A New Catholic Family Business for Restoration

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A New Catholic Family Business for Restoration!

OnePeterFive [slightly adapted] | December 5, 2024


The revolutionaries behind the changes after the Second Vatican Council sought to obliterate all that was traditional in the Church, beginning with the obvious liturgical changes. Another revolution occurred simultaneously in the Catholic publishing world. To promote the new “spirit of the Council” and its modernist theology, Catholic publishers promoted the authors who had newfangled ideas, such as Karl Rahner, Teilhard de Chardin, and Edward Schillebeeckx, just to name a few. Not only were these works promoting new, un-Catholic ideas in the Church, the books themselves were extremely ugly and modernist looking. All that was beautiful and traditional seemed to disappear overnight and was replaced by books with hideously colored block art covers and illustrations, with no sign of the authentic artwork of the Catholic Church. I think we can all conjure up an image of these books in our minds. The contrast between a book published before Vatican II and after is quite stark and alarming.

It seemed that all that was traditional and beautiful would be gone forever. Many classics fell out of print and out of use. But just as the holy remnant sought to preserve the ancient liturgy of the Church, so too did a remnant arise to preserve these holy and beautiful books. There are older presses such as TAN Books and Sophia Institute Press, but also new ones have been started too, including Arouca Press and Os Justi Press, among others.


Cor Jesu Press: Practical, Shortish, Faithful, and Beautiful Books

Just this year, a young family out of Louisiana has started a new publishing company (out of their homeschooling classroom!) called Cor Jesu Press. Dr. Brad and Emily Fossier have five children and are Third Order Franciscans. The mission behind Cor Jesu Press is to produce practical, short(ish), faithful, and beautiful books that are appropriate for the laity and family.


Dr. Fossier, who is a family physician during his day job, explains the inspiration behind the Press: “Honestly, I wasn’t planning on starting a company, but at some point I realized I was constantly referencing books from online archives for spiritual reading, and incessantly pulling up PDF files. Reading on screens got old.” Even “overpriced facsimile” copies were hard to come by for some titles, so he decided to see if he could re-typeset some of his favorites for personal use. Friends saw the results and asked for copies of their own. Cor Jesu Press was born.

They chose the name Cor Jesu Press because most of their titles are “geared toward devotional reading which can hopefully fan the small sparks of love for Our Lord into a blazing fire that imitates the burning charity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.”

Furthermore, “Most of our books are curated with the busy layperson and Catholic families in mind. In selecting titles, we ask, ‘Is this a useful addition to a Catholic family’s home library?’”

As stated above and as described on their website, the titles are practical, meaning that the books provide “counsels, meditations, or prayers which you can immediately put into use your spiritual life.” The hope is that these books can assist the soul to “move from luke-warmness to fervor and provide fodder for mental prayer.”

The books are short (ish), which is said loosely, as many older books are quite long. The idea is that the books are a “readable length,” and the longer volumes are divided.

Thirdly, the books are faithful, meaning that they all “contain clear, traditional Catholic teaching.” What a blessing that is for families in a day when there is so much confusion being spread throughout the Church!

Finally, the books are beautiful. “We re-typeset all our books, perfect the formatting, and grace each book with a new, beautiful cover.” While this may not seem to make a difference, beauty even in our books elevates the soul to think about God and removes it from the banality of the world.

Let’s take a look at some of the remarkable titles being republished by Cor Jesu Press. Those who are serious about the spiritual life will take delight in many of these titles.


Spiritual Life

Cor Jesu Press is really taking the lead in publishing some beautiful, hard to find spiritual works—some of the titles may even be unfamiliar to you. One initiative is a multi-volume set, of which three volumes are published so far, called Daily Practice of Mental Prayer and of Divine Contemplation by Fr. Alphonsus of the Mother of Sorrows, OCD. From the website description, the book contains “daily meditations spanning the entirety of the calendar year according to the Church’s traditional liturgical cycle,” with most of the meditations being drawn from St. Tersea of Avila and St. John of the Cross. The volumes for the months of June/July, August/September, and October/November have already been published.

Consider Life with Mary by Ven. Michael of St. Augustine, a seventeenth century Belgian Carmelite, which is a short treatise on the Marian dimension of the Carmelite life. Another Marian title is The Interior of Mary by Jean Grou, SJ, who writes about Mary’s interior life so that those who love Mary “may seek to know better her Immaculate Heart that they may make their own hearts like unto hers,” as the website describes.

Cor Jesu Press has many other unique titles for growth in the spiritual life, including A Golden Treatise of Mental Prayer by St. Peter of Alcantara, spiritual advisor of St. Teresa of Avila; the hard-to-find E. Allison Peers’s translation of St. John of the Cross’s The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night of the Soul; and finally, St. Alphonsus Ligouri’s The Love of Jesus Crucified, which can become a staple for mental prayer with its meditations on the Passion of Christ. Recently released was St. Julian Emyard’s Meditations on the Eucharist, which contains beautiful images and is perfect for your holy hour devotion.

There are many more, but I would have to list every title on their website to encompass all the beautiful works being republishing!


Home Life

Cor Jesu Press is also bringing back into print many wonderful texts for fostering the spiritual life of the home. One of these is for men, entitled Thoughts and Counsels for Catholic Men by Fr. Peter von Doss.

There are several lovely titles for women. One is entitled The Christian Mother: The Education of Her Children and Her Prayer by Fr. Wilhelm Cramer, which provides a mother with principles for educating her children in the Catholic faith. The most popular of all their titles published is Counsels of Perfection for Christian Mothers by Monsignor P. Leguene, who writes, “Motherhood is the perfect setting for Christian perfection.” As Dr. Fossier shared, this book “provides challenging, pointed direction to mothers concerning prayer, avoidance of common faults, the instruction of children, and advancement in the spiritual life.”

Finally, one of their most recent titles is, The Christian Home: A Guide to Happiness in the Home by Fr. Celestine Strub, OFM, which offers an account of why religion in the home is the best remedy for reforming society. These would all make fantastic additions to the devout Catholic family library.


Sneak Peeks

The publisher shared with me several “sneak peeks” of books to come. Currently, they are working on many wonderful texts, among which include Reflections from the Mirror of a Mystic by Bl. John Ruysbroeck, The Art of Profiting by our Faults by Rev. Joseph Tissot, and the E. Allison Peers translation of The Living Flame of Love by St. John of the Cross.

Another exciting project that Cor Jesu Press is undertaking is the re-publication the hard-to-come-by titles from Dr. John Senior’s “Thousand Good Books” list. Senior is famous for his liberal arts program at the University of Kansas, which led to many Catholic converts and priestly and religious vocations—so much so that the University shut down the program. In The Death of Christian Culture, he wrote that “the cultural soil has been depleted; the seminal ideas of Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine and St. Thomas thrive only in an imaginative ground saturated with fables, fairy tales, stories, rhymes and adventures.” Just recently, Cor Jesu Press was pleased to release The Parent’s Assistant by Maria Edgeworth, which is a British work containing short morality tales and plays for children. They are also working on the Gesta Romanorum by Thomas Wright as the second release of this series. Both these titles are from the “nursery” section of Dr. Senior’s list, fitting for children ages 2-7.


Conclusion

The revolutionaries following Vatican II (and even those in the Church today) believed that they could destroy the beautiful traditions of the Church and replace them with a new theology for modern man. But this has proved to be impossible, as we can see with the rise of good Catholic publishers, who are forging the way in publishing the traditional Catholic books that the laity truly desire. In a time when the spiritual life is under such attack, the books of Cor Jesu Press are a balm to the wounds caused by those attacking the Church. These books, which are beautiful, traditional, and profoundly spiritual, will surely lead the laity to grow deeper in the interior life.

And, what a blessing for all of us—Cor Jesus Press has not even been in business for a full year, and they have already reproduced so many titles. Dr. Fossier shared with me that they have a “queue of over 100 books, so we are just getting started.” I highly recommend that you look into their many wonderful titles.

All the books mentioned above and many more may be purchased at their website here. Please like them on Facebook and follow them on Instagram @corjesupress.

All photos used with permission by Cor Jesu Press.