Breaking the Chains of Mediocrity

Breaking the Chains of Mediocrity was the first book conceived for the Collected Works of Carol Jackson Robinson (1911-2002).

From the Introduction:

"The articles in this little book, Breaking the Chains of Mediocrity, will discomfort the complacent Catholic. Though written seventy years ago, their urgent call has not lost any relevance: the Catholic life does not consist in a mechanical, mediocre practice of the Faith — one that simply meets the minimum requirements of being a Catholic in “good standing” — but in a fully-realised Catholicism that penetrates into every facet of one’s existence. Unabashedly Catholic, the ideas formulated in this work may well challenge the reader to confront his own spiritual mediocrity.

Robinson’s diagnoses and prescriptions were conditioned by her time and place, but they remain valid for us today, because human nature and our conditions are fundamentally similar. Indeed, when Robinson writes of “perfecting men and their talents rather than deadening the human thing in the interests of mechanical monsters,” can we not say today, having witnessed the brutalising effects of systems that do not allow for this perfection, that her words were prescient?

This book touches upon only a fraction of the ideas Robinson explored throughout her nearly fifty years of writing, much of which has only been rediscovered recently. We hope that with this book, the first volume in our Collected Works series, Carol Robinson should be ranked among the most perceptive of 20th century American Catholic essayists. Her insights have remained in obscurity far too long."

Paperback.  60pp

Liberalism: A Critique of its Basic Principles and Various Forms

Cardinal Billot's treatise on Liberalism, part of a larger work on the Church and her relations with society, appeared a few years before World War I and was translated into English in the early 1920's.

This new translation by Thomas Stork includes an extensive introduction on the trajectory of Liberalism in the United States, and a foreword by Fr. Thomas Crean, O.P.  

"In an age where Liberalism, in one form or another, dominates the world, both inside and outside the Church, spreading confusion from an already diabolically disoriented secular world into the daily life of Catholics themselves, nothing could be more timely than this translation of Cardinal Billot's magisterial expression of why the Church must oppose Liberalism in all its many open and subtle forms." – John Rao (D.Phil., Oxford); Associate Professor of History, St. John's University

Paperback. 110 pp.

Eleison Comments vol. 2

From the Introduction of the book, presented by Rev. Fr. Paul Morgan, former District Superior of the SSPX in Britain.

"It’s eleven o’clock at night and the community at Saint George’s House in Wimbledon are about to retire.

Best check for any phone messages just in case.

“Hello Father. It’s Bishop Williamson here. I’m calling from Buenos Aires. I’ll be arriving in London Heathrow tomorrow morning around six. Please organize an armed police escort as things are somewhat heating up. See you soon.”

Talk about a sticky wicket, as the Americans would have us Brits say. Or Flippn’ ‘eck! as Yorkshiremen do say.

How on earth to organize anything at such an hour, let alone an armed police escort? British Bobbies don’t carry weapons…

A wing and a prayer.

An hour later the phone rings. “Allo Father. It’s Kevin here. I just ‘eared about the Bishop ‘aving a spot of bother at the airport in Argentina. Can I do anything to ‘elp?”

“Only if you can organize an armed police escort” I reply sarcastically.

“I’ll sort something. Can’t go in person as I’m, hem, known to the authorities, hem. Leave it to me. Goodnight,” comes the reply.

Cor blimey!

Another wing and a prayer.

Arriving at the airport in good time we learn that the airport security people are somewhat unhelpful. But when one of Kevin’s associates flashes his credentials to the police he is immediately saluted. Who are these quiet ‘associates’ with their cool composure and military bearing one wonders…

The Police Inspector takes charge and barks out the orders. “Yes you can park your car in a restricted area in front of the side exit. Yes you can drive the wrong way down a one-way route. No, you cannot meet him at the Gate. Yes, you can stand at the arrivals door. Keep things moving swiftly. No stopping en route to the vehicle. Get somebody else to collect the baggage…”

A mob of journalists gather. Other passengers and personnel enquire as to which celebrity is expected.

Father Jean-Michel Faure is the first to emerge. “Keep smiling” he had advised the Bishop. He follows his own counsel to a cue. As luck would have it he is a passable Bishop Williamson lookalike. He serves as a decoy for some of the media. Then follows the Bishop in a scrum of armed police officers with our associates. Manu militariae.

Pointed elbows and rough footwork force a unceremonious passage through the throng. There is the crunch of photographic equipment and microphones underfoot.

The distinguished visitor is bundled into the back seat of my Landrover accompanied by one of the associates. “Well done Father. How did you manage to organise the police escort?” asks the Bishop breezily.

We dodge the media and speed off. The Press proceed to interrogate a young confrere who is left standing on the pavement. His Irish charm foils their loaded questions…

Saint George’s House, SSPX-GB District Headquarters in South London, provides a welcome safe haven. Journalists remain outside for days. Curtains remain closed for the duration. Any visitors are fully vetted prior to admission. Kevin makes a full debriefing. His associates eventually take their leave..

Thus began an internal exile lasting from early 2009 to late 2012. Far from moldering away in a London garret, Bishop Williamson refused to be silenced. He chose instead to continue writing and speaking, thus challenging the politically correct opinions of the day, both religious and secular.

This tenacity would eventually lead to his expulsion from the NewSociety. Soft Bp.exit or hard Bp.exit scenarios having both been envisaged. Yet undaunted, and at a different London address, he would now continue unfettered in his apostolate of the written word not least by his weekly Eleison Comments translated by the author into several languages.

May this compilation of articles serve for their preservation and diffusion for the benefit of many both now and in the future.

And to Bishop Richard Williamson in this his eightieth year, we wish him ‘ad multos annos!’

Hardback. 380pp

Ever Ancient, Ever New: Traditional Latin Mass

Beauty, grace, truth, are like God, eternal, and thus it is no wonder that younger generations of Catholics who thirst for God are drawn to the traditional Latin Mass. In it, they see the fingerprint of God.

At first the attraction may be attributed to its perceptible beauty, but with each subsequent Mass the soul begins to pierce through the sublime mystery of the splendid ritual which enshrouds so many truths of Divine revelation.

This most heavenly expression of liturgical worship (especially in its magnificent form of a High Mass) is the legitimate inheritance of every Catholic. Blessed is the soul who has been graced to appreciate and love his patrimony!

This beautifully-produced hardback book, compiled, authored and published by Catholic mother Mary Hernandez Aune, is crammed full of wonderful illustrations and valuable and informative commentary on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the priest's vestments and the graces and benefits that derive from assisting devoutly at Mass.

Hardback 120pp.

Gwynne's Evolution or Creation?

Subtitled "An All-Important Subject Investigated", Gwynne's Evolution or Creation? is almost certainly like no other ever written on either of its contending topics.

The case for each of the alternative propositions - as to where we and the universe we inhabit came from - is presented as convincingly as it reasonably can be.

It will leave its readers well-informed enough to make up their own minds and, if they can find genuine justification for doing so, to disagree with the author's conclusion.

N.M. Gwynne, celebrated author of several books including Gwynne's Latin and Gwynne's Grammar, has, for many years, been teaching just about every subject - English, Latin, Greek, French, German, mathematics, history, classical philosophy, natural medicine, and the elements of music - to just about every sort of pupil in just about every sort of circumstance

Paperback. 164pp.

2020 Liturgical Wall Calendars and Ordos

2020 liturgical

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Order now to avoid possible disappointment should stocks run out.

Eleison Comments vol. 1

The release of the first hardback compilation of Eleison Comments by Bishop Richard Williamson will be a welcome breath of fresh air to many. No spin, just plain, unvarnished, straight-to-the-point commentary.

Even subscribers to the weekly email version will be surprised at just how many different subjects were covered between July 2007 to May 2011 which this first volume contains. Politics, art, family life, literature, music, prepping, &c, are just a few of the issues addressed, never mind some even more controversial subjects.

Including a superb leading introduction by Dr David Allen White, the final word introducing the Comments belongs to Fr Steven Webber of the Society of Saint Pius X.

"Thus, Bishop Williamson has been a defender of the integral Catholic way of life. In a world darkened by sin and apostasy, he has not gone liberal to meet the world, but he has ever attempted to pull the world to God. Therefore, the bishop has applied the Faith to an ever more surburbanised and industrialised world more glamorous and seductive for Catholics in the world. He has denounced this inhuman way of life which the suburbs and machines offer because it has essentially bankrupted too many hearts and souls. In these moments the bishop's voice and teachings especially were clear and enlightening for the cause of Truth."

Hardback. 335 pp

The Absolute Essentials of the Upbringing of Children

This book, an extract from 'A Compendium of Catechetical Instruction' published by the Irish College in Rome in 1911, was brought back into print by the Britons Catholic Library in 1979.

It sets out the real nature of the child and the duties of parents which flow from this. In the twenty-first century, dominated as it is by the Freudian ethic, this knowledge has been largely lost, with results to society and to the individuals who comprise society that are both catastrophic and all too evident.

This book is essential reading for the parent and prospective parent. No parent can afford to be without this book, which needs to be constantly reread and referred to.

Paperback. 78pp.

The Eightfold Kingdom Within: The Beatitudes and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost

This is the second book in the Collected Works of Carol Jackson Robinson (1911-2002), co-founder of Integrity magazine.

From the Introduction

"Carol Jackson Robinson’s Eightfold Kingdom Within is a noteworthy attempt to communicate St. Thomas’ developed thought of the Beatitudes to a non-academic audience, and while she does eschew any discussion of the intricacies of doctrinal development, subjects of undoubted interest to the historical theologians, nonetheless her series of remarkable articles reveal that Robinson was a careful and highly insightful reader of Aquinas. Over the course of her essays, Robinson rightly focuses on the task of placing the Beatitudes and their attendant Gifts once again at the centre of Christian spiritual life…." - Gregorio Montejo PhD, Boston College

"Written in the early 1960's, the reflections on spiritual themes found herein are altogether different from most.  Rather than considering the Beatitudes as disembodied guideposts along some kind of ethical path, Carol Robinson places them squarely within the messiness that is our modern context.  She sees them as they have ever been: not to make us “spiritual”, but how to be Catholic in this world as it is, and this is only possible when the human heart has been healed and regenerated through the happiness of restored wholeness.  Grace is still efficacious even in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

These are not poetry embroidered and framed on a parlour wall; they are eternal brilliance from the Logos as spoken in the world. Carol Robinson establishes them within our world – not embroidered, not framed, not, really, even pretty, but attractive all the same as they have ever been to those who accept discipleship along the dusty and rugged paths of the divine Rabbi from Galilee.

These considerations are well worth perusal and practice." - Rev. Fr. James Doran, Saint Joseph Antiochene Syriac Maronite Catholic Church

"How can someone be a Christian in today's world? Practically, what does it mean to be a saint? With a rare combination of theological subtlety and down-to-earth clarity, Robinson guides the reader through specific challenges of the lives of ordinary Christians and shows how we are called to live in Christ. The Beatitudes and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are generally things Catholics memorise for Confirmation and forget about. In her gifts as both intellectual and clear communicator, Robinson opens up the Beatitudes and Gifts of the Holy Spirit for all of us non-priests and religious to live in our lives. Holiness is always possible in any situation we find ourselves and Robinson shows the way to living a Christ-powered life. Following Christ in our circumstances takes sacrifice, but Robinson leads us into seeing our problems with God's eyes and trusting that He will always provide for those who conform their loves to Christ. If you want a book that will show you what it means to live like Our Lord in the modern world, look no further!" - Professor Edmund Lazzari, Mount Saint Mary's University

"The Eightfold Kingdom Within is an accessible, attractively written and down-to-earth account of the spiritual life. Its central theme, of the difficulties and rewards of striving for holiness in a secular age is only more relevant now than when the author was writing." - Fr. Thomas Crean OP

Crusade in Spain

A comprehensive account of the experiences of the volunteer Irish Brigade, founded and led by General Eoin O’Duffy, fighting under the Nationalist flag in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39).

The Brigade comprised Irish nationals who, like their leader, regarded the War as primarily a Christian crusade against Communism, with the very survival of Catholic Spain at stake. General O’Duffy, an experienced political activist, soldier, and ex-police Commissioner, was responsible for recruitment and transportation to Spain where the men were barracked at Cáceres, provided with uniforms and received basic military training. The Brigade of some 700 men remained in Spain for about six months, experiencing front-line fighting at La Marañosa and Ciempozuelos, with losses of fifteen dead and many wounded. By this time new Irish law forbade Irish citizens to join the Brigade, and with Nationalist forces well in control, it was time for the Brigade to return to Ireland.

In his book the author reveals a deep concern for the welfare of his men, a patriotic love for his country, and a strong devotion to his Catholic Faith. He is proud of the courage and demeanour of his troops, echoing the praise received from Spanish military, civil, and religious authorities. History has been ambivalent in its views on the role of the Irish Brigade, but in the words of O’Duffy: “We have been criticised, sneered at, slandered, but truth, charity and justice shall prevail, and time will justify our motives. We seek no praise. We did our duty. We went to Spain.”

This re-publication is enriched with a foreword by noted independent academic Michael McCormack, historian and archivist of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

Paperback.  216 pp.

The Voice of the Trumpet

A "beast” and a “dinosaur” to some, an “extremist” to the mainstream media, and a hero to loving and loyal admirers, Bishop Richard Williamson is likely the most loved and hated Catholic cleric since Fr. Charles Coughlin, the American Radio Priest of the 1930’s, or Fr. Denis Fahey who published extensively against the forces of Organised Naturalism. Either way, it is impossible to avoid him.

In this charming – and, in its own right, provocative – account, his friend and confidant of nearly 30 years, David Allen White, Ph.D.,  explains why.

Beginning with the twin origins of Williamson's family in America and England, and covering his youth, adolescence, schooling, path to Catholicism, the priesthood, and the Society of St. Pius X, Dr. White then explores the most controversial and engaging of the bishop's views as expressed over a decades-long career of pedagogy and polemics.

The work is sure to delight, inform, entertain, and (for some) infuriate. Not to be missed, in any case.

Paperback. 368 pp. 

Christ Wants More: Ignatian Principles and Ideals

Originally published in 1961, this book is meant to be used in conjunction with The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola for retreat masters and retreatants alike. It may also be used by anyone who may not be able attend a retreat but who wishes to follow the general programme of the exercises.

It is written in a direct style meant to stir the will to a greater understanding and pursuit of man's supernatural end: beatitude with God in Heaven. Fr. Frank Holland, S.J., uses stories to hammer away points that will impress in the reader a realisation that we are here as pilgrims and must use creatures in their proper light -- to use them to help reach the source of all of creation, the Blessed Trinity.

The Spiritual Exercises have been given papal support most notably in Pope Pius XI's encyclical, Mens Nostra (1929).

It is hoped that this book will be a great aid in the attainment of perfection.

"You can tell. When a spiritual author has authentic insights into the life of grace, when he truly has a religious experience to share, you know it. Fr Holland has without a doubt captured the quintessence of that unequalled hallmark of Catholic spirituality that are the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. Any presentation of Ignatian spirituality is good on the condition that the Exercises be explained in all their purity, that their demands be not watered down, but put forward with the greatest clarity. This is what we see happening in this little book..."

- Dom Pius Mary Noonan, O.S.B., S.T.D. (Notre Dame Priory, Tasmania)

Paperback. 260pp.

Red Mexico

Francis McCullagh opens the window on Mexico in the 1920's, a nation suffering cruel oppression under the ruthless anti-clerical government of President Plutarco Elías Calles and General Álvaro Obregón, indirectly aided and abetted by the government of the U.S.A. under President Wilson.

In this book, the author reveals the harsh realities of life in Mexico, exposing the iniquitous laws devised and imposed on all things Catholic. He examines the real purpose of these laws, and the main personalities involved, and shows how the resultant uprising of the ordinary people, the Cristero War, led to increased government brutality and the martyrdom of many innocent civilians, particularly priests and young Catholic laymen.

Red Mexico is a valuable primary source account of a nation persecuted for its religious faith, written by a man of unquestioned courage and integrity, who was there at the time.

We are indebted to Bishop Martín Dávila Gándara for his perceptive and informative foreword, and to María Concepción Márquez Sandoval for her detailed historical appendix.

Paperback.  378 pp.

Integrity: volume 1

"Integral Catholicism is already becoming a popular expression. It does not mean piety so much as wholeness. It means that what we profess to believe is consistent with the assumed principle by which we live out our daily lives. It suggests a consistency of theory and practice; a unity of public life and private morals; a reconciliation of commercial ethics and religious dogma, of individual conscience and statutory law. It means a cessation of the uneasy Sunday-lip-service-to-God-and-40-hours-a-week-with-time-and-one-half-for-overtime-devotion-to-Mammon by which so many of our lives are compromised.

The relationship between “wholeness” and “holiness” is as direct as the derivation of the second word from the first. It becomes daily more difficult to lead holy lives in disregard of the contradictory nature of the circumstances thereof.

The guiding policy of contemporary society is expediency. Don’t act from high moral principles (it’s impractical). Don’t commit yourself either to thorough-going villainy (it isn’t nice). Just compromise, adjust, submit, water down, and make the best of a bad situation (after all, we have to eat). Our expediency looks less and less like the “sane policy of realistic leaders” and more and more like the degrading opportunism of ignoble men. Integrity is at the opposite pole from expediency. It is a quality which does not look first to the financial consideration involved, does not calculate its actions to please high worldly powers, or with an eye to the coming elections. It does not hold that the end justifies the means, but that we must do what is right, come what may. We hope to achieve it ourselves and in our magazine."

This is the first volume of the complete works of the outstanding 1940's - 1950's Catholic magazine 'Integrity'. 

Paperback. 266 pp.

Help the homeless with these great new rosary beads!

Why not help the homeless and the less-fortunate with these wonderful hand-made wood and cord rosary beads? These beads are not only attractive, but are strong and durable for long-lasting use at home, before the Blessed Sacrament and on pilgrimage! Each set of beads comes in an attractive ribbon-tied presentation bag. Black or brown beads available. All profits from the sale of these items goes directly to help the homeless and the destitute. Order today!

Brown beads can be ordered here: Black beads can be ordered here:

Ordo recitandi 2019

The Ordo Recitandi is the flagship production of The Saint Lawrence Press. The Ordo contains 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.

The Ordo 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 1930's following the fifth editio post typicamof the Roman Missal that was promulgated by SRC in 1939.

The Ordo is written entirely in Latin.

Order it here: