This week publisher Saint Benedict Press sponsors the CBB giveaway. One lucky winner will receive one copy of To The Heights: A Novel Based on the Life of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati by Brian Kennelly (you can read my review here). I use Rafflecopter to run my giveaways which makes it simple for you and me! Enter below. The contest starts at midnight tonight EST and will end 12AM EST Friday 10/24 with a winner being announced later that day.... Read more
See the truth in the works it produces Do any of the pagan professors of rhetoric or grammar really make their students happy? No, says Athenagoras. But look at the Christians: they may not know a subject from a predicate, but you can tell by their works that Christian teaching is true. Look at the teachers who reduce syllogisms, and clear up ambiguities, and explain etymologies, or teach homonyms and synonyms, and which is the subject and which is the... Read more
Beyond seeing his pictures I knew very little about Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. After reading To the Heights: A Novel Based on the Life of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati by Brian Kennelly I can no longer say that. In this historical fiction novel Brian brings Blessed Pier to life. When finished with this book you will feel as if you had just spent time with a brother. Brian vividly tells the life story of Blessed Pier from childhood to his... Read more
Distinguish what’s important to be right about St. Augustine tells us that we can be wrong about some things without causing any harm. What we can’t be wrong about is moral principles. It’s not bad in itself to think that someone is good when he’s actually an adulterer, but it’s quite another thing to think that adultery is good. In some things, we are deceived in great matters; in others, small. In some of them no harm is done; in... Read more
Love the truth as the martyrs did Philoxenus, an ancient Syriac writer, tells us that the love of truth is a consuming passion for those who have tasted it, and no danger or torture can separate those who have found it from the love of Christ. Jesus Our God commands us to declare our truth openly, and not to be ashamed, and not to blush, and not just to accept what we are told by people in authority, and not... Read more
Welcome back to “The Clergy Speaks”, a recurring feature here at The Catholic Book Blogger. “The Clergy Speaks” is a column focusing on one question I have asked various members of the clergy. That question is: What five books would you recommend as must-reads for Catholics today? I left the responses open to current or classic books with the only restriction being that the Bible and the Catechism could not be used as they are a given. This week we... Read more
This week I am featuring four brand titles released in October by Lighthouse Catholic Media. Click the cover image above to purchase this talk as either a CD or MP3 download. In this Christmas themed presentation, Fr. Shannon Collins sheds new light on the biblical narratives of the birth of Jesus Christ, as well as the beautiful Christmas traditions of the Church. Fr. Shannon Collins joined the Congregation of the Fathers of Mercy in 1994. As a priest in the... Read more
Learn practice before theory The abbot Nesteros tells St. John Cassian that he needs to learn practice before he can tackle theory. You can’t reach the highest peak if the first step isn’t in place. Whoever would arrive at this theoretical knowledge must first pursue practical knowledge with all his might and main. For this practical knowledge can be acquired without theoretical, but theoretical cannot possibly be gained without practical. There are certain stages, so distinct, and arranged in such... Read more
PETE: First a simply worded but complex question. Why prayer? MATT LEONARD: Allow me to answer a question with a question, Pete. Why not prayer? How many of us actually think we’re praying enough? (Put your hand down unless you are a contemplative monk or nun in the hinterlands…which are far away.) To be honest, I don’t think there are enough good books on prayer. In fact, I don’t think there will ever be enough good books on prayer because... Read more
Put God’s rules first Just as in our own time, educated people in the time of St. Augustine loved to look down on lower-class accents. Dropping the letter ‘h’ was a notorious sign of poor pronunciation. Yet with all the effort they put into the rules of speaking properly, these same people could easily ignore the commandments of God. See, God, and see it patiently, as you always do, how diligently people observe the conventional rules of letters and syllables,... Read more
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