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NMMountainMom
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| Posted: May 20 2011 at 11:28am | IP Logged
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I need book suggestions for uplifting Catholic spiritual reading. I am a convert from an evangelical Protestant background where I had a "name it and claim it" kind of faith (God will send healing, financial blessings, ect. if we have enough faith). One of the reasons that I converted was that I believed the Catholic Church had a better developed understanding and theology of sin and suffering. These are topics I have been studying and have personally struggled with (sin of course, but suffering in particular). So now, the pendulum has swung too far the other way and I now have a sense of God as wanting to send me continual suffering. All I can focus on are my crosses. I can't pray for anything good because I feel that God doesn't want to send me good things and I'm not sure what "good" even means any more. My faith feels heavy and depressing. It is so bad that I even fear for the lives of my children because I am afraid God will send me the heaviest cross possible- and that would be it. I think I will share this on the prayer request board too, but if I could have book suggestions here I would really appreciate it!
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Danielle, making it work (some days better than others) with five boys, a family business and homeschooling.
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kristinannie
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Right now, I am reading Consoling the Heart of Jesus. It does talk a lot about Jesus' suffering and a little about our suffering as well. However, it gives a reason to suffering and it really has calmed my heart. It really helped me to focus on the fact that Jesus suffered for me to save my soul. I have to admit that this has been a life changing read. It is set up so that you spend a weekend on a retreat. I don't have time for that in this season of life, but I have read a little every day for about a week. I highly recommend it. You will grow closer to Jesus and feel so much more of his divine love and compassion on your life.
Another excellent book that I have recently read (thanks to a recommendation on this site) is Trustful Surrender. This book is another life changer. Once you truly submit to the will of God (and realize that all of your crosses are meant specifically to get you on the path to salvation), your entire life will change. This is a book that is tiny and very readable. I can see myself reading this a couple of times a year.
If you are newer to Catholicism and trying to learn more about the rosary, I would highly recommend The New Rosary in Scripture. This book has really helped me to get the most out of praying the rosary. I never understood what a powerful tool the rosary could be in my life until I got this book.
The Domestic Church is a great book for any Catholic mother looking for a little support and guidance.
I haven't read this book yet, but I saw the author on EWTN's Bookmark. This looks like a great book about the sacraments, especially wonderful for a newer Catholic. I am planning on buying it, but I have so many books in my wishlist and not enough time or money! The Power of the Sacraments
I hope that helps. God bless you. Please remember that God never sends more than we can handle. We all have crosses that are necessary for our salvation. However, we can turn to God, we can pray to Mary to help us, and we can reap wonderful rewards for dealing with our crosses. Jesus died for YOU personally. He could see your face as he was dying on the cross. Anything God sends our way is small in comparison (although sometimes it doesn't seem so). I will pray for you as you continue in this journey. God has great things in store for you!
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NMMountainMom
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| Posted: May 20 2011 at 12:19pm | IP Logged
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Thank you for the recommendations! I am not really a new Catholic anymore. That is the problem- the deeper I am getting into my Catholicism, the more dark my faith seems. I feel fearful, even though God tells us to "fear not". I never felt this as a Protestant. I am not saying that the problem is with Catholicism... I think the problem is what I am focusing on. Maybe the problem is balance. Maybe it is a spiritual attack. I don't know.
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Danielle, making it work (some days better than others) with five boys, a family business and homeschooling.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: May 20 2011 at 12:50pm | IP Logged
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NMMountainMom wrote:
| I need book suggestions for uplifting Catholic spiritual reading. I am a convert from an evangelical Protestant background where I had a "name it and claim it" kind of faith (God will send healing, financial blessings, ect. if we have enough faith). One of the reasons that I converted was that I believed the Catholic Church had a better developed understanding and theology of sin and suffering. These are topics I have been studying and have personally struggled with (sin of course, but suffering in particular). So now, the pendulum has swung too far the other way and I now have a sense of God as wanting to send me continual suffering. All I can focus on are my crosses. I can't pray for anything good because I feel that God doesn't want to send me good things and I'm not sure what "good" even means any more. My faith feels heavy and depressing. It is so bad that I even fear for the lives of my children because I am afraid God will send me the heaviest cross possible- and that would be it. I think I will share this on the prayer request board too, but if I could have book suggestions here I would really appreciate it! |
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Danielle, 
First, I wanted to let you know that I moved your request to our Domestic Church forum because I hoped it might have a little more visibility there. I'm so glad you would entrust us with this very touching and sincere search.
Suffering is a mystery, and finding peace and even joy within it is a bit of a mystery, too. But it is also a gift, and it always comes wrapped in God's grace. Anticipating the gift of suffering that you *might* be given tomorrow, next week, ever...can be suffocating, even paralyzing, because God's grace is only present in the moment. We simply cannot cope with the thought of future suffering because we are so completely in need of His grace to sustain and animate us through those moments. We can be certain of God's love for us...
For God so loved (you), that He sent His only begotten Son.
And in following Christ, we cannot avoid the cross. He didn't say, "Follow me, but you can drop off the cross at the bottom of the hill on the way up to Calvary." Instead He tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
So intimately tied together with suffering is trust.
NMMountainMom wrote:
| I can't pray for anything good because I feel that God doesn't want to send me good things and I'm not sure what "good" even means any more. |
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God will surely bless your child-like seeking to know His Goodness, and your desire to know how to pray! He tells us to pray without ceasing. He tells us not to be afraid and not to be anxious, but with the faith of a child to come to Him. Every small thing you find in your path today, the sorrowful and the happy, and especially the little things, the smallest most ordinary moments, are all created by God as good! Every single one of them! All created good - because He places them in your day, at the exact moment in time He wisely discerns that you need them in order to draw your heart closer to His! In confidence I can say that IT IS ALL GOOD!
"We know that in everything {{ALL THINGS}} God works for good with those who love Him.
The books I'm going to recommend to you have nurtured my own heart and soul during some intense suffering. In reading them, I felt liberated, comforted and strengthened by words that echoed thoughts within my own soul, thoughts that had no words until I read them. Still, I acknowledge again the great mystery and gift of suffering, and the sure and certain knowledge that these books I recommend, these thoughts, may have been exactly what the Holy Spirit needed me to read, to encounter, to minister to my pain. What I'm saying is that God, in His mercy and wisdom, knows exactly what you need, Danielle, and seeks to provide it for you. It may not be in the books I recommend, but in something else recommended here. Continue in your child-like search to know and God will provide the grace you need.
The War is the Passion by Caryll Houselander. I'm going to try to be objective, but knowing that it will be hard for me not to spend my words in gratitude for all this book has done for me, I'll just acknowledge it up front. Originally written in 1942, Ms. Houselander wrote this in answer to the great suffering experienced during World War II. I have a 1947 edition which is entitled, The Comforting of Christ, and the name simply could not be more appropriate. Ms. Houselander's thoughts and reflections on suffering are simple and profound all at once. Her chapter on THE SCHOOL OF SUFFERING was particularly insightful. I highly recommend it.
Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence by Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure is a small but powerful little book tying trust to the idea of surrendering to the will of God in all things. Powerful.
Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul by St. Faustina Kowalska. I want to recommend this book to you because I think it was in reading St. Faustina's words years ago that first began to teach me how to trust in Divine Mercy. Again, it's that trust that is so tied to suffering.
In the end, the "school of suffering" teaches us more than a book ever could.
The Comforting of Christ/The War is the Passion wrote:
| "To suffer gladly when we must for the love of men is indeed not only the closest imitation of Christ, it belongs to our own Christ-hood; but when Christ is formed in us (as He certainly is when we have learnt that much about suffering) we shall have a desire to adore God. This is bound to be so, because our minds will be like Christ's mind. We shall desire to be grateful, to respond for every good thing, every flower or star, every moment spent happily, we shall want to thank someone, we shall want to be conscious of the presence of One Whom we can love without measure, in Whom we can delight without fear of loss, in Whom ultimately our griefs will be lost as a flame is lost in the light of the sun - in a word, we shall want to adore. This is certain, for Christ's intellect was concentrated wholly on adoration of His Father; therefore He did not only pray, He made Himself a sacrifice, the most complete adoration; the sacrifice of the cross." |
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May I be bold? Every time you feel yourself enclosed in darkness, unsure of how to suffer, much less how to suffer well, what to ask for, how to pray....could I ask you to offer one simple prayer that will transform you?
Jesus, I trust in You.
I'm praying for you, Danielle! 
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Jen Mackintosh
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kristinannie
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NMMountainMom wrote:
| Thank you for the recommendations! I am not really a new Catholic anymore. That is the problem- the deeper I am getting into my Catholicism, the more dark my faith seems. I feel fearful, even though God tells us to "fear not". I never felt this as a Protestant. I am not saying that the problem is with Catholicism... I think the problem is what I am focusing on. Maybe the problem is balance. Maybe it is a spiritual attack. I don't know. |
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It very well could be a spiritual attack. The closer you get to God, the more the enemy can attack. I have been having similar problems as well. I know it might sound crazy, but when I feel that anxiety creeping back in (that is the kind of attack I get the most often), I say out loud, "Get out and leave me alone." It actually works. I look crazy, but the spiritual attacks can be very real.
I didn't mean to sound like you are a brand new Catholic. I just know that I sometimes feel like I am a new Catholic as well. I was raised in the faith, but I only seriously started studying it again recently. I think that converts often have a step up on cradle Catholics because you have to think, study and pray so much before making the decision to convert.
Best of luck. You will be stronger for this in the end.
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Maggie
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kristinannie wrote:
Right now, I am reading Consoling the Heart of Jesus. It does talk a lot about Jesus' suffering and a little about our suffering as well. However, it gives a reason to suffering and it really has calmed my heart. It really helped me to focus on the fact that Jesus suffered for me to save my soul. I have to admit that this has been a life changing read. It is set up so that you spend a weekend on a retreat. I don't have time for that in this season of life, but I have read a little every day for about a week. I highly recommend it. You will grow closer to Jesus and feel so much more of his divine love and compassion on your life.
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I also highly recommend this book. Father Michael is a personal friend of ours, and his insights are so real...and practical...it is a very soothing and easy read...and you can break it down to however you want to do it.
On the lighter side of things, while these are not specifically Catholic, I do like to dive into Christian fiction to get my mind off things sometimes...
I really like the the Father Tim Series which starts with At Home in Mitford. You do not have to buy this. These are usually in abundance at most libraries--at least, that is where I got all of mine.
I also have really enjoyed Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts. The focus is on gratitude.
While I like to think I am pretty grateful...when I read this book, I realized that I am not...and my actions show it...so this book has been very uplifting in that it has given me a new lens and perspective on life.
She is not Catholic, and I felt that some of the theology was just a bit off, but on the whole, I would highly reoomend the book, in spite of some of the theological differences.
Happy Reading...grab a cup of tea, too. :)
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Maggie
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I also highly recommend the Diary of St. Faustina--don't let the size scare you--it is tremendously easy to read and has recently made a huge impact on my life.
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Wife to dh (12 years) Mama to dd (10) ds (8), dd (1), ds (nb) and to Philip Mary (5/26/09), Lucy Joy (12/6/09), and Margaret Mary (3/6/10) who entered Heaven before we had a chance to hold them.
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Servant2theKing
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Danielle, you have received such beautiful and wise counsel here already. I simply want to suggest Eucharistic Adoration as another means of uplifting your soul. When I cannot read, cannot pray, cannot even think, Adoration always consoles and comforts me ~ it always brings me back where I need to be ~ trusting utterly and completely in our Lord. To enter into the Heart of Jesus ~ unite yourself with Him ~ with His Divine Will ~ His total and complete Suffering for your sake ~ to simply BE in His Eucharistic Presence ~ can truly nourish and transform your wounded soul. May our Lord be with you and may you experience His love and His grace ever more deeply and profoundly.
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All for Christ, our Saviour and King, servant
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kristinannie
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Maggie wrote:
| I also highly recommend the Diary of St. Faustina--don't let the size scare you--it is tremendously easy to read and has recently made a huge impact on my life. |
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There is a condensed version of this diary (about 200 pages) in Consoling the Heart of Jesus. I am looking forward to reading it and then, probably, buying the full version.
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NMMountainMom
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Thank you from the bottom of my heart for such a gracious response! You have given me beautiful words and some practical suggestions for reading. (Disappointed to find none of the books for Kindle. I'll have to read the old-fashioned way!) I've read this forum for a long time and I knew that you ladies would help with words of wisdom and prayer. Thank you again.
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Danielle, making it work (some days better than others) with five boys, a family business and homeschooling.
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: I need an encouraging read
