Pray while vacuuming, offer up your vacuuming, unite yourself to the nun across the world and think about how your vocations compliment each other while vacuuming. Got it. Enough with the vacuuming. What I'm looking for is Catholicism 201 or maybe 301. I feel more that I need actual information about the deep mysteries of our faith so I can fill my thought with them while vacuuming. (Oh all right, I'm a mom, there is no real getting rid of the vacuuming.)
About the time I started really wanting this, my brother-in-law lent me two books by Chesterton: "Manalive" and "The Napolean of Notting Hill." I'd not read much by Chesterton, and when I had, I hadn't understood them. But, these two were short and written in English, so I gave them a try. At the beginning of each book, I began to wonder if they really were in English - WHAT is going on? Are they supposed to be this zany? Or am I missing something? By the end I loved both. (Yes, they are supposed to be that zany - and with both - the whole point is that at the beginning you're missing something.)
These were not what I was looking for though. I wanted hard core facts about Roman Catholicism. These books were lovely, but more about man himself. But, they did give me a ton to think about, a new thoughts about the nature of man. So now I'm wondering if God is trying to teach me that maybe once you get the basics of the Church, you need to understand more about the people who God created the Church for to understand the mysteries in the Church. How can I better understand how Jesus Christ is both Man and God if I haven't thought enough about who Man is?
Of course, this leads me to what I'm going to read next, and my real reason for writing this post... What books/talks have you found that have deepened your understanding of Man, the Church, or God Himself? Basically - what's a good book that you'd recommend? I know there's got to be TONS that I haven't come across or would be good to reread. Please share!
2 comments:
My husband is an avid theology reader and recommends "Spiritual Theology by Jordan Almond, and "Introduction to the Science of Mental Health," by Fr. Chad Ripperger. Happy reading!
I'm from Italy and I speak badly english, but I read your thougts and your question. Your need to deepen should be the need of each of us. Usually people prefer to think that faith has nothing to understand or deepen, but only to feel, becouse if you have faith, you have not question to deepen. Instead I think God gave us a mistery and He doesn't want us blind in front of this wonderful mistery. No one books I know can help you.
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