Come, come, come to the Manger

Saint Lucy

13th December - "The mother of St. Lucy suffered four years from an issue of blood, and the help of man failed. St. Lucy reminded her mother that a woman in the Gospel had been healed of the same disorder. 'St. Agatha,' she said, 'stands ever in the sight of Him for Whom she died. Only touch her sepulchre with faith and you will be healed'.

They spent the night praying by the tomb, till, overcome by weariness, both fell asleep. St. Agatha appeared in a vision to St. Lucy, and calling her sister, foretold her mother's recovery and her own martyrdom. That instant, the cure was affected; and in her gratitude the mother allowed her daughter to distribute her wealth amongst the poor, and to consecrate her virginity to Christ.

A young man to whom she had been promised in marriage accused her as a Christian to the heathen; but Our Lord, by a special miracle, saved from outrage this virgin whom He had chosen for His own. The fire kindled around her did her no hurt. Then the sword was plunged into her heart, and the promise made at the tomb of St. Agatha was fulfilled".

Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Wonder of Guadalupe provides a great understanding of Our Lady's appearances to St. Juan Diego in Mexico City in 1531: her consoling promises, the miraculous image, and the rapid conversion of nine million Aztecs to the Catholic Faith from a bloody religion of human sacrifice.

Also featured in this book are the historical background, important Church events, and scientific developments including the remarkable discovery of photographic reflections in Our Lady's eyes.

In Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness, Professor of History Dr. Warren H. Carroll provides a dramatic account of the conversion of Mexico by the combined efforts of the Conquistadores, the Franciscan missionaries, and Our Lady of Guadalupe herself.

The Church Turned Upside Down & Restoring the Bastions

The Church Turned Upside Down seeks to present to the reader a number of essays that deal with the Catholic Church, both before and after the Second Vatican Council.

The purpose is simple. By an examination of official documents of both periods, the reader will decide if a mere facelift has occurred, or rather, whether a revolution has taken place that has overthrown the traditional teaching of the Church in favour of one more in keeping with ideas long condemned by the Church.

Restoring the Bastions answers the challenge of Von Balthasar and others who promoted the 'New Theology' that demanded that the bastions protecting the Church from the world be thrown down.

The ensuing crisis has led to the emptying out of monasteries and seminaries, the destruction of the Church's liturgical heritage, and widespread dissent to its teachings.

The answer to such a crisis involves restoring the bastions that had been destroyed by the Modernist theologians.

To do this, however, it is necessary to regain some sense of the Church's traditional stand on a number of issues: inspiration of Scripture, the meaning of Tradition, the nature of the Mass, and Christ's relation to society and the family. These questions are discussed in a number of essays briefly treating of matters once universally accepted in the Catholic world.

Open Letter to Confused Catholics

On this holy Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 2006, at 3pm, went to Judgement our dear friend Fr. Michael Crowdy, friend, confident and counselor of many souls, both great and small, including Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for whom he supplied the Preface for what was then "in English Archbishop Lefebvre's recently published book (his only one apart from some collections of addresses)".

"Fr Michael Crowdy was for many years a priest of the London Oratory & in some ways, juridically at least, stayed one all his life. He he kept in touch with a number of the fathers and remained devoted to St Philip. He died on 8th December, 2006, aged 92 after many years of devoted work to further the cause of Tradition in this country," read one of the notices of his death.

The book in question was Open Letter to Confused Catholics, an explanation and appeal as useful and relevant today as ever it was when first published in English nearly thirty years ago.

First Saturday

First Friday

Promises of Our Lord in favour of those devoted to His Most Sacred Heart

1.   I will grant them all the graces necessary for their state in life.

2.   I will establish peace and union in their families.

3.   I will console them in all their pains and trials.

4.   I will be their assured refuge in life and more especially in death.

5.   I will bestow the blessings of Heaven on all their undertakings.

6.   Sinners will find in My Heart the fount and infinite sea of Mercy.

7.   Tepid souls will become fervent.

8.   Fervent souls will rise rapidly to greater perfection.

9.   I will bless those homes wherein the image of My Sacred Heart is exposed and honoured. I will imprint My love on the hearts of those who wear this image. I will also destroy in them all disordered movements.

10.   I will give to priests who are animated by a tender devotion to My Divine Heart the gift of moving even the most hardened of hearts.

11.   Those who propagate this devotion will have their names inscribed 
on My Heart, never to be effaced from it.

12.  I promise thee, in the excess of the mercy of My Heart, that My all-powerful love will grant all those who communicate on the first Fridays of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance: they will not die in My displeasure, nor without having received the Sacraments. My Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.

Sacred Heart Nightly Devotion

St. Francis Xavier

3rd December - The Life and Letters of Saint Francis Xavier is the classic life of the great Jesuit who renewed the labours and the miracles of the Apostles in the sixteenth century.

Weaving his text around 124 full-length original letters written by the saint, Father Henry James Coleridge brings him to life and allows us to know him intimately: the arm fatigued by so many baptisms, the gentle voice that converted, the heart that loved and was loved, the eye that penetrated the soul and the future: the miraculous cures, resurrections, deliverance from impending disaster, the bilocations, the gift of tongues, the burning zeal to spread the kingdom of Christ, the tender charity for every misfortune, the daily combat to rescue souls from damnation, the faith that saw the truths of the catechism as clearly as we see material objects, the terrible anathemas thundered against those who obstruct the Church's mission - and finally the death, alone, at Chan, yearning to win China but summoned to glory at just 46 years of age.

2015 Ordos in Stock

The Ordo Recitandi contains all the necessary directions for those who wish to sing the Office and Mass of any day in the Liturgical Year according to the classical Roman Rite.

It details those changes which arise due to the interaction of the Temporal and Sanctoral cycles. In addition the Ordo contains detailed information concerning the celebration of the various classes of Votive Masses e.g. Masses of External Solemnities, rubrics for the Forty Hours.

The Ordo follows the format of the Roman Ordo that was produced for the Universal Calendar in the late 1930s following the fifth editio post typicam of the Roman Missal that was promulgated by SRC in 1939. The Ordo is written entirely in Latin.

We also have copies in stock of the 2015 edition of the Ordo ou Calendrier Liturgique, produced in the French language, which follows the 1962 Liturgical Calendar.

James Robinson Collection Christmas Cards

Carmel Books is pleased to be able to offer this year a selection of Christmas cards from young Catholic artist James Robinson.

Cards are individually wrapped and come with envelope.

We also have some boxed sets of Christmas cards for sale as well as individual cards from the Madeleine Beard Collection.

The Little Children's Prayer Book

This beautiful, newly illustrated hardcover edition of the classic 1911 title by Mother Mary Loyola is the perfect gift for a First Communicant!

This little 4" x 6" pocket gem contains more than just daily prayers: Two different sets of meditations for the Mass are accompanied by illustrations showing what the priest is doing at each stage.

Add Mother Loyola's excellent examination of conscience, geared especially for children, devotional stories that foster a loving obedience, and the gorgeous full-colour illustrations, and you'll be wishing you had such a book as a child!

The Soldier of Christ

Any book on the sacrament of Confirmation can explain what Confirmation is, but this is the only book that explains, in the most original and engaging manner, what Confirmation does.

It is both a dialogue and a travelogue, taking the reader on a journey from the Crusades to the Crimea; from medieval ceremonies of Knighthood to early modern methods of warfare.

What does it mean to be a Soldier of Christ? For the true child of God, life is a daily battle against a well-concealed foe - that is, our own flaws and failings - and Mother Mary Loyola proposes to arm young recruits adequately for this task, leaving no stone unturned in her quest to root out this 'enemy at home'. This is the sort of basic training no young Catholic should be without.

Jesus of Nazareth: The Story of His Life Written for Children

James Cardinal Gibbons was Archbishop of Baltimore when he asked Mother Mary Loyola to write this story of the Life of Our Lord.

As a revered author himself, and considering the number of such stories available even then, we can only imagine the admiration he must have held for Mother Loyola's rare talent for narrative.

She does not disappoint in this story, for as always, she brings to life the most vivid images of Our Lord, such that the children who read it will feel almost as if they were following the dusty paths Our Saviour trod.

Now enhanced with an abundance of contemporary engravings and lithographs, this newly typeset edition is an invaluable means of impressing upon the minds of young children the reality of God become Man.

Home For Good

The unassuming title Home for Good and the original motivation Mother Mary Loyola had in writing this book - that is, to help young ladies who were finishing boarding school to make the right choices in life - both utterly belie the groundbreaking significance of its content.

While Mother Loyola's King of the Golden City is charming and entertaining; while her catechesis books are both informative and inspiring; and while her devotional works are unparalleled in their ability to reach the hearts of their readers, Home for Good is a rock on which an unshakable faith can be built amidst the storms and calms of everyday life.

Having spent most of her adult life in educating young ladies, Mother Loyola was intimately familiar with the character of youth as well as the challenges young people face when confronted with the temptations of worldliness.

Though this book was written with her young charges in mind, it is no less relevant to young men, who endure the same enticements - and in our own culture, perhaps even greater ones. It is a clarion call to young Catholics to hold fast to their faith and morals in a world that seeks to destroy that faith at every opportunity.

Readers of all ages, both male and female, have equally to gain by reading from this book regularly.

First Confession

The greatest challenge in preparing young children for the Sacrament of Penance is in making confession a habit to which they will be voluntarily attracted. We can require their presence at catechism class, and compel them to go to confession, but without this crucial ingredient, we cannot hope to dispel the all-too-common view that it is an onerous task to be studiously avoided.

It is precisely this difficulty that Mother Mary Loyola addresses with this book. She knew children's minds so well - how they crave being treated like adults - and thus she avoids all that is oversimplified or saccharine, a quality which gives all of her work such broad appeal, even to adults. Her vivid storytelling brings to life an irresistible feeling of the comfort and joy the child will find in the forgiveness of their loving father. Who, then, would dream of ever avoiding such sweet medicine?