Tattered Titles – And the winners are…

A while back we asked you, “What are the most tattered titles on your nightstand?” You answered with vigor and the responses were so numerous that we thought it might be helpful to summarize what our readers recommended. One of our amazing volunteers compiled every response and then put them into a spreadsheet. I was fascinated, surprised, and delighted to see how the top ten list emerged. The top three were 1) the Bible, 2) the Liturgy of the Hours, and 3) the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Here’s the top five after the top three:

1. The Imitation of Christ – Thomas A Kempis
2. The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila – St. Teresa of Avila
3. Abandonment to Divine Providence – Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade
4. The Better Part – Fr. John Bartunek
5. Divine Intimacy – Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen

So, there you have it. The next list reflects those books that had more than one mention. From the standpoint of the sheer number of votes to any one author (across multiple titles), St. Teresa of Avila gets the top prize.

• Story of a Soul – St. Therese of Lisieux
• Introduction to the Devout Life – St. Francis de Sales
• Diary of St. Faustina – St. Faustina
• Complete works of St. John of the Cross – St. John of the Cross
• Consoling the Heart of Jesus – Michael Gaitley
• Interior Castle – St. Teresa of Avila
• Return of the Prodigal Son – Henri Nouwen
• My Daily Bread (devotional)
• I Believe in Love Jean – C.J. d’Elbee
• The Fire Within – Fr. Thomas Dubay
• The Fulfillment of All Desire – Ralph Martin
• True Devotion/Total Consecration to Mary – St. Louis Grignion de Monfort
• Life of Christ – Fulton J. Sheen
• Jesus of Nazareth Book 1 – Pope Benedict
• Daily Roman Missal
• Revelation of Divine Love – Julian of Norwich
• The Secret of the Rosary – St. Louis Grignion de Monfort
• Drinking from a Dry Well – Thomas Green
• When the Well Runs Dry – Thomas Green
• Man’s Search for Meaning – Frankl
• The Way of Perfection – St. Teresa of Avila
• The Great Divorce – C.S. Lewis
• Life of the Beloved – Henri Nouwen
• He and I – Gabrielle Bossi
• In Conversation with God – Francis Fernandez Carvajal
• Theology of the Body – John Paul II

The remainder of the recommendations all had one vote each. If you would like to see all the other book recommendations you can check out the combox of the original post and a few other posts we have done to provide recommendations for you.

What are the most tattered titles on your nightstand?

If you were stuck on a desert island alone but somehow could have just a few books dropped into the sand pit next to your tent, which ones would they be? Which books has God most used to turn your heart towards Him?

Here’s my list:

1. Scripture/Catechism (yes, I cheated but just a little)
   
2. Interior Castles – St. Teresa of Avila/All St. Teresa’s Writings
3. Abandonment to Divine Providence – Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade
4. The Fire Within – Father Thomas Dubay
5. Searching for and Maintaining Peace – Father Jacques Phillippe

Tell us your first name, location (e.g. Betty from Sydney, Australia), and then your top three to five books that you have read or regularly re-read for spiritual sustenance.

IMPORTANT FRUSTRATION AVOIDANCE NOTICE: I have not done this for a long time but I know that there will be folks who break the rules (much worse than I did) and give a list of thirty books (these are usually the same folks who don’t read the posts but still strongly disagree with whatever they say). This really defeats the purpose and your post won’t make it through moderation which will only require you to go back to your books to find some peace after all that work goes to waste.

Has Catholic Spiritual Direction helped you?

Dear Friends,

About once a year I send out a note to check in on you. Are we serving you well? Have we helped you or someone you love come to know Christ in any way? Have other readers helped you as you dialogue about the posts? If this is the case, in large or small ways, we would be grateful to hear back from you. In your response at the bottom of this post, please tell us your state in life (teen, college student, mom, dad, priest, religious, etc.), let us know from what part of the world you are writing from, and if you don’t mind, if you are male or female and what age. This will help to know a bit more about who is out there!

We are grateful that God has allowed this effort to grow and that we can play some small part in the advancement of his kingdom. It is our fervent desire and pleasure to serve you in your journey deeper into his love.

In Him,

Dan

PS: If as you reflect on our service to you or those you love, if you are so moved by the Holy Spirit, we would be grateful for a donation to help us continue and to grow this effort both in quality and in other services. Also, if there is any way we can improve our service to you, please let us know that too!

No more Facebook comments!

Well, the Facebook combox experiment is over. Here’s what we learned about you (well, most of you anyway):

• You take your spiritual life very seriously.
• You would like to engage in dialogue about it.
• Because of the sensitive nature of the topic, you would like as much anonymity as possible when you do so.

Therefore… the previous comment system is back!

The other thing we learned is that many of you might be interested in a private chat-room or forum in order to discuss spiritual matters more openly with people who have similar interests. We will look into that and see what happens!

Pax!

What about your experience with spiritual direction?

Dear Catholic Spiritual Direction Friends,

More than 500 of you have told us that you are in an active spiritual direction relationship right now. Would you mind answering a few questions about your experience? I am about half way through a book project on the topic and want to be sure that it is a valuable service to the Church. Regardless of whether you are in an active relationship now, if you have had experience in spiritual direction, feel free to answer any or all of the questions by replying to this post via the comment feature below. Any feedback is welcome – even if it answers a question I did not ask. Thank you in advance for your help!

1. What exercises or specific aspects of spiritual direction have been most helpful to you?
2. What do you wish you had known before entering into the process?
3. What are your questions about spiritual direction?
4. What do you struggle with in spiritual direction? What has been frustrating to you?
5. Are you in spiritual direction but still stuck in your spiritual growth? If yes, where are you stuck?
6. If you could ask your spiritual director to change one thing about your relationship, what would it be?

He is real, present, and good, may He always be so to you.

Dan