Good morning, Sisters,

I am so so SO excited to share today’s post.  My absolute favorite part of blogging is getting to connect with other like minded women of faith.  It brings me so much joy to see other people striving for holiness and being open about their struggles and strengths.

For today’s post, I asked five super amazing Catholic blog ladies to share about a book that has influenced their faith.  And, man, did they deliver.  I can almost guarantee that your “To Read in the Very Near Future” list will grow by a few after reading this post!!  I know mine has!!

After you read these little book testaments, please take a minute to check out all of these beautiful ladies and the work that they are doing.  They are so inspiring and I can’t say enough about them!!

Enjoy:)

Maleah | Millennial Black

@millennialblack + www.millennialblack.com

When I tell someone that my favorite book is an autobiography, they look at me as if I had just said that my favorite food was toast.

In their defense, I don’t know which one sounds drier.

But Thomas Merton’s “The Seven Storey Mountain” is one of the richest pieces of literature I have ever read. It is the story of one man’s journey to faith–one that has significantly shaped my own pilgrimage. In his book, Merton opens up his heart and his mind to guide the reader through his life, and the climb he made to God. His earlier life was one “filled” with worldly pleasures. Let’s just say, if there had been commercials for “The Most Interesting Man In The World”  back in the 1940’s, they would’ve starred Thomas Merton.

But, curveball–earthly indulgences didn’t fill him, and in the wise words of Snickers: You’re not you when you’re hungry. And so Merton set out to find something to satisfy his hunger. That ultimately led him to become a Trappist Monk.

The story rings with God’s love and mercy. It has helped me realize that no matter how far I may have wandered, no matter how long I may have been away–God has always been there with His hand outstretched, waiting for me to take it.

Chloe  | The Simple Joy of Being

@simplejoyofbeing + www.simplejoyofbeing.com

I Choose The Sky by Emily Wilson has immensely influenced my faith journey,  and I cannot stress enough how much I believe each and every young woman should read this book! This book focuses on 17 women mentioned in the Bible who chose to lift their eyes towards heaven by living lives of great faith. Reflecting on women such as Tabitha, the crippled woman, Mary, and Martha has shown me that no matter what situation I may be in, Jesus still has an immense love for me.

This book can help women of all ages to grow their faith and has changed the way I look at myself and the world. It was so powerful to re-read the stories of those women. Emily’s reflections on who these women are and what we as Catholic women can learn from them truly touched my heart. This book really helped to deepen my understanding of my identity in Christ as a woman, and I hope everyone who reads it can find a new light and a new understanding of these often-overlooked women in the Bible.

Madeleine | Valley and Vow

@mwirthalot + www.valleyandvow.weebly.com

Tuesdays with Morrie is a memoir in which Mitch, the author, rediscovers an old college professor, Morrie, in the last months of the older man’s life.   Knowing that he was dying, Morrie meets with Mitch every Tuesday just as they used to do during college. Their rekindled relationship tells one final lesson: lessons in how to live and how to die. A person’s character is revealed in the way they handle suffering and hardship. Morrie was an exemplary role model to Mitch even in the way that he endured death. Morrie’s death showed that good can come out of suffering if we allow ourselves to see it as an opportunity.

Through Morrie’s witness example, Mitch carried with him a wiser understanding of how to live with fulfillment and love. In less than 200 pages, this book captivated me when I read it more than 5 years ago because I began to reconsider death.

As Christians, we can look to Christ, the saints, and other holy role models as examples of how to endure suffering and face death full of hope and without fear!  

Lauren | Midwest Catholic

@midwestcatholic

Katie Prejean McGrady is a catholic speaker who travels around the country sharing the faith! She is a wife, mom, daughter of Christ and author who shares in her new book, “Follow,” how she had encountered Jesus and how we can encounter Him too.

If you are open to encounter Jesus in a new way and make Him the center of your life, her book is going to change your life. She shares how you can encounter the Lord more at Mass, in prayer, in service and how following Jesus is a lifelong adventure. “You follow Jesus when you realize he is walking with you on [your] lifelong adventure” -Katie Prejean McGrady.

You can order her book on amazon! Trust me friends, it will be the best $14 you will spend this year.  The best part? Her book will help lead you closer to the Lord & when you are closer to the Lord you can share His love with others (because that is what we have been called to do)! I will be praying that all of you who read her book have hearts that are open to encountering Jesus in a new way, that you are  inspired to share the faith and have hearts fixed on Heaven!

Anne | Anne Off King Street

@anne_offkingstreet + www.offkingstreet.com

In college, I was assigned to read Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl.

It is the memoir of a Jewish Psychologist that survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, and who made himself and his inmates the subject of the psychological study of meaning in suffering. Frankl understood what forgiveness and mercy were, having lived in a loving Jewish family. But being a psychologist, Frankl’s perspective and attitude towards accepting the seemingly God-forsaken suffering in the camp illustrates a beauty to the resilience of the human spirit.

As a nineteen-year-old college student the first time I read it, this was eye-opening in the sense of learning that men are capable of stripping everything away from a person: their name, their birthday, their personality, their perceived human value. But in the end, even human value might be overlooked, but it CAN NEVER BE TAKEN AWAY. Frankle know this when he wrote.

Now as a teacher, this book has helped me remember how human my students are, even when they’re acting crazy, and that what I say can just as easily strip them of their sense of value as quickly as it can remind them of it. It’s also now the cornerstone text for the AP Language and Comp class I teach to my juniors, and this little book has an 80% approval rate from them. Coming from high school students who can barely keep their eyes from the phone screen, that’s saying a lot!