Hey! A meme for bookworms finally! Colleen at Inadequate Disciple tagged me for a meme which asks you to name your three favorite religious books and then tag five other bloggers to do the same. Not counting the Bible, here are three of my favorites:
~ Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence - I read this book at least once a year and sometimes more often than that. Great book!
~ Divine Mercy in My Soul: St. Faustina's Diary - I usually have this book out for easy access. St. Faustina is one of my favorite saints.
~ Fire of Love/Understanding Purgatory by St. Catherine of Genoa - This little book is a treasure. Reading this book made me realize that it really is all love on God's part and that Purgatory is a blessing for those who have died before attaining the perfect purity of heart so necessary before coming face-to-face with the Living God.
I tag:
Kathryn at Heart for God
Sue at Sue Elvis Writes
Mary at Hope Echoes
Esther at A Catholic Mom in Hawaii
Jennifer at Crafolic ~ Catholic Crafts and More!!
Yay for all three of your choices, but special extra cheer for the last one. I've read excerpts from St. Catherine's writings, and it is my current understanding on why there is Purgatory and how it works to purify our souls. Our priest said something along similar lines that rang true to me, "You all know, don't you, that you will not get into heaven until you love everyone." I think that is the result of having your heart purged by the love of God. The result is as you say, perfect purity of heart. I recently had to explain punishment, purgatory to one of my kids teachers. He listened attentively, but i don't think that he agreed with what I was explaining. He is a Protestant believer and he believes that Christ paid all the punishment for us.
ReplyDeleteThanks for thinking of me, Mary! I'm not sure what books to name. I'll have to give that some thought!
ReplyDeleteGod Bless!
Hi Mary,
ReplyDeleteThank you for tagging me!
I have the first two of your favourite books, but not the third. I've been thinking about Purgatory after a recent post of Victor's. Sometimes we get scared when we think about Purgatory but I believe we should look on it as a real gift. I will watch out for a copy of "Fire of Love".
Thank you for your recommendations. I love hearing about good books. Lent is a good time to do some extra spiritual reading.
God bless!
Mary thank you also sharing with your readers good choices of books and information. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteHi Colleen,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young it really bothered me that there was such a thing as Purgatory because I really didn't understand what it was. St. Catherine's book definitely gave me a much better understanding of the reason for its existence and I now understand what a huge mercy it really is. Souls would actually have MORE pain were they to come before the Lord anything but spotless so it's a tremendous blessing that Purgatory exists. Not that I want to go there, mind you ;)
Thanks for your wonderful comment! You and I are on the same page when it comes to Purgatory.
And thanks again for the tag - I love everything to do with books.
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit tough to pick out just three books, isn't it? As soon as I was tagged for this meme twenty books popped into my head and I had to narrow it down. The three above really inspire me.
Hi Sue,
ReplyDeleteI love hearing about good books too and I was curious to see what your favorites were. Lent's a great time for this meme to go around - it can give us ideas for book picks when we read about other's favorites. Looking forward to seeing your picks if you have the time to do this meme ;)
Hi JBR,
ReplyDeleteWhat are your favorite books? I have some idea from reading your sites but I'm curious as to what your top three picks would be after the Bible.
May God bless you too, my friend :)
Great picks, Mary. I've read the first two on your list; I will have to put the one by St Catherine on my list. St Therese of Liseux has written about how we can avoid purgatory, but I am still glad it is there!
ReplyDeleteHi Karin,
ReplyDeleteFire of Love is one of those books that sticks with you - comforting but very serious about what we need to accomplish here.
I love St. Therese! She says aiming for Purgatory is an insult to God. Definitely my kind of saint - I love her total trust in God's good will and her determination.
Mary I really truly do not like to read unless it is a good bio. I think the last bio I read was Lauren Chapin (Kitten on Father Knows Best). She is Christian you know. Blessings to you dear one.
ReplyDeleteMy husband likes biographies too. Reading bores him unless it's a biography (I read anything under the sun) And it has to be interesting or he'll toss it down and never finish it. I've never read the biography you mention but I'll keep my eye out for it. God bless!
ReplyDeleteBlessings to you Mary. It is an old one from the early 1990's.
ReplyDeleteHi JBR,
ReplyDeleteIt must have been good if you remember it so well. I'll keep my eye out for it at the used bookstore. They have a lot of older books there.
Colleen,
ReplyDeleteI laughed too! I still owe DG a thousand word comment for that one. Maybe I can blather on about our septic system or my puppy getting neutered ;)
Thanks for the award! I'll pop over now!
Uhm...before I pop over Colleen: It wouldn't be an award for having the most long-winded comment, would it?
ReplyDeleteMary, a meme after my own heart :-) I really liked your choices especially the book on purgatory. I need to re-read it. BTW, thanks for the tag. I am limiting time on computer but will get to it as soon as I have a chance.
ReplyDeleteHi Esther,
ReplyDeleteI knew how much you love to read :) St. Catherine's book is my favorite book on Purgatory!
Thank you Mary for your recent comment on my Blog about "This Man". I have responded as best I can there.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're back in Blogland. Welcome.
God bless.
Hi Mary! I just posted my list! Thanks for tagging and giving my brain a little bit of a stretch!! ;-)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Victor! I'll pop over right now.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteOh good! I'm looking forward to seeing what books you chose!
I just added these to my list! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGod Bless.
Just wanted to let you know I'm blogging on the more serious side at http://signsoffaithandlove.blogspot.com these days. The other blog is still up (for now), but "inactive".
ReplyDeleteI love your book choices. I'm being drawn back into Divine Mercy. Jesus just won't let me alone about that, so I best get on with what He has in mind.
Aloha!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteYou've been nominated for an Award on my Blog.
God bless.
Hi Mary, I'm only familiar with your second favorite book. I would love to read Fire of Love/Understanding Purgatory by St. Catherine of Genoa. Your other one by Brother Lawrence sounds good too. Thanks for the recommendations.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteOh good! I'm glad to hear that you're still going to blog! Thanks for sending me the url for the new site - I'll add it to my sidebar. Hope you and your family are well!
Hi Victor,
ReplyDeleteI'll be right over!
Lol! Yes, I can be pretty long-winded at times ;) Hey! Maybe that's what Victor's award is for! I'm off to check! But I could have sworn it said "Lobster Award" in my sidebar (hee, hee). This should be good!
ReplyDeleteHi Noreen,
ReplyDeleteHow are you? I hope you and your family are well.
Both of these books were extremely helpful to me and I highly recommend them. If you have a Kindle I think you can get them for next to nothing. There are a lot of Catholic classics on there that are very inexpensive.
God bless!
Mary,
ReplyDeleteYou are going to get a lot of Victor's Lobster Awards, I know! I nominated you for one too!
(((Mary)))
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue! Only Victor could come up with such a thing :) Made me smile!
ReplyDeleteHi JBR,
ReplyDeleteHugs to you too, dear friend! I hope you are doing well. If I ever figure out a way to stop those hot flashes I'll let you know (or you can let me know ;) I mean, good grief! Who knew, huh?
Wow, you picked some hard-core books! I'm familiar with all of them and have read at least parts of all of them. They are straight-up, no-nonsense writings!
ReplyDeleteHi Maria,
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty hard to narrow my picks down to three books. What are your favorites?
Hi Maria,
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty hard to narrow my picks down to three books. What are your favorites?