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Gaudium, 247, we read that "We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29)".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

Saint Cecilia

"In the nineteenth century there was a concerted effort on the part of liberal revisionists to undermine the Church's history by challenging the veracity of the Acts of the Martyrs.

Some miraculous events associated with the lives of very popular saints, whose names were canonized in the Roman Missal, were treated with ridicule by scholars more concerned with documents than the living evidence of common tradition.

It was righteous indignation that moved Abbot Dom Gueranger to defend the cause of Saint Cecilia, whose holy celebrity had spanned fifteen centuries. The abbot's strategy was to validate the traditional accounts of all the martyrs' lives by exonerating just one.

He achieved this in the holy virgin Cecilia's case by presenting in book form every morsel of factual evidence available, especially that which modern archaeological excavations offered. As a result of his labour, there arose a refreshing new devotion to the young martyr and, at least for a time, the cynical scoffs of the proud were silenced".

Christmas Gift to Customers

In the run up to Christmas we want to say 'thank you' to all our loyal (and new) friends and customers, so we have started to give away packs of Christmas cards with orders.

Customers ordering items coming to £60.00 or more, including the postage costs, are receiving a pack of 12 Christmas cards worth £5.95 with their orders.

A pack of 10 smaller Christmas cards worth £2.50 is being enclosed with every order coming to £40.00 or more, including the postage costs.

Visit us at www.carmel-books.org

Meet the Publishers - Tradibooks

Tradibooks is a small, but steadily growing, publishing house (miracle of miracles, it's run by an Englishman too!) that deserves to be far more widely known simply because of the excellent range of interesting and apposite titles that it brings back into print.

In the words of the founder of Tradibooks:

"I have worked in traditional Catholic publishing since 1983 but I launched the Tradibooks imprint only in 2007.

We have fifty books in print so far: mostly old titles back in print, some new titles, and covering all the aspects of Catholic life from a 100% traditional standpoint. My favourite moment is giving new life to a really great title that is insufficiently known, like Fr Leen’s What is True Education?

I make a point of ensuring that all my books are re-set in clear print – I resent the poor quality of many facsimile reprints currently coming onto the market.

The aim of Tradibooks is not to flood the Catholic market with thousands of titles but to ensure the availability of really worthwhile books: well-written, doctrinally sound, inspiring – only the very best!

I am also a professional translator and have translated some of our titles from French or Latin.

Forthcoming projects include (a) an English translation of the Lémann brothers’ work revealing from Jewish sources the identity and detailed machinations of the members of the Sanhedrin that condemned Our Lord to death, and (b) a detailed theological study of the actual errors (not all mere ambiguities!) in the documents of the Second Vatican Council".

Adventures of Owen Evans, The - Fr. W. H. Anderdon
Beatification and Canonization - Fr. F. W. Faber
Beloved Disciple, The - Fr. H. A. Rawes
Catechism on the Choice of a State of Life - Bellarmine Catechetical Centre
Catholic Fireside Companion, The - Various Catholic Writers
Christian of the Day and the Christian of the Gospel, The - Father Emmanuel
Chronicle of St. Anthony of Padua, The - Fr. H. J. Coleridge, S.J.
Commonitorium Against Heresies - St. Vincent of Lerins
Dates of the Birth and Death of Jesus Christ, The - General Hugues de Nanteuil
Defence of the Seven Sacraments - King Henry VIII
Delict of Heresy, The - Fr. Eric F. MacKenzie
De Valore Notarum Theologicarum - Fr. Sixtus Cartechini, S.J.
End of the Present World, The - Canon Arminjon
Father William Doyle, S.J. - Professor Alfred O'Rahilly
Hell Opened to Christians - Fr. G. P. Pinamonti
House of Commons and Monarchy, The - Hilaire Belloc
How Grace Acts - St. Alphonsus Mary Ligouri
Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, The - Fr. H. J. Coleridge, S.J.
Life of Father Ignatius Spencer, The - Father Pius of the Holy Ghost, C.P.
Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The - Louis Veuillot
Life of St. Benedict Joseph Labre, The - Fr. Antonio Maria Coltraro
Mercy of Allah, The - Hilaire Belloc
Money Manipulation and Social Order - Fr. Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp.
Pope and the Antichrist, The - Cardinal Henry Edward Manning
Relations of the Church to Society, The - Fr. Edmund O'Reilly, S.J.
Role of Money, The - Professor Frederick Soddy
School of Saint Philip Neri, The - Bishop Crispino
Secret of Saint John Bosco, The - Henri Gheon
Tales of the Angels - Fr. F. W. Faber
Theology of Prayer, The - Monsignor Joseph Fenton
Truth of Papal Claims, The - Raphael Cardinal Merry del Val
Venial Sin - Bishop John S. Vaughan
What is True Education? - Fr. Edward Leen

Carmelite Calendar for 2014

We are pleased to announce that another new calendar for the forthcoming year has just arrived in stock.

Produced in Australia by the traditional Third Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel this well-produced calendar is designed specifically to help Carmelite Tertiaries follow the Rule.

It contains the Carmelite Feasts and reminders of indulgences, rubrics of the Carmelite Office and just about everything a Carmelite Tertiary will find useful on a day by day basis.

Pictured on the right are the calendar page for September and the July facing page, above it.

The cover is pictured, below.

Visit us at 

www.carmel-books.org

The Papal Monarchy

On the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Ss. Peter and Paul we would do well to remind ourselves of the sublime dignity and calling of The Papal Monarchy.

"When nineteenth century Christendom shifted its allegiance from a divine vertical authority to the horizontal revolutionary ideals of egalitarian democracy and false liberty, Dom Gueranger's erudite polemical masterpiece contributed more than any other contemporary work to uphold the papal monarchy in all of its divinely ordained prerogatives.

This labour of the holy abbot helped to restore in Catholic Europe the spiritual sword, as well as the magisterial cathedra, to the Vicar of Christ the King. And he did so, not by any clever manipulative abuse of language, but simply by appealing to the simplicity and clarity of the gospels, universal Christian tradition, and the common consensus fidelis".

A wonderful book published before the advent of new world religion paraphernalia of beach balls, kippahs and clown noses!

Love Peace and Joy

For some reason that goofy feel-good red-nose fever hasn't quite managed to catch on at Carmel Books yet.

So in its place we would like to recommend to our friends and customers that true Love, Peace and Joy that Saint Gertrude the Great, whose feast we celebrate today, found in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Visit us at www.carmel-books.org

Disused Dominican Doctors - A Remedy!

Today is the Feast Day of St. Albert the Great, one of the great Doctors of the Church.

It probably says a lot about the feeble and fragile state of Catholicism in the modern era that it's impossible to find any of his works, like the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, readily available.

But at least Albertus Magnus still has a 'second-hand' fame of sorts in that people may have heard of him because he was the teacher of the much better known St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, whose works are more readily available, even if disastrously neglected.

It doesn't have to be that way. And it shouldn't be!

Carmel Books has stock of a quite brilliantly-written book that introduces the intellectual thought - and its application - of St. Albert's famed and trained student in a way that every layman can easily understand.

From the Foreword of St. Thomas Aquinas: Universal Doctor:

"This book was written firstly, to express the author's conviction that there is something distorted in Western society at the beginning of the third millennium; secondly, to analyse the causes of this imbalance; thirdly and principally, to offer a set of solutions. It is the author's opinion that these solutions are still to be found in the writings of the thirteenth century philosopher and theologian, Thomas Aquinas. It is hoped that the book will succeed in introducing Thomas Aquinas' philosophical thought to a new generation...

As this is intended to be no more than an introduction to Thomas Aquinas' philosophy those readers who are more academically-minded may find an irritating lack of exact references. These have been kept to a minimum as the book is meant to be for everyone, not only for the academic....".