Need a book recommendation: a saint who had trouble believing

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Hello,

My friend, raised in a half atheist half Catholic household is struggling with his Catholic faith and is having a hard time believing Catholicism is more than just a self help book or just like all the other religions. He says what he thinks will help him believe most is reading true stories of a saint or good person where the only explanation for them continuing on is faith, a story where the exemplify virtue in difficult circumstances.

Other topics he also struggles with seeing the truth of the Divine authority of the Catholic Church and also separating the failures/lies/evil that Catholic individuals commit as separate from the Church itself.

I don’t expect any one book to be able to address all these things in great depth, but if you know of any book that might be good to deal with one or two of these, preferably dealing with a Saint rather than just theology, that would be awesome! 👍

Lastly, it would be great if it was relatively short and/or not super dense. He is extremely intellectual, but also extremely busy and seems to find it difficult to spend a lot of time reading spiritual material. Any help you can offer would be great! Really hope we can find a good recommendation for him 🙂
 
MCPFgrace said:
Hello,

My friend, raised in a half atheist half Catholic household is struggling with his Catholic faith and is having a hard time believing Catholicism is more than just a self help book or just like all the other religions. He says what he thinks will help him believe most is reading true stories of a saint or good person where the only explanation for them continuing on is faith, a story where the exemplify virtue in difficult circumstances.

Other topics he also struggles with seeing the truth of the Divine authority of the Catholic Church and also separating the failures/lies/evil that Catholic individuals commit as separate from the Church itself.

I don’t expect any one book to be able to address all these things in great depth, but if you know of any book that might be good to deal with one or two of these, preferably dealing with a Saint rather than just theology, that would be awesome! 👍

Lastly, it would be great if it was relatively short and/or not super dense. He is extremely intellectual, but also extremely busy and seems to find it difficult to spend a lot of time reading spiritual material. Any help you can offer would be great! Really hope we can find a good recommendation for him 🙂
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How about Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua? 🙂
 
St. Edith Stein was an atheist before converting.
Mother Teresa had spiritual troubles.
I believe St. Augustine also had trouble believing, but I’m not completely sure…:confused: I know he lived a very sinful life before he came to truly know God. Also, she’s not a saint, but Jennifer Fulwiler is a lifelong atheist that converted to Catholicism, she wrote a book called “Something Other than God”
 
St. Thomas. He had trouble believing the Lord had risen, even though he saw Him standing there with his own two eyes.
 
MCPFgrace said:
Hello,

My friend, raised in a half atheist half Catholic household is struggling with his Catholic faith and is having a hard time believing Catholicism is more than just a self help book or just like all the other religions. He says what he thinks will help him believe most is reading true stories of a saint or good person where the only explanation for them continuing on is faith, a story where the exemplify virtue in difficult circumstances.

Other topics he also struggles with seeing the truth of the Divine authority of the Catholic Church and also separating the failures/lies/evil that Catholic individuals commit as separate from the Church itself.

I don’t expect any one book to be able to address all these things in great depth, but if you know of any book that might be good to deal with one or two of these, preferably dealing with a Saint rather than just theology, that would be awesome! 👍

Lastly, it would be great if it was relatively short and/or not super dense. He is extremely intellectual, but also extremely busy and seems to find it difficult to spend a lot of time reading spiritual material. Any help you can offer would be great! Really hope we can find a good recommendation for him 🙂
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Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy” would be a good start. Not too heavy. Well argued with an eye on the practical. Have a look yourself and consider it as a start for your friend.
 
Petaro said:
Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy” would be a good start. Not too heavy. Well argued with an eye on the practical. Have a look yourself and consider it as a start for your friend.
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This is an excellent recommendation. The only issue with it is that it’s a fantastic apologia for Christianity “as laid down in the Apostles’ Creed”, but not for the Catholic faith; Chesterton would formally convert to the Catholic faith only in 1922. Still, 👍👍👍
 
Not a true saint account, but Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos is an account of a saintly priest who is plagued by doubt at times. The movie by Robert Bresson is great as well.
 
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