There is no shortage of nourishing Catholic food for thought, but there is a shortage of people telling you where to find it. COMPASS wants to reverse the shortage. Each week we recommend a book worth reading - and we tell you why; then we tell you where you can buy it on-line, for cheap. St Augustine read his way up to the heights of holiness, why can't we?
Take the Shortest Route to the Heights of Holiness!
This brief volume consists of a collection of talks given by Fr d'Elbee to a convent in France. In the form of exhortations and meditations, it presents a refreshing and convincing vision of the spiritual life as experienced by St Therese of Lisieux and known as her "Little Way". (In case you didn't know, the "Little Way" of St Therese catapulted this French Carmelite into being named a Doctor of the Church just a century after she entered heaven, in 1997.) Great for spiritual reading, for encouragement, and for simplifying and deepening your relationship with God, this book should be on the shelf of everyone plagued by the frantic hustle and bustle of post-modernity. Check out this sample:
"Perhaps you will say to me, 'You claim that we are continually transformed more and more into him, but I do not notice it, I cannot put my finger on it. And even, some days, seeing myself so miserable, I am tempted to believe the contrary.' Yet, do you not see things more than ever as he does? Of course, you do. Do you not want what he wants, more every day? Of course, you do. I am sure that today, more than ever, you want to love him and make him loved, with a will even more sincere, even more profound, with a desire even more sure than ever, although perhaps not felt. You would not say, 'I have less desire to love him and make him loved than yesterday.' If that were the case, you would not be here.
"What trips us up is that we mistake sensible fervor for sanctity. But it is not. Sanctity is a disposition of soul, animated by grace, which is the life of the soul, under the action of infused virtues and under the influence of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; a disposition to belong to Jesus more than ever, to accomplish his will, to know him and make him known, to love him and make him loved more and more. He looks much more at what we are than at what we do; and we are, in his eyes, what we sincerely want to be for him."
