Saint Francis - from the Library of Congress

Here are some books from the Library of Congress about the great and gentle St. Francis of Assisi. (The URL for the Library of Congress is: http://www.loc.gov/nls/)

The books I myself have read and liked are the Little Flowers of Assisi, and Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi (both of which I read too long ago to give a book review at the moment). But I've certainly also heard good things of Louis De Wohl. And G.K. Chesterton is one of the greatest English-speaking writers. Deep, but excellent.

The Joyful Beggar, by Louis De Wohl, Tape: RC54405;
The Little Flowers, by St. Francis of Assisi, Braille: BRA13113;
The Wolf of Gubbio, by Michael Bedard, Braille: BRA18868;
Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi, by Tomie De Paolo, (Grades 3-6), Tape: RC21779;
St. Francis of Assisi, by G.K. Chesterton, Tape: RC13594;
St. Francis of Assisi, by G.K. Chesterton, Braille: BRA09718.

If you are a print-reading parent of a visually impaired high school student, you might be interested in a study guide for Chesterton's book about St. Francis of Assisi. There is a guide written by Mrs. Nancy Brown available through her blog at:
http://mrsnancybrown.blogspot.com

Xavier Society for the Blind

Xavier Society for the Blind provides free Catholic magazines and Catholic books on loan to people who are blind or legally blind. These are available in Braille or on tape. They do not have a website. You may call to get a form to use to get enrolled.

Xavier Society for the Blind
1-212-473-7800
154 East 23rd St
New York NY 10010

Free Catholic E-Books

If you have Acrobat Adobe reader (or if you want to download it), you can use any of the books on this new site. It looks like they have about 100 books to offer. It's very easy. You just click on a book and the pdf file pops up.

Included are the Douay Rheims Bible, Butler's Lives of the Saints, The Story of a Soul (the autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux). There are also books by G. K. Chesterton and Thomas Aquinas, and many others.

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.