BP. Athanasius Schneider

THE CATHOLIC MASS

Steps to Restore the Centrality
of God in the Liturgy.

IMPRIMATUR

We are going through a period of liturgical exile, explains Bishop Athanasius Schneider in this enlightening book, and the vast proliferation of modern abuses are crying out for liturgical reform. The primary source of most modern abuses, he declares, is man’s narcissistic tendency to idolize himself instead of paying homage to God.

In what is sure to be seen as one of the most impressive and authoritative books ever written on the Catholic Mass, Bishop Schneider reestablishes what Catholics have known for centuries but have largely forgotten today: that the Mass is the highest form of Christian prayer, which enables us to express with exterior worship our interior belief.

He describes how saints such as Padre Pio and John Vianney helped the faithful enter into a profound spiritual experience during Mass, and he explains why the Mass should serve as a means to lift our hearts to God so we can surrender to His will.

You’ll come to understand why the rubrics are vital to preserving the authenticity of the liturgy, and you’ll learn why architecture, music, sacred art, and even incense are vital symbols that direct our attention to Heaven. You’ll also learn:

• How to recollect and listen to God’s Word properly
• The keys to lifting your heart and surrendering to God’s will at Mass.
• Why it’s essential to celebrate the Mass ad orientem
• How following the rituals assists you in contemplating the spiritual
• Ways you can unite yourself to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross
• The most profitable ways of spending time in thanksgiving following Holy Communion

Bishop Schneider and coauthor Aurelio Porfiri encourage the revival of public prayers, such as the Liturgy of the Hours and Eucharistic adoration. He explains how genuflecting, kneeling, and prostrating oneself are all outward signs of reverence that demonstrate this inward action. Our duty, he declares, is to render “perpetual thanksgiving” to God at Mass. Indeed, as he solemnly asserts, “The Mass is the greatest and most important work of the Church.”

Available at Fraternity Publications
Sophia Institute Press

Dom Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

LIGHT OF THE WORLD

DAILY MEDITATIONS ON THE TRADITIONAL MASS

IMPRIMATUR

Between the countless duties, deadlines, and distractions that afflict man, finding space to concentrate on the powerful omnipresence of God is a struggle. Still, spending just a few minutes each day in quiet recollection conveys rich rewards, enabling us to reorient our lives to the rhythm of the sacred prayer of the Church. Liturgical piety is indispensable for our sanctification as it draws us into the mystery of our Faith and fosters within us a spirit of charity and divine praise.

For the first time ever in a single volume, the spiritual classic The Light of the World, by the renowned Dom Benedict Baur, O.S.B., offers a year-long cycle of powerful meditations following the traditional Catholic liturgical calendar. In the celebrated lineage of Prosper Gueranger, The Light of the World combines dogmatic precision with spiritual unction to offer a “daily retreat” for the entire Church year, renewing one’s daily spiritual life through the prayers of the classical Roman Rite. Features include:

• Reflections for every Sunday, weekdays, ember days, rogation days, and more
• Guidance for mental prayer and contemplation based on the liturgical orations
• Daily prayers incorporating adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and reparation
• Practical suggestions and resolutions for battling vice and growing in virtue
• Devotions to Christ’s redeeming sacrifice and sanctifying presence as our spiritual center
• Classic exegesis on the Sacred Scriptures and the sacraments
• Colloquies on Our Lady as the model of prayer and guide to the interior life
• Instructions on remote and proximate preparations for daily meditation
• Spirituality based on the Rule of St. Benedict: “Let our mind be in harmony with our voice”
• Methods of prayer from St. Ignatius of Loyola and the tradition of St. Sulpice

Instructive and deeply inspiring, The Light of the World is an ideal companion volume for providing spiritually nourishing yet accessible reflections to extend the graces of the Church’s venerable worship into one’s entire day. Dom Baur offers readers an expansive tour of the treasures of our Faith through the prism of traditional liturgy, to preserve and impart its riches to future generations.

Available at Sophia Institute Press

THOMAS MORROW

Straight to Heaven

A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR GROWING IN HOLINESS

IMPRIMATUR

If you’re hoping to get to Heaven, you’ll need a plan to reach your goal. This handy manual not only presents all the elements of a life well lived; it also helps you incorporate those elements into everyday practice. Straight to Heaven is the one guide you need to achieve holiness now and Heaven later – all while eluding the traps and pains of Hell.

Fr. Morrow explains that happiness is attainable now for those who live the gospel because they are bringing a bit of Heaven to earth. Conversely, those who fail to live the gospel are doomed to live a hellish life in this world and in the next.

That’s why Fr. Morrow wrote this book – to help you put in place a practical plan to enable you to love God with your whole heart, mind, and soul. Fr. Morrow shows you how to discern and follow God’s will and improve your ability to extend mercy to others.

Through engaging stories of individuals who lived heroically in difficult circumstances, you will discover ways to overcome vice and grow in the fruits of the Holy Spirit so you can become the saint God calls you to be. Most importantly, you will learn to keep your eyes fixed on the heavenly Wedding Feast and your eternal reward. You will also learn:

• The difference between meditation and contemplation
• How to grow in authentic sorrow for sin
• The three methods of prayer – and when to use each
• The most effective aid to staying on the path to holiness
• How to overcome difficulties in prayer
• Three ways to display your love to God

Available at Sophia Institute Press
Amazon

FR. BRYCE LUNGREN

The Catholic Cowboy Way

Finding Peace and Purpose on the Bronc Called Life

In the west the cowboy way is a code of living. It is a mode of determination and perseverance that won’t quit until the job is done. It is also a lighthearted way of having fun even through life’s ups and downs.

The Catholic Cowboy Way takes these same virtues and incorporates them into our walk with Christ. Following Jesus takes grit. By going all in with Him, Jesus teaches us how to fulfill the Father’s will with passion and zeal. By learning from our Lord, we can also develop a childlike

heart that can find peace and joy in the midst of the craziness of life in the twenty-first century.

Incorporating two thousand years of Christian Tradition, The Catholic Cowboy Way seeks to help cowboys practice the Catholic Faith and Catholics discover their inner cowboy. Catholicism is about being fully human. The rawness and realness of the cowboy way can help Catholics discover God in depths never imaginable. The Catholic Faith can help cowboys complete their ultimate quest for Heaven on earth.

The world needs more Catholic Cowboys. If you’re interested in fully becoming the person God created you to be, then saddle up. The Catholic Cowboy Way is an adventure of a lifetime!

Available at Sophia Institute Press
Amazon

FR. DWIGHT LONGENECKER

The Way of the Wilderness Warrior

Are you ready to leave your comfort zone and embark on a hero’s adventure? You will encounter thrilling mountain climbs, explore caves in frigid winter, and dance around the fire in the wild pursuit of God.

Riveting and accessible, this novelized account of the spiritual life is a hero’s journey for our times. It tells the story of the conversion of a young man named Austin through the ministrations of a tough inner-city priest, Fr. Lawrence Roper, who challenges nine college students to take a leap of faith on the path to holiness. As his friends set out for England, Ireland, and New York City, Austin heads for a remote monastery where he meets Fr. Aelred, a Benedictine hermit who guides him on the spiritual quest.

Through a fictional dialogue, author Fr. Dwight Longenecker unveils a twelve-part plan for union with God that parallels the classic purgative, illuminative, and unitive stages of the spiritual life.

You will discover with Austin:

• How our wounds and weaknesses can lead to growth
• Different forms of Catholic spirituality
• How to stay the course and win the great prize of becoming a saint
• How to surrender to God and answer His call to perfection
• Why Confession and the cultivation of virtue are at the very heart of spiritual growth

This book is profitable for young adults, casual Catholics, and those more advanced in the spiritual life. Drawing from the wisdom of the Carmelite saints, St. Benedict, St. John Cassian, and other spiritual masters, The Way of the Wilderness Warrior opens the treasure house of Catholic spirituality in a creative, positive, and engaging way.

Best of all, this book will show you how to discern God’s will for your life and how to pray without ceasing. In our challenging times, you will be inspired to become a vagabond warrior on your own wilderness journey to the Promised Land.

Available at Sophia Institute Press

BP. ROBERT J. BAKER, S.T.D

Prayers of Desperation

A Questioner’s Prayer for Answers in our Darkest Moments

IMPRIMATUR

Sometimes our best prayers can be the questions we ask. Bishop Robert J. Baker, S.T.D., explains powerful ways to pray when facing the pain of abandonment, serious illness or addiction, loss of a loved one, or large-scale disaster.

He points to the growth that occurs when, in our darkest moments, we turn to God in humility and ask such authentic questions as “Why me, Lord?”; “Why now?”; “When will this pain subside, my God?”; and “How can I possibly get through this?” Prayers of Desperation ushers us through the fog of turmoil and helps us place our faith and trust firmly in God, despite our despair or lack of understanding. When we begin the prayer dialogue with God that Bishop Baker gently explains, God will answer.

This engaging, comforting, easy-to-read prayer and meditation book is invaluable for those who are beginning their search for meaning in life as well as for those further along on their journey of faith.

Bishop Baker masterfully guides you to the core of your relationship with God by offering:

• Solutions to help you unite your sufferings to those of Christ, including a stirring meditation on His Passion
• An understanding of the Real Presence that will enlighten you, inspire you with charity, and rid you of anxieties
• A solid answer and guidance to the question of what God’s plan is for your life
• Lessons from St. Teresa of Calcutta’s real-life experiences on the question “Where are you, God?”
• The spiritually intense avenues for human-divine encounters that bring you God’s healing
• Explanations on why the Holy Mass, sacramentals, and devotions are key tools for getting your existential questions answered

You will also learn important techniques for navigating through unplanned or unwanted situations, and the proper spirit in which to pray the “How?” prayer. Moreover, you will gain the confidence and ability to ask questions of God daily as you look to Him for motivation, inspiration, and understanding. Most significantly, you will find out who can be saved and the means through which redemption is attained.

Bishop Baker includes at the end of each chapter a prayer, Scripture passages, quotes from St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, and a list of recommended readings on each topic.

Far from suggesting a lack of faith, authentic questions asked of our Lord open our hearts to receive great graces and the gift of deeper wisdom during times of hardship. When we are receptive to listening to God, especially during challenging times, He speaks to us and reveals the truth of His healing love so that we can confidently and assuredly answer Jesus’ question: “Who do you say that I am?”

Available at Sophia Institute Press

THOMAS AQUINAS

Aquinas’s Lenten Meditations

40 days with the Angelic Doctor

There’s a multitude of Lenten meditation books but only one that’s packed with the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas. Journey through Lent with the Church’s greatest philosopher-theologian. This unrivalled spiritual master will guide you in encountering Our Lord and experiencing the type of fruitful Lent that he often experienced.

You will relish this magnificent treasury of sixty-three of Aquinas’s Scripture-based sermons specially selected for the holy season. From Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, you’ll learn how to deepen your prayer life, conquer temptation, resist the evils incurred by sin, and equip yourself for spiritual battle.

In the straightforward, logical language for which he is famous, Aquinas shows you how to detach yourself from the things of this world and refocus on the things above, reflecting on Our Lord and Our Lady as models.

You will learn the importance of fasting to the preservation of chastity and how to perform acts that will increase your humility and purity. As you contemplate the example of Our Lord on the Cross, Aquinas will help you weed out vices and cultivate virtues to prepare for the joys of Heaven.

Let the Angelic Doctor assist you in overcoming idleness and fostering a deeper devotion with stirring reflections on:

• Ways in which the Blood of Jesus is precious and salvific
• The confidence we should place in Our Divine Friend, even in sickness, suffering, and pain
• How Our Lady suffered and how she personifies charity, patience, humility, obedience, and detachment

• Why the pain suffered by Our Lord was the greatest pain possible in this life
• Jesus’ fourfold humiliation on the Cross – and the fourfold exaltation it merited Him
• How Christ manifested all virtues on the Cross, the “pulpit from which He taught all mankind”

Also included are forgotten or little-known traditional feast days, such as the feast of the Holy Lance and the Nails of Our Lord and the feast of the Holy Winding Sheet.

You will find rich meditations on Christ’s Passion and reflections for each day of Holy Week. Best of all, you will discover the greatest love story of all time: the Father who offered His only Son, and the Son who underwent every suffering and sacrificed His life for our redemption.

Available at Sophia Institute Press

FR. GILLESPIE, MM.

Preparation for Total Consecration

TO JESUS CHRIST
THROUGH MARY
According to
St. Louis de Montfort

IMPRIMATUR

This book has been prepared by the Company of Mary, the religious community founded by St. Louis de Montfort himself, to serve as both an introduction to his spirituality of total consecration and as a guide for those who would prepare themselves to make his Act of Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary.

It is also the fruit of the same Act of Total Consecration lived out in years of missionary service to Our Lord and Our Lady in the Roman Catholic Church which the Company of Mary joyfully makes available to the people of God.

Available at Fraternity Publications