Category Archives: The Reading Life

Book and article recommendations

#GoodRead: The Soul of the Apostolate

51EgYz5JPYL._AC_US160_I’ve been reading through some spiritual classics recently, and I have to say that Jean-Baptiste Chautard’s The Soul of the Apostolate is one of the most important books for all Christians to read, and vitally important for anyone involved in Christian ministry. (I don’t think that I am one prone to hyperbole — there’s a reason that this one is on most people’s lists of must-read spiritual classics.) While it is a heavy-hitter in terms of impact on your life and spiritual insight, it is very accessible. It’s main argument is profoundly simple — the interior life of the soul should be the priority of the Christian’s life. Though the book was written about 100 years ago, it is eerily prophetic of 21st century Christian ministry. The book will both convict you and exhort you regarding your interior life, your life of prayer. Here are some topics that Chautard addresses, as well as some quotes from the book, which I hope entice you to read it for yourself:

The “interior life” is what gives life to all our good works:

“Our interior life ought to be the stem, filled with vigorous sap, of which our works are the flowers” (p. 42).

We cannot give what we do not have:

“As a mother cannot suckle her child except in so far as she feeds herself, so confessor, spiritual directors, preachers, catechists, professors must first of all assimilate the substance with which they are later to feed the children of the church” (p.43). This reminds me of the flight attendants’ warning before all take-offs: “…attach your own oxygen mask first…”

How the priest’s (or pastor, ministry leader, etc.) spirituality impacts those being led:

“If the priest is a saint (the saying goes), the people will be fervent; if the priest is fervent, the people will be pious; if the priest is pious, the people will at least be decent. But if the priest is only decent, the people will be godless. The spiritual generation is always one degree less intense in its life than those who beget it in Christ” (p. 34).

How much God prefers our intimacy (diamonds) over our activity (sapphires):

“A jeweler will prefer the smallest fragment of diamond to several sapphires; and so, in the order established by God, our intimacy with Him gives Him more glory than all possible good, procured by us, for a great number of souls, but to the detriment of our own progress” (p. 37).

How much Satan doesn’t want us to have an intimate prayer life:

“But as for Satan, he, on the contrary, does not hesitate to encourage a purely superficial success, if he can by this success prevent the apostle from making progress in the interior life…To get rid of a diamond, he is quite willing to allow us a few sapphires” (p. 37).

Quiet is often the sign of a healthy interior life:

“You will soon find out that noise does not do much good–and that what is good doesn’t make much noise” (p. 45).

The interior life is the key to holiness:

“…holiness is nothing but the interior life carried to such a point that the will is in close union with the will of God…” (p. 63).

One really big reason the interior life is important:

“Not until we have formed Christ within ourselves will we find it easy to give Him to families and to societies” (p.79).

I encourage you to read this one for yourself. It really pulled my heart to prioritize time with God in my daily life. How is your interior life? How is God calling you to spend time with Him before any other good activity?

#GOOD READ: Tim Keller – “Every Good Endeavor”

every_good_endeavor_sm2_thumbPastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC was on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning talking about the message of his newest book, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work. I have not yet read the book, but something Keller said on the show this morning touched on one of the key points I have been making in my recent series of posts on vocation rhetoric. I have argued that we as Christians have been co-opted into the rhetoric and lifestyle of our occupation-centric culture, and the following statement from Keller suggests the harmful consequences of that phenomenon:

…When you make your work your identity, which of course is what we are invited to do in our culture now…you identify with your work, and that means if you are successful it destroys you because it goes to your head. If you are not successful it destroys you because it goes to your heart, and it destroys your self-worth; and what you need with faith is that it gives you an identity that is not in work or accomplishment, and that gives you insulation against the weather changes. So if you are successful you stay humble; if you are not successful you have some ballast…making your work your identity — kind of an idol, to use biblical terminology — is maybe the big sin of New York City.

You can view the whole interview on Morning Joe’s website. I look forward to reading Keller’s book, as the interview sparked my interest and raised many interesting questions in my mind.

A Dr. Seuss Worldview

Dr. Seuss’s children’s books have been cherished classics for decades, and they have recently gained a fresh spotlight thanks to Hollywood film adaptations of The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Who, and (most recently) The Lorax. They are beloved stories that contain timeless truth…but they are more than that.

As soon as I found out that I was pregnant with our first child I began purchasing every Dr. Seuss book I could find. I was so excited for an excuse to finally get started on my collection. We are currently well on our way to collecting every Dr. Seuss book in print, thanks to used books stores, library sales, and Amazon (when all second-hand options have been exhausted). My son, who is now 16-months-old, loves books, and I am delighted to say that Dr. Seuss is one of his favorites. In fact, I think our family has figured out that I am trying to indoctrinate him early.

I can’t deny it. Anyone  who observes our reading times together will realize very quickly that I love the books more than he does. I love the illustrations, the poetry, and the phrasing. I love the honest and mischievous tone in the writing. I love how my soul feels reading the fanciful stories that deliver such poignant truths. I want to to see the world from a Dr. Seuss perspective–a Dr. Seuss “worldview”–and I want may son to do so as well. In fact, I wish everyone would.

“Dr. Seuss has a worldview?” you might ask with skepticism. Oh yes! No, it may not be the systematic, answers-all-of-life’s-questions, wraps-it-up-in-a-tight-package-with-a-bow conceptualization of “worldview,” which many Christian apologists construct and to which they adhere. But it has a worldview. It is actually a view of the world that rejects a systematic, mystery-absent, apologetic approach to thinking about the world. Suess presents a world that one can and should approach with humility and a sense of wonder. You hope as a parent that you model the approach to life that you want your children to possess with wild abandon. I have often thought during those precious moments reading with my son that he (and I) would both get along just fine if we maintain a spirit of humility and sense of wonder in our search for knowledge and the day-to-day rituals we live-out in our journey of life.

For those who have never considered such an underlying worldview in these popular children’s books–or if you have not ventured much further than The Lorax or The Cat in the Hat–here are a few titles (some with my favorite excerpts) to check out — the crème de la crème in my opinion.

Oh the Places You’ll Go:

“You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump. And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.”

 

On Beyond Zebra:

“In the places I go there are things that I see that I never could spell if I stopped with the Z. I’m telling you this ’cause you’re one of my friends. My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!”

 

Horton Hears a Who:

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

 

And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street

 

McElligot’s Pool