Help
With Your Rule
Recommendations for Spiritual Reading?
Dear Holly,
Your "Thoughts for Mom" section has me reading some new things. What "spiritual reading" would you suggest mother's have in their personal library / read ? If you had to recommend 10 books for this purpose (NOT apologetics/catechism/catholic family activities reading...but real "spiritual direction/interior life/prayer" books), what would they be? (Would you put them in order?)
Labels: 1st P Prayer
posted by Holly at 7:50 PM
3 Comments:
What a fabulous and challenging question! Hhmmm - I don't know if I can limit myself to ten! :-)
I think I'll share with you my top picks and why I choose them.
#1. Holiness for Housewives by Hubert Van Zellar (Sophia)- a wonderful book for reflection about the beauty and dignity of our vocation; it really gave me a sense of God's 'call' and Hubert Van Zeller must have had sisters who were Moms, because he has such insight.
#2. Holiness - A Guide for Beginners by Hubert Van Zeller (Sophia) - again, a wonderful introduction to the notion of pursuing holiness from where we're at.
#3. Introduction to the Devout Life by St Francis de Sales (Image Books) - St Francis has been called the 'lay person's saint'. He understands our vocation and shows us how to be holy within our work in the world.
#4. The People of the Towel and the Water by Catherine de Hueck Doherty (Dimension Books) - while discussing the Madonna House apostolate specifically, I find the correlations with my housework huge. It was a real eye-opener about the beauty of manual labor, and it inspired me.
#5. The Apostolate of Holy Motherhood (Riehle Foundation) - while a book based on private revelation to a mother in the USA in the 1980's, I hear Mary's call within it. (Blessed by Mother Teresa and promoted by Dr Mark Miravalle from Stuebenville, complete with Imprimatur). I find it a deep call for mothers to pursue the contemplative life within their homes. It covers all the major aspects of spirituality for mothers in their unique circumstances.
#6. Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade (Image Books) - this is a wonderful way to learn how to turn each moment toward God , and to make our lives holy even in what seems apparently mundane. This is an important book for Moms.
#7. Keep It Simple by Emmanuel de Gibergues (Sophia) - another book to help us offer each moment to God - to sanctify through our daily duties - and to reach a simplicity in our spiritual lives.
#8. This Tremendous Lover by Fr M. Eugene Boylan (Newman 1961) - this is a thinking-spiritual book, which fills in the intellectual knowledge about the spiritual life, and ties it alltogether with catechetics and faith and our lives. It is a heavier intellectual read than the above books, but still definietly spiritual reading.
#9. The Spiritual Life by Fr Adolph Tanquerey - this is a 'textbook' on the spiritual life and is huge. It was written for spiritual directors, so is detailed, laid out in a very organized fashion, and easy to look things up. I use it for spiritual reading and for study and I use it all the time. It covers the entire Christian spiritual life, the condition of our person, the virtues, sin, the stages of the spiritual life, the various types of prayer - and not only that - HOW to work on our faults, HOW to counteract sin and develop virtue, what to do.... It is excellent. This book will also teach you all the Catholic 'vocabulary' you need to read other spiritual works. I recommend it last because there can be a temptation to use it to diagnose yourself, and to become a spiritual hypocondriac ! But if used properly, no other book compares, in my estimation!
#10. When you've worked your way through all these things, or when you are feeling strongly called to contemplative prayer, then I'd recommend St Teresa of Avila's Autobiography and her Interior Castle; St Faustina's Divine Mercy in My Soul. And then St John of the Cross's Ascent of Mount Carmel and the Dark Night of the Soul. Also too, I would here recommend Fr Thomas Dubay's "The Fire Within" for an overview of contemplative prayer.
There - how's that !?! I think those are the most important books in my life and those which I continually return for spiritual sustenance. I think they are tailored to the mothering vocation.
I'm going to add a wee suggestion to Holly's list. I think many moms would find the writings of St. Therese of Lisiex very rich and helpful. Many people know "The Story of a Soul" and it's always a good one to have on the bedside table, to return to regularly. But she also wrote a great number of letters that are now being published -- one example is book called "Maurice and Therese: the Story of a Love", a collection of her correspondence with a young seminarian who had requested to have a nun praying for him. He was a struggling soul and the letters reveal Therese's great wisdom, her gentleness and firmness -- quite remarkable in such a young woman whose "life experience" in the eyes of the world was almost non-existent! One might ask how the biography of a very young cloistered nun could have any connection with marriage, motherhood, and the modern world; that is where Divine Providence comes in -- God prepared Therese and her teaching FOR our time. She had a very practical and down to earth approach to growth in sanctity -- you have to find it exactly where you're at! She did just that in the convent, turning her life in the enclosure with a large group of very diverse personalities and characters into a constant opportunity to grow in the virtues. Living with forty other women from every kind of backround is even more of a challenge than family life, for you are not bound by ties of blood or natural affection and yet you must grow into a genuine sister to all! Therese can lead us to God because she truly KNEW Him -- I sometimes think that heaven would have been no surprise to Therese because she had so intimate a union with the Lord of heaven in this life.
The Apostolate of Holy Motherhood is difficult to find these days. For those interested in obtaining a copy, the customary donation for the book is $10, which includes the S&H. Send to: Apostolate of Holy Motherhood, P.O. Box 227, Geneva, OH 44041.
Post a Comment
<< Home