Bibliotheca Sacerdotalis

The Priest's Library

 

On this page you will find a list of books that every priest should have in his library. They include Scripture, Theology, Philosophy, Canon Law, Homiletics, Pastoral and Practical Theology, Patristics, Church History, Catechetics, Music, Reference Works, Dictionaries, Concordances, Commentaries, Thesaurus, and many others.

 

 

LATIN
Missale Romanum
Brevarium Romanum
Rituale Romanum
Pontificale Romanum
Martyrologium Romanum
Caeremoniale Episcoporum
Compendium Sacrae Liturgiae  (Wapelhorst)
Annuario Pontificio

 

LITURGICAL BOOKS
Roman Missal
Roman Ritual
Roman Pontifical
Roman Martyrology
Ceremonial of Bishops
The English Missal
The English Ritual
The English Office
The Anglican Breviary
The Divine Office, 3 vols
Consecranda (Schulte & O’Connell)
Benedicenda (Schulte & O’Connell)

 

SEMI-LITURGICAL BOOKS
The Priest’s Prayer Book  (Littledale & Vaux)
A Manual for Priests

CANON LAW
A Practical Commentary on the Code of Canon Law  (Woywod)
The Law of the Church  (Taunton)
Pastoral Companion  (Bonzelet, Mathis, Leahy, Meyer)
Introduction to Canon Law
Canon Law as Ministry
The Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law
Canon Law Digest
The Sacred Canons

 

PHILOSOPHY
Introduction to Philosophy
Cosmology
Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective
Introduction to Psychology and Counseling
Right and Reason
Philosophia Perrenis

 

THEOLOGY
Handbook of Moral Theology  (Prummer
Moral Theology (Adelbert, Jone)
Creeds of the Church  (Leith)
This Is The Faith
Chief Truths of the Faith (Laux)
Mass and the Sacraments (Laux)
Catholic Morality (Laux)
Catholic Apologetics (Laux)
The Ottaviani Intervention
The Heart of the Mass
The Mass (Fortescue)
Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma
Denziger’s Sources of Catholic Dogma
Everyman’s Theology
The Church Teaches
The Problem of the Liturgical Reform
The Liturgical Revolution
The Summa Theologica
The Summa Contra Gentiles
Not By Bread Alone (Sungenis)
Not By Faith Alone (Sungenis)
Not By Scripture Alone (Sungenis)
Apologetics
Documents of the Christian Church (Bettenson)
Outlines of Theology (O’Connell)
Dogmatic Theology for the Laity

 

RITUAL REFERENCE BOOKS
Matters Liturgical  (Wuest, Mullaney, Barry)
Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described  (Fortescue)
Book of Ceremonies  (O’Connell)
The Celebration of the Mass  (O’Connell)
The Mass of the Roman Rite  (Jungman)
Ceremonial According to the Roman Rite  (Dale)
Ritual Notes
Ceremonies of the Catholic Church (Milholland)
Handbook of Ceremonies for priest and Seminarian (Mueller)

 

OLD CATHOLIC / OLD ROMAN CATHOLIC
The Old Catholic Movement (Moss)
The History of the So-called Jansenist Church of Holland  (Neale)
The Old Catholic Missal and Ritual  (Mathew)
History of the North American Old Roman Catholic Church  (Trela)
The Story of Port Royal  (Romanes)

 

SCRIPTURE
A New Commentary on Holy Scripture  (Gore)
The Holy Bible (Douay-Rheims)
The Holy Bible Oxford Annotated (RSV)
The Holy Bible (KJV)
The Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture
A New Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture
The Jerome Biblical Commentary
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance
A Practical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures
A Textual Concordance to the Douay Rheims Bible
Introduction to the Bible (Laux)
The Canon of Scripture
Where We Got the Bible
Which Bible Should You Read
Cruden’s Concordance
Dictionary of the Bible (McKenzie)
Gospel Parellels
Understanding the Bible

 

CHURCH HISTORY
Church History (Laux)
Early Church Historu
Early Christian Doctrines
History of the Christian Church
The General Councils (Bellitto)

 

PATRISTICS
The Nicene, Ante-Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 38 vols
The Apostolic Fathers
Faith of the Early Fathers
The 33 Doctors of the Church
The Catena Aurea

 

CHANT and MUSIC
Liber Usualis  
St Dunstan’s Kyriale  (Douglas)
Priest’s Chants and Recitatives at the Altar  (Rossini)
Fundamentals of Gregorian Chant  (Keller)
The Sacrifice of Praise
Square Notes: A Workbook in Gregorian Chant
The Adoremus Hymnal
The Hymnal 1940
The Traditional Roman Hymnal
The English Gradual, 3 vols

 

CATECHETICS
Faith of Our Fathers  (Gibbons)
Catechism of the Council of Trent
Baltimore Catechism

 

REFERENCE BOOKS
Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches  (Jacquet)
Directory of Religious Bodies in the U.S.  (Melton)
The Divine Armory  (Vaughan)
Clerical Dress & Insignia of the Roman Catholic Church  (McCloud)
The Church’s Year
Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin
Consecrated Phrases: A Latin Theological Dictionary
Creeds of Christendom
The Raccolta
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
A Catholic Dictionary (Addis & Arnold)
An Encyclopaedic Catholic Dictionary (Atwater)

 

DEVOTIONAL BOOKS
The Imitation of Christ  (a Kempis)
An Introduction to the Devout Life  (de Sales)
Retreat for Priests  (Knox)
The Priest’s Companion  (Whatton)
With the Church  (Goosens)
Pusillum, 4 vols  (Bierbaum)
Year of Grace, 5 vols  (Parsch)
The Priest at Prayer  (Escribano)
Manual of Prayers  (Third Plenary Council of Baltimore)
Priest’s Daily Manual  (Collins)
The Major Seminarian  (Marcetteau)
The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola
Treatise on the Spiritual Life
Priesthood and Prayer (Frost)

 

HAGIOGRAPHY
Lives of the Saints  (Butler)
A Saint a Day  (Bittle)
A Year With the Saints

 

RELIGION
Enthusiasm  (Knox)
My Catholic Faith
The Continuity of Religion
The Confessions (St Augustine)

 

PASTORAL / PRACTICAL THEOLOGY
Fundamental Marriage Counseling  (Cavanaugh)
Guidance in Spiritual Direction
The Three Conversions in the Spiritual Life
Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling
Clinical Handbook of Pastoral Counseling

 

HOMILETICS
Sermons of St Alphonsus Liguori for All Sundays
Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers
Elements of Biblical Exegesis
Hermeneutics – 2nd Edition
Public Reading of Scripture: A Handbook
10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking

 

SACRED LANGUAGES
Greek and Hebrew Tutor Multimedia CD-ROM
Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin (Collins)

 

DICTIONARY and THESAURUS
American Heritage Dictionary
Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations