Free ebook: “Answer to Difficulties in the Books of the New Testament”, by Rev. John Thein

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• The Bible and Rationalism; or, Answer to Difficulties in the Books of the New Testament, by Rev. John Thein (St. Louis, Mo.: B. Herder, 1901). Part 3 of 4. With Imprimatur. Available in pdf, epub, mobi, and other formats at Internet Archive , with a second copy at Internet Archive and Open Library. [N.B. This Open Library index page incorrectly contains the image of Part IV.]’

On the Pope St. Damasus I in the Roman Rite. For related ebooks and texts concerning the holy and inspired Scriptures, see the Project’s page Bibles and Commentaries. For other online texts and legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject).

 

Online text: “The Walking Nun’s Siouxland Journey and Experiences in Nursing (1890-1965)”, by Diane L. Smith

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• Sisters of Mercy: The Walking Nun’s Siouxland Journey and Experiences in Nursing (1890-1965) (Dissertation), by Diane L. Smith (2015). Available in pdf format at South Dakota State University Open PRAIRIE.

On the Feast of St. Martin of Tours, and in remembrance of Venerable Sister Mary Catherine McAuley. For other online texts and legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject).

“The word of Jesus Christ is fruitful, it stirs many souls to dedication and fidelity. The life and conduct of those who serve God have changed history. Even many of those who do not know our Lord are motivated, perhaps unconsciously, by ideals which derive from Christianity.” (Saint Josemaria Escriva, Christ is Passing By)

Online ebook & audio: “Crimes of the Communist Regimes”, by Jiří Liška et al.

See this online ebook and audio record:

• Crimes of the Communist Regimes: Proceedings of an International Conference Held in Prague, 24-26 February 2010, by Jiří Liška et al., edited by David Svoboda and Cóílín O’Connor, translated by Cóílín O’Connor, Ian Willoughby, Neela Winkelmann-Heyrovská, and Markéta Hofmannová (Prague: Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, 2011).
  • The ebook is available in pdf format (here) through this page of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes; and the individual chapters are available in pdf format at the Central and Eastern European Online Library (requires registration).
  • The audio recordings of the proceedings (in the original languages) are available in mp3 through this page of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, which also contains the text of the Declaration on Crimes of Communism issued by the participants at the Conference.

See also these related texts:

• Albanian Catholic Bulletin (Buletini Katholik Shqiptar), Vol. 6 (Santa Clara, California: Albanian Catholic Information Center, 1985). In 108 pages. Available at the Gleeson Library Digital Collections. [N.B., This issue commemorates the 40^th anniversary of the Communist persecution of Catholic Albanians.]
• Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania, No. 10: Struggle for Survival (Maspeth, Long Island, New York: The Lithuanian Roman Catholic Priests’ League). With a letter to the Lithuanian people from Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty dated “75 02 22” or 22 February 1975, which only appears on the pdf copy. May be read online on this page and available in pdf format on this page at Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. [N.B., The title of the Chronicle in Lithuanian appears to be Lietuvos Katalikų Bažnyčios Kronika. In English it contains the subtitle: Translation of Authentic First-Hand Reports from Soviet-Occupied Lithuania.]
• “Communist Interrogation and Indoctrination of ‘Enemies of the State’: Analysis of Methods Used by the Communist State Police (A Special Report)”, by Lawrence E. Hinkle Jr., M.D. and Harold G. Wolff, M.D. Reprinted from the AMA [American Medical Association ] Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, vol. 76, no. 2 (1956), pp.: 115-174. Available in pdf format (on this page) at the Central Intelligence Agency Library (“Approved For Release 2000/09/06”) [N.B., This is evidently not a Catholic Christian source, but it contains information on methods used against Catholics like Cardinal Mindszenty, and notes that Catholics were particularly targeted by Communist regimes.]
• Crimes against Humanity under Communist Regimes: Research Review, by Klas-Göran Karlsson and Michael Schoenhals (Stockholm: Forum for Living History, 2008). Available in pdf format at the Forum for Living History (Forum för levande historia).
• Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes: Crimes and Other Gross and Large Scale Human Rights Violations Committed during the Reign of Totalitarian Regimes in Europe: Cross-National Survey of Crimes Committed and of Their Remembrance, Recognition, Redress, and Reconciliation: Reports and Proceedings of the 8 April European Public Hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes”, Organised by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (January–June 2008) and the European Commission, edited by Peter Jambrek (Ljubljana: Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, 2008). The “draft before final editing” is available in pdf format at the Republic of Slovenia Ministry of Justice, at Academia.edu, and at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
• “The Crimes of the Communist Regime in Hungary: National Report”, compiled by János M. Rainer. Available in pdf format (through this page) at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. Part of the larger work Crimes of the Communist Regimes: Proceedings of an International Conference Held in Prague, 24-26 February 2010.
• Encyclical Letter “Iniquis Afflictisque” on the Persecution of the Church in Mexico, by Pope Pius XI (18 November 1926). Available at the Holy See.
• “Reflections on Communism Twenty Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall”, by Paul Hollander (Development Policy Analysis No. 11, November 2, 2009) (Washingto, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2009). Available in pdf format (on this page) at the Cato Institute.

For the observance of the National Day for the Victims of Communism in the United States of America. For other online texts and legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject), particularly our index page Anti-Catholicism and Persecution.

“[M]illions… were killed in anonymity by Communism’s brutal hand. They include innocent Ukrainians starved to death in Stalin’s Great Famine; or Russians killed in Stalin’s purges; Lithuanians and Latvians and Estonians loaded onto cattle cars and deported to Arctic death camps of Soviet Communism. They include Chinese killed in the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution; Cambodians slain in Pol Pot’s Killing Fields; East Germans shot attempting to scale the Berlin Wall in order to make it to freedom; Poles massacred in the Katyn Forest; and Ethiopians slaughtered in the “Red Terror”; Miskito Indians murdered by Nicaragua’s Sandinista dictatorship; and Cuban balseros who drowned escaping tyranny. We’ll never know the names of all who perished, but… we have an obligation to those who died, to acknowledge their lives and honor their memory…

“[W]e recall the great lessons of the Cold War: that freedom is precious and cannot be taken for granted; that evil is real and must be confronted; and that given the chance, men commanded by harsh and hateful ideologies will commit unspeakable crimes and take the lives of millions.”

(President George W. Bush, Dedication of Victims of Communism Memorial)

Free ebook: Commentary on St. Luke, collected out of the Fathers by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by St. John Henry Newman

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• Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers by S. Thomas Aquinas: St. Luke, new edition, translated by John Henry Newman (Oxford, London: John Henry Parker, 1874). Available in 2 volumes:
  • Volume I may be read online, and is available in pdf, mobi, epub, and other formats, at Internet Archive and Open Library, with a 2^nd copy at Internet Archive.
  • Volume II may be read online, and is available in pdf, mobi, epub, and other formats, at Internet Archive and Open Library, with a 2^nd copy at Internet Archive.
• The first edition (Oxford: John Henry Parker; London: J. Rivington, 1843) is also available in 2 parts:
  • Part I may be read online, and is available in pdf, mobi, epub, and other formats, at Internet Archive, with a 2^nd copy at Internet Archive.
  • Part II may be read online, and is available in pdf, mobi, epub, and other formats, at Internet Archive, with a 2^nd copy at Internet Archive.
• Both parts of the first edition are available in a single pdf file at Saints’ Books, with part II beginning of page 393 of the pdf file; and its entire text may be read online, together with the catenae aureae on the other gospels, through this page at e-Catholic 2000, beginning with the preface by J.H.N.
• An edition of the work may be read online on this page at the collection St. Thomas Aquinas’ Works in English maintained at the Dominican House of Studies, Priory of the Immaculate Conception; and through this page (together with other commentaries on the gospel according to St. John), beginning with chapter I, at the Aquinas Study Bible.
• An expanded version of the work, with additional Prooemium and bracketed portions translated by Joseph Kenny, O.P., is available on this page (Latin-English parallel texts) at the collection of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Works in English maintained at the Dominican House of Studies, Priory of the Immaculate Conception. It is reproduced through this page, together with the catenae aureae on the other gospels, beginning with prologue, at Biblia Clerus.
  • [N.B., The translator is identified to be Blessed John Henry Newman in many sources, including on this page of the collection of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Works in English maintained at the Dominican House of Studies, Priory of the Immaculate Conception.]

In belated observance of the Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist. For other legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject).

“Many have been at pains to set forth the history of what time has brought to fulfilment among us, following the tradition of those first eye-witnesses who gave themselves up to the service of the word. And I too, most noble Theophilus, have resolved to put the story in writing for thee as it befell, having first traced it carefully from its beginnings, that thou mayst understand the instruction thou hast already received, in all its certainty.” (St. Luke i, 1-4)

Online text: “Encyclical on the Council of Chalcedon”, by Pope Pius XI

See this online text:

• Encyclical on the Council of Chalcedon “Sempiternus Rex Christus”, by Pope Pius XII, 8 September 1951. May be read online on this page of Catholic Culture and on this page of the EWTN Library; and available in pdf format and may be read online at the Holy See.

On the anniversary of the opening of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. For more legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject).

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God…. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us: and we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth… And of his fulness we all have received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, grace and truth by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (St. John i, 1-2, 14, 16-18)

“So, following the saintly fathers, we all with one voice teach the confession of one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ… truly God and truly man… begotten before the ages from the Father as regards his divinity, and in the last days the same for us and for our salvation from Mary, the virgin God-bearer as regards his humanity… acknowledged in two natures… a single person and a single subsistent being… one and the same only-begotten Son, God, Word, Lord Jesus Christ”. (Council of Chalcedon, Definition of the Faith)

Livre gratuit: “Saint Bruno et l’Ordre des Chartreux”, par l’Abbe F.-A. Lefebvre

Voir ce livre gratuit:

• Saint Bruno et l’Ordre des Chartreux, par l’Abbe F.-A. [Francois Antoine] Lefebvre (Paris, Libraire catholique internationale de l’Oeuvre de Saint-Paul, 1883). Le Tome Premier est disponible sur Internet Archive et Open Library, Internet Archive (copie 2e), Bibliothèque Saint Libère, et Google Books. Le Tome Second est disponible sur Internet Archive, Google Books, et Bibliothèque Saint Libère.

Pour la fête de saint Bruno dans le rite romain. Pour plus de livres gratuits, vous pouvez accéder à la liste des eBooks gratuits (par titres) et la liste des eBooks gratuits (regroupées par sujet).

(And if the grammar is wrong, please correct me. Merci!)

Free ebook: “The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi; and a Sketch of the Franciscan Order”

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• The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi; and a Sketch of the Franciscan Order, by a Religious of the Order of Poor Clares, with emendations and additions by Very Rev. Pamfilo da Magliano, O.S.F., published with the approbation of the Most Rev. John McCloskey, D.D. (New York: P. O’Shea, 1867). Available in pdf, epub, kindle, and other formats at Internet Archive and Open Library, with another copy at Internet Archive and Open Library. Also available at HathiTrust Digital Library and Google Books.

For the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi in the Roman Rite. For other online texts and legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject).

 

Online ebook: “On the Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary”, by Saint Jerome

See this online ebook:

• On the Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary: Against Helvidius, by Saint Jerome, translated by W. H. Fremantle, with the assistance of the Rev. G. Lewis and the Rev. W. G. Martley; in The Early Church Fathers and Other Works (Edinburgh, Scotland, Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1867); and in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, Series II, Vol. VI (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1893.). The text without footnotes may be read online on this page of the EWTN Library (containing a correction of the digital version by the Electronic Bible Society), on this page of New Advent (revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight), and on this page of the Catholic Information Network (copyright 1996 by James Akin). The text with footnotes may be read online at Wikisource, IntraText, and CCEL.

On the Feast of Saint Cleophas. For other online texts and legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject).

“And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut: it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut.” (Ezechiel xliv, 2)

“We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, both visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God… who for us men and for our salvation came down and took flesh, that is, was born perfectly of the holy ever-virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit” (Saint Epiphanius of Salamis, AD 374)

Online text: “Retrieving Ember Days”, by Roger Pieper

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• “Retrieving Ember Days”, by Roger Pieper, Obsculta, vol. 7, no. 1 (2014): pp. 163-182. Available in pdf format at Obsculta.

Posted on an Ember Friday in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. For other online texts and legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject).

Free ebook: “A Full Catechism of the Catholic Religion”, by Rev. Joseph Deharbe, S.J.

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• A Full Catechism of the Catholic Religion; Preceded by a Short History of Revealed Religion, from the Creation to the Present Time, 6^th American edition, with questions for examination, by Rev. Joseph Deharbe, S.J., translated by Rev. John Fander, revised, enlarged, and edited by the Right Rev. P.N. Lynch, D.D. (New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1889). With Imprimatur. Available in various formats at Internet Archive. The 11th American edition (1889) is available at Internet Archive.

On the Feast of Saint Robert Bellarmine in the Roman Rite. See also the other ebooks and texts listed on the page Catechisms and Explanations of The Faith. For other online texts and legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject).

“If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed: And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (St. John viii, 31-32)

“Now this is life everlasting, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent… I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world: as I also am not of the world. I do not ask that thou take them away out of the world, but that thou preserve them from evil. They are not of the world: as I also am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth.” (St. John xvii, 3, 14-17)