Thomas A Kempis is well known for the Imitation/Following of Christ, the second best selling book of all time after the Holy Bible. His rich spiritual writings have been read by Catholics since the book was first written in 1418. What most readers don't know is that Thomas A Kempis wrote 27 books in all and most have been out of print for 100+ years. St Athanasius Press has spent the last 2 years searching for these rare spiritual classics in order to bring them back into print so today's Catholics can benefit from the spiritual richness found in Thomas A Kempis' books. For Passion Sunday is our newest addition to Thomas A Kempis's works. Enjoy

A Short Catechism of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine Taken from the 1614 Edition Edited and Translated from Old English

St Eucherius of Lyons is one of the great neglected spiritual writers of Western Orthodoxy. His ascetic mysticism is very much in the Eastern tradition; if there were a "Latin Philokalia," St Eucherius would doubtless have a place in it. At the same time, his proverbs and apothegms, some of which may be found near the end of the present work, speak directly to people living in the world as much as to monks.

St Athanasius Press is pleased to publish this rare work of St Alphonsus M Liguori. Excerpt: St. Gregory of Nyssa writes, "Blessed dart, which carries with it into the heart. God who casts it." By which the holy Father would say, that when God pierces the heart with a dart of love, that is, enables it by some special illumination to know His goodness and His love, and the desire which He has to be loved in return, He Himself enters the heart with love's dart, being Himself love, and He who casts its darts: "For," as St. John writes, "God is charity." 1 Ephess 4:8. And as the dart remains fixed in the heart which it strikes, so God continues ever united with the soul which He penetrates with His love. O, let us ever be convinced, that God alone really loves us. The love of parents, of friends, and of all others who say that they love us, except those who love us purely for God, is not real, but interested love, as it is from self-love that they love us. Yes, my God, I well know that You alone love me, and desiret my welfare, not for Your own interest, but solely through Your bounty and the love which You bear for me and I have been so ungrateful as not to commit to many offenses and injuries against anyone, as I have committed against You, who has loved me so much. O Jesus, suffer me not to be thus any more ungrateful to You. You have truly loved me, and therefore do I desire truly to love You for the remainder of my life. I will say to You with St. Catherine of Genoa, "O love, never more, will I commit sin, never more will I commit sin," You only will I love, and no other.

An abridgement of Questions on Vocations approved by Cardinal Gibbons and Cardinal Satolli. CONTENTS I. Definition. - Every Person has some special vocation 5 II. Necessity of following a vocation 6 III. Matrimony - Is it a vocation? 9 IV. Mixed Marriages 12 V. Virginity 14 VI. The Three Evangelical Counsels 16 1. Poverty 17 2. Perpetual Chastity 18 3. Obedience 19 VII. The Religious State 20 VIII. Marks of a vocation to the religious state 23 IX. Doubts about a vocation to the religious state 27 X. Encouraging others to enter the religious state 29 XI. Means of preserving a vocation to the religious state - some obstacles 35 XII. Children and the religious state 37 XIII. Duty of parents regarding the religious vocation of their children 42 XIV. Vocations to the priesthood 45 XV. Do vocations to the priesthood come directly from God? 47 XVI. Fostering vocations to the priesthood 48 XVII. Preventing vocations to the priesthood 50 XVIII. Means of knowing our vocation 52 1. Prayer 52 2. Freedom from sin 53 3. Humility 54 4. Retreat 54 5. Counsel 54 Prayer of St Bernard 55

Excerpt: On July 3rd, 1907, the Holy Father prepared a list of errors which, later, were grouped together under the name of Modernism, and condemned. On the 8th of September following he addressed to the Catholic world an Encyclical of incomparable fulness, vigour, and clearness, in which he sets forth his reasons for condemning Modernism. Thank God these errors, which have so far invaded France and Italy, attract few followers in Belgium. You have been preserved by the vigilance of your pastors, by an impartial scientific spirit, and by the Christian submission that animates the representatives of higher learning in your country. Nevertheless, beloved brethren, I consider it a pastoral duty to bring to your knowledge this Pontifical Encyclical, which henceforth will be known in ecclesiastical history by its introductory Latin words: "Pascendi Domini gregis," or, more briefly, "Pascendi." Since the Holy Father addresses his letter to each Church in particular, that is, to the Bishops, priests, and Catholic laity, it is his intention that each one should individually profit by the Encyclical. The importance of this document, moreover, gives it an historic value: hence, those who are interested in our Mother, the Church, should know, at least in substance, its meaning. It is a well-known fact that scarcely had the Pope spoken, or rather before he had spoken, and from the moment that the telegraphic agents heralded his coming announcement, the unbelieving press began to misrepresent it, and the newspapers and reviews hostile to the Church in our country neither published the text nor the general tenour of the Encyclical with fulness or frankness. But with an eagerness and a harmony of opinion that altogether explain their attitude, they quibbled over the word Modernism in the endeavour to convince their confiding readers that the Pope condemns modern thought, which in their ambiguous language signifies modern science and its methods. This offensive and false impression of the Pope and his faithful followers has perhaps been shared by some amongst you, hence it is our earnest wish to remove this impression by explaining Modernism, and, in so doing, enlighten you as to the reasons that led to its condemnation by the Supreme Authority of the Church. WHAT IS THE FUNDAMENTAL IDEA OF MODERNISM? Modernism is not the modern expression of science, and consequently its condemnation is not the condemnation of science, of which we are so justly proud, nor the disapproval of its methods, which all Catholic scientists hold, and consider it an honour to teach and to practice. Modernism consists essentially in affirming that the religious soul must draw from itself, from nothing but itself, the object and motive of its faith. It rejects all revelation imposed upon the conscience, and thus, as a necessary consequence, becomes the negation of the doctrinal authority of the Church established by Jesus Christ, and it denies, moreover, to the divinely constituted hierarchy the right to govern Christian society. The better to understand the significance of this fundamental error, let us recall the teaching of the Catechism on the constitution and mission of the Catholic Church. Christ did not represent Himself to the world as the head of a philosophy and uncertain of His teaching He did not leave a modifiable system of opinions to the discussion of His disciples. On the contrary, strong in His divine wisdom and sovereign power, He pronounced, and imposed upon men the revealed word that assures eternal salvation, and indicated to them the unique way to attain it. He promulgated for them a code of morals, giving them certain helps without which it is impossible to put these precepts into practice. Grace, and the Sacraments which confer it upon us, or restore it to us, when, having sinned, we again find it through repentance, form together these helps, this economy of salvation. He instituted a Church, and as He had only a few years to dwell...

From the Preface: he Treatise of St Catherine of Genoa on Purgatory has never, it seems been as yet rendered into English. The present translation, therefore, which is both faithful and excellent in language, will be most acceptable to those whom this wonderful book has hitherto been closed. Although our Lord, by His apostle, has forbidden to women the public ministry of teaching in His Church, He has nevertheless reserved for them a great and resplendent office in the edification of His mystical Body. The lights and inspirations bestowed upon them, according to the words of the prophet Joel, --"In the last days, says the Lord, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophecy;...and upon My servants and upon my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit,"--are among the prerogatives bestowed upon the Church by the day of Pentecost. And their dignity is among the glories of the Mother of God, whose daughters and handmaids they are.

Amid the present darkness and distress this little book may help to minister consolation and inspire drooping hearts with courage, by reminding them that suffering is the Church's heritage, the very condition of her well-being, nay, her highest privilege, inasmuch as it renders her most like to her Divine Spouse and is the pledge and surety of her triumphs. As of the Lord Himself (Luke 24:26), so of His Church it may be truly said that she ought to suffer these things and so to enter into her glory. Her most signal successes have been preceded, and indeed attended, by humiliations and apparent failures, and have been accomplished, like all the great designs of God, under the heavy weight of the Cross. It is not, however, of exterior trials and sufferings that the author principally treats, or of those obvious temptations to which all Christians are exposed, but of those deep interior miseries, those subtle devices of self-love, those illusions and preternatural assaults of the evil one, which, in some form or other, they must be prepared to encounter who strive to pursue the arduous paths of spiritual perfection. And if testimony were wanted to the high character and the great practical usefulness of the work, it might be sufficient to cite the words of the doctors in theology who were commissioned to examine and report upon its contents previous to its publication in the year 1671. From the terms in which their approbation is couched, it will be seen that the doctrine which the treatise enforces, as it is necessary for all times, so is particularly applicable to our own, when men who profess to represent the highest intellects of this boasted age of progress are inviting Christian people to exchange the truths of divine faith and the life-giving lessons of the Cross for the base, uncertain tenets of a sensual philosophy and of a false and godless science. " It is a book," say they, " as full of instruction for souls which desire to rise to perfection as for those whose office it is to direct them on their way. We have found in it a teaching all divine, which the light of faith alone is capable of rendering intelligible to those who read it, and which divine love alone can enable them to relish. It is a knowledge which God hides from worldlings who allow themselves to be guided by their senses, and from men of mundane policy who regulate their actions by the sole light of human reason. This science of the Cross, unhappily, is ignored, neglected, or despised by the greater part of men, comprising even a number of the learned, who, devoting all their life to the study of the speculative sciences, pay no regard to the science and the maxims of Jesus Crucified, ' in whom' nevertheless ' are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col. 2:3). It may be hoped," they add, " that the reading of this book will inspire those who peruse it with the desire of dying wholly to themselves and following Jesus Christ, seeing that it is replete with the unction of the Spirit of God."

A daily devotional with the words of St Ignatius Loyola especially for those who have limited time in their lives. Take and meditate on a thought during the course of the day.

It will be seen that the following Manual of Devotion consists of a series of chapters or instructions upon important points of Christian teaching, which are called "Considerations."These Considerations are written for the purpose of pricking or of wounding the conscience, it may be in many points, that so it may be thoroughly aroused and awakened; of exciting, that is, compunction of the soul, real remorse of conscience for past as well as for present coldness and dryness. It must be a very hard heart, indeed, which is not moved by these "Considerations"so touchingly simple are they, so plain, and so wholly true. They deal with such doctrines and facts as have an universal application, which admit of no dispute, and which are always confirmed by some passage from Holy Scripture. It must be allowed, on all hands, that it is necessary for the soul to be aroused to feel its own needs, to regard its own wounds, that so it may be directed to a source where these needs can be supplied, and these wounds be healed. One great aim of this Treatise, is to arouse, as well as to direct the mind, to lead it to consider its own wants, and to seek by prayer to have those wants supplied. The book is essentially a guide to prayer. It represents, from its beginning to its end, the continual outpouring of heart before God; an outpouring that is of times expressed in the very same words which imply, at the same time, a new phase of thought. Regarded as a Manual of Mental Prayer, each of these "Considerations" has a technical and special signification. They treat of life and death, of the value of time, of the mercy of God, of the habit of sin, of the general and particular judgments, of the love of God, of the Holy Communion, and of kindred subjects equally important. The "Consideration,"as here used, implies far more than a mere inquiry. Its equivalents, the Italian Consideration, and the Latin Consideration, do not fully express its particular meaning in this Treatise, where it stands for a reflectional meditation. It calls into play the exercise of the memory, which puts together all the circumstances of the subject under notice; it excites the imagination, which represents, as in a picture, all such circumstances, bringing them vividly before the mind's eye; and, lastly, it urges the will so to fix and detain these things in the soul, that, by its own effort, it may unite itself with the will of God, so that God's will and the will of man may become one.