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A Recovering Scholar of the Fathers

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa was one of the world’s most renowned patristic scholars when he decided to abandon academia for more vigorously evangelistic work. He gained such fame by his preaching that soon he was named preacher to the papal household, a post he has held since 1980. His preaching, which he often gathers into wonderful books, continues to draw deeply from the masters of the great tradition, especially the Church Fathers. His meditations are profound, stirring, and simple. In Contemplating the Trinity: The Path to the Abundant Christian Life, he explores the deepest mystery of the Christian religion, and what that mystery should mean for the prayer, the moral life, and the disposition of the ordinary believer.

A lovely piece of triva: In Italian, “Canta la Messa” means “He sings the Mass.”

Father Cantalamessa’s patristic backlist is wonderful, and it should be sprinkled throughout all our shelves. Easter in the Early Church: An Anthology of Jewish and Early Christian Texts should be everybody’s reading this year as Easter approaches. His Come, Creator Spirit: Meditations on the Veni Creator works with some of the same patristic texts Scott Hahn uses in the essay I linked to last week.