Faith Selling

Interesting news coming from the religious education world today. A non-denominational Christian group, CFM Religion Publishing Group, recently purchased Benziger and Resources for Christian Living religious education programs. Both of these programs are what you expect to find in Catholic parishes: watered-down pap that is only on the USCCB’s approved religious ed list because it doesn’t contain anything explicitly heretical. If you don’t grasp the fine distinction between orthodox and not-heretical, read this.

Last Friday the new company, RCL Benziger, announced the acquisition of the Silver Burdett Ginn religious education series, another nominally Catholic program. A partial review of the First Communion program is available.

The company behind CFM Religion Publishing Group is The Wicks Group, a venture capital company. The web site describes CFM Religion Publishing Group’s offering as “The Company offers true-to-the-Bible materials including classroom and group-based curricula, books, and magazines, as well as Christian-themed toys and games”.

Considering that the buyer has no experience in the Catholic market and the three absorbed publishers have no experience producing quality, orthodox, Catholic education material, it’s a match made in Heaven.

Hat tip to People of the Book.

Funny, the People of the Book blogger mentions that “Loyola Press (for whom he works) and Sadlier are the other two publishers of Catholic religion curriculum” but doesn’t mention the only companies that are actually producing high quality, no-question-orthodox religious education programs, Ignatius Press and Midwest Theological Forum.

Ignatius Press produces Faith and Life and Image of God series for grade school and Midwest Theological Forum produces the Didache series for high school. If you actually want your children to live the Faith and stay Catholic, I suggest that instead of taking your chances with everything else that passes for Catholic religious ed, you take a look at these series.

A while back I mentioned that the largest supplier of poinsettias in the United States likes to give lots of money to Planned Parenthood. A commenter pointed us to a company that does good with their business. Thanks Kristin!

We frequently receive calls from customers looking for the Divine Office or maybe it’s the Breviary or possibly the Liturgy of the Hours. They really aren’t sure what the book is called because it has several names.

If you get requests like this from customers, it’s a good idea to have a little knowledge on your side so you can help them make the right purchase.

First of all, the Divine Office, Breviary and Liturgy of the Hours all refer to the same thing - a book containing prayers that are meant to be said at specific times throughout the day.

History of the Breviary

The hours are an ancient tradition that can be traced back to early Benedictan monastics who took seriously the biblical command to “pray without ceasing”. During the pontificate of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) the use of the Breviary spread beyond the Benedictines to the Roman Papal court.

When the Franciscan Order was founded, they had need of a compact book containing the daily prayers so they created a shorter version of the Breviary that they could take on their travels. This version eventually spread throughout Europe and during the pontificate of Nicholas III (1277-1280) was officially adopted in Rome and eventually by the whole Church.

Contents

The Breviary contains a collection of Psalms, Scripture readings, writings of the Church Fathers and other prayers. The Breviary is meant to be prayed at specific times during the day. Before the revision following Vatican II there were many more hours including ones in the middle of the night that have since been dropped.

Organization of the Hours

Prior to Vatican II, the Breviary was divided into sections that were to be prayed about every three hours throughout the day and night. Morning started with Prime at 6am, Terce at 9am, Sext at noon, None at 3pm, Vespers at 6pm, Matins was divided into three parts prayed at 9pm, midnight and 3am and Lauds was prayed at dawn.

Currently the Hours are divided into the Invititory, the Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Midmorning, Midday, Midafternoon, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer. The hours prayed late at night have been removed.

Texts Available

The pre-Vatican II Breviary is available in a two-volume, hardback set. This set is entirely in Latin. You can also purchase an abbreviated version called the Divine Office which contains the major hours with English translations alongside the Latin. Divine Office is just another term referring to the Breviary.

There are several options available for the post-Vatican II Breviary, usually referred to as the Liturgy of the Hours. The full Liturgy of the Hours is available in both a leather and vinyl cover edition. You can also get a large print version.

You can also get a single volume edition of the Liturgy of the Hours called Christian Prayer (also available in hardback and large print) that contains the major offices but leaves out the Office of Readings which contains all the wonderful writings of the Church Fathers. You can also get Shorter Christian Prayer which contains just Morning and Evening prayer.

There are also several hymnals and other editions and guides available but this summary should provide you with enough information to answer most questions you receive.

We have posted a very lengthy FAQ about the Theology of the Body for Teens series including background on TOB, the authors and in depth information about the program. It’s the only program of its kind and would be a great resource for any parish or family.

Would you like to enjoy a delicious cup of coffee, made with fresh roasted beans of the finest quality, and support a great Catholic cause at the same time?

We knew you would say “YES!”

We’re very pleased to now offer Mystic Monk Coffee from the Carmelite Monks in Wyoming to our customers. If you haven’t heard about this new community of cloistered monks in Wyoming, read about them right here. The coffee, proceeds of which supports the monks in their efforts to build their new monastic compound, is available in 12 oz. bags, whole bean only, and many blends are available in decaf and well as “full strength.” You might want to try the Pumpkin Spice blend or the Rum Pecan blend - both are absolutely delicious and seem to us like the perfect match for a brisk fall day!

You can browse through the entire Mystic Monk Coffee assortment here.

A while back we wrote two guides, one for the pre-Vatican II (Tridentine) Mass and one for the post-Vatican II Mass, explaining the different features of the various missals.

We moved these guides over to our main store site so they will be more helpful for people looking for Mass missals.

The Tridentine Missal guide includes:

• Saint Andrew Daily Missal
• Saint  Joseph Daily Missal
• 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal
• The Roman Missal 1962
• Tridentine Mass Booklet from Ecclesia Dei

The Vatican II Mass Missal guide includes:

• Magnificat Magazine
• St. Joseph Sunday and Weekday Missals
• Vatican II Sunday and Weekday Missals
• Daily Roman Missal

Last weekend I attended a men’s conference at a local parish. The keynote speaker was Danny Abramowicz, a former wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints.

He talked about his life in football and his re-conversion to the Faith. A fascinating story.

He also introduced everyone to his “Spiritual Workout” which is included in his book. If you like sports analogies and are looking for a step-by-step manual for improving your spiritual life, this is a great book. Each chapter starts off with a section about football and then relates it to spiritual growth. There is a brief timeout section to consider the main points and then each chapter ends with a quick action plan.

There isn’t anything groundbreaking in this book as Catholic spiritual growth has been written about countless times over the past 2000 years. This is just a unique spin on the topic from a former All-Pro NFL receiver who likes to mix the Faith and football.

I like poinsettias decorating my church just as much as the next person but it has just come to my attention that doing so will most likely contribute to the betterment of Planned Parenthood. 70% of the country’s poinsettias come from the farm of the Eckes family in California. This family has given a quarter of a million dollars to renovate an abortion mill and also thousands of dollars to defeat parental notification laws in California.

You might want to bring it up with your pastor now so that alternative decorating plans can be made come Christmas.

Interesting news coming from the religious education world today. A non-denominational Christian group, CFM Religion Publishing Group, recently purchased Benziger and Resources for Christian Living religious education programs. Both of these programs are what you expect to find in Catholic parishes: watered-down pap that is only on the USCCB’s approved religious ed list because it doesn’t contain anything explicitly heretical. If you don’t grasp the fine distinction between orthodox and not-heretical, read this.

Last Friday the new company, RCL Benziger, announced the acquisition of the Silver Burdett Ginn religious education series, another nominally Catholic program. A partial review of the First Communion program is available.

The company behind CFM Religion Publishing Group is The Wicks Group, a venture capital company. The web site describes CFM Religion Publishing Group’s offering as “The Company offers true-to-the-Bible materials including classroom and group-based curricula, books, and magazines, as well as Christian-themed toys and games”.

Considering that the buyer has no experience in the Catholic market and the three absorbed publishers have no experience producing quality, orthodox, Catholic education material, it’s a match made in Heaven.

Hat tip to People of the Book.

Funny, the People of the Book blogger mentions that “Loyola Press (for whom he works) and Sadlier are the other two publishers of Catholic religion curriculum” but doesn’t mention the only companies that are actually producing high quality, no-question-orthodox religious education programs, Ignatius Press and Midwest Theological Forum.

Ignatius Press produces Faith and Life and Image of God series for grade school and Midwest Theological Forum produces the Didache series for high school. If you actually want your children to live the Faith and stay Catholic, I suggest that instead of taking your chances with everything else that passes for Catholic religious ed, you take a look at these series.

It took a while to put together but I think this is the first definitive article and checklist of everything you need short of altar and pews to stock a sacristy.

Properly stocking your parish sacristy requires a good checklist of initial needs as well as a regular schedule to replace consumables before they run out. This article provides suggestions for both. I will start with the standard things that every parish needs and then also provide a list of items you should have if you want to fully follow the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. Read the whole thing.