Growing up, I was never a studious person. Studying felt like a punishment. All I wanted to do was play outside, play video games with my neighbour, or just do nothing. I didn’t like to study because I despised reading. I would only read if I had to read because of book reports and lessons from a textbook. I would skip paragraphs and pages just to get to the end of the book faster. When it came to reading and studying, I always looked for the shortest, easiest way possible and do the least amount of work. It wasn’t until I started asking questions about life and my faith that I began to appreciate the value of reading.
I guess the desire to read came at the same time I was maturing as a person. I started asking questions like who am I? Why am I here? What’s the purpose of life? Why am I Catholic? What does it mean to be Catholic? Who is Mary? Does God really exist? Who is Jesus, really? Why should I care about others? Why is there so much suffering in the world? Why do I suffer? What’s the point of service? And many other questions. I didn’t ask these questions all at once, but few by few. Slowly and gently, the Lord helped me and continues to help me find answers to the questions I had and still have. I realized that all these answers could be found if I truly sought them by using the intellect the Lord gave me. Thus started my love affair with amazon.com.
However, before reading books from amazon, I started with the New Testament. I thought to myself, if I was going to start somewhere, might as well start with the words of Jesus. What actually urged me to read the New Testament was a recent break up during that time. I had been in a serious relationship and when it ended I was lost and confused. My friends would give me advice but nothing seemed to stick. I finally gave up and surrendered. I told God that I would give Him a chance to speak to me so I picked up this Bible I received when I joined Kids for Christ back in 1996. I never read it once since my Kids Camp graduation and only started reading it 10 years later. God is funny. Long story short, it took me only two weeks to read it because I couldn’t put it down! Every word felt like it was jumping off the pages and I never felt that before by just reading something. Every time it was Jesus speaking, it felt like He was speaking directly to my heart and mysteriously answering the questions I had that came from deep wounds. I experienced indescribable consolation and when I finished reading the New Testament, I felt like a different person.
After the Bible, the Lord led me to rediscover my faith and learn about who I am and Who He is through reading and studying. Here’s a list of the books that initiated me on the path of life-long study (chronological order):
- “Rediscover Catholicism” by Matthew Kelly
- Started me on my journey to taking my faith seriously.
- “The Rhythm of Life” by Matthew Kelly
- Helped me find meaning in my life. Gave me a sense of purpose.
- “The Seven Level of Intimacy” by Matthew Kelly
- Helped me start to understand the many relationships in my life.
- “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by the late Stephen R. Covey
- Holistically helped me to mature as a person in the world.
- “Reasons to Believe” by Scott Hahn
- Started my journey to going even deeper with my catholic faith.
- “The Love that Satisfies” by Christopher West
- Helped me begin to understand the meaning of life, love, and freedom, inspired by the teaching of Bl. Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.
The books mentioned are just the few that really started my journey. I highly recommend reading more from those authors to learn more about the faith. I also hope that you find your favourite authors. Everyone has a different style. Matthew Kelly is great if you’re just starting off. He is very practical and his style is conversational and very easy to read but still packed with enough to chew on.
The beauty of our faith is that it is so rich, that’s why it’s described as a banquet. We are privileged to have the fullness of Truth and we have 2000 years of resources to learn from; from Jesus, to the Apostles, the Saints, Popes, great Holy Men and Women of God, and so many contemporary authors and individuals who truly have a gift of teaching the faith. Let’s take advantage of these opportunities and allow the Lord to feed us with Truth. Our souls truly long for it. Let us study and read for the sake of loving God and loving our neighbour to the fullest capacity that He has created each of us. Let’s study for the sake of a better witness to the joy of the Gospel.
“You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.”
–St. Francis de Sales