Reddit reviews Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words
We found 6 Reddit comments about Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Ignatius Press
There may be differences in priests but the doctrine of the Catholic church does not ever change and as you mentioned the Church is not ever going to have problems like the episcopalians do in that way.
Two that spring to mind are the Didache which is the earliest christian writing other than the bible and the sayings of the desert fathers(Though this didn't have much to do with the Mass but more with ascetism) and this post which I have kept and was actually posted on a protestant site:
https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/justintaylor/2010/08/29/what-was-a-church-service-like-in-the-second-century/
Also this book was illuminating:
https://www.amazon.com/Four-Witnesses-Early-Church-Words/dp/0898708478
If you have issues with reading, how about listening? Lighthouse Catholic Media has 100's of talks on CD or MP3 that are about an hour each. A lot of these talks are available on formed.org. You parish may have a subscription to it so you can listen to them for free.
On the topic of Church Fathers, they have this five disc set of lectures about them.
If you want a book on the Church Fathers I suggest The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin or Four Witnesses by Ron Bennett.
Historical evidence: [The Fathers Know Best] (https://www.amazon.com/Fathers-Know-Best-Essential-Teachings-ebook/dp/B004LGRYEE), [Complete Collection of the Church Fathers] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Ante-Nicene-Post-Nicene-Fathers-Collection-ebook/dp/B00KYBSUUM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493763857&sr=1-1&keywords=church+fathers), and [Four Witnesses] (https://www.amazon.com/Four-Witnesses-Early-Church-Words/dp/0898708478/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493763945&sr=1-1&keywords=rod+bennett).
Scriptural evidence: [This] (https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Defense-Catholicism-Dave-Armstrong/dp/1928832954), [this] (https://www.amazon.com/More-Biblical-Evidence-Catholicism-Armstrong/dp/1430322438), and [this] (https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Basis-Catholic-Faith/dp/1592761461) look to be good places to start.
I loved Four Witnesses. It's written almost in novel form which not only provides valuable context to the early church writings but also makes it much more engaging.
Right you are; I'm sorry if I implied otherwise! I first read many of these documents and some excellent commentary on them in Rod Bennett's wonderful Four Witnesses, outlining the works and lives of Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons, and I can only offer up my general fatigue and distractedness as an excuse for not mentioning them more prominently.
Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words by Rod Bennett
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Witnesses-Early-Church-Words/dp/0898708478/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414688264&sr=8-1&keywords=four+witnesses