Catholic University of America Press is proud to present the second volume in its new Sayings of the Fathers of the Church Series. Featuring a wide range of scholars compiling material from our acclaimed Fathers of the Church volumes, each title will be devoted to a few specific areas of theology. The inaugural volume covered The Seven Deadly Sins, and future volumes are planned to focus on Angels and Demons, the Mass, and Mary. Nothing has the power to inspire, or terrify us like the unknown. Life after death is the perhaps the greatest unknown that confronts mankind. But the wisdom of the Church, especially in the teachings of the Church Fathers, reminds us that we know a great deal about what awaits us at the end of life. What the Church knows about the four last things?death judgment, heaven, and hell?is essential for helping on the way of the pilgrimage of life. The teachings of the Fathers, far from sating our curiosity, serve to increase the power of heaven to inspire us, and of hell to terrify. In this volume, canon lawyer and writer Edward Condon compiles a book full of wisdom and compelling insights. More than anything, the Fathers warn us that our life is short, and the reckoning for how we have lived it eternal. The urgency of the Church's message, brought to life in the sayings of the Fathers, comes to remind us of our true calling and inheritance in baptism, and of the richness of the heavenly reward, which is not so much the fruit of our efforts on Earth but the fulfillment of God's promise of love to us. The terror of hell is not the threat of the dictator, but a dire warning of the true scope of our freedom as children of God. This book, rich with the traditional teachings of the church, will guide and inspire readers as they continue their life journeys, which have a beginning but no end.

The persecution of the church in Iraq is one of the great tragedies of the twenty-first century. In this short, yet sweeping account, Cardinal Filoni, the former Papal Nuncio to Iraq, shows us the people and the faith in the land of Abraham and Babylon, a region that has been home to Persians, Parthians, Byzantines, Mongols, Ottomans, and more. This is the compelling and rich history of the Christian communities in a land that was once the frontier between Rome and Persia, for centuries the crossroads of East and West for armies of invaders and merchants, and the cradle of all human civilization. Its unique cultural legacy has, in the past few years, been all but obliterated. The Church in Iraq is both a diligent record and loving testimonial to a community that is struggling desperately to exist. Filoni guides the reader through almost two thousand years of history, telling the story of a people who trace their faith back to the Apostle Thomas. The diversity of peoples and churches is brought deftly into focus through the lens of their interactions with the papacy, but The Church in Iraq does not shy away from discussing the local political, ethnic, and theological tensions that have resulted in centuries of communion and schism. Never losing his focus on the people to whom this book is so clearly dedicated, Cardinal Filoni has produced a personal and engaging history of the relationship between Rome and the Eastern Churches. This book has much to teach its reader about the church in the near East. Perhaps its most brutal lesson is the ease with which such a depth of history and culture can be wiped away in a few short decades.