Catholic Books through the Library of Congress

Are you or your loved one signed up for the Library of Congress National Library Service? If you are eligible, you can borrow books on tape or books in Braille. These are sent to you and returned in special easy packaging, free of a need for postage. In other words, if you qualify, there is zero cost for this home library service. If you are blind or visually impaired, and you are not yet signed up for this service, you can go to the Library of Congress website to find out where and how to register with your regional provider.

There is a search page if you want to request particular books. I put in "Catholic" and "saint" as keywords, and did not come up with anything that looked like what I was looking for. However, when I put in the title of a specific Catholic book, the book description popped right up. So it is worth searching for the titles we like, in order to see if they are available.

The book I looked up, by the way, was The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, a book which I recently reviewed at my daily blog. The ordering number for recorded cassette is RC07047 and for Braille is BRA13890.

For those who are here looking for audio materials for someone who has dyslexia or another learning disability, I apologize, as anything from the Library of Congress National Library Service is only available for those who are visually impaired or have a physical disability. The Library of Congress website says: "The following groups of individuals are not automatically eligible: those who have learning disabilities, dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, chronic-fatigue syndrome, autism, functional illiteracy, or mental retardation, unless there is a specific accompanying visual or physical handicap."

So, in the future, if I label material as being available through "Library of Congress" or "National Library Service" that availability only applies to those who fit those eligibility restrictions. For those who qualify, this can be a treasure hunt. Under this blog Label of "Library of Congress", I will try to share with you various Catholic books as I find them available there. Again, if you have a discovery, please share with us, too.

Religion "Lessons" on Tape or CD

Whether you want to learn more about your faith yourself or whether you're thinking of your child, here are a couple of resources for high school students through adults to grow in an understanding of our religion, presented in audio format.

Yesterday I re-discovered a fifties' religion book that is available on MP3-CD (playable on specialized CD players or a computer CD drive). The book is called This is Our Faith, by Canon Francis Ripley, and is available from TAN Books and Publishers. At the link, you can scroll down and listen to two samples from the book. The book sells on this CD for $21.00. According to the description at TAN Books, this book "covers the nature of God, the nature of man, the meaning of life, the nature of religion, the sources of Faith, the necessity of prayer, the duty of belief, the consequences of sin, the Commandments of God, the Holy Trinity, belief in Christ, the Redemption, the supremacy of the Pope, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Sacraments, the Mass, the priesthood, devotion to Mary and the Saints, what happens after death, the devotional life of a Catholic."

A more contemporary resource for Catholic instruction are these tapes of seminars by Fr. Frank Chacon and Jim Burnham. Or you can get them on CDs. Some of the topics of the tapes/CDs include: The Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, Defending the Catholic Faith (Beginning Apologetics), Right to Life Issues, and The Great Gift of the Rosary.

Please note that I have not read the This is Our Faith book myself, except for the samples at the website. Neither have I heard Fr. Frank Chacon and Jim Burnham myself, although I didn't just stumble across these on an internet search. Their apologetics materials were recommended to me by Alicia of Love2Learn.

If you check out any of these resources, please share with us what you think.

About this New Blog

Catholic BVI Readers began as a Yahoo group a few years ago. The idea was to share Catholic books and materials in Braille, large print and audio tape. Besides sharing availability of books, I now plan to include links to online resources that we discover; for example, sites that have material in recorded human voice. I have also decided to take this service to a blog mode, here at http://cathbvireaders.blogspot.com.

When I find new materials, I will share them here for you. The Yahoo group, CatholicBVIReaders, continues. It's principle purpose now will be to get this blog delivered into your email inbox as a newsletter. Since I won't be posting here on a planned periodic basis, but rather on an occasional basis, signing up for the group is one way to be sure you don't miss a post. (If you are in the Yahoo group, and you do not wish to receive these newsletters, you may go to the Yahoo groups webpage and configure your account for visiting only at the web, or you may unsubscribe by following the instructions at the bottom of the email.)

If you do want to see the entries as they are posted, but without joining a Yahoo group, you might like to subscribe through Bloglines.

Either way, I welcome your input! You can post in the comments section of this blog or to the CatholicBVIReaders Yahoo group. Or you can email me personally at margmary53@yahoo.com

You do not have to be Catholic to visit or join. I only want you to know that the materials discussed will be Catholic materials.

I look forward to us sharing together!