Best books I have read lately

It has been a while since I have blogged. I guess I have been doing more reading than writing. In the last few months I have probably read 15 books – Maybe more. Some of them were fluff. Some of them were good. But there were a few books that stood out.

 He Leadeth Me

This is the best book I have read in a very long time. Father Walter J. Ciszek (November 4, 1904–December 8, 1984) was a Polish-American Jesuit priest who is known for his missionary work in the Soviet Union. In his book He Leadeth Me he tracks out his journey of spiritual formation while ministering in Russia during the years of 1939 to 1963. During this time he was incarcerated in KGB prison under the trumped up charges of being a spy. Most of the five years he spent in this interrogation facility were in solitary confinement. The next fifteen years of his life were spent in a gulag in Siberia. In spite of the extremely hard labour and starvation diet, Ciszek was able to work as a priest in this labour camp. He heard confessions, celebrated mass, baptized, and even gave guided retreats to his fellow labourers. After being released from the Gulag he was able to minister in three Russian cities before being repatriated to the United States at the age of fifty-eight.

The profound level that this book is written on, however, is that it tells of his spiritual formation through all this time. For instance, as he was contemplating his existence in a hard labour camp in Siberia he writes, “I realized then, and I felt I more deeply each day, that true freedom meant nothing else than letting God operate within my soul without interference, giving preference to God’s will as manifested in the promptings, inspirations, and other means he chose to communicate, rather than in acting on my own initiatives.” If I were to say something like that one might says ho hum. But when this comes in the midst of a narrative that is taking place in forced labour camp it means something.

This book was good for my spiritual life. It was also a great story to read.

If you want to get a quick sense of his life  you can watch this 10 minute Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2KqRzYsOc8 

 

Guerrillas of Grace – by Ted Loder

I am not a bit fan of poetry, although my spiritual formation professor would say that there are four things that get around our defense systems: Poetry, Questions, Humour, and Story.

This book is broken down into different categories. The prayers are extremely honest. I found them often expressing my heart – both the good and the bad.

What I found is that this book has some great starter prayers. Have you ever gone to prayer and not known where to start or how to express your heart to God? This book, I found helped me to express myself.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to both augment their prayer life and stimulate their prayer life. These prayers are written in a poetic style. A book like this could help me become a fan of poetry.

 

Change your questions, Change your life.

This book was recommended to me by a friend. It is a business book. The main premise of the book is that our situations become defined by the questions we ask ourselves.

Learning to ask the right questions is a matter of mindset. It basically breaks out questions in two categories. One either asks questions with a learners mindset or a judgers mindset. (See map below)

While this is not a Christian book I believe that many Christians approach the world through a judgers mindset. We tend to assume we know what the other person is talking about and we tend to assume that we know that we are right.

This is not so much about the bible’s injunction not to judge. This is more about humility. We often fall into the trap of pride thinking that we understand when we don’t.

This book is written in a story format, and therefore it is really easy to read. While the book makes dramatic claims that it will change your life. I tend to put this in the category of wisdom. There is wisdom in this book.