This is the definitive scholarly statement on the discipline of priestly celibacy in the Church East and West. What Cochini shows through patristic sources and conciliar documentation is that from the beginning of the Church, although married men could be priests, they were required to vow to celibacy before ordination, meaning they intended to live a life of continence. He provides extensive documentation, a bibliography and an index.
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The great spiritual writer, Fr. Columba Marmion, wrote this classic work on the priesthood to show the holiness that priests are called to, and how that holiness can only be attained through close union with, and imitation of, Jesus Christ. While aimed at the clergy, this profound spiritual work will also be of immense inspiration for laity in coming to a deeper understanding of the true nature and calling of the priesthood.
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If your life seems to make no sense, or if you don’t know which path to take, St. Francis de Sales will console and inform you. In this warm little book, he explains to you what God’s will is and how He reveals it — yes, even to you, and even in the seemingly random events of your life.
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Dr. Rudolf Allers, a younger contemporary of Freud, argued that only the Catholic view of man could explain abnormalities and produce positive personality changes. He alone linked moral and spiritual growth to mental health.
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Sheen delves deeply into what he considers the main character of the priesthood, and one not often discussed, that of being, like Christ, a "holy victim". To be like Christ, Sheen emphasizes that the priest must imitate Christ in His example of sacrifice, offering himself as a victim to make His Incarnation continually present in the world
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If every priest in the Church knew this book and practiced what it says, we would have a different Church. Says the priesthood admits of no mediocrity; that a priest will either be a true priest and do immense good, or he will be an instrument of great evil. Gives firm, practical instructions to priests for both their personal life and their ministry.
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Fr. John M. Dougherty, S.S. says it contains "the most inspiring, eloquent, and convincing pages I have ever read on this most exalted of all vocations. The book is a masterpiece, and if I were a bishop I would see to it that a copy of it were in the hands of each of my priests. And if I were a seminary rector, I would do all I could to place a copy in the hands of every member of my faculty and of each of my students."
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The question of discerning a vocation is agonized over by many generous young Catholics today. Father Butler shows that this type of question shows a totally wrong approach to a religious vocation. Though Fr. Butler deals primarily with vocations to the religious life, he also gives the classic guidelines on priestly vocations.
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The Nun Sanctified by the Virtues of her State. A book on the religious life, showing how to make use of the great means of sanctification in this state and the obligation to work diligently at perfection. Really brings home the true purpose of the religious life, something much misunderstood and all but forgotten today.
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With the priesthood under such heavy fire today, now more than ever Catholics need to recall the reasons why good men become good priests. In Why I Became a Priest, nineteen priests (also including — besides Fulton Sheen — Rosary Priest Fr. Patrick Peyton, and a young, orthodox Thomas Merton) explain what led them to become priests — reasons that retain their power to draw young men into the priesthood today.
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