Interview with Cor Jesu Press
A new Catholic publishing company is giving new life to a host of classic spiritual works
One of the most exciting new projects I’ve come across recently is an independent Catholic book seller that goes by the name of Cor Jesu Press. They specialize in republishing old and out-of-print classics of Catholic spirituality, and I wanted to find out more about who they were, what they do, and why they do it.
More to the point, I know that you, dear reader, will ALSO be interested in what they have to offer, and so presented here is an exclusive interview with the founder and owner of Cor Jesu Press, Brad Fossier, who was kind enough to give Theology & Reality some very thoughtful answers to questions about the mission and identity of the business.
T&R: What is Cor Jesu Press?
Brad: Cor Jesu Press is a family-run, Catholic publishing company based out of St. Francisville, Louisiana dedicated to publishing spiritual reading for the Catholic laity. We mainly revive out-of-print Catholic books which we feel maintain a certain “gravitas” and hold wisdom for Catholics today.
What’s the mission of the press, what do you want to accomplish with this work?
The bottom line is we want Catholics to be saints and grow in love for the most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, hence the name “Cor Jesu Press”. We try to print spiritual works that will hopefully spur all of us to greater holiness. To do this, our mission is to print books which are:
Practical. The idea here is if you read one of our books, it will contain counsels, meditations, or prayers which you can immediately put into use in your spiritual life.
Short(ish). Often older books are quite long, think 900+ pages. If books have great content but lean toward the lengthy side, we will try to break them up into smaller chunks or sections if possible so that all our books are a readable length for busy Catholics in the world.
Faithful. All of our books contain clear Catholic teaching.
Beautiful. We work hard re-typesetting all of our books, updating the formatting, and gracing them with new, beautiful covers.
How did this project come about? What was the spark that lit the fire, as it were, and how did it go from idea to reality?
It started because there were a few older books that I could only find online. The first one that I kept revisiting was an older commentary on the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I got sick of constantly pulling up PDF documents of the text, and outside of the PDF, the text was only available for purchase as a photo-copied, hard-to-read, print-on-demand paperback. This gave me the idea, “Hey, I wonder if I could redo this book and print a copy for myself.” Turns out I could, and so I tried it with a few other books too and found that the books I reformatted were much more enjoyable to read than their online twins.
A few friends at our parish caught a glimpse of a few of the books I had redone and encouraged me to do a few more, so I started working on other titles. Soon enough, I got enough interest so I decided to open a small publishing company to distribute the titles and here we are. It has grown quicker than I had expected since then.
What has been the largest obstacle that you’ve faced in pursuing this endeavor?
One of the biggest frustrations is trying to find printing partners who can produce small prayer books with a leather cover, gold gilding, sewn binding, and ribbons. Trying to find a printer that can do this well is an ardous task; we are still looking for a solution because we hope to print liturgical books and prayer books in the future, but we aren’t going to open that door unless the books are high quality.
Did you receive any kind of encouragement or support in launching the press, or was this a very private affair?
It started as just a family effort: my wife, my children, and me! I invested a few coins out of my piggy bank to get the company up and running, then worked on getting about ten initial titles up and running for the grand opening. It was hard work, but it got us over the initial startup. Now we are branching out, and avenues of support are opening.
Since your business model appears to be finding old and out-of-print works that deserve to be brought to light again, is there any difficulty in finding or acquiring these works and making them your own?
There are so many good books out there. It’s a great time in 2024 to revive some of these older works since a lot of very pious spiritual reading was published in the period between 1850 to around 1930—which is mostly in the public-domain now—so there is a treasure chest of traditional Catholic wisdom just waiting to be unlocked. My list of “want to publish” books is over 500 titles long at this point, and one of my problems is just picking which one to do next. There are also some later titles (1950s onward) that we would like to reprint, and so we’re slowly going through the steps to obtain permissions to get a few of those great books back into spines.
The book covers are fantastic, who designs them?
Thank you. All of the covers (so far) I have designed myself. My wife and children have a great eye for aesthetics, so they provide lots of feedback. I get inspiration from vintage books I run across and try to keep all of our cover art simple and classic. I figure people miss books that look nice. Eventually we hope to get more cloth-bound, hardcover, and leather-bound options.
Which book have you been most excited to print thus far?
That is a hard question because I’ve spent a lot of time with every title we offer. Out of everything we have printed thus far, I think the most powerful read is The Love of Jesus Crucified, which is taken from The Complete Ascetical Works of St. Alphonsus. It gets to the heart of the gospel, that the love of our God has no bounds and His excess is put on display on the Cross. The meditations in that book have become a go-to for material for my mental prayer lately.
Has there been a runaway favorite among buyers?
The two books for mothers, Counsels of Perfection for Christian Mothers and The Christian Mother: The education of her children and her prayer, are by far the best sellers to date. I am very thankful that my wife, Emily, has a beautiful network of Catholic women she has connected with over the years on social media, so she told me, “You need to print these two books for mothers. Trust me.” And those two titles have taken off. We have had lots of positive feedback concerning the impact of those titles. I think there is a revitalization of Catholic motherhood and fatherhood happening in our time.
Are there any particular books that you’re especially looking forward to publishing in the future?
We plan to release a book called Thoughts and Counsels for the Consideration of Catholic Men by a 19th-century Jesuit by the name of Fr. Von Doss which I am excited to get out there. It will be a great source of spiritual reading for men; it doesn’t pull any punches and will hopefully be a much-needed jump start for many Catholic men. It contains meditations on authentic conversion, the sacraments, mortification, prayer, virtue, and gives a start-to-finish overview of authentic Catholic masculinity, which is essentially the imitation of Christ.
How does the mission and work of the press fit into your family life?
Nothing trumps the vocational duties of my state in life. Forming a domestic church that can be a place where saints are raised is our number one priority. The press work is accomplished during the work days, but also can mesh well with our family life. The children love reading tidbits from our books (especially the lives of the saints) and always have helpful opinions on cover designs and color schemes. When I evaluate titles for reprinting, I always ask myself, “Is this a book I want my children to read one day? Is it a book that will help them grow in holiness?” If the answer is yes, I try to green-light the project. Hopefully our whole collection will be in each of their libraries one day.
Is there anything else that you’d like us to know, or for readers and customers to understand about what you’re doing with Cor Jesu Press? Anything we’ve missed?
We hope to become a go-to source for anyone hoping to build a library of Catholic spiritual reading. If you have any hidden gems or good suggestions send us an email, some of our best suggestions have come from folks sending us messages. We hope our books don’t just collect dust on bookshelves, but will be revisited and become material for loving conversation with Our Lord.
To find any of the titles listed above, and many others, be sure to visit the Cor Jesu Press website and submit your order today!
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This post was God's perfect timing as I am about to start a Graduate Certificate in Catholic Thought through Notre Dame University in Sydney. Building a library of Catholic spiritual reading at the same time makes good sense but those books for Catholic women appeal to me as a wife, mother and Grandma. Thank you for bringing this family company to my attention.