Spiritual Reading

Whenever I need to learn about something, I take it to the books.  A bookworm at heart, I love to read, to learn.  So naturally, as I am exploring my Faith more deeply, I have taken to spiritual reading.  My parish has a wonderful lending library FULL of wonderful books.  I just walk in and let the Holy Spirit guide my hands and eyes and I peruse the shelves.  The first book I picked up was The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser.  This book is written by a Catholic priest but it is written for a larger Christian audience and especially for those who may be floundering in their faith.  As I feel I am green in my spiritual understanding, it really appealed to.  He does make some statements that will make my traditional friends balk.  However, I felt that it adhered to Catholic theology faithfully but most importantly, he reached out and made some pretty deep theological concepts very simple and straight forward to understand.  I gained an understanding of the Incarnation, the Paschal Mystery, our sexuality, and a spirituality in general that frankly I had never understood.  To think that all this time I did not realize what the Body of Christ meant, only on a very superficial level!

Another great book I just read is A Mother's Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot, recommended by a friend.  This book is about developing a Rule of Life much in the same way that those in religious orders live their life.  It is an organizational book but also very inspirational and helps you on your quest to not only order your home, but your soul as well.  I found it very inspiring as she truly spoke to my core; how difficult it is to live out the vocation of marriage and motherhood and how we can live out God's will and become holy in the process.  Definitely a very Catholic book but just what I needed to read this past week as I faced down the barrel of the hardships of mothering and homeschooling.