Os Justi Press is pleased to announce the publication of three important works by traditionalist authors. Each is a handy and compact introduction to its subject, accessible but not dumbed-down.
Dr. Joseph Shaw's Sacred and Great: A Brief Introduction to the Traditional Latin Mass sets out to answer the sort of questions that arise in the minds of Catholics when they first begin to attend the TLM from a background in the Novus Ordo. Why has the priest got his back to me? Why is everything in Latin? Why is there so much chant, and so much silence? How am I supposed to participate in this liturgy? How might this seemingly strange, archaic ritual be spiritually fruitful for me? This booklet has been written to answer these and similar questions, briefly, clearly, and without polemic.
This is an ideal pamphlet to make available in church atriums, information racks, and welcome packets. If you have friends or family who are curious, open-minded, maybe skeptical, wondering what's all the fuss (obviously the pope thinks it's worth a fuss!), Dr. Shaw's booklet is the ideal introduction, since it attacks nothing and no one, but simply makes a positive case for the TLM in the Church.
The booklet ends with a helpful guide to readings and resources. It is published as a pocket-sized pamphlet to allow for a low price and wide distribution. Bulk purchase options are available, with discounts up to 50% if ordered directly from Os Justi Press (here). The book of course is also available from Amazon (here) but without the bulk discounts.
Fr Thomas Crean O.P.'s "Letters from that City": A Guide to Holy Scripture for Students of Theology fills a gaping lacuna in current Catholic literature on a critical topic, especially given attacks from high-ranking hierarchs on the trustworthiness of the Bible's teaching.
As St Augustine told his flock in Hippo Regis, the books of Scripture are letters that have come to us from the City toward which we are on pilgrimage. Yet for many decades, the teaching and study of Scripture in academic settings within the Catholic Church has served more to undermine faith than to nourish it. This disastrous situation has arisen through a forgetfulness or rejection of the principles that should guide exegesis. In particular, many renowned scholars whose works have dominated the Catholic landscape sought to erect exegesis into an autonomous discipline, separated from both the teachings of the Church and from speculative theology. To shield themselves from such a secularized exegesis, and in response to the wider assault on orthodoxy within the Church, some Catholics have taken refuge with the magisterium, yet in a way that can obscure the fact that popes and bishops themselves must remain subject to the word of God.
In this brief but profound primer, Fr Thomas Crean O.P. sets forth principles fundamental to all exegesis—in particular, the plenary inspiration and inerrancy of the sacred books—and responds to modern attempts to limit these two properties of Holy Writ. He discusses disputed questions about the nature of inspiration, literary genres, the plurality of senses, and the sufficiency of Scripture, and explains the enduring importance of the Septuagint and the Vulgate. "Letters from that City" will be of use especially to seminarians and other students of theology.
Fr Serafino Lanzetta's God's Abode with Man: The Mystery of Divine Grace lucidly expounds the one and only way for God to be with us, to abide with man: the gift of His grace. The prophets’ sigh, begging the heavens to rend that God may come down, has been answered in Jesus Christ: He is the true temple, God’s living presence in our midst. The one who loves the Son will be loved by His Father, and the Triune God will come to him to make their “abode” with him. Grace therefore brings about the mystery of the inhabitation of the Most Holy Trinity in the soul. This surpassing gift stands at the heart of the Christian life and leads us into eternal life, the happiness for which we were created. Hence, we must safeguard that divine life poured out upon us and seek to grow in it with the help of theological and moral virtues, alongside the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What a treasure a soul possesses, to be in the state of grace, that is, to be beloved of God and a lover of Him!
In this little work, Fr. Lanzetta distills the teaching of Sacred Scripture on the mystery of grace, assisted by the great Fathers and Doctors of the Church—above all, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas—and in light of the Church’s Magisterium. Grace is shown to be Christian theology’s inner structure, opening up the understanding of Divine Revelation and enabling us to live according to its demands. So far from being metaphorical, ethereal, or obscure, grace is as real as our lives: it is the life of the soul, as the soul is the life of the body. A particular strength of the book is its final section, a fair-minded but strong critique of De Lubac and Rahner on grace (pp. 113-32).
