From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
In reference to one of your latest posts, do you have any solid book recommendations for young men discerning priesthood. A lot of the stuff usually recommended is emotionally based and does little in the way of sacerdotal theology.
This is interesting. I had this same question this morning in the sacristy after Mass! I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to receive such a question.
Immediately there comes to mind…
(This book is good for a range of ages.)
For someone maybe a little older…
I would be delighted to receive – FROM PRIESTS – other suggestions. Please, Fathers, send them in.
The moderation queue is on.
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To Save a Thousand Souls by Fr Bannon
US HERE – UK HERE
Fr. Reginald Garrison-Lagrange: “The Priest in Union with Christ.”
US HERE – UK HERE
I highly recommend for boys 14 and over (and young adult men 18 to 35) the book No Turning Back by Father Donald Calloway. I read it myself about five or six years ago. As a man who grew up in the same generation as Father Calloway, I could relate to it very well.
I also recommend The Grunt Padre by Father Daniel Mode (CDR, CHC, USNR).
There is an older book (about 60 years old) titled A Vessel of Clay by Leo Trese. I may have spelled it wrong, and about ten years ago I read parts of it. My recollection is it has more theology. Abebooks would be a good place to find it.
The above-listed are superb recommendations. Let me add:
The Shadow of His Wings by Goldman
Biography of The Cure of Ads (St. John Vianney) by Abbé Trochu
Priests for the Third Millennium by Timothy Dolan
Death Comes for the Archbishop (a novel) by Willa Cather
Any of the books of Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ
Treasure in Clay by Fulton Sheen
“The Priest, The Man of God” by St. Jospeh Cafasso.
Available from Amazon HERE
Cardinal Manning- “The Eternal Priesthood” https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eternal-Priesthood-Henry-Edward-Manning/dp/1500891320
When God Asks You For An Undivided Heart by Fr. Andrew Apostoli—-excellent for anyone discerning the call to lifelong celibacy. It is beautifully yet pragmatically written.
A Clay of Vessel by Father Leo John Trese. It was written in 1950. I tried to copy the image from Amazon, but I was unable to do so.
About Being a Priest, Federico Suarez.
Available on Amazon through 3rd party sellers.
Three from the realm of fiction.
The Diary of a Country Priest by Bernarnos
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Cather
The Power and the Glory by Greene
The Bernarnos really understands and displays the profound loneliness and solitude a priest can experience when he is offering what the parishioners may need but may not want
Though Cather is not Catholic she captures the priest’s authentic need for holy and intimate friendships rooted in Christ.
Greene offers a priest that would prefer to feed his own passions and has. The unnamed priest would rather leave all behind and save his skin, but the needs of the flock keep calling him back even when it results in his own death.
My 3 cents anyways.
A Priest Forever by Fr. Benedict Groeschel CFR.
Generations of Priests by Thomas J McGovern
Letters to Priests, St. John Paul II
Letters to My Brothers, Msgr. Stephen Rossetti
Strengthen your Brothers, Archbishop Sartain
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Oh, books, books! Wonderful books!