Customer Reviews

The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers (4 Volume Set)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These four volumes belong in every serious Catholic book fanatics collection.

The volumes are indeed very beautiful and it will almost pain you to start reading them and causing wear. They are hardcover and very sturdy using a thick paper stock (not Bible paper; similar to the paper used in the Lord of the Rings one volume red leather edition). Every cover has a raised picture of St. John Chrysostom on it (this is the only downfall to the volumes aesthetics in my opinion, a different saint on each volume would have been better, but this is a small complaint).

The inside covers have the sermons sorted according to the liturgical year of the new lectionary even though the book itself is according to the pre-VII lectionary.

The main fathers you will find sermons of in the texts are:
Eastern: St. Basil the Great; St. Gregory Nazianzen; St. John Crysostom, and St. Cyril of Alexandria.
Western: St. Ambrose; St. Jerome; St. Augustine; and St. Gregory the Great

Other fathers include: St. Ephraim, St. Bernard, St. Hilary, St. Patrick, St. Maximus, Origen, St. Amphilochius, Albinus Alcuin, St. Aelred, St. Gaudentius, St. Isidore of Pelusium, St. Aphraates, Theophylactus, et.al.

Commentary from the Catena Aurea (itself a treasure which must be made more widely available) is also found for each Sunday's readings. The actual text of the readings for each Sunday also appears in the volumes.

An index of names and subjects appears at the end of each volume.

There is much more that could be said about these books, especially the sermons themselves all of which I have found to be excellent. With the volumes of sermons of Knox and Newmann that have been published by Ignatius press I look to them for inspiration before teaching in RCIA or the classroom.

I've been reading these sermons for several years. There are four books with sermons for most Sundays and feast days. I find many inspirational, and most are very enlightening. This is the most authoritative source of knowledge about our Christian religion that I have outside of the bible.

I find it fascinating to read the explanations written by men who lived over a thousand years before us. It is incredible to see the clarity of thought that governs these writings. I learn something new every time I read a sermon. Almost every Sunday has a choice of at least three writings.

This Sunday (Corpus Christi) we read a sermon by St Cyprian (martyred in 258) who wrote against the practice of using water in place of wine for the holy sacrifice. I had never heard of this heresy (St. Cyprian argues that without wine, it is not a sacrifice), but I was fascinated to read about the symbolism of wine found in both the new and old testament. While the issue St Cyprian addressed is not particularly germane today, the knowledge imparted along the way certainly is germane. In this sermon, St. Cyprian notes that wine represents Christ while water represents the people. In the mass, water is mixed with wine, and St Cyprian notes that once mixed, they do not separate.

Every sermon serves up some new gem of knowledge or thought. I have other books of sermons, but this book is head and shoulders above. Of the many items bequeathed by my parents, this is the heirloom.

As you can tell by the title of my review, I'm rating this book not on the content but on the product itself. I made this purchase based on the glowing 5 star reviews from other reviewers, and wanted so much to like this product.

While the binding is ok (not great), the print is extremely small and printed on two columns per page - which wouldn't be an issue, except that it often runs into the gutter of the book, forcing you to flatten these thick volumes (stressing the binding) to be able to read the text. Even at that, you sometimes have to lift the binding to make out the words. This looks to me like an error in typesetting, since there is plenty of margin toward the edges of the pages. Interestingly, the foreward and introductions by the editor (and the included foreward by St. Thomas to his Catena Aurea) are much more readable - the type is larger and runs across the entire page. I'm guessing here, but I think quite possibly the typeset is from an older, smaller-sized edition of this work and was used as is, without adapting it to the newer, larger form factor.

Worst of all, besides the font being very small (I'd say about 6 pt), the print quality is terrible - very light, making the text-to-page contrast extremely poor. Some paragraphs, and indeed some whole pages appear a bit washed-out - but they are still readable. The text in italics suffers most from this poor print quality. And the printing is also "spotty": some words, mostly toward the inside of the page, have letters that didn't print and leave you to fill in the blank of the missing letters - which really could turn the meaning around if you guess wrong.

Family heirloom? In my opinion, no. The content, however, is what I bought them for, so I'm not sure if I will keep this set - I'm going to compare it to the content I've found by searching for "sermons of the church fathers" on the web, and see if that will fill my need. At least I can increase the font in my browser, and if the content is at all similar, these are going back.

At a price of $80 +, I expected much better quality. If I had seen these in a brick and mortar store and actually handled them, I would not have purchased them for that price. Therefore, I can't recommend this set at all. If you see them in a bargain bin for half this price, then, depending on how the above issues would effect your reading pleasure, you might take a stab at them.

Update:
Regnery books published a pocket-sized edition of these volumes in 1963 and some are still floating around at a reasonable price. The layout is identical, but the font is very small; however the printing is much more clear and readable.

A superb compendium of the surviving homilies of the great Church Fathers, with superior spiritual insights into the bottomless treasure chest of scripture. All Catholics and Protestants should be familiar with what these men taught, passed down directly from the Apostles themselves.

If you are into real Catholic Church history this is for you. The early sermons of the early Church Fathers. It takes you back intime to the begining and makes you realize that after 2000 years the Church has always been the same. One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic. Learn about your Catholic history and prove to Protestants that the Church has never changed it's beliefs.