Book Recommendations

Books

Book Recommendations

At a Major Speakers conference at St. Peter Chanel, the presenters suggested that any of of us could find time in our day to read books that would help us in our ongoing spiritual growth, even if we only read five pages a day. We could not agree more. So, in addition to the Bible which we should all read from daily, we are committed to providing continuing recommendations of other books.

The following selections have been recommended by the clergy, staff, or volunteers of St. Peter Chanel and readers like you! We invite you to submit reviews of these books for publication after you have read them. Won't you please help us make this site more interesting?

Title: A Catholic Woman's Book of Days
Author: Amy Welborn
Publisher: Loyola Press 2005

Product Description...

Author Amy Welborn has created a one-volume daily devotional for Catholic women. While a number of successful devotionals for women have been published for the general Christian market, A Catholic Woman's Book of Days is the first resource of its kind specifically for Catholic women.

The entries are brief, pointed, and written to help Catholic women connect their everyday concerns with God's Word in the context of their Catholic faith. Each entry is introduced by a Scripture verse and followed by a one-sentence prayer.

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Title: Testimony of Hope - The Spiritual Exercises of Pope John Paul II
Author: Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan
Publisher: Pauline Books & Media

From the Publisher...

Every year, Pope John Paul II would choose someone to preach a course of spiritual exercises for himself and the Roman Curia at the Vatican. In the Jubilee Year 2000, he asked Vietnamese Archbishop Nguyen van Thuan. Testimony of Hope is the complete text of those Spiritual Exercises.

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Title: Saint Paul
Author: Pope Benedict XVI
Publisher: Ignatius Press (2009)

From Ignatius Press...

St. Paul is one of the most important figures in Christian history. As Saul of Tarsus he vigorously persecuted Christianity, even collaborating in the death of Christianity's first martyr, Stephen. His encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus changed Paul's life, the Christian Church, and world history. More than anyone else in the early Church, Paul saw the universal nature of the Christian message. He became the "Apostle to the Gentiles" and the "Teacher of the Nations". As the human author of half of the New Testament, Paul is a figure who cannot be overlooked by anyone who wants to understand Jesus Christ and Christianity.

In this book, Pope Benedict XVI, a profound spiritual leader in his own right and a first-rate theologian and Bible commentator, explores the legacy of Paul. Pope Benedict follows the course of the Apostle's life, including his missionary journeys and his relationship with the other apostles of Jesus such as St. Peter and St. James, and Paul's martyrdom in Rome. Benedict also examines such questions as: Did Paul know Jesus during his earthly life and how much of Jesus' teaching and ministry did he know of? Did Paul distort the teachings of Jesus? What role did Jesus' death and resurrection play in Paul's teaching? What are we to make of Paul's teaching about the end of the world? What does Paul's teaching say about the differences between Catholic and Protestant Christians over salvation and the roles of faith and works in the Christian life? How have modern Catholic and Protestant scholars come together in their understanding of Paul? What does Paul have to teach us today about living a spiritual life?

These and other important issues are addressed in this masterful, inspirational, and highly-readable presentation of St. Paul and his writings by one of today's great spiritual teachers, Pope Benedict XVI.

"The Apostle Paul, an outstanding and almost inimitable yet stimulating figure, stands before us as an example of total dedication to the Lord and to his Church, as well as of great openness to humanity and its cultures." -Pope Benedict XVI

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Title: The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God
Author: George Weigel
Publisher: Basic Books (2005)

From Homiletics and Pastoral Review...

In the closing months of his pontificate, John Paul II turned repeatedly to the “Europe question.” He insisted that a failure to mention the common Christian heritage in the drafting of the E.U. constitution would tear apart the very cultural fabric that made Europe possible in the first place. In his final book, Memory and Identity, John Paul II offered his most penetrating exposition of the terrible risk Europe would run should it choose to ignore the essential Christian dimensions of its religious, civic, and cultural history.

George Weigel has dedicated years of study to the life and thought of the late John Paul II. So it is hardly coincidental that Weigel’s latest book, The Cube and the Cathedral (Basic Books, 2005), released just two days after the pope’s passing, parallels the themes embraced by John Paul II in Memory and Identity... read more

From Ignatius Press...

Why do Europeans and Americans see the world so differently? Why do Europeans and Americans have such different understandings of democracy? Contrasting the civilization that produced the starkly modernist "cube" of the Great Arch of La Défense in Paris with the civilization that produced the “cathedral” of Notre-Dame, George Weigel argues that Europe's embrace of a narrow secularism has led to a crisis that is eroding Europe's soul and threatening its future—with dire lessons for the rest of the democratic world. Weigel traces the origins of the atheistic humanism of 19th-century European intellectual life, which set in motion a historical process that produced two world wars, three totalitarian systems, the Gulag, Auschwitz, the Cold War—and, most ominously, the Continent's de-population, which is worse today than during the Black Death. And yet, many Europeans still insist that only a public square shorn of religiously-informed moral argument is safe for human rights and democracy. Precisely the opposite, Weigel suggests, is true: the people of the “cathedral” can give a compelling account of their commitment to everyone's freedom; the people of the “cube” cannot. In the final analysis, societies are only as great as their spiritual aspirations.

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Title: Jesus Shock
Author: Dr. Peter Kreeft
Publisher: St. Augustines Press

From the publisher...

Jesus Shock is the second in a series of short works on seminal concerns of the impact that Jesus Christ made in the world. The first work, The Philosophy of Jesus, explored philosophy in light of Jesus, rather than the other way around. The present work investigates the reception Jesus received both in His lifetime and continuously to the present time, not only from His enemies, but from His friends, a reception of shock, astonishment, even disgust." Jesus-Shock shows the reasons why to this day the name of "Jesus" stirs up controversy, even revulsion, in polite society. In the true spirit of ecumenism, it also points the way toward a true rapprochement among His modern-day disciples.

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Title: Mere Christianity
Author: C.S. Lewis
Publisher: various

From the publisher...

The most popular of C. S. Lewis' works of nonfiction, Mere Christianity has sold several million copies worldwide. It brings together Lewis' legendary broadcast talks of the war years, talks in which he set out simply to “explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times.” Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity's many denominations, Lewis finds a common ground on which all Christians can stand together, and provides an unequaled opportunity for believers and nonbelievers alike to hear a powerful, rational case for their faith. It is a collection of scintillating brilliance that remains strikingly fresh and confirms C. S. Lewis' reputation as one of the leading writers and thinkers of our age.

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Title: Gut Check - Confronting Love, Work, & Manhood
Author: Tarek Saab
Publisher: Ransom Books

From the publisher...

Only a few years into a career marked by dazzling early success, Tarek Saab's life took a dramatic turn with his selection for Donald Trump's reality show, The Apprentice. Viewers soon noticed something unusual about Tarek. Throughout the chaos and pressure-including several boardroom showdowns with Trump-Tarek displayed a forgotten kind of manhood. In a new book, he shares his hard-won insights into love, work, and manhood and their source in a faith that is ever old, ever new.

The biggest problem by far facing men in their twenties is the crisis of manhood. Offering a completely new take on the so-called "quarter-life crisis," Tarek describes his reluctant confrontation with career, relationships, and spiritual disillusionment and reveals the surprising truths he learned about what it means to be a man.

A distinctly modern-day Confessions, Gut Check is the wry and candid self-examination of a man whose life, despite its extraordinary twists, is full of lessons for ordinary young men. Tarek's captivating tale reveals a young man with many talents and temptations whose saving grace is a relentless pursuit of truth and the daring to be counter-cultural. Gritty, comic, utterly believable-Gut Check is not the usual Christian fairy tale.

Gut Check is a manual for manhood lived the hard way. It is a book for men who never read and for men who think they have read it all. If you think you know what you really want, are you ready for a gut check?

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Title: In Conversation With God (full set)
Author: Francis Fernandez
Publisher: Scepter Publishing

From the publisher...

This seven-volume set gives you brief (five to six pages) meditations for every day of the Church’s entire liturgical calendar, including feast days and each of the three cycles of Ordinary Time on Sundays. Author Francis Fernandez-Carvajal makes generous use of the writings of the great saints as he brings you focused and moving meditations on themes taken from the Mass readings for that day, the liturgical season, and more. This work is rich and extensive enough to serve as your spiritual reading for a lifetime, as it helps you relate the particulars of the message of Christ to the ordinary circumstances of your day. Each volume is small enough for you to carry it to Adoration or some other suitable place for meditation.

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Title: How to Win the Culture War: A Christian Battle Plan for a Society in Crisis
Author: Dr. Peter Kreeft
Publisher: Intervarsity Press

From the publisher...

The battle lines have been drawn. Many Christians have fallen into the trap of proclaiming "Peace! Peace!" when there is no peace. Hiding their eyes from the pressing issues of the day, they believe that resistance to the prevailing culture is useless. At the same time, other Christians have been too quick to declare war, mistaking battlefield casualties as enemies rather than victims.

In How to Win the Culture War Peter Kreeft issues a rousing call to arms. Christians must understand the true nature of the culture war--a war between the culture of life and the culture of death. Kreeft identifies the real enemies facing the church today and maps out key battlefields. He then issues a strategy for engagement and equips Christians with the weapons needed for a successful campaign.

Above all, Kreeft assures us that the war can be won--in fact, it will be won. For those who hope in Christ, victory is assured, because good triumphs over evil and life conquers death. Love never gives up. Neither must we.

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Title: Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith
Author: Dr. Scott Hahn
Publisher: Doubleday Religious Publishing Group

From the publisher...

This book unravels mysteries, corrects misunderstandings, and offers thoughtful, straightforward responses to common objections about the Catholic faith. Bestselling author Scott Hahn, a convert to Catholicism, has experienced the doubts that so often drive discussions about God and the Church. In the years before his conversion, he was first a nonbeliever and then an anti-Catholic clergyman.

In REASONS TO BELIEVE, he explains the "how and why" of the Catholic faith—drawing from Scripture, his own struggles and those of other converts, as well as from everyday life and even natural science. Hahn shows that reason and revelation, nature and the supernatural, are not opposed to one another; rather they offer complementary evidence that God exists. But He doesn't merely exist. He is someone, and He has a personality, a personal style, that is discernible and knowable.

Hahn leads readers to see that God created the universe with a purpose and a form—a form that can be found in the Book of Genesis and that is there when we view the natural world through a microscope, through a telescope, or through our contact lenses. At the heart of the book is Hahn's examination of the ten "keys to the kingdom"—the characteristics of the Church clearly evident in the Scriptures. As the story of creation discloses, the world is a house that has a Father, a palace where the king is really present. God created the cosmos to be a kingdom, and that kingdom is the universal Church, fully revealed by Jesus Christ.

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Title: Back to Virtue
Author: Dr. Peter Kreeft
Publisher: Ignatius Press

From the publisher...

"We have reduced all virtues to one: being nice. And, we measure Jesus by our standard instead of measuring our standard by Him." For the Christian, explains author Peter Kreeft, being virtuous is not a means to the end of pleasure, comfort and happiness. Virtue, he reminds us, is a word that means "manly strength."

But how do we know when we are being meek--or just cowardly? When is our anger righteous--and when is it a sin? What is the difference between being virtuous--and merely ethical? Back to Virtue clears up these and countless other questions that beset Christians today. Kreeft not only summarizes scriptural and theological wisdom on leading a holy life, he contrasts Christian virtue with other ethical systems. He applies traditional moral theology to present-day dilemmas such as abortion and nuclear armament.

Kreeft restores to us what was once common knowledge: the Seven Deadly Sins have an antidote in the Beatitudes. By setting up a close contrast between the two sets of behaviors, Kreeft offers proven guidance in the often bewildering process of discerning right from wrong as we move into the questionable mores of the twenty-first century. He provides a road map of virtue, a map for our earthly pilgrimage synthesized from the accumulated wisdom of centuries of Christians, from Paul and the early Church Fathers through C.S. Lewis.

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Title: Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer
Author: Fr. Thomas Dubay S.M.
Publisher: Ignatius Press

From the publisher...

Fr. Thomas Dubay is one of the most popular and respected retreat masters and spiritual directors in the USA. He is the author of the perennial best-selling book on prayer and contemplation, Fire Within. In this book, he responds to the call to priests by both Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI to help believers and all those interested in spirituality to develop a deeper prayer life and union with God.

As in his other popular writings, Dubay’s style is profound and meditative yet clear and readable. He gives an overview of the spiritual life and journey for anyone seeking to grow in the love of God and neighbor. An expert on the teachings and writings of the two great mystical doctors of prayer and the spiritual life, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, Dubay gives solid practical advice for a deepening moral and spiritual conversion, and a radical growth in holiness.

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Title: He Leadeth Me
Author: Walter J. Ciszek and Daniel Flaherty
Publisher: Ignatius Press

From the publisher...

He Leadeth Me is the deeply moving personal story of one man's spiritual odyssey and the unflagging faith which enabled him to survive the horrendous ordeal that wrenched his body and spirit to near collapse.

Captured by the Russian army during World War II and convicted of being a "Vatican spy," American Jesuit Father Walter J. Ciszek spent some 23 agonizing years in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia. He here recalls how it was only through an utter reliance on God's will that he managed to endure. He tells of the courage he found in prayer-a courage that eased the loneliness, the pain, the frustrations, the anguish, the fears, the despair. For, as Ciszek relates, the solace of spiritual contemplation gave him an inner serenity upon which he was able to draw amidst the "arrogance of evil" that surrounded him. Learning to accept even the inhuman work of toiling in the infamous Siberian salt mines as a labor pleasing to God, he was able to turn adverse forces into a source of positive value and a means of drawing closer to the compassionate and never-forsaking Divine Spirit.

Captured by the Russian army during World War II and convicted of being a "Vatican spy," American Jesuit Father Walter J. Ciszek spent some 23 agonizing years in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia. He here recalls how it was only through an utter reliance on God's will that he managed to endure. He tells of the courage he found in prayer-a courage that eased the loneliness, the pain, the frustrations, the anguish, the fears, the despair. For, as Ciszek relates, the solace of spiritual contemplation gave him an inner serenity upon which he was able to draw amidst the "arrogance of evil" that surrounded him. Learning to accept even the inhuman work of toiling in the infamous Siberian salt mines as a labor pleasing to God, he was able to turn adverse forces into a source of positive value and a means of drawing closer to the compassionate and never-forsaking Divine Spirit.

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