If you’re up for some spiritual reading, I thought it would be fun to list the theological/spiritual/Catholic nonfiction that has most shaped me.

• G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Eternally hopeful, the master of wit, and the apostle of common sense, Chesterton is just irreplaceable. He helped convert C.S. Lewis, and he helped me keep my sanity in grad school.
• John Henry Newman, Apologia pro vita sua. Newman’s spiritual autobiography will be my next re-read. I consider him my saint twinsie because we are so alike in temperament and in the way we think, the type of things that move and motivate us, and how our minds work–expect he is WAY smarter, and also holy. He’s the greatest inspiration to me!
• St. Augustine, Confessions. Like Peter Kreeft says, this book is a powerhouse because it is a prayer. It is an amazing work, and Augustine’s famous line from the first paragraph (“You have made us for yourself, O God, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”) sparked the journey that led to my conversion experience in 2014.
• St. Teresa of Avila, Vida. St. Teresa is another hero of mine. I haven’t quite finished this from when I brought it to the monastery . . . I’m reading it in the original Spanish, given my background in Golden Age Spanish lit. She is just a treasure. An amazing life . . . such risks she took on faith! Such joy!
• Abadonment to Divine Providence, Jean Pierre de Caussade. A classic, beautiful to help you start on the road to holiness.