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Here are a few comments on the Catholic books that I recommend.
Same contents as the CCC, but presented as a dialogue, and roughly three times shorter than the original.
Official, clear and exhaustive description of what Catholics must believe, celebrate, do and pray. In a way, this whole web site is only here to make that book better known.
I can't really recommend this book because it is old, USA-centric and not practical enough, but I haven't found a good replacement yet.
The classic little book by the founder of the Opus Dei. Excellent book to keep in your pocket on Sundays, so you'll have something intelligent to read during moronic homilies. You can find all of Saint Josémaria's books online at www.escrivaworks.org (but in an annoying format).
One of the best classics of Catholic literature. The Great Saint Augustine explains his conversion.
Beautiful mediations and prayers on the Passion.
A collection of sayings taken from sermons and conversations of the holy Curé d'Ars. An excellent antidote against the oversweetened homilies devoid of content which we hear so often these days.
An excellent analysis of the sociological and theological reasons why the Catholic Church has taken such a beating in North America, and why it will drift into insignificance if the Church doesn't mount a counter-attack on Secularism.
Sorry, no comment yet!
One of the numerous good books on the "Galileo Affair". I'd like to know which one is the best.
An investigation by a journalist on the state of seminaries in the USA. His conclusion: There are very few young priests today because the good Catholic men with a vocation to the Priesthood are being actively chased away by bad Bishops and the "Lavender Mafia" (homosexual and heretic Priests who control many Catholic seminairies). I can't guarantee every factual assertion he makes, but I know through personal experience that his conclusion is unfortunately valid.
The "Little Theresa" tells the story of her childhood and her method to tend toward God.
It has been said of this little book that it was the best one written by
a man (since the Bible was written by the Holy Spirit!). It's written mostly
for monks and nuns, but everybody can profit from it.
Some moderns find this book bad. In a way they're right. The best metaphor
I've found is that of the beaver caught in a trap, who cuts his leg
with his own teeth in order to escape. It's gross, it makes you shiver with
horror, it's repulsive! On the other hand, better to have a cut-off leg and
your life, than to be captured and killed in order to be transformed into
a hat! Thus, "The Imitation of Christ" is a tough book, where we sometimes
have the impression that the author wants us to cut our leg off with our
own teeth! Horrible! But this horror is greatly reduced if you consider the
alternative!
Another title for this book could have been: "How to get to Heaven for dummies!" Beautiful little book which explains in a simple way how to become a saint.
The Liturgy of the Hours (or Breviary) is the daily prayer of the Church. It is compulsory for Priests and Nuns, but still strongly recommended for all Christians. [CCC, #1175]
I'm still looking for good books that explain how to make your marriage a success, and how to be a good father or a good mother. This one is currently my "least bad" recommendation.
The contents of this book are wonderful! One spiritual reading per day, related to the scriptural readings of the Liturgy. It's my daily bread. An online version is perpetually soon available.
The best book on abortion I've found so far, but I have reservations. See its entry in "Some Bad Books".
The author shows the harmful effects of the constant propaganda we hear glorifying the "men have needs" mentality, premarital sex, contraception, abortion, pornography, masturbation, etc. The studies quoted are a bit old, the book has many printing errors and is not available for free on the Internet, the author seems a bit weak in Philosophy, but apart from that, I think it's an excellent book.
This book is a bit like the Summa Theologica by Saint Thomas Aquinas, but accessible to people who have not studied Theology. If you were to read only one Theology book in your life, I would probably recommend this one.
A more honest title would be: "Preaching to the pro-life choir: the stinging sermon it desperately needs". This is not the kind of book you give to an open-minded pro-choice woman! But pro-lifers need to hear this stinging stuff, since most Catholic Bishops are so deadly quiet and lethargic.
Perhaps a bit too advanced for the "Family Level", but it's a very good book which studies, from the Theological point of view, how the soul must proceed on its path to sainthood.
When I'm a bit depressed, I have the impression that the Three Ages of my interior life are:
1) Square One
2) Back to Square One
3) Buried in Square One
;-)
Even if today's atheists greatly exagerate the problems of the Church in Quebec before the Vatican II Council, it remains that Quebec suffered under jansenism, triumphalism and authoritarianism. I'm still looking for a good sociology or history book that would discuss this period in a dispassionate way.
"It's a formidable work of apologetics, but with one shortcoming: a bit of ecclesiological relativism. The idea that we can reduce Christianity to a few basic ideas on which we can all agree leads to Protestantism, since it throws out the Sacraments. Here, I steal an argument from Lewis: if the Sacrament of the Eucharist is what the Catholic Church says it is, then it's critically important. If not, it's idolatry. It cannot be something in between. Jesus didn't leave us that choice, especially not in the light of the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John.
Mere Christianity can be a bridge between the Atheism that Lewis
understood well, and the Catholic Faith, but we have to be careful not
to linger on the porch of God's house. This book greatly influenced me in
my quest for truth, but at the same time, it aggravated my protestant
error of thinking that the Catholic Church was just one denomination among
others, and that they are all interchangeable. But at the same time I was
reading also Chesterton's Everlasting Man. Even more sublime in my
opinion."
Miss Doris
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