Best Understandable Books For Spiritual Reading

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Matthew22

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Hello everyone,

I really enjoy spiritual reading and will take any tips possible for some good books. I’m in high school and I’ve read a lot of the great ones but most of the greats by the saints are kind of harder to understand. I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions that are more easy to comprehend in reading them. You can also include your personal favorites, I’d just like some good suggestions as my birthday is approaching and it’s a good opportunity to get some more reading material.

Thanks for all the help,

Matthew
 
Pope John XXII , speaking about St. Thomas, said before his canonization that “his life was saintly and his doctrine could only be miraculous … because he enlightened the church more than all the other doctors. By the use of his works a man could profit more in one year than if he studies the doctrine of others for his whole life.”

From the Popes on St. Thomas webpage: The Popes on St. Thomas | Thomas Aquinas College

His scripture commentaries are lucid and for the most part easy to understand. His Summa Theologica can be tough in part, but first of the second part, second of the second part, and perhaps the third part to the end are easy. Hic est Liber, and other works of his are easy to read. Found online Aquinas

Three other favorite doctors- St. Alphonsus, particularly the Glories of Mary, St. Francis de Sales, and St. Robert Bellarmine, Controversies (published by Mediatrix Press)
 
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Interior Castle (ISBN 978-0882704647) by Pure Gold Classics has a good translation.

If you want something you just flip through and read a bite here and a bite there, The Life and Revelations of St. Gertrude (ISBN 978-0895556998) by TAN is pretty good.

If you read just a few paragraphs per day of the Ronald Knox translation of The Imitation of Christ (ISBN 978-0898708721), that will be pretty good as well.

One problem that I run into is that the saints have so much substance in their writings, it can be hard to grasp it all at once. So instead of reading things through, like a novel, it’s sometimes better to just read a paragraph, a section, or a chapter at a time, and digest it in your mind. You don’t want to read it too slowly, or else you never finish it— but if you read it too fast, you don’t have time for it to sink in.

Good luck! 💚
 
I suggest My Daily Bread. It consists of short chapters each of which consists of a matter on which the reader may meditate, and as far as I can see it’s an excellent description of the way a Christian ought to think and act. I’ve been reading a chapter or two a day for months and it has gone far toward helping me consider making the Christian faith my own.
 
The Fire Within by Fr. Thomas DuBay who does a great job of explains the spirituality of the great Carmelite saints St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross
 
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