4 books recommendations

All of us have read books in our lives that stayed in our hearts for many years after reading them. Sometimes the words are so powerful that you can still picture where you were and how you felt when you read a particular passage. The following books have been like that to me. They have challenged me greatly and shaped my thinking in a new, and hopefully better, direction.

I want to introduce you to some of my close friends.

Happy are You Poor

by Fr. Thomas Dubay

This beautiful book elucidates the teaching that all Christians, not just vowed religious, are called to the Evangelical counsel of poverty. Fr. Dubay writes with wisdom and clarity, but also sensitivity, because he knows how radical what he is saying actually is. Patrick asked me to read this book when we were dating, as when he read it for school, he felt the ground shake from underneath him. I had a similar reaction. How could we possibly aspire to a marriage that embraced Gospel poverty, especially when you also embrace being open to life?

(I have said this previously, but I will repeat it because it's rather amusing. I once emailed the CFRs, the community in which Fr. Benedict Groeschel belongs, asking them, "how do married people live out poverty?" I was so in love with St. Francis that I didn't want to 'abandon' him and his Way by getting married. Fr. Glenn Sudano responded by saying, "ask any married person. It's in having kids!"

{Of course holy poverty is much more than that, and too many people in our culture are indulging their children to everyone's detriment. But that's another post for another time}.)

We still fumble along and struggle greatly with this question, and how to live it out better. But reading, and re-reading, this book has given us much light. Fr. Dubay shows how truly freeing a life of Gospel poverty is, as it opens one's heart to Christ.

I can't recommend this book enough.

Practicing the Presence of God

by Brother Lawrence

This was my Lenten reading last year, and I just pulled it off the shelf again for this upcoming Lent, as I found it so utterly beautiful, simple, inspiring and prayerful. It is a series of letters and reflections written by a very holy Brother on living one's life as a prayer. This spirituality is nothing new -- St. Therese calls it "the Little Way," Catherine Doherty calls it "the duty of the moment." I certainly admire both of these women in their writing (greatly!) but somehow Brother Lawrence's reflections on prayer and offering up our daily work just touched my heart in a particular, profound way.

It is a very slim volume, and if you are interested in buying it, is very inexpensive. Don't be deceived by how tiny or 'cheap' it is, though. It is a pearl of great price.

Just reading a few sentences here and there is enough to inspire you to spend the day in conversation with God. Br. Lawrence reminded me what I knew when I was young and 'on fire' for Christ but had forgotten somewhat as my faith journey morphed more into a routine -- following Christ is meant to be a love affair.

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child

by Anthony Esolen

This is the only 'parenting' book I can whole-heartedly recommend. Every other book about children and child-rearing offer conflicting advice, and make good-intentioned parents feel inadequate.

Of course, this isn't really a 'parenting' book in the typical way -- charts of what your baby should do next, or how to get your children to eat their broccoli. Rather, it's a bitingly witty satire taking to task so many modern accepted views on childhood and education. The narrator is a true Screwtape and this is a manual to abolish childhood, in order to produce efficient little cogs in our industrialized society. Fans of Chesterton will love this. Fans of, well, children, must read this.

I think Patrick or I underlined something on every other page.

(Aside: I met Dr. Esolen in the summer of 2011. He lives in Cape Breton in the summertime and he was attending a conference that Patrick and I had gone to as well. He and Patrick had a most animated conversation about Patrick's work at Lifesite and the ongoing lawsuit. I just stood there like a starstruck schoolgirl, thinking "he translates DANTE for a living!"

Another aside: we have a CD in which Dr. Esolen gave a most stirring talk on faith and culture in the Diocese of Antigonish, and in it he mentions a "small Catholic college in Barry's Bay, Ontario" where they are successfully implementing the vision of Christian culture that John Senior has illuminated. Those who know who John Senior is know what a big Thumbs Up for the Academy this is!

and so without further ado:)

The Restoration of Christian Culture

by John Senior

This is a brilliant book. It may be one of the best-written pieces of non-fiction I have ever read. In it, John Senior presents a vision for Christian culture that is so simultaneously inspiring and challenging, lofty yet beautiful and desirable enough to strive towards. His writing certainly elicits a strong reaction from his reader, as a friend of mine who is currently reading our copy called me at about 9:30 one night to say how she couldn't believe he was saying some of the things he was saying.

(I'm a fan of the following: "If you would dig up your front and back yard by hand plant them full of flowers and vegetables, you would replenish the table, beautify your lives, lose weight, and gain physical and emotional strength and cheer sufficient to … quit the absurd and unhealthy exhibitionism of jogging." [emphasis mine, because, frankly, that's pretty darn funny.])

In this powerful book, our assumptions about work, leisure, family life, prayer, liturgy, architecture, education and a whole host of other things get shattered to smithereens (unless, of course, you happen to be a genius and someone who is already living in a deeply Christian culture. In which case, drop me an email because I'd love to get to know you!). Yet he does so in a way that is so convincing that you end up really embracing this better, more beautiful image of culture.

Senior writes with wit, warmth and wisdom that make you want to be holier, and we could all use a little of that in our lives. Mind you, this isn't spiritual reading. If you are looking for that, "read anything written by someone the word 'saint' in front of his or her name," as St. Philip Neri once said.

Nonetheless, it is a deeply spiritual book.

Whew! High praise for a handful of books, right?

What do you think? 

Have you read any of these? 

Do you also have a book (or books) that have made a permanent impression on you?