Going Back to the Land is the Way Forward

Back to the Land, Distributism and Catholic Social Teaching at Carmel Books.

Lots to learn from. Lots to be inspired by.

Surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia!

Christus vincit!  Christus regnat!  Christus imperat!

The Holy Mass until the end of the world

Public Mass Forbidden Everywhere

Public celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is banned just about everywhere due to concerns, real or contrived, about the novel coronavirus. What are Christians to do at this sacred time of year leading to Easter?

Thankfully there are priests live-streaming their Masses and making them available through social media and by other technological means, so Christians can at least unite themselves to the Holy Sacrifice and seek spiritual communion by these means. Recordings of Mass can also be found easily on youtube and other hosting platforms.

Why not make good use of this time that God in His infinite wisdom has provided for us, where we all long to attend Mass and receive Our Blessed Lord, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Holy Eucharist, to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the Holy Sacrifice with the aid of this wonderful book - Ever Ancient, Ever New: Traditional Latin Mass. 

The churches are closed and locked up during Lent. How can we make the Stations of the Cross? Thankfully this very handy little booklet of the Stations carries the most beautiful pictures of each station along with the classic and deeply meritorious prayers of St. Alphonsus.Ligouri.

The beautiful and awe-inspiring Easter Week liturgies celebrated in Holy Mother Church's Roman Rite, before their Bugnini-inspired decimation, are all contained in the book Holy Week: The Complete offices in Latin and English.

Finally, why not sanctify your Lenten prayers and devotions this year by praying The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary? 

The official prayers of the Church are far better than any private prayers, being part of the endless round of prayer which the Church, the Bride of Christ, continually raises to the Almighty. The most fundamental and efficacious offering is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, followed by the Divine Office which is recited by priests every day in the breviary.

For those faithful who wish to make use of a great means of sanctification and participate in the liturgical Office of the Church, but are restrained by time and unable to recite the full Office every day, the Church offers The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!

Read Me or Rue It

"In my long life," writes a priest, "I have noticed with amazement how few Catholics give generously to the poor and needy, notwithstanding what our Blessed Lord commands them to do.

I have also remarked that some Catholics are indeed very generous and good. Some care for the poor, others look after the sick. Lepers, consumptives, cancer patients, the mentally deficient, all have their friends. Some prefer to help the young, the hearts of others go out to the old. All the various classes of the poor and needy find champions though, as I have said, these are not nearly as many and generous as they should be.

The strangest thing of all is that I have never met one man or woman who has dedicated himself or herself entirely, whole-heartedly to the greatest of all charities, to the greatest of all the needy - viz the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

There may be a few who do so but in my long and very varied experience I have never met any."

Alas! The words of this good priest are only too true.

We appeal to those who have not yet dedicated themselves to any particular form of charity to dedicate all their energies to the Holy Souls. Let them do what they can personally and also induce others to help.

Pamphlet. A5. 24pp. 

Educating a Child; The Art of Arts, vol. 1

Appearing for the first time in English, Educating a Child: The Art of Arts by Father Joseph Duhr is a must-read for all parents and educators who want to understand the role they must play as God’s co-operators in the education of children.

In this first volume (of two), Father Duhr begins by laying out the goal of education, which is to gradually form the child physically, intellectually and morally, teaching him to master his instincts and passions, so that he will one day be capable of leading himself. Ultimately, it is to establish God as Master and King in this soul which was created by Him for His Greater Glory and destined to find its happiness and perfection in possessing Him.

Having laid the foundations, Father then describes the family atmosphere which is favourable to the blossoming of the child. Finally, he looks at authority, its origin and purpose, and how to use it in order to bring the child to what God wants him to be.

Like every good teacher, Father Duhr knows how to make his subject matter palatable, while not watering it down in any way. He constantly illustrates his points with beautiful and entertaining stories from the real lives of parents and children, some famous (like Saint Augustine, George Washington, Daniel O’Connell, Frédéric Ozanam, Louis Pasteur and Anne de Guigné) and others not so famous. In our opinion, this book is an indispensable tool for all parents and educators and is destined to become a classic in the English language.

Paperback. 340pp.

Dogmatic Theology

A three-volume set reprint of Msgr. Van Noort's classic work of dogmatic theology.

The set features an exact reproduction of the interior text with newly designed book-covers.

These English-language volumes were originally translated and revised between 1955 - 1960 by John J. Castelot, S.T.D and William R. Murphy, S.T.D.

Volume 1 - The True Religion (382 pages)

Volume 2 - Christ's Church (454 pages)

Volume 3 - The Sources of Revelation/Divine Faith (438 pages)

Paperback. 

Sundays and Festivals with the Fathers of the Church

Compiled by the Rev'd D.G. Hubert, and first published in 1901, this collection of sermons from the Church Fathers is presented according to the ecclesiastical year.

The Fathers featured in this collection are: Sts. Gregory the Great, Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Leo the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Hilary of Poitiers, John Chrysostom, Peter Chrysologus, and Venerable Bede.

"The works of the Fathers of the Church form a rich library. Yet this field, so fertile in an abundance of delicious fruits, remains sterile for the greater number of the Catholic people, who perhaps know not what to choose, or are ignorant of the language of these holy writers. It seems to me that a collection of Homilies from different Fathers, arranged according to the Sundays and principal festivals of the ecclesiastical year, would be a great spiritual help to all Christians. This is the reason why I undertook this collection, and I have carefully endeavoured that it should be useful to all." – From the Introduction

"The Fathers of the Church are the most important interpreters of Holy Scripture. The age of the Fathers produced the Creeds, created the historic Liturgies, determined the shape of the biblical Canon. The Fathers are thus the accredited receivers of Apostolic Tradition, considered as all three – belief, worship, and sacred text. Through the gifts of grace, the Fathers were aligned in heart and mind with the Gospel of Christ. What better accompaniment could there be, then, for the Gospel passages read by the Church on the Sundays and Chief Festivals of her year? Arouca Press has done well to make this classic selection available once again for those who attend the Roman Liturgy in its older form." – Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P.

"Drawing upon the collective wisdom of the Church Fathers, both East and West, this memorable collection of carefully chosen homilies presents the mysteries of the faith as they unfold over the course of the Gospel readings in the traditional liturgical year. Whether it is Gregory the Great on the Incarnation, Augustine and Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity, Ambrose and the Venerable Bede on Grace, or Jerome on the Resurrection of our Lord, the readers of these sermons will encounter sound doctrine, insights into the way in which these scriptural readings have been received and understood in the Church, and invaluable lessons on applying these timeless insights to their lives as Christians". – Gregorio Montejo, PhD (Assistant Professor of Historical Theology, Boston College)
"You need the right tools for the job. And if the job is understanding the scriptures read on Sunday at the old Mass, then you'll need the Fathers of the Church. They've been ignored for a long time in seminary formation, which has proven to be a catastrophe. Formation in the 70's and onward should have been saturated with the Fathers. So here is the right tool for the job, if your job is preparing a sermon for Sunday if you're a priest. And if a layman, you would have to look long and hard to find a book as good as this one is." – Fr. James Jackson, FSSP, author of 'Nothing Superfluous'

"Reproduction of this volume puts the reader in touch with some of the very patristic sources wherefrom the annual cycle of lectionary readings developed for the traditional Roman rite. What is more, the homilies of the Fathers constitute the foundational religious instruction and interpretations upon which the entire Scholastic edifice of exegesis was built in the high Middle Ages." – Rev. Dr. Christiaan Kappes, Academic Dean of Ss. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary

Hardback. 384pp.

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

wall calendars

and

ordos

will be in stock next week.

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.