Book recommendations for a converting/new Catholic please!

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TabbyLilac

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I am a voracious reader anyway, but as I am now in the process of pursuing conversion to Catholicism, my appetite for books on Catholicism in general, conversion stories, theology and doctrine, history, etc. has become insatiable.

My calling to the Catholic Church, while it has been sitting in my peripheral vision for many years, has recently become loud and persistent, and as a result I want to learn everything I can in order to live the best life I can going forward as a Catholic and to be able to answer the questions of my family and friends that I will no doubt receive (and hopefully open their minds to the beauty of Christ’s Church along the way).

I would welcome any suggestions or recommendations! Thank you 🙂
 
You can start with an easy read of Rediscover Catholicism by Matthew Kelly.
It covers the basics, and very easy to read. It is a good book. My parish gave it to every family for Christmas.That is a good start.
 
Waking Up Catholic by Chad R.Torgerson is pretty good. It’s a look at Catholicism through the eyes of a convert. I read it while I was in RCIA.
 
TabbyLilac said:
I am a voracious reader anyway, but as I am now in the process of pursuing conversion to Catholicism, my appetite for books on Catholicism in general, conversion stories, theology and doctrine, history, etc. has become insatiable.

My calling to the Catholic Church, while it has been sitting in my peripheral vision for many years, has recently become loud and persistent, and as a result I want to learn everything I can in order to live the best life I can going forward as a Catholic and to be able to answer the questions of my family and friends that I will no doubt receive (and hopefully open their minds to the beauty of Christ’s Church along the way).

I would welcome any suggestions or recommendations! Thank you 🙂
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Wonderful!

What types of books interest you? Early Church history, the saints, spirituality…?
 
Any of the tons of books about the ‘lives of the saints’!

I’m currently reading a very interesting compendium about specifically incorruptible saints.

Welcome Home!
 
“Rome Sweet Rome” and “reasons to believe” are a few that come to mind. The Rome Sweet Rome book is what finally brought my at the time protestant dad into the Church. If it worked for him, maybe it’ll work for your friend. Good luck.,ill say a prayer for them. they are both written by scott hahn
 
TabbyLilac said:
I am a voracious reader anyway, but as I am now in the process of pursuing conversion to Catholicism, my appetite for books on Catholicism in general, conversion stories, theology and doctrine, history, etc. has become insatiable.

My calling to the Catholic Church, while it has been sitting in my peripheral vision for many years, has recently become loud and persistent, and as a result I want to learn everything I can in order to live the best life I can going forward as a Catholic and to be able to answer the questions of my family and friends that I will no doubt receive (and hopefully open their minds to the beauty of Christ’s Church along the way).

I would welcome any suggestions or recommendations! Thank you 🙂
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When my faith was awakened in college and I couldn’t read enough about Catholicism, I particularly enjoyed apologetics books and conversion stories. Surprised By Truth 1, 2, & 3; Rome Sweet Home; Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic; and By What Authority?: An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition are all good ones.

I also really got into Peter Kreeft. He’s a philosophy professor and Boston College and has a lot of great books. Yes or No?; A Refutation of Moral Relativism; Fundamentals of the Faith; Handbook of Catholic Apologetics; etc. All are quite good.

Someone mentioned Matthew Kelly’s book. Another great primer in the same vein is Bishop Robert Barron’s Catholicism book (and the video series of the same name).

Karl Keating’s Catholicism & Fundamentalism is a classic.

A good study Bible is a great resource as well. The Ignatius Study Bible is a good one (though not yet complete—just the New Testament and about 1/4 of the Old Testament is complete so far). The Didache Bible is a good one volume Study Bible.

A lot depends on what you’re interested in: Church history, morality, the Bible, etc. There’s a lot out there. 🙂
 
TabbyLilac said:
I am a voracious reader anyway, but as I am now in the process of pursuing conversion to Catholicism, my appetite for books on Catholicism in general, conversion stories, theology and doctrine, history, etc. has become insatiable.

My calling to the Catholic Church, while it has been sitting in my peripheral vision for many years, has recently become loud and persistent, and as a result I want to learn everything I can in order to live the best life I can going forward as a Catholic and to be able to answer the questions of my family and friends that I will no doubt receive (and hopefully open their minds to the beauty of Christ’s Church along the way).

I would welcome any suggestions or recommendations! Thank you 🙂
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My absolute favorite book. Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, Harper Collins, 1999, ISBN 0-06-018793-X by George Weigel.

If you like history, theology, doctrine, great story, wonderful biographies this is the book for you.
 
I for one believe some modern scholarship is corrupted. I recommend the old standards that have stood the test of time, works by or about the saints, then works by the Doctors of the Church.They have lived the faith, not just simply read about it and attempted putting it into practice.
catholic.org/saints/doctors.php
 
I would also add to these great recommendations a daily devotional, My Daily Bread by Fr. Anthony Paone, it’s very old but the meditations are really wonderful. It really helped me appreciate the faith in a fuller, less superficial way.
 
Thank you for the many great suggestions! I already have some of these, and am working on several right now. I am really drawn to apologetics, theology, and history, probably because several of my immediate family members are atheists and no one in my circle of family/friends are Catholic, so I foresee the need for this type of knowledge I suppose. I’m a pretty passionate debater about a couple of things that are important to me, and obviously there is nothing more worthy of defense than one’s faith in God and Church.

I really enjoy the conversion stories too, mostly just to remind myself that although I feel somewhat alone right now, I’m not the first person to walk this path from atheism to fundamentalism to Catholicism. Surprised by Faith (the first one) got me hooked on really learning the scriptural basis for many Catholic beliefs, as well as being an incredible collection of conversion stories, and I didn’t realize there were 2 other volumes which is very exciting!

I really appreciate all the ideas. 🙂
 
TabbyLilac said:
Thank you for the many great suggestions! I already have some of these, and am working on several right now. I am really drawn to apologetics, theology, and history, probably because several of my immediate family members are atheists and no one in my circle of family/friends are Catholic, so I foresee the need for this type of knowledge I suppose. I’m a pretty passionate debater about a couple of things that are important to me, and obviously there is nothing more worthy of defense than one’s faith in God and Church.

I really enjoy the conversion stories too, mostly just to remind myself that although I feel somewhat alone right now, I’m not the first person to walk this path from atheism to fundamentalism to Catholicism. Surprised by Faith (the first one) got me hooked on really learning the scriptural basis for many Catholic beliefs, as well as being an incredible collection of conversion stories, and I didn’t realize there were 2 other volumes which is very exciting!

I really appreciate all the ideas. 🙂
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Welcome home! God bless you on your journey!
 
TabbyLilac said:
Thank you for the many great suggestions! I already have some of these, and am working on several right now. I am really drawn to apologetics, theology, and history, probably because several of my immediate family members are atheists and no one in my circle of family/friends are Catholic, so I foresee the need for this type of knowledge I suppose. I’m a pretty passionate debater about a couple of things that are important to me, and obviously there is nothing more worthy of defense than one’s faith in God and Church.

I really enjoy the conversion stories too, mostly just to remind myself that although I feel somewhat alone right now, I’m not the first person to walk this path from atheism to fundamentalism to Catholicism. Surprised by Faith (the first one) got me hooked on really learning the scriptural basis for many Catholic beliefs, as well as being an incredible collection of conversion stories, and I didn’t realize there were 2 other volumes which is very exciting!

I really appreciate all the ideas. 🙂
Click to expand...
You might like “Answering the New Atheism” by Wiker and Hahn if you envision lots of conversation with atheists. I also like Wiker’s “Moral Darwinism”, as he goes through many of the key historical figures that have led to our current cultural climate.
 
Although not a book, but a website, this one is good for apologetics and is very interesting with lots of great information: catholicbridge.com/catholic/index.php

This site is really, really good: lumenverum.org/index.html
Click on “resources” and you’ll find a lot of great stuff.

If you are interested in any of the miraculous events in the Church, and there are many, I highly recommend “The True Story of Fatima” by Fr. John De Marchi. It’s an extremely detailed account of the six appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three young children. The visitations culminated in the famous “miracle of the sun” witnesses by over 70,000 people in 1917. fatima.org/crusader/truestory/truestorytoc.asp

And there is a wonderful recently made video interview of an elderly woman who, as a child, was one of five children to whom the Blessed Virgin appeared 33 times in 1932-33. These apparitions were approved by the Church and is known as Our Lady of Beauraing (Belgium). This woman died just recently and was the last survivor of the five children, and she has quite a story to tell: youtube.com/watch?v=oBruEBGp8Kk&feature=youtu.be
 
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