Saint Books
The married saints lived lives of sanctity amid family life's inevitable adventures, risks, sorrows, and joys. From Mary and Joseph to Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi (the first couple to be beatified together), 30 Days with the Married Saints will help you to pray with a variety of holy married men and women of the Church. These married couples did not live picture-perfect lives. They all faced the weariness and trying times that come with every marriage. Many bravely bore the crosses of infertility, deaths of children, disease, false accusations, imprisonments, and unfaithful spouses. But what characterizes them most is not merely their long-suffering in the face of evil but their joy in the good, true, and beautiful. Each day contains vivid portraits of heroically virtuous married saints as well as prayers, moving reflections, questions, and practical suggestions to enrich your marriage and inspire you and your spouse on your journey of sanctity.
Excerpt:
"Jesus has returned to His place of prayer, and another picture, more terrible than the first, presents itself to Him. All our sins with their entire ugliness parade before Him in every detail. He must clothe Himself with this entire unclean mass of human corruption and present Himself before the sanctity of His Father, to expiate everything with individual pains, to render Him all that glory of which they have robbed Him, to cleanse that human cesspool in which man wallows with contemptible indifference.
And all this does not make Him retreat. As a raging sea this mass inundates Him, enfolds Him, oppresses Him. Behold Him before His Father the God of Justice, facing the full penalty of divine justice. He, the essence of purity, sanctity by nature, in contact with sin, indeed, as if He Himself had become a sinner! Who can fathom the disgust that He feels in His innermost spirit? The horror He feels? The nausea, the contempt He senses so vividly? And having taken all upon Himself, nothing excepted, He is crushed by this immense weight, oppressed, thrown down, prostrated. Exhausted, He groans beneath the weight of Divine Justice, before His Father, Who has permitted His Son to offer Himself as a Victim for sin, as one accursed."
Angels and saints. Catholics tend to think of them as different from the rest of us. They're cast in plaster or simpering on a holy card, performing miracles with superhero strength, or playing a harp in highest heaven.
Yet they are very near to us in every way. In this lively book, Scott Hahn dispels the false notions and urban legends people use to keep the saints at a safe distance. The truth is that Jesus Christ has united heaven and earth in a close communion. Drawing deeply from Scripture, Dr. Hahn shows that the hosts of heaven surround the earthly Church as a great cloud of witnesses. The martyrs cry out from heaven's altar begging for justice on the earth. The prayers of the saints and angels rise to God, in the Book of Revelation, like the sweet aroma of incense. Dr. Hahn tells the stories of several saints (and several angels too) in a way that's fresh and new. The saints are spiritual giants but with flesh-and-blood reality. They have strong, holy ambitions--and powerful temptations and opposition that must be overcome. Their stories are amazing and yet familiar enough to motivate us to live more beautiful lives. In this telling of their story, the saints are neither otherworldly nor this-worldly. They exemplify the integrated life that every Christian is called to live. Still, their lives are as different from one another as human lives can be. Dr. Hahn shows the heavenly Church in all its kaleidoscopic diversity--from Moses to Mary, Augustine to Therese, and the first century to the last century. Only saints will live in heaven. We need to be more like the saints if we want to live in heaven someday. Dr. Hahn shows us that our heavenly life can begin now. It must.Eight modern saints invite you to follow their example to live the Beatitudes--the heart of Jesus's teaching--in your own life.
Through her beautiful full-color art, scripture passages, journaling prompts, and original prayers inspired by the Our Father, popular Catholic artist Jen Norton will guide you to put the Beatitudes into practice as she challenges you to examine the state of your own heart and your willingness to grow in holiness.
Norton compares living what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-13) with climbing a mountain--a difficult, irregular, sometimes fear-filled path that eventually leads to a great reward. But she says that like the saints, if you trust God beyond your own understanding, the end of the climb is heaven.
You will learn about each of the Beatitudes from modern saints, including
This book is perfect for personal or group use.
From the cross Jesus gave us his mother to be our mother, too: a singularly holy model, consoler, and intercessor for our spiritual journey. Yet most Protestants, and too many Catholics don't understand the role that God wants her to play in our lives. In Behold Your Mother, Tim Staples takes you through the Church's teachings about the Blessed Virgin Mary, showing their firm Scriptural and historical roots and dismantling the objections of those who mistakenly believe that Mary competes for the attention due Christ alone. Combining the best recent scholarship with a convert's in-depth knowledge of the arguments, Staples has assembled the most thorough and useful Marian apologetic you'll find anywhere. Relevant and essential -- Mary matters. Read Behold Your Mother and find out just how much.
By PaulaAnne SharkeyLemire. A handy guide for devotion to this popular North American Blessed! This booklet contains a short life of Kateri and a collection of approved prayers, chaplet instructions, and a novena to Blessed Kateri.
Many full-color images of Kateri and photos of places associated with her life. The back cover features the original painting of Kateri which she herself requested in a vision after her death. 32 pp. Softcover. (After this booklet was published, Kateri was canonized.)
Lisa M. Hendey, founder of the award-winning CatholicMom.com and bestselling author of The Handbook for Catholic Moms and The Grace of Yes shares her passion for the saints by introducing fifty-two holy companions as guides for the amazing vocation of Catholic motherhood.
Guided by the example of the saints, Hendey eloquently links personal stories, scripture, prayer, and soul-strengthening exercises into a spiritually rich and deeply practical resource for Catholic women. This edition includes a new preface and cover and is updated with information about saints canonized since the first edition.
Allow The Book of Saints for Catholic Moms to help you grow in your faith and enrich your heart, mind, body, and soul by spending each week of the year with Lisa M. Hendey and a different saint. This award-winning spiritual guidebook introduces you to popular saints such as Thérèse of Lisieux, Teresa of Calcutta, John Paul II, and Patrick, as well as lesser known but equally inspiring saints such as Gianna Beretta Molla and Damien of Molokai.
Each week Hendey offers:
There is no greater authority on the saints than Alban Butler, and his enormous research has been the standard reference on the subject for the last two and a half centuries. This new adaptation of Butler's multi-volume Lives of the Saints presents a modernized text for today's reader and provides an illuminating guide to these historic, symbolic, and foundational Christian men and women.
Butler's daily readings from the lives and works of the saints offer readers of all backgrounds the opportunity to engage directly with these great figures. Butler's distinctive contribution to stories about saints was to turn attention away from the superhuman, miraculous themes that are prevalent in earlier works. He gives us saints who are examples of Christian living, who provide inspiration for our own lives, in every time and circumstance. As Butler writes: "They were once what we are now, travelers on earth. They had the same weaknesses we have. We have difficulties; so had the saints."
Important features of this version include mention of recently canonized saints as well as those whose path to official sainthood is still in progress. Also included in the daily readings are more obscure saints whose lives and contributions to Christianity should not be forgotten.
In each generation, heroes of the Faith, whom the Church recognizes as saints, emerge. There are many characteristics that they have in common, but none thus far have used cell phones, played PlayStation video games, or searched for information on Google.
That is about to change.
A young “computer geek” named Carlo Acutis, who created a website cataloguing every reported Eucharistic miracle in the world and died of leukemia a year later at age fifteen, was beatified in November 2019, after a healing miracle in Brazil was attributed to his intercession. Since the beatification ceremony one year later, solemn crowds have been filing past the exposed relics of the blessed youth in Assisi’s Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Carlo is a sign of contradiction in the modern world who serves as a heroic model for today’s young people—a teenager who programmed computers and enjoyed films and comics yet lived as an authentic and sincere disciple of Christ. In these pages, you’ll discover how he embraced the Faith as a boy and developed the virtues necessary to live a Christ-centered life in a secular society, how he overcame the vices that plagued him, and how he gracefully dealt with heartaches he could not divulge even to his parents.
When he developed leukemia, he offered his suffering both for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Catholic Church, saying: “I offer all the suffering I will have to undergo for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church.” In this surprising and inspiring book, you’ll also learn:
- How Carlo became holy, in only a few short years
- The young man’s unusual loneliness and how he dealt with it
- His strategy for resisting peer pressure
- How he had fun without losing control and learned to resist gluttony
- How he interacted with teen girls who became his friends
- Why his explanations about the Mass are used in today’s catechism classes in Italy
- How he dealt with friends who were sexually promiscuous and what he told them
- How he responded to the shocking news that he was dying (which happened two weeks later)
- His remarkable Eucharistic Miracles Exhibition—made possible by his computer skills—that is now touring churches all over Europe
Carlo Acutis was a little “different” at school, in the pizzerias, and on the soccer field. What set Carlo apart was his constant pursuit of holiness. In addition to his fun hobbies, he spent time teaching catechism classes and serving in soup kitchens. Carlo loved to attend daily Mass and frequent Eucharistic adoration. The Word of God and the Eucharist were the center of his life. Carlo’s unwavering devotion to the Eucharist inspired him to tell the story of Eucharistic miracles through a website he created just for fun.
Carlo died from a sudden and violent illness in 2006 at the age of fifteen. In less than a decade, his story spread across Italy and around the world. After Pope Francis declared him venerable in 2018, his beatification was celebrated in Assisi on October 10, 2020. The next step will be canonization, making him the first millennial saint.
Find strength and healing in the arms of the cross
Fr. Cessario masterfully weaves Saint Catherine’s sublime thoughts and words into an easy-to-read meditation on Christ’s Passion.
These insightful reflections invite us to embrace the challenges we encounter during our journey and, with Saint Catherine, to consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us (Rom 8:18).
A perfect meditation for Lent
A thoughtful gift to help comfort loved ones, family, and friends.
“What do we learn from this description of the suffering Christ? What does Catherine teach us about the transformation that brings the world stillness on Good Friday from noon until three o’clock?
“The answer is simple: We discover that because of his enormous love, Christ’s sufferings and death cause the transformation of all that exists, the transformation we call Christian salvation….
“The transformation that Catherine announces is one that creates in those persons who remain united with Christ a new ground for love, a new sort of loving…. The transformation affects both our persons and our actions.”
Confessions of St. Augustine is--after the Bible and The Imitation of Christ--the most widely translated and highly esteemed book in Christian history. Translated by Rev. J.M. Lelen, Ph.D., this edition is published in a prayer book format, offering a participatory reading and prayer experience based on St. Augustine's confessions of his youthful errors. With a brown Dura-Lux cover, this classic book will make a meaningful personal resource or gift.
Confessions of St. Augustine is--after the Bible and TheImitation of Christ--the most widely translated and highly esteemed book in Christian history. Translated by Rev. J.M. Lelen, Ph.D., this edition is published in a prayer book format, offering a participatory reading and prayer experience based on St. Augustine's confessions of his youthful errors. With a burgundy Dura-Lux cover, this classic book will make a meaningful personal resource or gift.
This booklet from bestselling author Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC (Consoling the Heart of Jesus and 33 Days to Morning Glory), gives you a brief and easy-to-understand introduction to the Divine Mercy message and devotion. Discover the history and context of Divine Mercy, the essential elements of the devotion, and how you can live the message.
It iIncludes the full prayers of the Divine Mercy Novena and St. Faustina's Litany to Divine Mercy, as well as two bonus appendices: valuable Divine Mercy prayers and Divine Mercy wisdom from Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.