"Reading is FUNdamental." Or so said the public service announcement I remember from my youth. And how true those words are! Especially when attempting to build a relationship with God. The Catholic Church has always taught that nourishing the mind plays as nearly an important role in our faith journey as nourishing the spirit. "Fides quaerens intellectum" - "faith seeking understanding" - has been a vital dictum from the middle ages on down to our day. From a Catholic perspective, "Blind Faith" just does not cut it. God gave us the gift of a mind and he expects us to use, not least to grow in knowledge of Him and His loving plan for the world. Yet another PSA famously proclaimed: 'A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
In the past three years I have been taking the obligation to "nourish my mind" with great seriousness. There has not been a time in these months when I have not been in the midst of a book (often the same book for quite some time, given the scarcity of time available for me to devote to reading). And since the majority of my reading has been in theology and/or scripture studies I have reaped the reward of an ever-deepening faith. These are the books that have fed my mind and in the process have also nourished my spirit. Now that they have taken their place on my bookshelf, I gladly recommend them to anyone desiring to deepen their own knowledge and faith.
Currently reading:
 |
The Prison Angel: Mother Antonia's Journey from Beverly Hills to a Life of Service in a Mexican Jail by Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan |