Title: Saints of the Roman Calendar  Author: Enzo Lodi  Translated & Adapted: Jordan Aumann, OP  ISBN: 0-8189-0652-9  Paperback: xxvi + 420 pp.  Price: $11.95 + shipping  To Order call: 1 800-343-ALBA (2522) Please have your Master, Visa or American Express card ready. To order online click here.

In the first Preface of the Mass for Holy Men and Women we read: 'In their lives on earth you give us an example. In our communion with them you give us their friendship. In their prayer for the Church you give us strength and protection.' Moreover, as the Second Vatican Council put it, 'every act of love offered by us to those who are in heaven tends to and terminates in Christ, the crown of all the saints, and through him in God who is wonderful in his saints and is glorified in them.' This book, with its addition of feast days proper to the United States, and with new Prefaces for the Masses of some of them, is offered in the hope that it will foster greater devotion and imitation of the saintly men and women chronicled in its pages.

 

The co-editor of an Italian magazine on the liturgy, Dr. Enzo Lodi is a noted authority on the sacraments and the liturgy, having written four major works in this area. He is likewise the author of another book on the saints of the Church in Bologna, Italy, where he teaches liturgy for the Archdiocese at the Institute of Pastoral Liturgy in Padua. Reviews "Sacristy closets need to contain some key resource books for sudden questions and/or last-minute inspiration. One book has to be about the saints of the Roman calendar -- which is the exact title of an excellent book by Enzo Lodi, from ST PAULS / Alba House. Saints of the Roman Calendar is now in its fifth printing, having appeared first in 1992. I find it to be just right for weekday preaching. (It would also be excellent as a gift for someone's birthday or for personal reading.) The facts of a saint's life and personality are presented clearly, and the emphases are well-targeted. As Dr. Lodi nicely puts it, "This book is not written in the traditional panegyric style that focuses on extraordinary phenomena and the miraculous.... The liturgy is much more reserved, and portrays the holiness of the saints as particular manifestations of the all-inclusive holiness of Christ." Thus the approach of this book is liturgical and pastoral. The author typically provides an historico-liturgical note about the saint, then a reflection on the person's message and relevance. Often Lodi concludes with the opening prayer or preface of the saint's Mass." --Msgr. William Belford in "Priestalk 90", The Priest, March 2006 "Lodi's work was originally written for Italian readers, but the translator, Father Jordan Aumann of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas in Rome, has adapted the work to include figures of special interest to an English-speaking audience, such as Blessed Juniero Serra (apostle to California), Catherine Drexel (the Philadelphia heiress and foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament who minister to native americans and Black people), and Canada's own Marie Rose Durocher. Each person is given one or two pages, which include a brief biography, a discussion of the meaning of the saint's life, and a Preface prayer which can be used in the Mass. There is an entry for almost every day of the year... and it is interesting to note the wide cross-section that has been included: Martyrs, Virgins, Pastors, Doctors of the Church, professed Religious and laypeople, early Roman martyrs, mystics of the Middle Ages, farmers and kings, Koreans, Japanese, Mexicans, Americans, Europeans. This is a fine little collection of insights about the rich variety of forms which life in Christ can take. Georges Bernanos once wrote that 'the life of every saint is a new flowering.' The Holy Spirit is creative and unpredictable. Nevertheless, the prototype of sanctity remains constant: it is Christ of whom we say, 'You alone are holy'." --Nazareth Journal "... especially helpful for busy parish priests who say a few words at Mass about the feast of the day." --Fr. Rawley Myers in Homiletic and Pastoral Review "Notes revision of Roman Calendar in which the obligatory memorials were doubled from 36 to 66 and the optional memorials were reduced from 122 to 96, etc. Saints of the Roman Calendar includes the insertion of feasts proper to the United States and puts the focus on saints as 'models' in following Christ rather than as objects of devotion. The book has a helpful name index as well." --Crux of the News Top of Page