Excerpt from the Foreword
: "Study of the authoritative commentators on Sacred Scripture, and most particularly of the pericopes to be read out at the Sacred Liturgy has long been the custom of any of the places and communities where the celebration of the Divine Office or the "Liturgy of the Hours" is celebrated. This is true of the several liturgies of both East and West. Just as in the Old Testament Church, so too in the Church of the New Testament, it was unthinkable to approach the inspired word without some example or gloss or commentary. Thus did St Augustine learn to interpret the Sacred Scriptures, which at first seemed to his fine rhetor's ear to be so lacking in both dignity and content, by listening assiduously to the preaching of St. Ambrose in the cathedral of Milan. Ambrose's homilies struck deep into the heart of the North African seeker, and brought him finally to the instant crisis of his conversion to a life of chastity....
Holy conversation first, then sacred reading on our own (called
lectio divina
), will fit our hearts to receive the riches of the Fathers and the Holy Gospels.
So my advice to you, good reader, is to take up this lovely and useful volume which God in his Providence has placed in your hands and make it a locus of holy conversation with family and friends, fellow seekers of the truth. Holiness and enlightenment come largely to us through our friends of like mind. To be sure, solitude is also needful, but even there we are not alone, but are surrounded, as the Apostle says, 'by a cloud of witnesses.'" -
Hugh Barbour, O.Praem.
Excerpt from the Introduction:
"The works of the Fathers of the Church form a rich library. Yet this field, so fertile in an abundance of delicious fruits, remains sterile for the greater number of the Catholic people, who perhaps know not what to choose, or are ignorant of the language of these holy writers. It seems to me that a collection of Homilies from different Fathers, arranged according to the Sundays and principal festivals of the ecclesiastical year, would be a great spiritual help to all Christians. This is the reason why I undertook this collection, and I have carefully endeavoured that it should be useful to all.... " -
Rev. D.G. Hubert