This book is a pearl whose great price has not yet been appraised. It's a quick look at the ministry of Joseph Fielding Smith, the tenth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Smith is one of this age's greatest theologian and expositors of Christ, and his two and a half year ministry as the Chief Apostle glistened with his light and testimony. It has many of his teachings that are not in "Doctrines of Salvation," of "Answers to Gospel Questions," which are the two standard collections of his teachings. Moreover, these two books were compiled before his ascension to the presidency, so this book has his latest teachings.

This is the written form of Brother Madsen's first tape series on The Prophet Joseph. The book will be found to be easy and fulfilling reading. He references all of the stories that he tells on the tapes to make for eaiser research. The book is well done and is a great refrence for the causual reader or the soon to be Joseph Smith scholar.

Whatever your exposure to the late Cardinal, you must admire his example of the Christian life. In the Gift of Peace, he invited us to walk beside him during his final months. In this volume, Spilly & Langford have artfully woven together extended excerpts from his homilies while Archbishop of Chicago. The book is divided into chapters identified by the Stations of the Cross -- a device that both illuminates the Cardinal's own words, as well as the putting the Way of the Cross into a contemporary context, thus reminding us that the Cross itself is as real today as it was two thousand years ago.

If you loved Cardinal Bernadin as we in Chicago did, you will of course love this book. But even if this is your first encounter, you will come to know him like a dear friend -- and learn much from his humility, his prayerfulness, his humiliation and exoneration, and his very public suffering and passing.

Very Important Book!! It Helped me to understand how Christain thought shaped early American history, especially the American Revolution. A great read!!!!!!

Don't you just hate it when the lector mangles the pronunciation of a city or a person?

Our Sunday Visitor's helpful "Lector's Guide to Biblical Pronunciations, Updated" should be on the bookshelf in every sacristy.

Originally published in 1975, this revised version was necessary in light of the new translation of the Roman Lectionary approved in 1998. It contains more than 100 new words and also allows the lector to look up confusing words in one of two ways. Lectors can either look a word up in the alphabetical listing of words at the end of the book, or they can look up difficult words based upon the readings in a particular year and season. The only drawback to the latter is that a great many lectors may not know what year (A, B, or C) the Church is in.

This is the best biography of Joseph Fielding Smith ever written. Being written by the Prophet's son, this book has many of those humorous and deep insights that family members know, love, and cherish. I think the most interesting inclusions is the copy of President Smith's second patriarchal blessing. This blessing is a blessing for the world, since it gives us a revelation about the nature of President Smith's mission as an apostle, and later as a prophet.

President Joseph Fielding Smith is the reason why I am so religious. Or why I try to be religious, in any case. He has one of the greatest theological minds that I have ever read, and he is like a modern Martin Luther. He has a powerful faith that guided his life and labors.

As a young man in the process of converting to Catholicism, I found "Mary: God's Yes to Man" to be a very compelling, deep, and driving study of the role of the Blessed Virgin in History, in Tradition, in the Church, and in the lives of the modern believer. I went into this book with very little knowledge of who the Church says the Virgin Mary is, and coming out of it, I feel like I could comfortably explain the doctrine to anyone. The use of Biblical exegesis, and the style of Biblical interpretation was quite interesting for this former Protestant Evangelical. The Holy Father is an excellent writer, and both Cardinal Ratzinger and von Balthasar offer interesting commentary on his writings. A good read, seeing as it took me less than 36 hours to do so.

I first encountered Father Jungmann's Mass of the Roman Rite in the late seventies while attending the Center for Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto. It was an imposing tome at the time, it still is. Nonetheless, it is a magisterial treatment of the development of the Western liturgical tradition from its beginnings at the Last Supper through the changes which were instituted as a result of the Council of Trent. It is an invaluable source for the process by which the western rite developed. Fr. Jungmann throughout shows amply the variety of liturgical forms that developed in the west (examples from the gallican, mozarabic, sarum, etc.) and the gradual unification into the Roman Rite. Fr. Jungmann approaches his subject with awe and respect and at the same time is a relentless historical critic - this is a very difficult position to maintain. A large part of the value of this book is found in the author's ability to walk that narrow line. This book was influential with the Liturgical Reformers who changed so much after the Vatican Council II (though the changes wrought by the reformers far exceeded spirit and text of Fr. Jungmann's work). The major failing of the book is that its focus is too narrow and does not adequately consider the comparative and shared liturgical background of the Eastern Churches and, indeed, of Judiac liturgical practices. But, this is a quibble compared to the monumental nature of the endeavor that Jungmann undertook and completed.

This is an excellent introduction to medieval Church history that assumes an interest but little background in the subject. The deatils on any specific subject are necessarily limited, but a thorough bibliography is included. Unlike many authors in the field, Lynch's writing style is entertaining and readable without sacrificing content. He remembered that no one goes to the ball game to watch the umpire, and the resulting book is informative, clear, and understandable.

Missio Moscovitica has an index. One reviewer is incorrect