Contemplative Soul Book Recommendations

De Mello's spiritual classic remains at the top of the Fount bestsellers more than five years after its original publication. One of  the most gifted spiritual guides of the 20th century, de Mello uses humour, compassion and insight to help his readers into a real  understanding of the importance of "awareness" in understanding  ourselves and the world around us. Awareness is a comprehensive  spiritual guide filled with wisdom as it tackles life's big  questions--love, anger and fear, change, suffering, happiness and loss.

A hidden, heartfelt mystery is unfolding within the pages of Whispers From the Sanctuary.  In this book, Conor McCourt invites the reader to explore this  spiritual, thirty-day guide bound in contemporary Christian Mysticism.  Through prayers, reflections, and meditations, the reader receives  subtle messages, allowing them to expand and deepen the roots of their  faith. Mystical and spiritual contemplations illuminate a path to a  veiled reality, a hidden realm untarnished by egoic concepts. As the  heart begins to open and discover its essence through the lens of  devotion, the soul's greatest intention, at last, reveals itself. 

Brother Lawrence was a man of humble beginnings who discovered the  greatest secret of living in the kingdom of God here on earth. It is  the art of "practicing the presence of God in one single act that does  not end." He often stated that it is God who paints Himself in the  depths of our soul. We must merely open our hearts to receive Him and  His loving presence. For centuries this unparalleled classic has given  both blessing and instruction to those who can be content with nothing  less than knowing God in all His majesty and feeling His loving presence  throughout each simple day. Inspirational classic

Two and a half years before her death in 1897 at the age of 24, as  Thérèse Martin began writing down her childhood memories at the request of her blood sisters in the Lisieux Carmel, few could have guessed the  eventual outcome. Yet this Story of my soul, first published in 1898 in a  highly edited version, quickly became a modern spiritual classic, read  by millions and translated into dozens of languages around the world.
Decades later, in response to growing requests from scholars and  devotees of the Saint, a facsimile edition of the manuscripts appeared,  along with more popular French editions of what the Saint had actually  written. Here, expressed with all of Thérèse's original spontaneity and  fervor, we rediscover the great themes of her spirituality: confidence  and love, the little way, abandonment to God's merciful love. 

For all who have ever sought to understand the enigmas of life,  for those who have held within their hearts an uncertain hope about the  reality of God, and for seekers who have already turned toward the  Supreme in their quest, this anthology of talks by the author of Autobiography of a Yogi offers illuminating insights and encouragement. In its pagese,  Paramahansa Yogananda explores little-known and rarely explained aspects  of such subjects as meditation, life after death, health and healing,  the unlimited powers of the human mind, the equality of man and woman,  and the interrelatedness of all life.

Inspiring, joyful, and deeply insightful--this book offers daily  contemplations and words of wisdom from one of today's most important  spiritual teachers. Thich Nhat Hanh is, with His Holiness the Dalai  Lama, the best-known Buddhist teacher in the world, and his teachings  have touched millions. These powerful and transformative words of  wisdom, drawn from the works of this best-selling and prolific author,  touch all aspects of our lives, from the personal to the global, and  reflect the great themes of Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings: how the  practice of mindfulness brings joy and insight into every moment of our  lives; how to transcend fear and other negative emotions; how to  transform our relationships through love, presence, and deep listening;  and how to practice peace for our world.

This revised edition of The Collected Works of St. John of the  Cross was produced to mark the fourth centenary of the death of St. John  of the Cross (1542 1591). The result is an English translation of his  writings that preserves the authentic meaning of the great mystic's  writings, presents them as clearly as possible, and at the same time  gives the reader the doctrinal and historical information that will lead  to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the teachings of the  Mystical Doctor.

Included in The Collected Works are St. John's poetry, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night, The Spiritual Canticle, and The Living Flame of Love, as well as his extant letters and other counsels.

As no sensible person would make a long road trip without first  consulting a map, so the person intent upon gaining Heaven should first resort to a competent guide to reach that Goal of all goals. And no better guide to Heaven exists than An Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Doctor of the Church. It is at  once easy to read, being laid out in short chapters, yet thorough,  authoritative, reliable, kind and gentle a mirror of its author. It is a  book, moreover, for all, because all are called to the devout life.  True devotion to God, the author points out, adorns every vocation. The  devout life, moreover, is a lovely, a pleasant, and a happy life. (p. 5) 

This is a little book about soul freedom. It is a book about  discovering the secret to all the things we most desire: contentment,  meaning, peace of mind, and true freedom. This skillfully edited  translation of selections from the writings of Meister Eckhart provides a  roadmap to the spiritual life for contemporary seekers. Eckhart takes  us on a journey of discovery; a journey in which we learn to let go,  relinquish our need to know everything, and lose those things that we  think are important for a life of worth. And in the end he shows us that  the true secret is this: to find yourself, you must lose yourself.

Celebrated for almost five centuries as a master of spiritual literature, 16th-century saint Teresa of Avila is one of the most beloved religious figures in history. Overcome one day by a mystical  vision of a crystal castle with seven chambers, each representing a  different stage in spiritual development, Teresa immediately wrote The Interior Castle.  Probably her most important and widely studied work, it guides the  spiritual seeker through each stage of development until the soul's  final union with the divine. Free of religious dogma, this modern  translation renders St. Teresa's work a beautiful and practical set of  teachings for seekers of all faiths in need of spiritual guidance. It  also places this classic book on spirituality —"a gem of mystical  literature made accessible and relevant to the modern spiritual seeker"  –Sharon Salzberg—in a contemporary context, reasserting its literary  importance even after more than 400 years.

With a new Preface by the noted writer Madeleine L'Engle, author of nearly fifty books of fiction and non-fiction, including A Wrinkle in Time.  St. Francis of Assisi's ecstatic embrace of a life of poverty  revolutionized Christianity even as it transformed the ethics of the  West. In this luminous and lively book, St. Francis's followers  preserved his legend and those of his first disciples, combining stories  of miracles with convincing portraits of men who were no less human for  having been touched by God.

"God is our home but many of us have  strayed from our native land.  The venerable authors of these Spiritual  Classics are expert guides--may we follow their directions home."
--Archbishop Desmond Tutu 

Reading Francis's writings is like being "on the road" with him 800 years ago.

Biographies will only take you so far. It's impossible to truly  understand Francis of Assisi without reading his own words. A scholar  and lover of Francis, Sweeney has added six writings to his bestselling  compilation, additional texts that we're most certain came from Francis  himself. Now, short writings such as "The Form of Life He Wished for  Clare," "The Sermon to the Birds," and "The Source of True Joy," combine  with Francis's Rules, letters, messages, songs, praises, canticles, and  final spiritual Testament in a most ideal introduction to the saint. An  expanded introduction and notes add historical and theological context.

New Seeds of Contemplation is  one of Thomas Merton's most widely read and best-loved books. Christians  and non-Christians alike have joined in praising it as a notable  successor in the meditative tradition of St. John of the Cross, The Cloud of Unknowing, and the medieval mystics, while others have compared Merton's reflections with those of Thoreau. New Seeds of Contemplation seeks to awaken the dormant inner depths of the spirit so long  neglected by Western man, to nurture a deeply contemplative and mystical  dimension in our lives. For Merton, "Every moment and every event of  every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the  wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it  germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds  and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost,  because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these  cannot spring up anywhere except in the soil of freedom, spontaneity and  love."

This  book explores both the psychological and spiritual dimensions of the  life of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. The basic premise of this book is that  the spiritual life is not an encapsulated sphere, cloistered from the  realities of our human existence. Rather it is our response to God  within the physical, psychological, social and emotional dimensions of  life.

St. Therese did not grow in holiness apart from the human  condition. Like all of us, she was emotionally scarred by the  fragileness of life. She was deeply wounded by the death of her mother  at the age of four, bedridden as the result of a neurotic episode when  she was ten, struggled with debilitating scruples most of her life, and  suffered an agonizing dark night of faith.

St. Therese was no plaster statue saint. Her life was a real life. As it unfolds before us on the pages of Story of a Soul,  we see a pilgrim soul who made her way home to God through many raging  storms and dark nights. The specific nature of Therese's trials may  differ from our own, but psychological and emotional suffering are our  common lot. For example, we may not have know the pain of our mother  dying when we were four, but most of us have know the pain of the loss  of a loved one. The sufferings that we share with Therese are universal -  physical pain, anxiety, anger, sadness, depression, loneliness, doubts  of faith, to name a few. These sufferings make doing the will of God  difficult, but they are the context of our choices. They are the context  of holiness. 

The Imitation of Christ is one  of the most popular works of Christian devotion and popular piety. Many  of its chapters take up only a single page or two, but they are packed  with spiritual insights that continue to bear fruit long after the first  reading. These bite-sized chapters make the work easy to read and  exceptionally approachable - perfect for use as a daily prayer  meditation or devotional.

Thomas à Kempis was born in 1379 or  1380 in Kempen, Germany. At the age of thirteen, he followed his brother  John to university at Deventer, in Holland, and then into religious  life at the nearby town of Windesheim. There, Thomas joined a community  of Canons Regular and became part of a fledgling spiritual revival known  as the devotio moderna. This work, The Imitation of Christ,  would become a seminal text capturing the spirit of this movement and  its eager desire to return to a true, humble, and authentic devotion to  Christ. It has since become the most widely read book on Christianity  apart from the Bible.