Journey to the Baobab Tree

A true story of courage, endurance and love. 'Hauntingly beautiful and compelling'.

Journey to the Baobab Tree is the true story of two children's epic journey from Eastern Poland to Siberia, their escape to Persia and finally to Africa during World War Two.

Alinka's family lived in a small river town in Eastern Poland where her father was chief of police. Witek's father was a forest keeper in the remote forest regions bordering Russia.

When the war began in September 1939, the Soviets, allied for the first two years of the war with the Nazis, invaded Eastern Poland and brutally deported over one and a half million Polish people in cattle trucks to the far ends of the Soviet Union. Alinka and Witek, both ten years old at the time, were among those taken. A million died in the deportations.

Against all odds, Witek and Alinka, in different parts of the Soviet Union, survived and escaped. They meet for the first time in Africa under a Baobab Tree.

Their gripping stories of those war years are narrated here in two parts, telling of resourcefulness, faith and humour even in the darkest times. They are truly unforgettable.

The Importance of the Holy Face Devotion in the 21st Century

Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus is as ancient as devotion to the Crucified Lord. 

This pious custom began with the offering of a holy Jewish woman's veil to wipe the spittle, dirt and blood from the countenance of Our Lord during His agonizing journey to Calvary.

Her name was Veronica.

The reward for her courageous act of mercy was the miraculous impression of His Face on her veil.


Pope Pius XII officially instituted the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus for celebration on Shrove Tuesday.

In this 28 page pocket-size booklet, Kathleen Heckenkamp explains The Importance of the Holy Face Devotion in the 21st Century.

Lenten Meditations

Traditional Lenten meditations at the links below:

Preparation for Lent

Ash Wednesday Meditation
Thursday After Ash Wednesday
Friday After Ash Wednesday
Saturday After Ash Wednesday
First Sunday After Lent
Monday: First Week of Lent
Tuesday: First Week of Lent
Wednesday: First week of Lent
Thursday: First Week of Lent
Friday: First Week of Lent
Saturday: First Week of Lent
Sunday: Second Week of Lent
Monday: Second Week of Lent
Tuesday: Second Week of Lent
Wednesday: Second Week of Lent
Thursday: Second Week of Lent
Friday: Second Week of Lent
Saturday: Second week of Lent
Sunday: Third Week of Lent
Monday: Third Week of Lent
Tuesday: Third Week of Lent
Wednesday: Third Week of Lent
Thursday: Third Week of Lent
Friday: Third Week of Lent
Saturday: Third Week of Lent
Sunday: Fourth Week of Lent
Monday: Fourth Week of Lent
Tuesday: Fourth Week of Lent
Wednesday: Fourth Week of Lent
Thursday: Fourth Week of Lent
Friday: Fourth Week of Lent
Saturday: Fourth Week of Lent
Sunday: Fifth Week of Lent
Monday: Fifth week of Lent
Tuesday: Fifth Week of Lent
Wednesday: Fifth Week of Lent
Thursday: Fifth Week of Lent
Friday: Fifth Week of Lent
Saturday: Fifth Week of Lent
Palm Sunday
Monday: Sixth week of Lent
Tuesday: Sixth Week of Lent
Wednesday: Sixth Week of Lent
Thursday: Sixth Week of Lent
Good Friday
Holy Saturday

First Saturday Reminder

The Month of St. Joseph: Exercises for Each Day of the Month of March

St. Teresa of Avila tells us, "I took for my advocate and lord the glorious Saint Joseph and commended myself earnestly to him.... he gave me greater blessings than I could ask of him. I do not remember even now that I have ever asked anything of him which he has failed to grant".

This hidden saint, the blessed foster-father of Our Lord and protector of the Blessed Virgin, is a powerful intercessor for us, as well as a model of perfect virtue. The Bible records not a single word of his, yet we know that in the Holy House at Nazareth, the young Jesus - the Word made Flesh - was subject to him.

Through this series of daily meditations for the month of March, provided for us by the Most Reverend M. de Langalerie, Archbishop of Auch, in the nineteenth century, we may increase our devotion to this great saint whilst also making a fruitful use of the days of Lent.

As patron not only of fathers and of the worker, but of the Universal Church, all of us - men and women, young and old - would do well to look to him in our every need.

In stock very soon. Pre-orders taken now.

60 Good Reasons to Buy This Booklet

Just arrived in stock this booklet - newly translated from Portuguese - contains the famous sixty reasons given by Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer and his priests of the Diocese of Campos, Brazil, stating why a Catholic must not attend celebration of the Novus Ordo Missae.

The sixty reasons are famous because just about every Catholic worth his salt has heard mention of them.

Today, more than thirty years after they were published, the problem has been that very few Catholics have been fortunate enough to have access to a publication providing those famous sixty reasons.

New Mass or Traditional Mass: a question of Faith is a direct translation from the original publication produced by the bishop and priests of Campos.

It is ideal for providing to poor souls who have been raised in the New Order wasteland, as well as to converts, potential converts and the younger generations of Catholics who attend the Catholic Mass but may not properly understand that it is a question of the Faith.

Buy it! - Study it! - Distribute it! - Evangelise with it!

New Mass or Traditional Mass? A Question of Faith

Coming into stock soon! - Pre-orders welcome.

New Mass or Traditional Mass? A Question of Faith

In the early 1980's there came to light an important document published by priests of the Diocese of Campos, in Brazil.

This booklet is a newly translated edition of their study published in English, we think, for the first time in more than thirty years.

The excellent study put forth by the priests of Campos under Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, has lost none of its relevance.

On the contrary, after more than thirty years, with hindsight, the "60 reasons to return to the Traditional Mass" mercilessly question every priest and member of the faithful who wish to remain truly Catholic.

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.