St. Francis's practical, sensitive answers to the everyday tribulations all Christians face. You'll find holy wisdom on family problems, work, virtue, temptation, mourning, prayer, charity, guilt, and dozens of other real-life issues.

The Dictionary of Basilian Biography contains 632 biographical entries on the members of the Congregation of Saint Basil who died in the years between 1822, when the congregation was founded, and 2002. The dictionary presents the personal background, education, and various appointments as well as the character, talents, and bibliography of each member, while defining the contribution of each in the educational or pastoral work of the Basilian Fathers. This heritage belongs not only to the Basilian Fathers or the Catholic Church, but to the wider societies and cultures of the countries that were touched by the work of the Basilians. This second edition of the Dictionary of Basilian Biography is approximately three times the size of the original edition by Father Robert J. Scollard, published in 1969. The increase in size is due not only to the additional number of members who died between that year and 2002, but also to additional archival research into the lives and careers of the early members of the Congregation in France. It represents eight years of work by editor P. Wallace Platt and his editorial board, enriching the book and balancing its presentation.

Through the examination of the concept of freedom in the writings of St Francis de Sales the author concludes that, in contradistinction to a contemporary understanding of freedom perceived as self-determination, a Salesian understanding privileges freedom's relationship to 'the good'. This situates St Francis de Sales in the classical Thomistic tradition of freedom's necessary relationship to the good, but involves a methodological shift as he employs the Renaissance starting point of 'the turn to the subject'. This study demonstrates how St Francis arrives inductively at what St Thomas demonstrated deductively, namely, the essential relationship of freedom to the good. Along with this Thomistic influence, the author analyses the Salesian indebtedness to Augustinian anthropology which explains the primacy St Francis gives to the will, and consequently, to love. Love, understood as the heart's movement towards the good, allows the Salesian approach to move beyond the confines of a traditional faculty psychology to embrace a more biblical understanding of the human person. This examination of love's relationship to freedom reveals their teleological and archaeological natures, coming back to our origins wherein we discover the source of our freedom bestowed on us as a gift from God.

Their investigations show that the biblical testimony supports the churches' affirmation: God's covenant with Israel stands forever."--BOOK JACKET.

De Sales’ classic has been described as “a masterpiece of psychology, practical morality, and common sense” and, after The Bible and The Imitation of Christ, is the widest read spiritual book of all time. Unlike many others, Devout Life was written specifically for lay persons and it demonstrates a rare sensitivity to the demands of life in a world that is often antagonistic to spirituality. In this first-of-its-kind edition, Fr. John-Julian offers a fresh translation, a most thorough historical introduction, and notes explaining points of language and theology along the way.

Everyone agrees in saying that the most common obstacle, and the one most difficult to be overcome, which all those meet who labor for the conversion of sinners and the sanctification of pious souls, is want of confidence. The great evil that Jansenism wrought in the midst of us has not yet entirely disappeared: many still believe that perfection consists only in fearing the Lord and in trembling before Him, who, in His mercy, permits us to call Him Our Father, and to name Him the good God. Aeterna Press