Paul Haffner has put together a great book called the Mystery of Mary. It is over 250 pages and covers topics of Marion theology such as her perpetual virginity, the Immaculate conception, among others, and how they fit into the Catholic faith and revolve around Jesus Christ. The author Haffner is well educated, and has degrees from Oxford as well as the Gregorian University. It is well written and well documented with sources. Get a copy while you can.

This commentary by Cornelius a Lapide is absolutely astonishing. It is packed with great information on the four Gospels and is a four-volume set. Originally written in Latin in the early 17th century, it is the best Biblical commentary I have ever seen. It's a bit pricey but the contents are well worth the price. You can purchase it here.

Here is some info from the Loreto website.
This set boasts the following features:

* Leather Covers & Satin Ribbons
* 2800+ Pages in Four Volumes
* Never Fully Translated Before
* Sewn Binding & Headbands
* First of over 30+ volumes to come
* A percentage of sales goes to further translations of other volumes
* Extensive discussion of Greek & Hebrew word meanings

This book by William May is essential for understanding Catholic bioethics. It covers topics such as contraception, abortion, stem cell research, end of life issues and much more. You can find it at Amazon.

This month I recommend the book by Cardinal Dulles titled Magisterium. If you want a genuine understanding of how the Church teaches doctrine and dogma then you will not want to be without this book. It also clearly defines how the Church defines infallibly and what words in Church documents mean like "irreformable" and "definitively" . In this day and age where every form of attack is made upon the Church Magisterium, every Catholic should have this work on their bookshelf, or better yet, on their nightstand for daily reading. Amazon has it.

I have had the pleasure of discussing the liturgy by email with a gentleman and I went back to one of my favorite Liturgical sources to quote from. It is the Byzantine Slav Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom by Casimir Kucharek. It is over 800 pages of info with the first 200 or so covering the early history of the Church liturgical practices in general. It is very well documented and very scholarly. It is not easy to find but I think Light and Life Publishing still has some of them. It is $35.95 there . If not you can get it used at Amazon or other places around $40.00. Enjoy!

This is a great compilation of homilies given by many of the Church Fathers. It is 4 volumes and follows the Sunday readings of the Liturgy. It is a great source for Patristic study. It is published by Ignatius Press. Amazon has the best deal on it. This set will keep you busy for quite some time.

This book makes for great spiritual reading. It contains the lives and spiritual writings of the contemporary elders of Greece. In an age where prayer and silence is regarded as a non-essential, this book can certainly bring things back into focus. You can buy it here. Holycross bookstore.

This book by Adrian Fortescue is excellent! It is a fairly quick read at about 120 pages but is full of great apologetics material for substantiating the Papacy in the early Church. Fortescue minces no words in his defense of the Papacy. Amazon has it.

I should probably have called this the book of the week selection since I can't seem to wait a month before reading and recommending another book. The Eastern Schism by Steven Runciman is an excellent objective look at the split between the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. It clocks in around 170 pages but is full of great information giving the reader an idea of the circumstances surrounding this often misunderstood period in Church history. You can get it on Amazon.

This 2 volume set is absolutely awesome! It covers in detail the history of the Divine Liturgies of the Eastern Rite. Each volume is over 600 pages. Its a bit pricey, but an absolute must for a good apologetics library. If you learn about the history of the Liturgy and its place in Christendom, you will abandon Protestantism. Get it at Gorgias Press

I recommend Sebatian Brock's book, The Bible in Syriac Tradition. Brock covers a lot of ground in this short 150 page book. He talks about some of the history behind the translations of the Scriptures into Syriac, as well as their use in the Divine Liturgy. If you like Biblical history, then you will enjoy this book. You can get the book at GorgiasPress.com

A History of Icon Painting-Zacchaeus-2005


Learn the history of icon painting. The book is full of color illustrations and covers the history of icons from the early Church to the present day.