Newly republished book "Meditations for Each Day" by Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Started by aroucapress, October 21, 2018, 03:40:18 PM

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aroucapress

Hello,

We at Arouca Press, a newly founded label, would like to promote the republishing of Antonio Cardinal Bacci's book Meditations For Each Day first published in English in 1965. The book is $25.99 USD + s&h and can be directly purchased from Arouca Press by sending an email to orders@aroucapress.com where we we can then send you a PayPal invoice once we get shipping info. The book itself is 554 pages and is 6x9 in size.

The book is also available through some online retailers like Amazon. We will be working on a website and will be coming out with several other books in the near future. Please send me a message if you have any other questions.

Here is the introduction which we have written. Incidentally there was no introduction in the original book.

Introduction

The frenetic pace of modern life presents a host of challenges for the Catholic who wishes to grow in sanctity. Distracted by the pressures of modernity, it often leaves him little room for making a profound and serious study of the state of his interior life. The Catholic Faith is not only to be believed but applied to our everyday life and as St. James has said, "faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself" (Js. 2:14). An excellent means of helping a soul interiorize the principles of the Faith and to dispose the soul to greater acts of love of God is through a book of meditations. This brings us to the present book written by Antonio Cardinal Bacci, who was one of the most renowned Latinists of the 20th century.

In 1959, Cardinal Bacci wrote in Italian, Meditazioni Per tutti I Giorni Dell' Anno, translated into English (and other languages) and published in 1965. It was a series of daily meditations written, as the author states in his preface, "to produce an edifying rather than an erudite work". Yet, the reader will quickly find in his daily reflections profound insights into the interior life. 

This book will aid the reader in exploring the depths of the Catholic Faith, and if understood and prayerfully read, hopefully will help him persevere in virtue, as Cardinal Bacci states: "The masters of the spiritual life assure us that without the practice of meditation it is almost impossible for the just man to persevere in virtue, or for the tepid to become fervent, or for the sinner to be converted" (Meditation for January 2).

What sources does Cardinal Bacci use to compose his reflections for each day of the year? As a classicist, he taps into the great sources of the ancient world with its grasp of natural truths. He shows his great familiarity with the wisdom of the Church Fathers – especially through the works of St. Augustine. His constant guide throughout the book is St. Thomas Aquinas whose penetrating reason illuminated by Divine Revelation probes the profound beauty and mystery of Catholicism. The science of the saints bursts forth as he wonderfully quotes from various saints as well as providing anecdotes from their lives. The Imitation of Christ is another cherished companion for the reader indicating that Cardinal Bacci has made its teachings an integrated part of his life. Finally, the words of Sacred Scripture spill out on almost every page giving life to St. Jerome's words who said that the "ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ" (Prologue to the Book of Isaiah). 

Cardinal Bacci writes with a simple style but his words are not simplistic for they impress upon the reader a great desire to rise above mediocrity: "We cannot be content with half-hearted efforts, but must work hard to become holy" (Meditation for January 25).  He has a great understanding of human nature and knows well the tendency of modern life to uproot man from his supernatural end, and while written at a time when there was relative peace in the Church and society, the principles and ideas he explores – firmly rooted in Catholic teaching – are still applicable for the 21st century reader. For example, in his meditation for February 18, Interior Silence, he says the following:

QuoteModern life has become a whirling machine which snatches men up into its enormous rotators and carries them with it. Not only has it become difficult to remain a Christian, but it is even difficult to continue to be a man.

What would he say now when the vestiges of Christian societies are fading away in the midst of an almost relentless attack on the natural and supernatural orders? He continues in his May 14 meditation, The Great Exile:

QuoteOnce the idea of God as the supreme lawgiver and judge has been taken away, men sin without shame and without restraint. Sin becomes an industry, a dishonourable business carried on by means of the press, cinema, television; and all the media of so-called modern civilisation.

To use but one more example, he critiques modern society for its "progress" which can only be a false progress if it separates itself from the principles of truth and goodness:

QuoteA veneer of refinement and civilisation endows modern society with a deceptive lustre, but at its heart there is misery and rottenness much greater than any which our fathers ever knew. This is because in our times progress has become for many an instrument of sin. Today we have to contend with not merely the existence of evil, but with its industrialisation. Evil is bought and sold; it is propagated for profit. (June 15, The Feast of Pentecost)

The entire book is full of such stirring quotes. On every page, the reader will find wisdom and a program to begin living a life that is thoroughly Christ-centred. In addition, being deeply Marian, Cardinal Bacci dedicates many pages to the devotion we should have for the Mother of God whose spotless life gave us the Son of God. One excellent section (October 3 – 17)  is his treatment of the mysteries of the Rosary, which can be used as an insightful aid to its recitation.

The book does not leave every stone unturned, as it would require a book ten times larger to wrestle with every aspect of the Faith; but for its purposes as a book of meditations, it provides an abundance of ideas worth considering. It will challenge our superficial and far too materialistic grasp of the Faith. In the end, if but one reader will take to heart the words of Cardinal Bacci and resolutely fight against the "principalities and powers" and equip himself with "the armour of God...to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect" (Eph. 6:12), then Cardinal Bacci will not have written in vain.

As for the present edition, we have decided to make a few changes from the original English edition more in terms of style than substance. We have eliminated all of the footnotes from the original edition and have inserted them into the body of the text instead. When possible, we have made the references clearer so that the reader may easily refer to them if he so desires. We have added a Works Cited page so the reader can see a list of the works Cardinal Bacci has used. The reader can use this list to explore or study those works in more detail. All of the Scripture references have been given a uniform style. We have tried to correct all of the spelling mistakes found in the original text. In addition, we have added an English translation to a long passage from St. Bernard of Clairvaux that was kept in Latin. We expanded the Table of Contents to include all of the meditations. Finally, we added an editor's note to three entries: the nature of the Pope's authority, the relationship between faith and mortal sin, and the teaching on venial sin (January 20, The Pope; April 23, Faith and Charity; October 14, The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven). Given the English translation which we used and the devotional nature of this book (it is not meant as a theological treatise), we thought it wise to include those notes to avoid any possible misunderstandings of Cardinal Bacci's words.

We would like to thank all those who helped in whatever way in the re-publication of this book. Such generosity and charity will always be appreciated. A special thank you is extended to the tremendously skilled Catholic artist, Daniel Mitsui, who kindly gave us permission to use one of his pieces for the cover. The title in his piece, "ICXC NIKA," is an abbreviation of the Greek meaning Jesus Christ Conquers. The cover depicts nine small scenes from the life of Our Lord—a life at the center of Cardinal Bacci's book.

About the Author

Unfortunately, there is not a great deal of biographical information in English. What we do have are his memoirs1 covering his service under four popes, translated but out-of-print since 1991, and some brief notes found online.2 We can try to reconstruct a few aspects of his life that will be of interest to the reader.

Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1885 – 1971) was born in Giugnola, Italy, and was ordained a priest in 1909 becoming a faculty member and rector of the archiepiscopal seminary of Florence between 1910 and 1922. Due to his reputation as a Latinist – already at such a young age – during the latter part of 1922, he was chosen to work for the Secretariate of State. Made an honorary chamberlain for Pope Pius XI the following year, he soon earned the great trust and respect of the then Secretary for Briefs to Princes, Msgr. Nicola Sebastiani. One of the tasks of the Secretary for Briefs was to write in Latin all the letters the Pope sends to the heads of state and which the Pope himself signs. The main task, however, was to compose in Latin all the major Pontifical documents which required, as Cardinal Bacci says in his memoirs, "not only great and solid culture, but also poise and prudence in weighing and adjusting thoughts and expressions even to the smallest shades of meaning." As of 1929, Msgr. Bacci would start writing these documents under the direct guidance of Msgr. Sebastiani and took over when the latter died two years later. Msgr. Bacci served in that capacity until 1960.

He was a great defender and promoter of the Latin language and dedicated the greater part of his memoirs to its defence. He lamented its steady decline and argued that it needed "a renewal, not of its morphology and syntax, but in thought, in content, and consequently in a good deal of its lexicon, namely, in that part of it that must express all that is new in the thought and attitudes of modern life." He published an Italian-Latin dictionary, Lexicon vocabulorum quae difficilius latine redduntur, to meet that need. The last and fourth edition was published in 1963 and consisted of 846 pages, two columns on each page, and over 12,000 words proposed and translated.

In 1960, Pope John XXIII made him a Cardinal deacon and consecrated him as titular archbishop of Colonia de Cappadocia two years later. This was the same ceremony that saw the consecration of Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani whose so-called "Intervention" of 1969, critiquing the revision of the Roman Liturgy, was also co-signed by Cardinal Bacci. He participated in all of the sessions of the Second Vatican Council and made an impassioned address to the Council on the use of Latin in the Liturgy. In 1971, he died of a stroke in his Vatican apartment after having spent nearly fifty years in direct service to four popes.

1 Antonio Bacci, Con il Latino a Servizio di Quattro Papi , "With Latin in the Service of the Popes", (Rome: Editrice Studium, 1964), trans. Anthony Lo Bello
(Latin Liturgy Association, 1991)

2 Miranda, Salvador, "Antonio Bacci", The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, 1998-2015, http://www2.fiu.edu//mirandas/bios1960.htm#Bacci

Prayerful

Appears to be paperback only, but how and ever, seems interesting.
Padre Pio: Pray, hope, and don't worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.

aroucapress

I am working on the hardcover edition. I ordered a proof copy of the hardcover edition to make sure it looks good. It will be $31.99 USD.


Lynne

If you want to see these meditations, they are published on a page on Facebook, called Meditations for Each Day by Antonio Cardinal Bacci. They are the most beautiful meditations I have ever read and I can't wait to buy the book.
In conclusion, I can leave you with no better advice than that given after every sermon by Msgr Vincent Giammarino, who was pastor of St Michael's Church in Atlantic City in the 1950s:

    "My dear good people: Do what you have to do, When you're supposed to do it, The best way you can do it,   For the Love of God. Amen"

aroucapress

My wife has been posting those meditations for 6 years. They are spectacular meditations. I am glad you like them!

Gardener

How do you secure the books (and are there any you want to re-print that you cannot find)?
Do you do a full OCR w/ proofing for reprint? Careful transcription? If OCR, is it a destructive process or non-destructive?

Are there certain titles you are looking for?
If someone were to have a title you want to re-print, and provided the original (assuming non-destructive), would you return the original and also give them a free copy of the re-print, or at least a hefty discount?

I'm sitting on a pre-vatican 2 seminary library, basically. Just wondering if this may be a good outlet for preservation.
"If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

aroucapress

Yes, our primary goal is to republish out of print and difficult to find books although it is not limited to that.

We want to republish books as professionally as possible so yes careful transcription. We don't want to destroy any books unless we have an extra copy of the book. That is obviously the most laborious part of the process.

Tell me what you have and I will take a look at the title(s). You can send me a PM, post here, or you can send an email to info@aroucapress.com.

I have two books that we are going to republish next. If the book(s) you are proposing is a good book to republish yes I can send it to you and then give you a free copy of the republished book. Why would I charge that person for a book he provided for republishing? :)

There are so many books that need to be republished and I hope that we can do a little to bring them back into the public.

Quote from: Gardener on October 22, 2018, 06:45:45 AM
How do you secure the books (and are there any you want to re-print that you cannot find)?
Do you do a full OCR w/ proofing for reprint? Careful transcription? If OCR, is it a destructive process or non-destructive?

Are there certain titles you are looking for?
If someone were to have a title you want to re-print, and provided the original (assuming non-destructive), would you return the original and also give them a free copy of the re-print, or at least a hefty discount?

I'm sitting on a pre-vatican 2 seminary library, basically. Just wondering if this may be a good outlet for preservation.

Bernadette

My Lord and my God.

aroucapress

Quote from: Bernadette on October 22, 2018, 10:38:27 AM
Any plans to make it available on kindle?

To be honest not really however it seems there is definitely a demand for it to be on kindle.

Gardener

Quote from: aroucapress on October 22, 2018, 10:24:17 AM
Yes, our primary goal is to republish out of print and difficult to find books although it is not limited to that.

We want to republish books as professionally as possible so yes careful transcription. We don't want to destroy any books unless we have an extra copy of the book. That is obviously the most laborious part of the process.

Tell me what you have and I will take a look at the title(s). You can send me a PM, post here, or you can send an email to info@aroucapress.com.

I have two books that we are going to republish next. If the book(s) you are proposing is a good book to republish yes I can send it to you and then give you a free copy of the republished book. Why would I charge that person for a book he provided for republishing? :)

There are so many books that need to be republished and I hope that we can do a little to bring them back into the public.

Quote from: Gardener on October 22, 2018, 06:45:45 AM
How do you secure the books (and are there any you want to re-print that you cannot find)?
Do you do a full OCR w/ proofing for reprint? Careful transcription? If OCR, is it a destructive process or non-destructive?

Are there certain titles you are looking for?
If someone were to have a title you want to re-print, and provided the original (assuming non-destructive), would you return the original and also give them a free copy of the re-print, or at least a hefty discount?

I'm sitting on a pre-vatican 2 seminary library, basically. Just wondering if this may be a good outlet for preservation.

Thank you for your reply. I need to go through all my books, still. Haven't had a chance yet. Once I do, I'll let you know what I have.
"If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

Gardener

Quote from: aroucapress on October 22, 2018, 10:45:11 AM
Quote from: Bernadette on October 22, 2018, 10:38:27 AM
Any plans to make it available on kindle?

To be honest not really however it seems there is definitely a demand for it to be on kindle.

I'm not a fan of books that run out of batteries, but you're kinda shooting yourselves in the foot not to get into the e-book market. Don't let nostalgia get in the way of business ;)
"If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

aroucapress

I thought everyone would be aware that the book can be purchased directly from our site: www.aroucapress.com or through the various online retailers such as Amazon in paperback or hardcover editions.

Rorate Caeli was kind enough to plug this book: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2018/10/cardinal-baccis.html?fbclid=IwAR3xcuK7J7VxgCMfqru4HemLWk4GUEqvgDHG0wc3KUJCf6G9-pH__c1Hqv0

Also Fr. John Hunwicke reviewed the book here: http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-pure-wind-of-ages-antonio-cardinal.html

Gardener

"If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

martin88nyc

"These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world." John 16:33