If willing, can you guys recommend some good books about Catholicism and its history or just about Catholicism in general.

[Peanut7949]

Another good book that is a departure from the heavier reading of the previously mentioned books is “Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio” by Diane Allen. It’s full of eyewitness testimony of Padre Pio’s mystical and miraculous events. I friend of mine had an aunt that knew Padre Pio personally and corresponded with him for years. She was a Lutheran and became Catholic because of him. She said he was the real deal.

How neat! Did she correspond with him through letters…> I would love to learn more about this saint, is this a small book available?

 

[boomerang]

How neat! Did she correspond with him through letters…> I would love to learn more about this saint, is this a small book available?

“Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry” is available on Amazon.com as well as lots of other books on him. He had an American secretary named Mary Pyle who lived at the monastery with Padre Pio and the Brothers in San Giovanni Rotondo. She handled most of his correspondence as the padre’s hands hurt so much from the stigmata, he couldn’t write very well. Mary Pyle commented in one of her letters to my friend’s aunt about the odor of flowers that accompanies the padre everywhere he goes. She wrote that the odor was in the room where she was answering the “fan mail”, and the padre wasn’t even in the room at the time! My friend’s aunt experienced this “odor of sanctity” herself when she made her first visit to San Giovanni Rotondo and this was the icing on the cake, so to speak, which lead to her conversion. There’s lots of good video on Padre Pio on YouTube. Type in “Anna María Gemma Di Giorgio” This is a video of the blind girl he cured, now an adult woman who still looks blind, be she can see. She has no pupils. Padre Pio is fascinating.

 

[eternalrest]

I want to study this faith farther, I am really starting to think its true, can you guys recommend Books about the faith?

To better understand theology/church history
Council of Trent: history.hanover.edu/texts/trent.html
The Natural Desire to See God According to St. Thomas and his Interpreters by Lawrence Feingold
Salvation is from the Jews: Roy Schoeman
Through Moses to Jesus: The Way of the Paschal Mystery by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini
True Devotion to Mary by Saint Montfort
Divine Mercy in My Soul: The Diary of St. Faustina

***For Inspiration, practical application, spirituality ***
Movies: The Way
Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa by Immaculee Ilibagiza
Interview with An Exorcist and An Exorcist: More Stories by Fr. Gabriel Amorth
Mother Teresa: In the Shadow of Our Lady by Joseph Langford (her spiritual director)
Miracle of Hope: Political Prisoner, Prophet of Peace by Andre N. Chau and Andre N. Van Chau on Cardinal Van Thuan
The Life of Faustina Kowalska: The Authorized Biography by Sister Sophia Michalenko
Why Priests Are Happy: A Study of the Psychological and Spiritual Health of Priests by Fr. Rossetti
Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: The Secret of Peace and Happiness by Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure, Saint Claude de la Colombiere
Five Loaves & Two Fish by Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan
The Four Cardinal Virtues by Josef Pieper
The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming by Fr. Henri J. M. Nouwen
The Autobiography of Saint Margaret Mary by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
The History of Black Catholics in the United States by Fr Cyprian Davis
From Slave to Priest: A Biography of the Reverend Augustine Tolton by Sister Caroline Hemsath
The Hidden Face: The Life of Therese of Lisieux by Ida Friederike Gorres
Vocation in Black and White: Dominican Contemplative Nuns tell how God called them by Association of the Monasteries of Nuns of of the Preachers
The Hand of God: A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind by Bernard Nathanson
Ordinary Suffering of Extraordinary Saints by Vincent J. O’Malley
Feeling & Healing Your Emotions, M.D. by Conrad W. Barrs, MD
I Will Give Them a New Heart by Conrad W. Baars, MD
Words of Light: Inspiration from the Letters of Padre Pio by Father Raniero Cantalamessa

 

[eternalrest]

The following list focuses on ecclesiastical history :

The First Seven Ecumenical Councils by Fr. Leo Donald Davis, SJ.
History of the Church by Eusebius
The Christian Tradition (4 vol.) by Jaroslav Pelikan
The Early Church by Henry Chadwick
The History of the Franks by St Gregory of Tours
Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Venerable Bede
Medieval Civilization by Jacques Le Golf
The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch
The Rhine Flows into the Tiber by Fr. Ralph M. Witgen

And a good book on spirituality:
Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition by Fr. Jordan Auman

Thank you very much! Now to add to my reading list.

 

[KoCLLB]

Catholic Christianity by Peter Kreeft and also any book written by Scott Hahn. I especially liked his conversion story Rome Sweet Home.

 

[Hunter24]

I want to study this faith farther, I am really starting to think its true, can you guys recommend Books about the faith?

My old priest once loaned me “Catholicism, the first 3000 years”, it was quite interesting.

 

[KathleenGee]

I think so many suggested books for reading are excellent.

Dr Scott Hahn is a former Protestant minister and has a particular way of presenting concepts that answer Protestant questions.

I asked for a text that would give me a true picture of Catholicism’s history that is honest and objective and does not hide any skeletons. My pastor gave me ‘A Concise History of the Catholic Church’, by Thomas Bokenkotter. The beginning history explains how our Catholic Church was essentially set by Scripture, episcopacy and what way works, and the Creed by 100 AD. This is the beginning history text for Catholic seminarians.

The first part of the book covers from the Church’s beginning in Christianity up to the year 600 AD with the Council of Chalcedon. It includes history of Constantine and his work for the Church, although he was baptized and became a Christian only a few days before his death.

By that time, the essentials of liturgy/worship was set up as well…you can do a search on St. Justin the Martyr’s explanation to the Roman emperor who asked what happens at Mass, that was completed in 150 AD, and the manner in which Christians worshipped throughout the entire Christian world at that time by 100 AD, and which is essentially the same parts we have today at Mass.

Just reading the first 600 years would be good because it is in this time frame that is misused and misrepresented here in America by non-Catholic teachers, to create new but wrong impressions of how Christianity developed in ancient times…where alot of spin is created and then misused to misrepresent Christianity to uneducated followers, thus bringing people away from true Christianity and into individual sects.

 

[IbnFiktur]

I highly recommend this series of audio lectures by Professor William R. Cook.

thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=6640

The price looks high right now, but check back periodically; they have great sales. For instance, I bought the Audio Download for about $30.

You’ll get a good, fair, historical, and academically sound evaluation of Church history. Professor Cook is a faithful Catholic, but he is not afraid to look at the more difficult periods of Catholic history and call them what they are.

You’ll learn a lot and can listen to them on your ipod! I listened to them on my way to work every day.

 

[Jacob_Morgan]

I suppose there are three parts to this,

First why one should be a Catholic, second what do Catholics believe, and third what do Catholics do.

As to why one should be a Catholic, suggestions would be:

1. Historical. *Four Witnesses *by Rod Bennett, espeically if one grew up hearing that they were supposed to be “First Century Christians”, well, what were those first Christians doing? Cardinal Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine is not easy to read, but has a lot of riches within it. It is especially good at understanding the development of the Church, and an antidote to the people who go about tut-tutting that this or that is unscriptural.
2. Apologetic. I really like G.K. Chesterton’s The Well and the Shallows, and The Catholic Church and Conversion. *Orthodoxy *is good also. Chesterton just blasts through the modern fog like a bolt of lightening. Mark Shea’s books on Mary are good in that they trace the development of doctrine, in addition to the subject of Mary.

As to what Catholics believe:

1. The Compendium of the Catechism Catholic Church. A synopsys of the larger Catechism. Easy to read thorugh if one has a hard time reading the big one end to end.
2. The Missionary’s Catechisim by Russell Ford gives a very direct, no-nonsense, straight forward look at what Catholic doctrine is.
3. Basic Christianity by Cardinal Ratzinger. Basics? My head would explode if he wrote the advanced part. A good book and evidence of the profound intellect and faith of Pope Benedict.

As to what Catholics do. This is significant in that once one becomes Catholic it can be overwhelming and confusing when one starts being exposed to all the devotions, sacramentals, etc.

1. The How to Book of Catholic Devotions by Our Sunday Visitor.
2. *The How to Book of Sacramentals * by Our Sunday Visitor. Clarifies what sacramentals are and seperates what they really are from superstition.
3. Anything by Thomas Dubay is good for deepening one’s prayers. Keep in mind that one doesn’t really just convert once. It ought to be a series of deepening conversions.
4. Sex is such a mess these days, I’d throw in *The Good News about Sex and Marriage * by Christopher West. It is sort of an intro to the theology of the body. It is a little controversial, but is approved by a Bishop.

Other thing to toss out there is the RSV Study Bible by Ignatius Press. It has a lot of foot notes that give the Catholic perspective on scripture.

 

[KathleenGee]

I am reading various ideas and want to find the time to study them as well.

It also came to me, that if you get help from these readings you decide to choose, it would also then be good to go to RCIA in September at a near by Catholic parish. They meet once a week and are there to answer questions. In no way are you forced to do anything. They serve you and your needs, where you are at.