Adeste Fideles

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of our customers and friends a very happy and holy Christmas as this will be our last blog post for a little while.

The Carmel Books blog will be back in the New Year, unless anything unusually interesting happens in the meantime - like our Russian friends suddenly sweeping over a degenerate and decrepit western Europe for our sins, before themselves converting to the True Faith, as foretold in many alleged prophecies.

But until then, a very happy and holy Christmas to one and all.

What We Catholics Believe

Come the New Year Carmel Books, with the kind permission of Daphne McLeod, founder and Chairman of Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, will be producing and distributing MP3 CD's of Daphne's catechism talks entitled  'What We Catholics Believe: The Timeless and Objective Truths of the Catholic Church'.

They'll be made available from us for just £1.00 each; the idea being that Catholics who take the Faith seriously, and who are concerned for the souls of those raised in the New Order wasteland, will be able to cheaply supply, or distribute in bulk, some basic Catholic catechism, in parishes throughout the land.

Daphne McLeod taught for forty years in Catholic junior and primary schools, teaching Religious Education on a daily basis. As a member of the Catholic Evidence Guild, she used to speak regularly at Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park.

Since retiring she's worked tirelessly to defend the Faith through her Chairmanship of Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, the publishing of The Flock newsletter and at Faith of Our Fathers conferences.

Copies can be reserved from Carmel Books now by phone or email.

CD Content

1. About Almighty God (38 minutes)
2. About Ourselves (34 minutes)
3. The Fall, Original Sin, and the Promise of a Redeemer (39 minutes)
4. The Blessed Trinity (37 minutes)
5. The Incarnation and Redemption (44 minutes)
6. Sanctifying grace and baptism (36 minutes)
7. Jesus' Life and Teachings (41 minutes)
8. The Church and the Bible (40 minutes)
9. Prayer (38 minutes)
10. The Mass and The Blessed Sacrament (35 minutes)
11. The Moral law and the Sacrament of Penance (43 minutes)
12. Our Blessed Lady (40 minutes)
13. The Sacramental System and the other Sacraments (43 minutes)
14. The Communion of Saints (38 minutes)
15. The Four Last Things - Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell (38 minutes)
16. Ecumenism

The Conciliar Church and The Catholic Church

Some readers are possibly wondering about use of the term 'Conciliar Church' in a previous blog post. Does use of the term 'Conciliar Church' merely signify the Catholic Church in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, or does it mean something else?

It means something else. The term describes an alien body of religious beliefs - the heresy of Modernism that St. Pius X defined as "the repository of all heresies" - functioning as a harmful, almost deadly, parasitical invader within the material structures of the Catholic Church.

At the Second Vatican Council the necessary treatment to destroy this parasitic disease was done away with allowing the disease to spread to epidemic and then pandemic proportions. The Conciliar Church constitutes a false religion that has, to enormous degree, seized hold of the physical structures of the Church.

The St. Athanasius of our own times described the Conciliar Church as follows:

"It is a question of the radical incompatibility between the Catholic Church and the Conciliar Church, the Mass of Paul VI being the symbol and the program of the Conciliar Church… This Council represents, both in the opinion of the Roman authorities as in our own, a new Church which they call themselves the 'Conciliar Church'… All those who cooperate in the application of this overturning accept and adhere to this new Conciliar Church, as His Excellency Mgr. Benelli called it in the letter that he sent me in the name of the Holy Father last 25th June, and they enter into the schism…

 

What is schism? It is a break, a break with the Church. But a break with the Church can also be a break with the Church of the past. If someone breaks with the Church of two thousand years, he is in schism. There has already been a Council which was declared schismatic. Well, it is possible that one day, in twenty years, in thirty, in fifty years - I don't know - the Second Vatican Council could be declared schismatic, because it professed things which are opposed to the Tradition of the Church, and which have caused a break with the Church…

… We are suspended a divinis by the Conciliar Church, and for the Conciliar Church, to which we have no wish to belong. That Conciliar Church is a schismatic Church, because it breaks with the Catholic Church that has always been. It has its new dogmas, its new priesthood, its new institutions, its new worship, all already condemned by the Church in many a document, official and definitive....

… The Church that affirms such errors is at once schismatic and heretical. This Conciliar Church is, therefore, not Catholic. To whatever extent Pope, Bishops, priests, or faithful adhere to this new Church, they separate themselves from the Catholic Church…

… In so far as the new Church separates itself from the old Church we cannot follow it. That is the position, and that is why we maintain Tradition, we keep firmly to Tradition; and I am sure we are being of immense service to the Church…

 

… I believe that I have the right to ask these gentlemen who present themselves in offices which were occupied by Cardinals (who were indeed saintly persons and who were defenders of the Church and of the Catholic Faith) it seems to me that I would have the right to ask them, 'Are you with the Catholic Church? Are you the Catholic Church? With whom am I dealing?' If I am dealing with someone who has a pact with Masonry, have I the right to speak with such a person? Have I the duty to listen to them and to obey them?...

… How can one avoid the conclusion: there where the Faith of the Church is, there also is her sanctity, and there where the sanctity of the Church is, there is the Catholic Church. A Church which no longer brings forth good fruits, a Church which is sterile, is not the Catholic Church…

… Exactly the same day nine years ago on the 21st of November, I drew up a manifesto which also brought down on me the persecution of Rome, in which I said I can't accept Modernist Rome. I accept the Rome of all time with its doctrine and with its Faith. That is the Rome we are following, but the Modernist Rome which is changing religion? I refuse it and I reject it. And that is the Rome which was introduced into the Council and which is in the process of destroying the Church. I refuse that Church…

… The Conciliar Church, having now reached everywhere, is spreading errors contrary to the Catholic Faith and, as a result of these errors, it has corrupted the sources of grace, which are the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments. This false Church is in an ever-deeper state of rupture with the Catholic Church. Resulting from these principles and facts is the absolute need to continue the Catholic episcopacy in order to continue the Catholic Church…

… This is how the succession of bishops came about in the early centuries of the Church, in union with Rome, as we are too in union with Catholic Rome and not Modernist Rome…

…To stay inside the Church, or to put oneself inside the Church - what does that mean? Firstly, what Church are we talking about? If you mean the Conciliar Church, then we who have struggled against the Council for twenty years because we want the Catholic Church, we would have to re-enter this Conciliar Church in order, supposedly, to make it Catholic. That is a complete illusion. It is not the subjects that make the superiors, but the superiors who make the subjects.

 

This talk about the 'visible Church' … is childish. It is incredible that anyone can talk of the 'visible Church', meaning the Conciliar Church as opposed to the Catholic Church which we are trying to represent and continue. I am not saying that we are the Catholic Church. I have never said so. No one can reproach me with ever having wished to set myself up as pope. But, we truly represent the Catholic Church such as it was before, because we are continuing what it always did. It is we who have the notes of the visible Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. That is what makes the visible Church…

… one cannot help thinking of the 'seat of iniquity' foretold by Leo XIII, or of Rome losing the Faith foretold by Our Lady at La Salette.

Masonry's Man of the Year?

Do the Grand Orient or the Grand Lodge announce their 'Man of the Year'?

Probably not, but there is an outstanding candidate for the 'revered' title if they did.

On 14th March 2013, the Grand Orient of Italy issued a public statement that praised the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

"... a Church of the people will discover its capacity to dialogue with all men of good will and with Freemasonry which, as the experience of Latin America teaches us, works for the good and progress of humanity, as shown by Bolivar, Allende and Jose Marti, to name only a few. This is the 'white smoke' that we expect from the Church of our times".

In 1999 Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio was elected as an honourary member of the Rotary Club of Buenos Aires.

Fr. Edward Cahill, commenting on the non expidere (which he explains means a prohibition) issued by the Vatican against the Rotary Club and other associations like Friends of Israel in 1929, in the pages of his book Freemasonry and the Anti-Christian Movement , writes that:

"The Rotary international organisation may be given as another example of White Masonry. Although its professed object is to 'encourage and foster high ethical standards in business and the professions,' and to make the ideal of service the basis of all enterprise, the Code of Morals which it puts forward is purely naturalistic..".

LGBT 'Person of the Year'

LGBT is an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender.

Their longest-running, largest circulation, magazine in the USA, The Advocate, has now chosen its 'Person of the Year'.

They write:

"Time magazine points out the unusual group of eight bishops that Pope Francis has convened to advise him regularly. Among them is Cardinal Oswald Gracias of India, who this month publicly condemned his country's criminalization of homosexuality. India's Supreme Court had just issued a shocking ruling that reinstated punishment of up to 10 years in prison for gay sex.'The Catholic Church has never been opposed to the decriminilization of homosexuality, because we have never considered gay people criminals,' he said, according to Asia News".

... "As same-sex marriage looked on track to become legalized in Argentina, Bergoglio argued privately that the church should come out for civil unions as the 'lesser of two evils'. That's all according to pope Francis's authorized biographer Sergio Rubin. Argentine gay activist Marcelo Marquez backed up the story, telling the New York Times in March that Bergoglio 'listened to my views with a great deal of respect. He told me that homosexuals need to have recognized rights and that he supported civil unions, but not same-sex marriage' ".

Is there any difference?

In 1992 a book was published called Amchurch Comes Out, recording the sodomite agenda and paedophile scandals prevalent in the Conciliar Church in the USA.

The Advocate 'Person of the Year' seems determined to write the sequel.

NewChurch Comes Out.

Horns of a Dilemma

Time magazine designed an interesting cover graphic to represent their chosen 'Person of the Year'.

The photograph is positioned to give the appearance of a pair of horns protruding from the head.

It could be an unfortunate coincidence, of course. The highly experienced graphic designers and editors employed by Time may just not have realised.

But it does bring to mind the warning of Our Lady of La Salette that Rome would lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist as well as Cardinal Manning's study of The Pope and the Antichrist, originally published under the title 'The Present Crisis of the Holy See tested by Prophecy'.

Our Lady of Guadalupe and The Conquest of Darkness

Thursday marked the anniversary of the Holy Mother of God causing her image to be miraculously imprinted on the Tilma, or cloak, of the converted Aztec Indian Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, in the presence of the Archbishop of Mexico City, on 12th December 1531.

Miraculously preserved from deterioration for more than 430 years, scientific research conducted over the past century has made a number of profound discoveries. These discoveries include reflected images from Our Lady's eyes of what appear to be the bishop, Juan Diego and others present at that moment, and the stars displayed on her mantle being a precise representation of the constellations as they would be positioned in the sky in relation to Mexico on that very same day.

May Our Lady of Guadalupe keep our own eyes wide open and protect them from being blinded and diabolically disorientated in this age of apostasy, ambiguity and compromise.

Marian Retreat CD Fundraiser for Typhoon Victims in the Philippines

Carmel Books is pleased to be able to announce that stock is on its way of a newly produced Box Set of C.D.'s to bring a Marian Retreat to hearth and home

Entitled 'Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary', this excellent box set of five C.D.'s was recorded in February, 2013, in Esker, Co. Galway at a retreat given to Carmelite Tertiaries in Ireland by Fr. Fabrice Loschi.

The CD has been produced as part of a fund-raising effort to help victims of the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

Track List

The Power of the Blessed Virgin Mary - 19:40 mins

Prayer and the Carmelite Vocation - 27:45 mins

The Immaculate Conception - 24:57 mins

St. Joseph - 31:18 mins

Annunciation and Visitation - 28:47 mins

The Purification and Cana - 42:17 mins

Daily Life - 33:01 mins

The Passion - 32:58 mins

St. John and Mary Our Mother - 25:45 mins

Fatima and the Holy Rosary - 26:58 mins

Guadalupe - 30:47 mins

Sext - 7:08 mins

Visit us at www.carmel-books.org 

Practising the Works of Mercy

Carmel Books is blessed to be in a position to provide auxiliary help - by supplying miraculous medals, scapulars and plastic rosaries - to groups of faithful Catholics who attempt to live the Faith by practising the Works of Mercy with the homeless, the imprisoned, the sick and other needy members of our crumbling society.

From time to time we are also asked for prayers on behalf of poor souls who would otherwise have no one in this life to pray for them:

"We ask for prayers for the repose of the soul of Philip (Pip) Booth who died recently. His body was not found for several days. He was a regular guest at our early soup kitchens in Canterbury. He also came on the first CVM holiday near Rye where he joined us in a cottage on the beach, rented by a kind CVM supporter. 

This made a big impact on him, and on his return home he determined to improve his lifestyle which he did and was then able to acquire a decent flat. On this holiday he also learnt how to say the Rosary and he often told us that he was saying it as frequently as he could and asked for several replacements when he lost it. 

May Our Blessed Mother pray for him and the repose of his soul". 

On the Sanctification of Priests According to the Needs of Our Times

In 1946, Father Garrigou-Lagrange O.P. wrote a short work in Latin entitled De sanctificatione Sacerdotum secundum exigentias nostri temporis - On the Sanctification of Priests According to the Needs of Our Times.

This important work has just been translated from the Latin and newly published. An initial stock of the book arrived at Carmel Books this morning.

"Its central theme is the urgent need of a deeper faith, both amongst the faithful, to enable them to stand firm against the principal errors of our day, especially against the materialist and atheistic spirit of the Communist and Liberal creeds; and also amongst the clergy, so that they would be able to communicate this gift to all Christians.

In developing that theme he discusses the duty which falls on every priest, not excepting secular priests, of tending towards Christian perfection.

He stresses the exalted nature of this state of perfection as revealed in the eight beatitudes, which are concrete expressions of that perfection; and in the supreme precept of love of God and one's neighbour, which commands the perfection of charity, not as something to put into practice at once, but as the end towards which all the faithful must be striving, each one according to his own particular calling in life, either as a married person or as a priest or as a religious, whether in sacred orders or not.

But if the faithful in general, in their state of life, have this duty of constantly tending towards a greater love of God and their neighbour, and towards the full perfection of charity which will be found in Heaven, how much greater is the obligation of priests to make a similar effort in order to be true lights of the world and the salt of the earth"?

Orwellian Doublethink

On the day of Nelson Mandela's Memorial Service, we remember

"... the steadfast commitment shown by Nelson Mandela in promoting the human dignity of all the nation's citizens..."

1994:   Mandela becomes leader of South Africa

1996:   Abortion on demand becomes 'legal'. One million unborn children have since been butchered.

1998:   New Population Policy introduced to bring down fertility rate.

1998:   Sodomy becomes 'legal'.

1999:   Mandela retires. Job done.

"... I pray that the late President's example will inspire generations of South Africans to put justice and the common good at the forefront of political aspirations".

New Saints for a New World

Kate Middleton was reportedly in tears.

David Cameron waxed lyrical about "fighting for freedom"and the "struggle for justice" and "these things will inspire generations to come", and ended with "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God".

Boris Johnson added that "If there was a secular system of canonisation in today's world, Nelson Mandela would be at the top of the list".

And that was just the Right-Wing of an Enlightened Establishment, never mind the outpouring of tribute from its Left-Side.

So who, exactly, are the Secular Saints of the Brave New World?

The official Statement of the South African Communist Party upon the death of Nelson 'Madiba' Mandela gives us some insight.

"At his arrest in August 1962, Nelson Mandela was not only a member of the then underground South African Communist Party, but was also a member of our Party's Central Committee... After his release from prison, in 1990, Comrade Madiba became a great and close friend of the Communists to his last days".

Amidst the outpouring of mass hysteria sweeping a decrepit western world over its latest secular 'saint', the BBC felt it safe to admit that "In July 1962, Col. Fekadu Wakene taught South African political activist [read Communist] Nelson Mandela the tricks [read Murder and Mayhem] of guerrilla warfare [read Terrorism] - including how to plant explosives before quietly slipping away into the night. Mr. Mandela was in Ethiopia, learning how to be the Commander-in-Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe - the armed wing of the African National Congress.

The African National Congress was funded by the Soviets and operated under the organisational influence of two men with distinctly non-African-sounding names: Albie Sachs and Yossel Mashel (otherwise known as Joe) Slovo.

Slovo succeeded Mandela as Commander-in-Chief of its terrorist wing and became Secretary General of the South African Communist Party in 1986. The savage gang-rapes and literal butchering of thousands of farming families, including the children, hadn't proved enough to subdue the Africans, whether white or black, and so 1986 became the very same year that Winnie Mandela's infamous necklaces - tyres soaked in petrol and placed over the arms and torso before being set alight - began to be presented in their thousands to the population of the townships who were reluctant to do the ANC's bidding. When the ANC eventually took over South Africa, Slovo was given his place in the new government by Mandela and Sachs was placed as a judge in the highest Court dealing with constitutional matters for the new regime.

Decades before, when The Secret Powers Behind Revolution were manoeuvring their point-men, like Slovo and Sachs, in Africa, and training young recruits like Mandela, the Pope's Apostolic Delegate for French-speaking Africa virtually stood as a lone voice in the wilderness warning all who would listen, in his Pastoral Letters, about the danger of a growing Communist Revolution throughout Africa and the solutions that would prevent it.

Few listened then, and few listen now.

First Saturday

Devotion of Reparation of the First Saturdays Requested by Our Lady of Fatima

On 13th July, 1917, Our Lady said: "You have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. In order to save them God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart... I will come to ask for Communion of Reparation...".

On 10th December, 1925, Our Lady returned with the Child Jesus and spoke to Sr. Lucia about true devotion of Reparation to Her Immaculate Heart. Jesus spoke first: "Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make acts of reparation to remove them."

Then Our Lady instructed Sr. Lucia about the First Saturday devotion.

What does Our Lady ask all of us to do?

"I promise to assist, at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who:

1.   On the First Saturday of five consecutive months

2.   Make Sacramental Confession

3.   Receive Holy Communion

4.   Recite five decades of the Rosary

5.   Keep Me company for fifteen minutes whilst meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary

6.   With the intention of making reparation to Me".

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

Meet the Publishers - St. Edward's Press

St. Edward's Press first started publishing in 1993, its first work being a devotional calendar with particular emphasis on British saints.

It operates under a mission statement, or maxim, known as AIDA. These letters stand for 'An Independent and Different Approach', and the maxim helps St. Edward's Press remain focused on providing important and interesting subject matter that it identifies as not being catered for anywhere else.

It has put this maxim to good use in the past few years by publishing two acclaimed books that shine a light on the underhand and destructive work of the anti-Catholic, New World Order orientated, European Union. 

Europe on 387 Million Euros a Day charts the extent to which the European Union's insidious, unbidden power has imposed itself from the local high street to the waters off the coast of Africa.

Brussels Laid Bare presents the story of how a newly appointed Chief Accountant, responsible for the entire EU budget, attempted to make its finances transparent and accountable only to suffer a systematic campaign of persecution aimed at silencing her.

Its most recent publication is the history reference book, From Ur to Us, that was ferociously attacked by the Mass Media, presumably because it pays no heed to the politically correct historical narrative formulated by the modern Powers-That-Be, but instead presents an accumulative ton of neglected and ignored historical fact that taken together presents a strong case for the desirability of a return to Catholic Order.

The New Arians

Today is the Feast Day of another great Doctor of the Church, St. Peter Chrysologus.

St. Peter Chrysologus is known for his succinct and defining sermons, explaining in particular the texts of Holy Scripture, the Mystery of the Incarnation and the heresies of Arianism and Monophysitism.

Arianism, although it had been condemned at the Council of Nicea in 325 and was defeated intellectually around the time of St Peter Chrysologus' birth and the Council of Constantinople in 381, still held sway in parts of Christendom and threatened political danger for the Church. It continued to do so for several hundred years.

The Arian heresy, of course, disputed the very nature of the Holy Triune God.

Belloc, in The Great Heresies described it as "... a declaration that Our Lord was as much of the Divine Essence as it was possible for a creature to be, but that He was nonetheless a creature.... He was created (or, if people did not like the word 'created,' the He 'came forth') from the Godhead before all other effects thereof"

In Saint Athanasius, Defender of the Faith, Michael Davies wrote that "Its essence is that the Son is somehow less than the Father, subordinate to him".

Bishop Rudolph Graber, warns us in his book Athanasius and The Church of Our Time, first published in 1973, that "What happened over 1600 years ago is repeating itself today...". He went on to write "In his encyclical on Modernism Pope Pius X called it the repository of all heresies. And indeed, if we look back at the early Church, we can see the old false doctrines of those days reappearing in new garb. Arius, who denied that the Logos was of one substance with the Father, lives on.... The central dogma of our Faith is to all practical purposes denied".

The Arian creed went something very much like this:

"I believe in God.
Not in a Catholic God.
There is no Catholic God.
There is God.
And I believe in Jesus Christ, His Incarnation.
Jesus is my teacher and my pastor.
But God the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator".

St. Peter Chrysologus, pray for us.



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Saint Francis Xavier

On the Feast of the great Jesuit missionary to Asia, St. Francis Xavier, we are pleased to be able to offer the monumental 740 page work on his life written by Fr. Henry James Coleridge.

This is the classic life of the great Saint Francis Xavier who in the sixteenth century renewed the labours and the miracles of the Apostles.

Weaving his text around 124 full-length original letters written by the saint, Father 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.

Sermons of St. Francis de Sales for Advent & Christmas

"St. Francis de Sales, famous Doctor of the Church, is one of the greatest masters of the spiritual life - a wise, learned and gentle teacher for all.

This volume consists of nine sermons preached during Advent and Christmas of various years from 1613 to 1622, the year of his death.

Recognising the central importance of the Mystery of the Incarnation, the holy bishop uses many figures and analogies to explain how we can prepare ourselves for this great feast.

He speaks of the importance of following Mary, the Star of the Sea, who guides us to her Son without fail.

He also brings out many details regarding the mission of St. John the Baptist, in particular pointing out St. John's noble practice of absolute humility despite facing the greatest imaginable temptation to pride and ambition.

These sermons are a veritable revelation of the unsuspected treasures which lie concealed within the familiar words of the Christmas story".

Dia 's Naomh Aindrea!

Today Carmel Books was running a stall at the annual Christmas Fayre established to raise much needed funds for the nearby St. Michael's School.

And today, of course, is also the Feast of Scotland's holy patron St. Andrew.

Fr. Alban Butler writes in Lives of the Saints for Every Day of the Year:

"St. Andrew was one of the fishermen of Bethsaida, and brother, perhaps elder brother, of St. Peter, and became a disciple of St. John Baptist. He seemed always eager to bring others into notice; when called himself by Christ on the banks of the Jordan, his first thought was to go in search of his brother, and he said, 'We have found the Messias,' and he brought him to Jesus.

It was he again who, when Christ wished to feed the five thousand in the desert, pointed out the little lad with the five loaves and fishes.

St. Andrew went forth upon his mission to plant the Faith in Scythia and Greece, and at the end of years of toil to win a martyr's crown. After suffering a cruel scourging at Patrae in Achaia, he was left, bound by cords, to die upon a cross.

When St. Andrew first caught sight of the gibbet on which he was to die, he greeted the precious wood with joy. 'O good cross!' he cried, 'made beautiful by the limbs of Christ, so long desired, now so happily found! receive me into thy arms and present me to my Master, that He who redeemed me through thee may now accept me from thee'.

Two whole days the martyr remained hanging on this cross alive, preaching, with outstretched arms from this chair of truth, to all who came near, and entreating them not to hinder his passion".

Formally Revoked or Formerly Revoked?

On the subject of dictionaries, the page happened to fall open in the Carmel Books tea-room on the word
'revoke'.

1.   officially cancel (a decree, decision or promise).
synonyms: cancel, repeal, rescind, reverse, abrogate, annul, nullify, declare null and void, make void, void, invalidate, render invalid, quash, abolish, set aside, countermand, retract, withdraw, overrule, override.

In Evangelii Gaudium, 247, we read that "We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29)".

From the context of this section entitled Relations with Judaism it seems crystal clear that what's being referred to is not the shared Abrahamic Covenant of the New Israel which is the Catholic (meaning Universal) Church and the Universal Faith but the Mosaic or Sinaitic Covenant of the Old Law - "their covenant with God", "people of the covenant and their faith", "people of the Old Covenant".

Furthermore we read that "As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and to serve the true God... with them we accept his revealed word... the Church also is enriched when she receives the values of Judaism".

Denzinger's The Sources of Catholic Dogma is always a very useful book to have to hand. In it we read the solemn dogmatically-binding declarations of the Council of Florence:

"The sacrosanct Roman Church, founded by the voice of Our Lord and Saviour... firmly believes, professes and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosaic Law... ceased... All therefore who after that time observe the ... requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian Faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors"

And further:

"It firmly believes, professes and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart 'into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels' [Matt. 25:41] , unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock ... and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church".

48,000 words and The Word

We thought it might be useful to offer readers A Catholic Dictionary to help them plough through the 48,000 odd words of the much-talked-about exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.

But then we realised that A Catholic Dictionary wouldn't be of much use, and A Glossary of Sociological Social Psychology just isn't on our stocklist.

The only other alternatives we can offer are A Catholic Child's Picture Dictionary or A Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin but neither of these, although very useful books in their own right, would help in this particular case.

The pictures in the Catholic Child's Picture Dictionary are great to look at though, as are those in God's Alphabet: The ABC's of the Church.

Our recommendation is to stick with the ABC's of the Church. As it says on the back cover: "May I never forget to zealously fight for God's Alphabet".

Damian Thompson's Christmas Present

"If this isn't a declaration that non-Christians go to heaven then I don't know what is".

One of our staff, having just spluttered out a mouthful of tea whilst reading this sentence from Damian Thompson's analysis of the newly published apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, has encouraged Carmel Books to undertake to send Mr. Thompson a charitable Christmas present.

We will send him a copy of Extra Ecclesiam Nullis omnino Salvatur.

If this isn't a declaration that non-Catholics do not go to Heaven then we don't know what is!

We haven't yet read the apostolic exhortation so can only take Damian Thompson's word that it says what Damian Thompson claims it says, but perhaps a kind reader or two might like to send the same charitable gift to the Vatican anyway?

Supporting the African Missions

Another choice of calendar for 2014 is available from Carmel Books.

Produced for the benefit of the missions in southern Africa this calendar is themed with photographs and interesting information about famous crucifixes like that of La Salette, the miraculous crucifix venerated by St. Gemma Galgani, and the poisoned crucifix of Guadalupe.

Just a few days ago several dozen Catholic children in the destitute township of Soweto were invested in the brown Scapular of Mount Carmel supplied to the African missions by the Sisters of Saint Joseph.

As well as supporting the missions by purchasing this calendar please also consider helping the good sisters who are only limited in the number of scapulars they can make and send to the missions by the lack of benefactors.

Meet the Publishers - The Kolbe Centre for the Study of Creation

One of the major thrusts of the Modernist attack on the Faith that's resulted in the rampant Liberalism and widespread apostasy seen and felt all around us today, was on Holy Scripture.

And the way it was done was by appealing to 'The Age of Reason' and reinterpreting Holy Scripture under the lens of Rationalism and Scientism.

Its primary target was the Book of Genesis in an (very successful) attempt to destroy Catholic doctrines regarding Creation to replace them with an Evolutionary mindset - philosophical, historical and scientific Evolution.that would undermine and destroy Catholicism.

The Kolbe Centre for the Study of Creation was founded on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 2000, bringing together a host of Catholic theologians, philosophers, apologists and natural scientists in an attempt to fight back and re-assert the traditional Catholic doctrines and belief in Genesis.

It's held several major conferences in Rome and countless seminars in parishes throughout the world, including in Britain and Ireland where it works in conjunction with the Daylight Origins Society, as well as publishing its conference proceedings and other materials defending the traditional Catholic doctrines of Genesis against the Evolutionary paradigm.

Catholic Assessment of Evolutionary Theory, A - John Wynne
Creation and Time - Dr. Dominique Tassot, Peter Wilders, Hugh Owen
Creation vs. Evolution - Eric Bermingham
Doctrines of Genesis 1-11, The - Fr. Victor Warkulwiz
Evolution As Seen by Modern Science (DVD) - Various Catholic Scientists
Evolution Theory & The Sciences: A Critical Examination - Various Catholic Scientists and Philosophers
Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome - Dr. John Sandford
Impact of Research on Race Formation and Mutations on The Theory of Evolution (DVD) - Dr. Maciej Giertych
International Catholic Symposium on Creation - Various Catholic Scientists and Apologists
On Creation and The Fall - St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Doctor of the Church
Scientific Critique of Evolution, A - Various Catholic Scientists
Special Creation Rediscovered - Gerry Keane

Mexican Martyrdom

23rd November is also the anniversary of the martyrdom of Fr. Miguel Agustin Pro, executed during what Graham Greene described at the time as "the fiercest persecution of religion anywhere since the reign of Elizabeth".

Ten years before Spain's heroic Catholic uprising against the Masonic and Communist persecution of the Church and Her faithful, the Catholics of Mexico arose in a defensive war against the tyranny of the Masonic and Communist regime that had launched a great persecution of the Church in Mexico.

Some 40,000 Catholic priests, religious and faithful lay down their earthly lives in defence of the Faith during the Cristero War.

A 14 year old Cristero martyr, Blessed Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio wrote a note to his Aunt. "I have been condemned to death. At 8:30, the moment I have looked forward to so much will arrive".

"At 11 o'clock Jose was taken to army headquarters a block away from the church where, without trial, his road to Calvary began. With barbaric cruelty the soles of his feet were sliced off. Then, hands bound behind his back, he was forced by Picazo's thugs and some soldiers to walk the stony road to the cemetery, about a mile away.

A small group of friends and relatives followed behind, including Jose's mother and some of the children who knew him. To this day, surviving witnesses remember the bloodstained footprints left by Jose Luis. In an effort to keep him from waking the town with his shouts, he was mocked, stabbed with small knives, and hit with the butt of a gun so hard that his jaw was broken.

Although moaning with pain he kept shouting loudly, 'Viva Cristo Rey! Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe'!

The soldiers stopped him every so often, urging, 'If you say, 'Death to Christ the King, we'll let you live'. But his response was unswerving: 'Viva Cristo Rey!' "

Have Books - Will Travel

Carmel Books is on the road today - a veritable travelling library of Catholic classics - for we've been invited to set up a bookstall at a conference in The Smoke (we did utter a feeble protest that it might damage the books and make us cough, but they insisted we come anyway)!

It's actually our second conference in as many months because a few weeks ago we were privileged to set up the bookstall for a brilliant series of talks on Catholic Social Teaching and its practical implementation given by John Sharpe, the Managing Director of IHS Press.

Today, we'll be eagerly listening to instructive talks on subjects ranging from the Spanish Civil War to Hilaire Belloc to the Catholic family. And, of course, we'll be bringing a wide variety of books reflecting the themes of the conference.

Being reminded of the murderous Red and Anarchist Butchery and Terror in Spain this weekend seems Providential as it marks the annual Spanish (and Europe-wide) remembrance of 20th November which is the very day on which the two great Catholic Commanders of Spain's defensive war were called to their eternal rest, some 39 years apart.

Everyone knows the name of General Franco but few are familiar with Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange and the popular leader amongst multitudes of Spaniards of all classes. He was martyred in prison in 1936, aged 33, on the orders of the barely-disguised Communist government already then pursuing a bloody policy of persecution against the Church and Her faithful.

"It happened, by an amazing chance, that a fellow-prisoner was a priest, to whom José Antonio was allowed access that he might be shriven. At dawn on the 20th of November, he bade farewell to his brother and was taken out into a courtyard to be shot. Prophetically anticipating the future plenitude of the movement he created, he stood to face the rifles with two Falangists on one side and two Requetés on the other. He gave a lusty cry of Arriba España and kissed the crucifix in humility. A moment later his body was dead.

That body now lies in a tomb before the High Altar of the Basilica of The Escorial, to which it was conveyed by thousands of Spaniards who carried the coffin on foot from Alicante.

Franco has said:

'Spaniards: José Antonio has died, the news-criers say! José Antonio lives, the Falange declares!

What is death and what is life?... Life is immortality... The seed that is not lost, but day after day is renewed with new vigour and freshness... This is the life, to-day, of José Antonio' ".