This definitive introduction to the life and vision of Blessed Basil Moreau is the first book to gather together the essential spiritual, pastoral, and educational writings of the nineteenth-century French priest who founded the Congregation of Holy Cross, which is the religious order that founded the University of Notre Dame in 1842. Basil Moreau: Essential Writings is an anthology of all the important published and previously unpublished writings of Basil Moreau, who was beatified in 2007 by the Catholic Church. This anthology provides generous selections from Moreau’s sermons, pastoral letters, educational treatises, and spiritual reflections, which reveal a figure who was no stranger to difficulty and conflict but also a man deeply committed to a hope that can only emerge from Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.

For the first time in more than sixty years, the Congregation of Holy Cross has produced a new prayer book designed to serve the spiritual needs of both the priests and brothers of the Congregation and the thousands of Catholics who are the recipients of the education and ministry of Holy Cross parishes and schools. The Congregation of Holy Cross presents its new Directory of Devotional Prayer, a handsomely produced pocket-size treasury of everyday prayers, popular devotions, and reflections. Printed in two colors and durably bound, this elegantly designed prayer book showcases the spiritual heritage of Holy Cross: Eucharistic devotion, daily meditation, the examination of conscience, the Way of the Cross, the rosary, litanies, and devotion to the principal patrons of the Congregation—Saint Joseph, Our Lady of Sorrows, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Directory also celebrates the fundamental and distinctive elements of the Holy Cross charism: conformity to Christ, trust in Divine Providence, and hope in the Cross.

Thomas Blantz’s monumental The University of Notre Dame: A History tells the story of the renowned Catholic university’s growth and development from a primitive grade school and high school founded in 1842 by the Congregation of Holy Cross in the wilds of northern Indiana to the acclaimed undergraduate and research institution it became by the early twenty-first century. Its growth was not always smooth—slowed at times by wars, financial challenges, fires, and illnesses. It is the story both of a successful institution and of the men and women who made it so: Father Edward Sorin, the twenty-eight-year-old French priest and visionary founder; Father William Corby, later two-term Notre Dame president, who gave absolution to the soldiers of the Irish Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg; the hundreds of Holy Cross brothers, sisters, and priests whose faithful service in classrooms, student residence halls, and across campus kept the university progressing through difficult years; a dedicated lay faculty teaching too many classes for too few dollars to assure the university would survive; Knute Rockne, a successful chemistry teacher but an even more successful football coach, elevating Notre Dame to national athletic prominence; Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, president for thirty-five years; the 325 undergraduate young women who were the first to enroll at Notre Dame in 1972; and thousands of others. Blantz captures the strong connections that exist between Notre Dame’s founding and early life and today’s university. Alumni, faculty, students, friends of the university, and fans of the Fighting Irish will want to own this indispensable, definitive history of one of America’s leading universities. Simultaneously detailed and documented yet lively and interesting, The University of Notre Dame: A History is the most complete and up-to-date history of the university available.

The religious congregation that came to be known as Holy Cross began in France when Basile Moreau joined the Brothers of St. Joseph to a small band of priests he had gathered to work in the diocese of Le Mans, France. The early Brothers of Holy Cross were an energetic group, dedicated to teaching in small parish schools. Eventually Moreau sent them to missions in Algeria and Indiana where they thrived, often under harsh pioneer conditions. Based on their letters, Klawitter has reconstructed the lives of eleven of these courageous men whose apostolic work brought hope to children on three continents. Often neglected by historians, these early religious deserve attention: they are the foundation of what has become a strong force in educational institutions around the world, in North and South America, Asia, and Africa.

The Brothers of St. Joseph in 2020 are celebrating the 200th anniversary of their founding. They grew out of a religious revival following the French Revolution, but their noteworthy contributions to religious schools in northwest France have been overlooked, and their leaders have gone unheralded. Brother Andre Mottais was responsible for their early growth, and Brother Vincent Pieau made a name for the Brothers in their American foundations, chiefly at Notre Dame. Overshadowed by the Holy Cross priests who joined ranks with the Brothers in 1837, the Brothers of St. Joseph nevertheless must be remembered as significant to the Roman Catholic Church in post-revolutionary France.

This book, entitled Conversations on Fethullah Gülen and the Hizment Movement: Dreaming for a Better World, is intended to represent an open perspective on the influence of the Hizmet Movement, including Fethullah Gülen in particular, on the theme of “dreaming for a better world,” based on a variety of Christian and Muslim world views. This theme is approached from three specific perspectives: education and an emphasis on interfaith and intercultural dialogue, a comparison of various spiritualties, and a consideration of the shared dreams of the two religions. The essays in this volume are adapted from talks presented by eleven authors from Canada and the United States at the Gülen Symposium at Carleton University in October 2009. The panel discussion that followed the individual presentations enhanced the overall theme of “dreaming for a better world.” The symposium as a whole represented the positive potential that there is for the organization of forums of sharing that focus on this theme and on the three sub themes.

Blessed Basil Moreau, C.S.C., founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, had a vision to educate both the minds and hearts of students to grow in Christ’s love and to use their gifts to make the world a better place. Holy Cross and Christian Education outlines the five powerful elements that uniquely define a Holy Cross education. Fr. Moreau made his vision for a Holy Cross education clear: “We shall always place education side by side with instruction; the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart. While we prepare useful citizens for society, we shall likewise do our utmost to prepare citizens for heaven.” From elementary schools in Uganda and secondary schools in Bangladesh to the universities of Notre Dame and Portland in the United States, Fr. Moreau’s vision has inspired the pursuit of academic excellence within a familial atmosphere that bonds students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Drawing from his voluminous writings, Holy Cross and Christian Education highlights the five elements that continue to shape the pedagogy of Holy Cross educational institutions around the globe: Mind—seeking understanding through the integration of faith and reason; Heart—discerning our personal vocation in service to the Church and world; Zeal—fueling the desire to offer our gifts for the good of all people; Family—embracing Christian community as the context for lifelong formation; and Hope—trusting in the cross and God’s promise of the kingdom. This concise and accessible introduction articulates a compelling vision of education that encompasses a person’s natural human development and moral formation with the call to Christian discipleship. It also includes a timeline of Fr. Moreau’s life and the history of the Congregation, prayers, and suggestions for additional reading.