If you are a person who values their spiritual life, then spiritual books need to be part of your staple diet.

We can only go so far on enthusiasm and feelings of good will. We also need material to nourish our intellect and give us insights and food for thought. St Josemaria said once that “Reading has made many saints” and I think anyone who is consistent in having a spiritual book on the go will testify to the benefits it brings.

What to read?

If you are seasoned veteran or a newbie, guidance is important to pick a good spiritual book that is worth reading. There are amazing books out there and like everything, there is also alot of trash aswell. Just by stating this is a “Christian Bookstore” doesn’t hold water when it comes to discerning what is valuable for the spiritual life and what can actually be detrimental. Particularly in Ireland, I would say, there is alot of new age influence in spiritual books that has more to do with personal fulfilment and little to do with Jesus Christ.

Our spiritual life needs to nurture us intellectually - to feed our understanding of why we do the things we do: Why pray? Why go to Mass? Why the Sacraments? How do I read the Gospels? and so on. It gives us the answers we need to live an adult faith.

Where to start?

Personally I think biographies of saints are a good place to start. Reading a biography is like getting to know someone and becoming their friend, and so reading the biography of a saint is like having a good Catholic friend and witnessing face-to-face how they live their faith. It adds meat on the bones of Catholic doctrine. Some worthy mentionables are: St Therese of Lisieux, the “Story of a Soul” or St Augustine’s “Confessions”.

I list out below in downloadable format (pdf) a list of spiritual reading books that may be helpful when choosing something for yourself.

How to develop a prayer life?

Prayer can be characterised loosely has “vocal prayer” or “mental prayer”. If I am to do some mental prayer, it’s helpful to bring a book with me to centre my thoughts and nurture my soul. St Teresa of Avila said that “During all these years, except after receiving the Eucharist, I never dared begin to pray without a book; my soul was as much afraid to engage in prayer without one as if it were having to go and fight against a host of enemies”. In short, bring a book with you when you spend some time in the presence of God alone. It helps settle your thoughts in the right place.

Some books worthy of mention here: the trilogy of books with points by St Josemaria: “The Way”, “Furrow” “The Forge”; Jacques Philippe books are hearty and easy to read; In Conversation with God series that runs through the Liturgical year.

Books that nurture your faith

The books mentioned above: biographies and books that help one to pray are great to begin with, but you also need books that give reasons for your faith and truly give you the three course meal you need to keep on going.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the book par excellence for knowing your Catholic faith. It’s so meaty that you need to read it in short bite-size moments. If you were to start somewhere, I wouldn’t start with page 1 but I’d delve into the section on “How to pray” and work around that to other sections. It a reference book so it’s easy to cross-check and dip in and out of it.

Other books worth mentioning: Scott Hahn’s books; Books on the life of Christ - ones written by Alban Goodier, Fulton Sheen or Fr Eugene Boylan.

The Heavy Hitters

There are some serious heavy hitters who delve philosophically and theologically into the Faith. People like: Saint John Paul II in his books: “Theology of the Book”, “Love and Responsibility”; Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, “Jesus of Nazareth”, “Introduction to Christianity”, “Spirit of the Liturgy”; or Romano Guardini or Dietrich von Hildrebrand with his incredible tome: “Transformation in Christ”.

But it has to be said - if you haven’t read a spiritual reading book, don’t start here (unless you’re someone like St Edith Stein!). It’s not been childish to start with short bite-size books. Many of those type of books can give you an incredible insight into your spiritual life. At the same time, you need to make sure you don’t stay in the “easy” category but work your way up to more intellectually stimulating works. It’s worth ploughing through them.