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Indispensable

Sitting on my desk is Fr. John A. Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary, a one-volume source of more than 5,000 definitions and explanations of Catholic terms. I couldn’t work without it. I bought my copy in 1980, when I entered the Church, and it would be no exaggeration to say that reading and referring to it were part of my formation as a Catholic. The dust-jacket is in shreds and the page edges discolored from constant use. I have thanked God many times that, in the minefield of misleading Catholic materials, Fr. Hardon’s book provides a safety zone of accuracy, orthodoxy, and clarity.

My problem since working for Catholic Answers has been that I only have one copy—and I have had to choose between keeping it at the office (where it is handy for checking spellings and definitions) or having it available at home, when I do much of my online apologetic work. That problem is solved by the Pocket Catholic Dictionary.

The Pocket Catholic Dictionary, an abridged edition of the Modern Catholic Dictionary, contains 2,000 entries from the original work carefully chosen by Hardon himself—all the necessary definitions in faith, liturgy, morals, history, theology, and spirituality. A resource for the catechist, home apologist, and serious Catholic, the Pocket Catholic Dictionary will easily repay its cost many times over in ready answers. The definitions are of a lapidary quality—not a word is wasted—and the wide-ranging erudition behind them—and unerring fidelity to the magisterial faith—make them a joy to read. After the temporizings of McBrien and Curran, Hardon’s lucidity is like a stream in dry land.

The pocket version contains useful appendixes: a list of all the popes, the text of Pope Paul VI’s Credo of the People of God, the complete Roman and Byzantine calendars, with all the saints for a given day listed. Where else can you find out that your baby was born on the feast of St. Phocas the Gardener or St. Christina the Astonishing? 

Catholic Answers does its best to provide sound materials, both those we produce ourselves and those we distribute for others. Our readers are tough critics; if there is even a hint of inaccuracy in any of our publications or products, they let us know—and we are glad they do. So far as I know, in all the years we have been offering the Pocket Catholic Dictionary, we have not had a single complaint—or even question—about its reliability or utility. Hardon’s credentials are, of course, beyond reproach. The author of many books on Catholicism, he has also been active in the Institute on Religious Life, the Apostolate for Family Consecration, and the Catholic Home Study Institute. More, perhaps, than any other contemporary Catholic writer, he has helped orthodox Catholics to hold the line against the Modernist agenda.

Besides being a work you’ll want to own yourself, the Pocket Catholic Dictionary is a terrific confirmation gift, a welcome present to candidates in RCIA, and a convenient reference for your pastor, deacon, or DRE. Tuck a copy into your next care package to a college student, whether at a secular or Catholic university; he’s sure to use it when his faith is challenged. Finally, you might keep a copy on your bedside table, for short but interesting reading last thing at night.

Although it’s impossible to convey the wealth of information crammed into this book, a few definitions will give a small sample:

“INCENSE. Aromatic gum or resin in the form of powder grains that give off a fragrant smoke when they are burned. When blessed it is a symbolic sacramental. Its burning signifies zeal or fervor; its fragrance, virtue; its rising smoke, human prayer ascending to God. It is used at Mass, for the Gospel book, the altar the people, the ministers, and the bread and wine, before consecration; at benediction of the Blessed Sacrament; during processions; and at absolutions of the dead. When it is to be used, it is carried in a metal cup-shaped container and burned in a thurible or censer. Five large grains of it are placed in the Paschal candle at the Easter Vigil to symbolize the Five Wounds of the Risen Savior. In some countries it is placed in a stationary censer to burn slowly before the Blessed Sacrament, either exposed or reserved on the altar. (Etym. Latin incensum, incense; literally something burned; from incendere, to kindle.)”

“INDEFECTIBILITY. Imperishable duration of the Church and her immutability until the end of time. The First Vatican Council declared that the Church possesses “an unconquered stability” and that, “built on a rock, she will continue to stand until the end of time” (Denzinger 3013, 3056). The Church’s indefectibility, therefore, means that she now is and will always remain the institution of salvation, founded by Christ. This affirms that the Church is essentially unchangeable in her teaching, her constitution, and her liturgy. It does not exclude modifications that do not affect her substance, nor does it exclude the decay of individual local churches or even whole dioceses.” 
— Terrye Newkirk 

Pocket Catholic Dictionary 
By John A. Hardon, S.J.
Image 
510 pages
$9.95
ISBN: CB069

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