touch with the truths it had long possessed as a bequest from the Lord.

Michelangelo lived during that moment of sometimes-brash human assertiveness we call the Renaissance; his theologically-driven art (which Bishop Barron explains in perhaps the most scintillating part of Pivotal Players) enriched the classically-inspired humanism of his day by marrying it to the biblical account of the human person.

Newman and Chesterton, closer to our moment, were key figures in crafting a Catholic response to the scientific revolution and the other dramatic changes that were reshaping how we think about things – and imagine our place in the scheme of things – during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. That each of them did so in wonderfully winsome prose helped demonstrate the continuing vitality of the Catholic mind and spirit in an increasingly skeptical age, even as they bequeathed to the 21^st-century Church models of apologetics that remain cogent at a time like ours, when skepticism has often hardened into cynicism, or just plain boredom.

There are important things to be learned from each of these God-touched human personalities for the challenges Catholicism faces in the post-modern world of the twenty-first century. Kudos to Bishop Barron for bringing those things to our attention in a gripping way.

To Trace All Souls Day

To Trace All Souls Day | Fr. Brian Van Hove, S.J. | Ignatius Insight

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger once said so well, one major difference between Protestants and Catholics is that Catholics pray for the dead:

"My view is that if Purgatory did not exist, we should have to invent it." Why?

"Because few things are as immediate, as human and as widespread—at all times and in all cultures—as prayer for one"s own departed dear ones." Calvin, the Reformer of Geneva, had a woman whipped because she was discovered praying at the grave of herson and hence was guilty, according to Calvin, of superstition". "In theory, the Reformation refuses to accept Purgatory, and consequently it also rejects prayer for the departed. In fact German Lutherans at least have returned to it in practice and have found considerable theological justification for it. Praying for one's departed loved ones is a far too immediate urge to be suppressed; it is a most beautiful manifestation of solidarity, love and assistance, reaching beyond the barrier of death. The happiness or unhappiness of a person dear to me, who has now crossed to the other shore, depends in part on whether I remember or forget him; he does not stop needing my love." [1]

Catholics are not the only ones who pray for the dead. The custom is also a Jewish one, and Catholics traditionally drew upon the following text from the Jewish Scriptures, in addition to some New Testament passages, to justify their belief:

Then Judas assembled his army and went to the city of Adulam. As the seventh day was coming on, they purified themselves according to the custom, and they kept the sabbath there. On the next day, as by that time it had become necessary, Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of the fallen and to bring them back to lie with their kinsmen in the sepulchres of their fathers. Then under the tunic of every one of the dead they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. And it became clear to all that this was why these men had fallen. So they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous Judge, who reveals the things that are hidden; and they turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out. And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honourably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin. [2]

Besides the Jews, many ancient peoples also prayed for the deceased. Some societies, such as that of ancient Egypt, were actually "funereal" and built around the practice. [3] The urge to do so is deep in the human spirit which rebels against the concept of annihilation after death. Although there is some evidence for a Christian liturgical feast akin to our All Souls Day as early as the fourth century, the Church was slow to introduce such a festival because of the persistence, in Europe, of more ancient pagan rituals for the dead. In fact, the Protestant reaction to praying for the dead may be based more on these survivals and a deformed piety from pre-Christian times than on the true Catholic doctrine as expressed by either the Western or the Eastern Church. The doctrine of purgatory, rightly understood as praying for the dead, should never give offense to anyone who professes faith in Christ.

The saints are sealed, called, and saved by God

"Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven" (1428-30) by Fra Angelico [WikiArt.org]

by Carl E. Olson | The Dispatch at CWR

A passage from The Apocalypse is read on the Solemnity of All Saints because it describes the reason we were created: to be holy ones

Readings:
• Rev 7:2-4, 9-14
• Psa 24:1BC-2, 3-4AB, 5-6
• 1 Jn 3:1-3
• Mt 5:1-12a

Many readers are understandably confused or puzzled when hearing a passage from the Book of Revelation. It is unfortunate, however, that many end up dismissing what they’ve heard. In so doing, they miss out on some of the most joyful passages of sacred Scripture. Yes, that's right—joyful. 

Today’s first reading is a perfect example of such a passage. It is read on the Solemnity of All Saints because it describes the reason we were created. Using a multitude of references to the Old Testament, John the Revelator shows what it means to be a saint, a “holy one.” I wish to highlight three of the characteristics shared by all saints revealed in the seventh chapter of The Apocalypse. The word apokalypsis, by the way, refers to an “unveiling”—primarily of Jesus Christ, of course, but also of God’s fulfilled work of salvation and his plan for each of us.

The first characteristic of all the saints is they are sealed by God. Prior to judgment being sent from the throne room of heaven upon the wickedness of man, the servants of God are to be sealed, or marked, and thus set apart as holy. This imagery is drawn from the ninth chapter of Ezekiel, which describes the Lord commanding a mysterious “man clothed in linen” to go through Jerusalem and “put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it” (Ezek. 9:3-4). Those who loved God and who hated sin were saved; all others perished. The mark described by Ezekiel would protect the righteous Israelites from four rapidly approaching judgments, to be carried out by Babylon (another name used often in the Book of Revelation).

Jesus was set apart by the Father with a seal (Jn. 6:27). Those who are baptized into Christ are also marked, with the seal of the Holy Spirit, which is both familial and judicial in nature. Those marked by God belong to him; they are now of his household—the Church—and are under his authority and protection from eternal damnation (see Catechism, pars. 1295-6). 

The second characteristic of saints, which builds on the first, is that they are servants and sons of God.

Continue reading on the CWR site.

New: "Three Kings, Ten Mysteries: The Secrets of Christmas and Epiphany"

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Three Kings, Ten Mysteries: The Secrets of Christmas and Epiphany

Text by Grzegorz Gorny; photography by Janusz Rosikon

Hardcover, 170 pages.

Were the Three Kings, or Magi, who the Bible says traveled to Bethlehem in search of the Christ Child real, historical figures or simply the stuff of legend?

For generations, the Magi have inspired art and music. Epiphany, the important Christian feast twelve days after Christmas, is a national holiday in many countries throughout the world. What lies at the heart of this celebration and is it still relevant today?

Turning to discoveries made by historians, scientists, and theologians, Polish author Grzegorz Górny answers these questions. With gorgeous four-color photographs on every page, he traces the mysteries of the Magi from the Gospel of Matthew to modern-day astronomy to revived Epiphany celebrations on the streets of secularized European capitals.

Grzegorz Górny is a reporter, essayist, and film and television producer. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the quarterly Fronda, and from 1994 to 2001 he co-authored a program under the same title that aired on the Polish national television. He has produced various documentary television series and authored numerous articles for European publications. His books include Battle for Madrid (2010).

Janusz Rosikon is a photographer and a member of the Association of Polish Artistic Photographers. His photographs have been featured in Time, Newsweek, and Reader's Digest.

"The Blessed Virgin in the History of Christianity" by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

The Blessed Virgin in the History of Christianity | John A. Hardon, S.J.

Christianity would be meaningless without the Blessed Virgin. Her quiet presence opened Christian history at the Incarnation and will continue to pervade the Church's history until the end of time.

Our purpose in this meditation is to glance over the past two thousand years to answer one question: What are the highlights of our Marian faith as found in the Bible and the teaching of the Catholic Church?

New Testament

The first three evangelists were mainly concerned with tracing Christ's ancestry as Son of Man and, therefore, as Son of Mary. St. Matthew, writing for the Jews, stressed Christ's descent from Abraham. St. Luke, disciple of St. Paul, traced Christ's origin to Adam, the father of the human race. Yet both writers were at pains to point out that Mary's Son fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah about the Messiah. He was to be born of a virgin to become Emmanuel, which means "God with us." Luke gave a long account of the angel's visit to Mary to announce that the Child would be holy and would be called the "Son of God" (Luke 1:36).

St. John followed the same pattern. He introduced Mary as the Mother of Jesus when He began His public ministry. In answer to her wishes, Christ performed the miracle of changing water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana in Galilee. What happened then has continued ever since. Most of the miraculous shrines of Christianity have been dedicated to Our Lady.

It is also St. John who tells us that Mary stood under the Cross of Calvary as her Son was dying for our salvation. Speaking of John, Jesus told His Mother, "This is your son." To John, He said of Mary, "This is your Mother." The apostle John represented all of us. On Good Friday, therefore, Christ made His Mother the supernatural Mother of the human race and made us her spiritual children.

Mother of God

In the early fifth century, a controversy arose in Asia Minor, where the Bishop of Constantinople claimed that Mary was only the Mother of Christ (Greek=Christotokos). He was condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431, which declared that "the holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Greek=Theotokos).

St. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, was mainly responsible for this solemn definition of Mary's divine maternity. It was St. Cyril who thus composed the most famous Marian hymn of antiquity. It is a praise of Our Lady as Mediatrix with God:

Through you, the Trinity is glorified.
Through you, the Cross is venerated throughout the world.
Through you, angels and archangels rejoice.
Through you, the demons are driven away.
Through you, the fallen creature is raised to heaven.
Through you, the churches are founded in the whole world.
Through you, people are led to conversion.

Every other title of Mary and all the Marian devotion of the faithful are finally based on the Blessed Virgin's primary claim to our extraordinary love. She is the Mother of God. She gave her Son all that every human mother gives the child she conceives and gives birth to. She gave Him His human body. Without her, there would have been no Incarnation, no Redemption, no Eucharist; in a word, no Christianity.

Mary's Virginity

Logically related to her divine maternity is Our Lady's perpetual virginity. From the earliest days the Church has taught that Mary was a virgin before giving birth to Jesus, in giving His birth, and after His birth in Bethlehem.

Being the “poorest of the poor” with Mother Teresa

An undated file picture shows Mother Teresa holding a child during a visit to Warsaw, Poland. Mother Teresa will be canonized by Pope Francis Sept. 4 at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Tomasz Gzell, EPA)

Being the “poorest of the poor” with Mother Teresa | Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle | Catholic World Report

How Mother Teresa taught this wife and mother to see and to serve Jesus in everyone she meets.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be staying at Mother Teresa’s homeless shelters. And not just once, but twice. Truth be told, I have endured times of poverty, but my days spent in the shelters were not during those times, and they were in two different parts of the world.

The first time was in Harlem, New York about 30 years ago, when it was very dangerous to be on the streets of that barbed-wire jungle. The second time was just a few years ago in Rome, Italy.

Allow me to back up a bit in order to tell the story about meeting my spiritual mother, whom others knew as the Saint of the Gutters, or simply as Mother Teresa. Almost 30 years ago, I first laid eyes on the little saint of the poor, dressed in a simple white cotton sari trimmed in Blessed Mother blue. I caught my first glimpse of her out of the corner of my eye, when she walked right past me quietly in her bare feet just before Mass was about to begin at the Missionaries of Charity convent in Washington, DC.

I was visiting the nation’s capital because my spiritual director, Father John A. Hardon, SJ, had asked me to bring my family to see him for a face-to-face meeting. After our time with him, at Father’s encouragement, we set out to visit the sick and dying in the “Gift of Peace” home at the convent. We had a very meaningful visit, observing the great love and tenderness shown to the poor and suffering living in the home, at which there was a clear and beautiful aura of holiness. The MC sisters invited us to return the following day for a private Mass in their chapel. I was honored to be invited, but imagine my excitement when one sister informed me that Mother Teresa would be at one of their two Masses the next day; she didn’t know which one. My heart secretly soared hearing that Mother Teresa was there at the convent. Still, as much as I had always admired her for her selfless work with the poor and had considered her to be a living saint, I didn’t want to take up her time if we happened to see her the following day.

Early the next morning, we arrived at the convent’s chapel and I spotted several pairs of sandals lined up outside the door, which prompted us to take off our shoes before entering. Once inside, one of the first things I noticed was actually a lack of things. The chapel was very stark, yet so very meaningful. The few items there—an altar, a tabernacle, a crucifix, a statue of the Blessed Mother, and the words, “I Thirst” painted on the wall beside the tabernacle—drew my heart to what was most important. Those two words—“I thirst”—would echo in my heart for years after, and still do. I settled my children and we all knelt down to say our prayers before Mass.

Meeting the Saint of the Gutters

We had picked the right Mass, for Mother Teresa unexpectedly walked in. She seemed to float right past me. I needed to quickly direct my mind back to the Mass that was about to begin. Never mind the fact that a living saint was in our midst! I was kneeling down on the chapel’s bare floor with my husband and children, trying my best to prepare my heart for Mass, while still keeping an eye on my children: Justin, Chaldea, and Jessica. Mother Teresa’s presence certainly seemed to send a holy jolt up and down my spine!

Another surprise unfolded right after the Mass.

Continue reading on the CWR site.

Cardinal Raymond Burke on Life, Truth, Mother Teresa, Islam, and Cardinal Sarah

U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, patron of the Knights and Dames of Malta, and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan, walk in the 6th annual March for Life in Rome May 8, 2016. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

by Carl E. Olson | Catholic World Report

Speaking to reporters from Rome about his new book, the American prelate goes on record about Christians and Muslims (they don't worship the same God) and Cardinal Sarah (“I agree with him completely...").

In a wide-ranging international teleconference call on Monday with media members, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke spoke in detail about many timely topics, including the priority of standing up for life in addressing poverty and other social ills, the witness and message of Mother Teresa, essential differences between Christianity and Islam, and the recent controversy over remarks by Cardinal Robert Sarah about liturgical orientation. The occasion of the call was Cardinal Burke's recent book Hope For the World: To Unite All Things in Christ (Ignatius Press), an interview given to French author Guillaume d'Alançon in 2015, and translated by Michael J. Miller for Ignatius Press.

 

Since being named a bishop by Pope John Paul II in 1994, Cardinal Burke has become one of more well-known prelates in the English-speaking world, known for his willingness to address controversial topics forthrightly, despite often being criticized. Noted as a canon lawyer, Cardinal Burke was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, and then called to Rome to become Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. During the two recent Synods on the Family, Cardinal Burke spoke out often about his concerns, telling CWR during the October 2014 gathering that he thought the Synod's mid-term report "lacks a solid foundation in the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium", a remark made a month after he was removed from his position as Prefect and named chaplain to the Order of Malta by Pope Francis.

Cardinal Burke, conversing from Rome, told reporters that his new book was motivated by a desire to reflect on his upbringing and how he discerned his vocation as priest, and also "to reflect as a pastor, as a bishop, on certain on certain critical issues of the day". As such, he noted, the book is a "kind of testimony of faith on my part", and the hope is that the book, in keeping with its title, will "give hope" to readers.

Asked about an apparent shifting of priorities among American bishops since the beginning of Francis' pontificate, Cardinal Burke pointed out that while the issues of abortion, poverty, immigration, and global warming all have "moral importance", the Church's tradition and philosophical reason both indicate that "the fundamental question has to be the question of human life itself, the respect for the inviolable dignity of human life and of its Creator, of its Source, and the union of a man and a woman in marriage, which according to God's plan is the place where new human life is welcomed and nurtured."

He expressed concern that the matter of human life and the issues of abortion, artificial insemination, contraception, and euthanasia be placed somehow on the same level as "questions regarding immigration and poverty." The first priority, he emphasized, must be given to proper respect for human life and for the family in order to have "the right orientations in addressing all of the other questions" and challenges faced by people in daily life. It makes no sense, he pointed out, to be concerned with immigration or poverty "if human life itself is not protected in society ... The first justice accorded to any human being is to respect life itself, which is received from God..." Cardinal Burke observed there are some who advocate an elimination of certain parts of the population in order to fight poverty, or who adhere to a "contraceptive mentality" in order to pursue a sort of "social engineering" harmful to society and to individuals.

The former Archbishop of St. Louis emphasized that bishops have a responsibility to proclaim the truth of Christ in love within the Church, following the example of Christ himself, knowing that the love that will "best serve society is the truth, a truth that respects God's plan for us from the moment of creation..." When he travels, the cardinal said, he finds that people want to hear "the truth of the faith" from priests, bishops, and cardinals—"they aren't interested in my personal opinions about things, which won't save their souls, and I am as aware of that as they are; they look to me to reflect very deeply on the truths of the Faith and their application on society today, and to speak to that truth with love and care for society." The fundamental mission of Catholics in the world is to be united to Christ and to "give witness to the truth", a witness that is "very much needed in our time".

Asked how it was that he, as a young seminarian in the Sixties, avoided falling into the "craziness" of that era, Cardinal Burke credited his parents and his upbringing. He acknowledged he was not unaffected by the "tumultuous" times, especially after going to Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, in 1968 to study philosophy. He credits the "stable and good" discipline, prayer life, and formation he experienced in minor seminary, which he entered at the age of fourteen. He lamented that so many seminarians, seminary professors, and priests at CUA abandoned their vocations and ministry during that time. But he "simply couldn't be convinced that this so-called 'new way', this 'new Church'" was a good and right path, as if what he had been taught growing up was now "wrong and needed to be abandoned". He expressed, however, "great sympathy" for many of those who lost their way, saying that it was a "very tumultuous time and we were young".

Reflecting on the upcoming canonization of Mother Teresa by Pope Francis on Sunday, September 4th, Cardinal Burke expressed his happiness that the famous nun will be named a saint, saying "she has been an inspiration to me from my years in the seminary when I first came to know her".

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Photographer who captured Mother Teresa’s canonization image available for interviews

San Francisco, August 23, 2016 – Portrait photographer Michael Collopy has worked with many famous people, but when he recalls his work photographing Mother Teresa, he says, “I have never met anyone who could compare to the spiritual depth of character and selfless love that Mother displayed over the course of my 15 years of knowing her.”

A painting of one of Michael Collopy’s photographs in his book Works of Love Are Works of Peace has been chosen to be the official Sainthood image of Mother Teresa. The image will be revealed at the canonization and then it will be in the homes of the Missionaries of Charity worldwide.

Another one of Collopy’s photographs from Works of Love Are Works of Peace is being used for both the official Vatican Saint Teresa stamp, as well as for the recent cover of Time magazine.

Michael Collopy is available for interviews about his experiences photographing Mother Teresa, both now and during his upcoming trip to Rome for the canonization on September 4.
 
Works of Love Are Works of Peace, now available in paperback, was more than four years in the making and published with the cooperation of Mother Teresa. This large format 224 page book offers the most comprehensive photographic documentation of the apostolic work and prayer life of the Missionaries of Charity published. Destined to serve as an important historical record, this “illustrated prayer book” vividly portrays the peace and joy that can come when “small things” are done with great love.
 
The more than 180 fine art quality tri-tone The stamp to mark the canonisation of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta photographs, along with spiritual counsel from Mother Teresa, will provide a lifetime of rich material for prayer and meditation. Also included with Mother Teresa’s special permission, is the contents of the Missionaries of Charity daily prayer book as well as a most personal and profound letter on the interior life written by Mother Teresa to her entire order. Though meant originally as an instruction to those in her order, this “I Thirst” letter has become a source of spiritual light and encouragement, drawing innumerable hearts and souls closer to God.

USA Today says, “This is a book infused with grace.”

“This exceptionally well-produced photo-documentary chronicles the work of Mother Teresa and the order she founded. Avoiding sentimentality, the photographs show the love of Christ in action,” says Christianity Today.

Works of Love are Works of Peace is “quietly eloquent,” says the San Francisco Examiner.

In the introduction to this beautiful photobook, Mother Teresa writes, “Let us pray that this book will draw people to Jesus, help them realize how much God loves them, and help them to want to pray. Let it be for the glory of God and the good of His people.”

About the Author:
Michael Collopy is one of the preeminent portrait photographers of our time, well known for his commissioned portraits of a variety of world figures ranging from Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher to Frank Sinatra and Placido Domingo. A student of such luminaries as Ansel Adams and Richard Avedon, Collopy’s work has been published in books, magazines, newspapers, and on record and CD covers worldwide.
 
Michael Collopy is available for interviews about this book. To request a review copy or an interview with Michael Collopy, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or [email protected]
 
Product Facts:
Title: WORKS OF LOVE ARE WORKS OF PEACE
Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Missionaries of Charity
Release Date: July 2016
Length: 224 Pages • 9 x 11 Sewn Softcover Photobook
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-1-62164-129-2
Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com

Saint Teresa of Jesus and the Search for the Sacred

Saint Teresa of Jesus and the Search for the Sacred | Fr. Erik Varden, OCSO | Catholic World Report

Does the Church’s liturgy enable, now, the expression and communication of sacred realities? Is the ‘sacred’ still a meaningful category?

Among the signal events to mark the Church’s life in 2015 was the 500th birthday of St Teresa of Jesus. The year’s peak event, her feast on 15 October, was overshadowed by headlines from the Synod; yet this year has been nonetheless a Teresian year, calling to mind the Castilian Doctor’s formidable legacy. I found myself gently haunted by Teresa while reading Fr Uwe Michael Lang’s Signs of The Holy One.

I should like, with her help, to reflect on questions raised by the book. For this is a volume that interrogates. It formulates problems not susceptible of easy resolution. There is material here for an examen of consciousness. I invoke the term ‘consciousness’ advisedly. Although Fr Lang mainly addresses issues of liturgical praxis, he knows better than just to bemoan the transgression of rubrics. He points towards a breakdown of sense in liturgy. He shows how this breakdown ominously points to senselessness likewise in life and belief. It is tempting to imagine his subtitle ending with a question mark: ‘Liturgy, Ritual, and Expression of the Sacred?’ Does the Church’s liturgy enable, now, the expression and communication of sacred realities? Is the ‘sacred’ still a meaningful category?

The book’s first part expounds the sense-content of ‘sacredness’ as defined by modern anthropology and theology. The sheer variety of approaches bewilders. This is brought out in the second part, which indicates wrong turns taken in sacred architecture, music, and art over the past half-century. They happened because the signifier ‘sacred’ was often put, as it were, on its head. Hijacked by human criteria, it could no longer effectively point upward and out to the transcendent. The crisis of sacred liturgy and art is thus a crisis of purpose, of finality. By way of illustration, Fr Lang cites examples apt to make the reader smile. Really, though, there is cause for sadness. When the proclamatory impact of Christian devotion is compromised; when the aesthetic response to faith becomes purely subjective, cut off from a sharable paradigm; when ritual seems little more than fortuitously repeated action: then woe is us, for the Gospel is not preached with the force it requires and deserves. What can we do? How can we respond? We might turn for counsel to the half-millenarian, plain-speaking Doctor of Ávila.

Teresa’s Autobiography, completed in her fiftieth year, chronicles the irruption of the divine into an ordinary life. Seeing Teresa at a distance, we may object to the adjective ‘ordinary’. She seems anything but! Teresa, however, argued this point with passion. She was conscious of singular favour shown her; but she insisted that nothing in her nature marked her out from the common run of men and women. She presents her life in its extraordinariness as a typical life, an exemplar each of us might emulate, had we but faith and courage to surrender to God’s work in us. The trajectory she traces reaches from the outset right to the loftiest end of spiritual life. She counsels souls who wobble ‘like hens, with feet tied together’ but also those who soar like eagles (xxxix.12).¹ Nor does she forget the perplexing darkness of the long intermediate stage when the soul, like a timid dove, is dazzled by rare glimpses of God’s Sun while, ‘when looking at itself, its eyes are blinded by clay. The little dove is blind’ (xx.29). Everything she writes, she tells us, is born of experience. For long years she herself ‘had neither any joy in God nor pleasure in the world’ (viii.2). She lived in an in-between state, a no-woman’s land. What changed it? No summary can do justice to her subtle account of the transformative miracle wrought in her by God. We can, though, get some sense of its impact. Teresa testifies how, at a decisive juncture, ‘todos los que me conocían veían claro estar otra mi alma’: her soul had become other; it was no longer what it used to be (xxviii.13). She had seen something that changed her way of seeing. It caused others to see her differently. It was not, she says, a matter of ‘a radiance that dazzles’, rather of ‘a soft whiteness’, ‘an infused radiance’ that, for being gentle, was so unlike any earthly light that in comparison with it ‘the brightness of our sun seems dim’. Measured against Uncreated Light all light of this world seems ‘artificial’. Had we a choice, she assures us, we should never again ‘want to open our eyes for the purpose of seeing it’ (xxviii.5). To entertain such grace is not just sweetness and joy. It brings on a new kind of homelessness, a numbing sense of being out of place, and that for good. At the end of her book Teresa remarks that life in this world seems to her now ‘a kind of sleep’ (xl.22). She yearns to awaken to eternity. She is weary of being torn apart by existential - or better, essential - tension, for ‘natural weakness’ cannot sustain such spiritual vehemence (xl.7). Anyone who makes even moderate progress in prayer is reminded, like her, of how little Spirit our natural human frame can bear. ‘¡Válgame Dios!’, he or she might exclaim with Teresa: ‘God help me!’

Teresa is a witness to the beautiful dimension of faith. When she speaks of it, she is categorical: ‘The fact of seeing Christ left an impression of his exceeding beauty etched on my soul to this day: once was enough’ (xxxvii.4). This beauty is disturbing, even dangerous.

Continue reading on the CWR site.

The Assumption" by Monsignor Ronald Knox

The Assumption | Mgr. Ronald Knox | From Pastoral and Occasional Sermons | August 15th | Ignatius Insight

A cave Jeremias found there, in which he set down tabernacle and ark and incense-altar, and stopped up the entrance behind him. There were some that followed; no time they lost in coming up to mark the spot, but find it they could not.—2 Machabees 2:5-6.

After this, God's heavenly temple was thrown open, and the ark of the covenant was plain to view, standing in his temple.—Apocalypse 11:19.

The Son of God came to earth to turn our hearts away from earth, Godwards. The material world in which we live was, by his way of it, something immaterial; it didn't matter. We were not to be always worrying about our clothes being shabby, or wondering where our next meal was to come from; the God who fed the sparrows and clothed the lilies would see to all that. We were not to resent the injuries done to us by our neighbours; the aggressor was welcome to have a slap at the other cheek, and when he took away our greatcoat he was to find that we had left our coat inside it. Life itself, the life we know, was a thing of little value; it was a cheap bargain, if we lost life here to attaIn the life hereafter. There was a supernatural world, interpenetrating, at a higher level, the world of our experience; it has its own laws, the only rule we were to live by, its own prizes, which alone were worth the winning. All that he tried to teach us; and we, intent on our own petty squabbles, our sordid struggle for existence, cold-shouldered him at first, and then silenced his protest with a cross.

His answer was to rise from the dead; and then, for forty days in the world's history, that supernatural life which he had preached to us flourished and functioned under the conditions of earth. A privileged few saw, with mortal eyes, the comings and goings of immortality, touched with their hands the impalpable. For forty days; then, as if earth were too frail a vessel to contain the mystery, the tension was suddenly relaxed. He vanished behind a cloud; the door of the supernatural shut behind him, and we were left to the contemplation of this material world, drab and barren as ever.

What was the first thing the apostles saw when they returned from the mount of the Ascension to the upper room? "Together with Mary"—is it only an accident that the Mother of God is mentioned just here, by name, and nowhere else outside the gospels? The Incarnate Word had left us, as silently as he came to us, leaving no trace behind him of his passage through time. No trace? At least, in the person of his blessed Mother, he had bequeathed to us a keepsake, a memory. She was bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, the new Eve of the new Adam. That body of hers, still part of the material order of things, had housed and suckled God. As long as she lived, there would still be a link, a golden link, between this lower earth and Paradise. As long as she lived; and even if it was God's will that she, Eve's daughter, should undergo the death that was Eve's penalty, the penalty she had never incurred, her mortal remains would still be left with us, an echo from the past, an influence on our lives. We men, since we are body and soul, do honour even to the lifeless bodies which have housed the dead; Napoleon rests in the Invalides, Lenin at Moscow. The day would come when there would be pilgrimages from all over the world to the shrines of Peter and Paul at Rome, of James at Compostela. Was it not reasonable to hope that somewhere, at Jerusalem, perhaps, or at Ephesus, we should be privileged to venerate the mortal remains of her through whom salvation came to us? Or perhaps at Bethlehem, Bethlehem-Ephrata, this new Ark of God would rest, as the ark rested of old; "And now, at Ephrata, we have heard tidings of what we looked for" [1] —the old tag from the Psalms should still ring true.

God disposed otherwise. Jewish tradition recorded that when Jerusalem was destroyed by the armies of Babylon, the prophet Jeremias took the ark of God away from the city, and buried it in some secret cleft of the rock; it was never seen again. Never again, except by St John, in his vision on the isle of Patmos; he saw the ark of God, but in heaven. And so it was with this new Ark of God, the virgin body that had been his resting-place. When and where she passed away from this earth, or in what manner, nobody can tell us for certain. But we know where she is. When Elias was carried up into heaven, the sons of the prophets at Jericho asked Eliseus if they might go out in search of him; "it may be", they said, "the spirit of the Lord has carried him off and left him on some hill-top or in some cleft of the valleys." He consented grudgingly, and when they returned from their fruitless errand, greeted them with the words; "Did I not tell you not to send?" [2] So it is with the body of the blessed Virgin: nowhere in Christendom will you hear the rumour of it. So many churches, all over the world, eagerly claiming to possess the relics of this or that saint; who shall tell us whether John the Baptist sleeps at Amiens, or at Rome? But never of our Lady; and if any of us still hoped to find that inestimable treasure, the Holy Father has called off the search, only the other day. We know where her body is; it is in heaven.

Of course, we knew it all along. For myself, I have never doubted the doctrine of the Assumption since I heard it preached forty-four years ago, in an Anglican church over at Plymouth. You see, we get it all wrong about body and soul, simply because our minds are dominated by matter. We think it the most natural thing in the world that soul and body should be separated after death; that the body should remain on earth and the soul go to heaven, once it is purged and assoiled. But it isn't a natural thing at all; soul and body were made for one another, and the temporary divorce between them is something out of the way, something extraordinary, occasioned by the Fall. In our blessed Lady, not born under the star of that defeat, human nature was perfectly integrated; body and soul belonged to one another, as one day, please God, yours and mine will.

Long ago, in those fields of Bethlehem, Ruth had gleaned in the footsteps of her beloved; and he, secretly, had given charge to the reapers to drop handfuls of corn on purpose, so that she might fill her bosom the sooner. So he, whose reapers are the angels, would leave for his blessed Mother a special portion of those graces that were to enrich mankind. The child-bearing which brought, to us others, redemption from the fault of our first parents should bring, to her, exemption; the empty tomb, which assures us that our bodies will rise at the judgment, was for her the earnest of an immediate resurrection; Christ the first-fruits, and who should glean them, but she? For that, heaven is the richer, earth the poorer. We can go to Lourdes, and offer adoration in the place where her feet stood; we cannot press with our lips some precious reliquary containing the hand that swaddled Christ. In a world so dominated by matter, in which matter itself seems to carry the seeds of its own destruction, there is no material object left that can link our destinies with hers.

And yet, is the loss all loss? When the dogma of the Assumption was defined a friend of mine, a very intelligent Mohammedan, congratulated me on the gesture which the Holy Father had made; a gesture (said he) against materialism. And I think he was right. When our Lord took his blessed Mother, soul and body, into heaven, he did honour to the poor clay of which our human bodies are fashioned. It was the first step towards reconciling all things in heaven and earth to his eternal Father, towards making all things new. "The whole of nature", St Paul tells us, "groans in a common travail all the while. And not only do we see that, but we ourselves do the same; we ourselves although we have already begun to reap our spiritual harvest, groan in our hearts, waiting for that adoption which is the ransoming of our bodies from their slavery." [3] That transformation of our material bodies to which we look forward one day has been accomplished—we know it now for certain-in her.

When the Son of God came to earth, he came to turn our hearts away from earth, Godwards. And as the traveller, shading his eyes while he contemplates some long vista of scenery, searches about for a human figure that will give him the scale of those distant surroundings, so we, with dazzled eyes looking Godwards, identify and welcome one purely human figure close to his throne. One ship has rounded the headland, one destiny is achieved, one human perfection exists. And as we watch it, we see God clearer, see God greater, through this masterpiece of his dealings with mankind.

(A sermon broadcast from Buckfast Abbey, Devon, on the Feast of Our Lady Assumption, 15 August 1954.)

ENDNOTES:

[1] Psalm 131:6.
[2] 4 Kings 2:16, 18.
[3] Romans 8:22-3.

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Related IgnatiusInsight.com Links:

• IgnatiusInsight.com Author Page for Monsignor Ronald Knox
• The Modern Distaste for Religion | Ronald Knox
• The Mind of Knox | David Rooney
• The School of Ronald Knox | An Interview with David Rooney
• The Monsignor and the Don | An Interview with Fr. Milton Walsh
• Monsignor Ronald Knox: Convert, Priest, Apologist | An Interview with Fr. Milton Walsh
• Experience, Reason, and Authority in the Apologetics of Ronald Knox | Milton Walsh | From Ronald Knox As Apologist
• The Four Marks of the Church | Ronald A. Knox
• Review of The Belief of Catholics | Carl E. Olson
• Ronald Knox, Apologist | Carl E. Olson
• A Lesson Learned From Monsignor Ronald A. Knox | Carl E. Olson
• Converts and Saints | An Interview with Joseph Pearce

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Monsignor Ronald Knox (1888-1957) was the son of the Anglican Bishop of Manchester and it appeared that he, being both spiritually perceptive and intellectually gifted, would also have a successful life as an Anglican prelate. But while in school in the early 1900s Knox began a long struggle between his love for the Church of England and his growing attraction to the Catholic Church. He converted to Catholicism at the age of twenty-nine, became a priest, and wrote numerous books on spiritual and literary topics, including The Belief of Catholics, Captive Flames: On Selected Saints and Christian Heroes, The Hidden Stream: The Mysteries of the Christian Faith, Pastoral and Occasional Sermons, and many more. Visit Knox's IgnatiusInsight.com author page for more information about his life and work.