Books That Have Formed My Spirituality, 2 of 3

March 16, 2019

This is the smaller counterpart of the trustful, well this one was "Abandonment to Divine Providence", and this one is "Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence". And this one. Everything's backwards to QuickTime; you're probably not going to be able to read these titles unless you hold a mirror in front of them.

But anyway, this is the short copy. And I have some of these books here, and once in a while I'll send them to people who write to me. And please, if you don't have the money for a book and you need one, please write to me and I'll send it to you, if I have it.

Okay. Here's a couple of Bible Promises. This one is very, very simple and I'm trying to see the version is the New Life version. So. And it's divided up into topics. And so you pray and allow Holy Spirit to open for you. We get obedience again. Obedience.

And this is very informative, and this is very much like drawing lots, which is what the priests did, and these books are oracles of God because they speak to your heart and they're written by holy men and women who have gone before. And they do speak to your heart, and so they can be used as an oracle to give you guidance and to what direction you should go.

So, that's the New Life version. And I also have the Bible Promise book, the Catholic version, which is more substantial in Scripture. I like it very much. I open to "marriage" and it's a very nice book.

"Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ; wives should be subject to their husbands as to the Lord since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife and as the church is subject to Christ, so should wives be subject to their husbands in everything." Ephesians 5:12

The NJ Bible; I'm not sure what that is; I'm not sure what version that is. But this is a little meatier; more meat than the standard Bible Promises.

Let's see, I already told you about Faustina. Okay, so there's a saint, okay. This is St. Thérèse of Lisieux this is not the cover, it's a cover I put on it. So, the title is The Complete Doctrine of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower. She was a Carmelite nun.

This is a great book. She had a very intimate love for the Lord; very fine love for the Lord and, as you can see, I've used this one a lot. The simplicity in Thérèse's method of mantel prayer, "Although she was repeatedly favored with high mystical graces, she never became attached to them, nor did she aspire to such things. She even considered it contrary to humility to entertain the desire for such graces."

Well, the bottom line is the Lord gives us those graces to strengthen us. And I don't think we should ever have; I don't think we should ever push them away, because He knows our frame, and He knows we need it. I think we should always receive those things with joy.

But not hunger after them, because if you develop that kind of an attitude, it's like you're a mercenary. "Well, I'll pray as long as I get consolations." Or it leaves you open to a familiar spirit, because your motives aren't pure. Do you want to be entertained, or have spiritual life and gifts?

"To all ecstasies, she preferred the monotony of an obscure sacrifice; hence, she did not like it when others expressed their belief that she was favored with extraordinary graces. Or when they hoped she would receive some. Having been asked, whether she had an intuition regarding her approaching death; she replied, 'Oh Mother, do you say intuition? If you only knew my poverty. I see only what you yourself know. I guess I know only what I actually happen to actually see and feel.'"

So, she also talks a lot about Holy Communion and how beautiful it was. And she talks about her Little Way, which is the Way of Love. And we're very much committed to that teaching and that way. I see a page that talks about that.

"On the eve of the Feast of Her Lady of Mt. Carmel, a novice remarked that if Thérèse were to die on that day after receiving Holy Communion, it would mean so much less suffering for her. 'Oh, replied Thérèse. 'That would not be like my little way at all. It would mean that I am abandoning that way in my own death; to die of love after my Communion. Little souls would then be unable to imitate me in this. In my Little Way, all things are common and ordinary. It is necessary that all that I do, little souls should be able to do, also."

Oh, that is so important, and God Bless the Catholic Church. They exalted her to a doctor of the church because of this teaching. And if that isn't the essence of love and humility, I don't know what it is.

So, she is not only a Saint, but a Doctor of the Church putting forth a doctrine for the salvation of our souls. That was her heart. Very powerful. She is one of our intercessors and oversees us; she and St. Francis.

And as a matter of fact, someone asked us once did we have a name for our order when I was wearing my gray habit, which I almost put on today. And the answer was Franciscan Oblates of St. Carmel, because our spirituality has come from those two sources.

So, that's St. Thérèse. Okay, so now we'll go to St. Francis.

This book is wonderful, but really. The Little Flowers of Saint Frances is what I would start with. If you're serious, really serious, and would love to read the events in Francis's life and understand why he is such a great Saint, this is definitely the book to get.

Yeah, it's a big one, alright. And I don't know if you can... Well, it's going to be backwards anyway, but that's the St. Francis of Assisi Omnibus of Sources.

This book has formed my heart, probably more than any other book next to the Scriptures and The Imitation of Mary. And I'm heading back in that direction more and more every day.

Okay, so, let's see here; "How St. Francis wanted the brothers to learn and how he appeared to a companion who was devoting himself to preaching."

This is the Life written by Chillano, The Second Life, by Chillano, of St. Francis.

"Francis was sad if learning was sought to the neglect of virtue, especially if each did not remain in the calling in which he was called from the beginning. 'My brothers,' he said, 'who are being led by curious craving after learning will find their hand empty on the day of retribution.'

Oh dear, how many people are seeking after knowledge and are still so weak in virtue, weak in obedience, weak in humility, weak in virtue. It's very, very sad. There's an appearance of holiness there. But obedience, prompt obedience, and humility. And a craving. Yeah, obedience and humility are missing, because that craving for knowledge is spurred on by pride. To know, to know, to know is spurred on many times by pride. Unless the Lord actually sets you to it and He wants you to learn more about something.

But to neglect the virtues, which was Francis's whole thing. To neglect those virtues to be able to study and to accumulate knowledge is a terrible, terrible blindness. And this is part of the thing that has happened with Church.

Volumes and volumes and volumes on liturgy, on holiness, and on so many things. But the actual practice of humility and love. You can't really be humble and loving if you're a great orator or a great scholar, unless you're an extraordinary soul. And you've realized, 'Okay. So, I have these gifts for speaking to people. I have these gifts for writing.

But that's not what's important. What's really important is "Do I love my brother as myself and am I obedient? Am I humble when I am asked to do something by someone above me or do I question and go through it?"

So, he goes on to say, 'My brothers', he said, 'who are being led away, led by curious craving after learning.'

Flat Earth? Or round Earth?

'...will find their hand empty on the day of retribution. I want them to be made strong, rather, in virtues. So that when the times of tribulation come, they will have the Lord with them in their distress. For tribulation will come,' he said. 'Such that books will be useful for nothing; will be thrown out of the windows and into cubby holes.'

"He did not say this because Scripture study displeased him, but in order that he might withdraw all the brothers from a vain desire for learning and because he wanted them to be good in charity rather than superficially learned through curiosity."

This is huge, guys; this is huge for the Church right now. Alphabet soup at the end of a name means absolutely zilch as far as holiness is concerned. And yet people are still impressed by that and still invited to speak at conferences. And you know, love may be there. And humility may be there, and praise God if it is. But if we're always seeking after knowledge, then we've missed it.

The heart of the law is love. And knowledge only puffs us up. It really does. You know when I start getting like I, you know, study Scripture reading. And I get a light about it, I get an understanding about it. I can feel myself already trying to say, wow, good job. Ha! You know, as if I was the one who it came from, that's the joke.

It came from the Lord. But that tends to happen when you have degrees and a lot of learning, and so many people go to seminary and come out unbelievers. What's wrong with that picture? There's something wrong there. This just doesn't fit; going to seminary and coming out an unbeliever.

Okay, so. "He also sensed that times would not be long in coming when he knew that knowledge would be an occasion of ruin. But the striving after spiritual things would be a bulwark, a safety to the spirit. To a lay brother who wanted to have a psalter and asked him permission for it, he offered ashes in its place.

"Appearing in a vision after death to one of his companions who was once giving much time to preaching, Francis forbade him to do this and commanded him to walk in the way of simplicity.

"God is my witness that after this vision he felt sweetness to the extent that for several days the dew-laden words of his father seemed still to ring in his ears."

And he was accredited with so many, so many miracles. It's just incredible, the miracles.

And he has one of these wonderful little stories that they tell, you know. Where you really want to imitate them. I'm trying to find one.

Well, I can tell you one. St. Francis was on the road with a brother and they were on the way somewhere and there was this purse, this bulging purse in the middle of the road. And the lay brother right away thought, or the brother, new brother. He was a postulant, I think. He was questioning. He wanted to run and pick it up and take the money and give it to the poor. And St. Francis says, no, don't do that. That purse does not belong to you; somebody else lost it ,so it's not your money.

And I taught my kids when they were really young, if you see something that belongs to someone else, you know, pick it up off the dirt and put it on the side where someone can see it. But don't take it; it doesn't belong to you. They may come back looking for it. And how many times have you gone out looking for something you lost, and it's gone, because someone picked it up. That's painful.

Anyway, they were walking down the road and St Francis knew by the Spirit of the Lord that this novice was still rolling over in his mind how much good he could do for the poor if he picked that purse up and took the money. So, they got to a certain point, and St. Francis sent him back and said, 'Okay, brother, go, go get the purse.' So, he turned around and went to get the purse and when he picked it up a huge snake jumped out. Hahaha! Oh boy! And that was a little lesson; the Lord allowed that.

I don't know, maybe he even prayed, 'Lord, would you put a snake in that purse so this brother will get the point?' But he has wonderful stories like that in the omnibus. This is a book that is so worthwhile having.

Okay. Let's see what else we've got. Oh, I like this book. Letters to a Beginner. This is an orthodox nun; Abbess Thaisia of Leushino I think. Abbess Thaisia. And for all the bad mouth that people give nuns, they have no idea what these women go through for the love of God. And how much wisdom they have, maturity. And they just don't get it.

And I saw this and I thought, 'Well, I'm not a beginner.' And then I thought, 'No, I'm a beginner; I need to hear the basic things again and again.' So, I got this book, and I'm so glad I did. Because she really, she really goes through the questions that a new, brother or sister might have.

And for those of us who want to live a monastic life style, want to have a monastic heart, totally devoted to the Lord and free from clutter of the world--this is a good book. It's really good.

And let's see. I'll tell you what some of these chapters are, if I can find it. Okay guys, here we go. By the way, our holy orders are Western Right Orthodox.

"So, upon entering the monastery

~The origin of monasticism,

~on obedience,

~on the duties of a singer,

~on excess in attire,

~on superfluous cares,

~on idle talking, gossip,

~on the inevitability of sorrows;

~on illness and their cures,

~on prayer,

~on mental prayer and on the tonsure in monasticism; (that's when they cut your hair. For women they cut it short and for men they shave the top of their heads.)

And it's a lovely little book. And she's very, very skilled with Scriptures, by the way. I love that. I opened up to "A Mutual Love," it's on the last page. She says here, "The Lord did not require ten talents from him who had received only two. And as He distributed them according to the strength of each, so He also collected them according to the strength of their offering.

"And we, as merciless torturers of each other, often ask from our fellow creatures that which we cannot even fulfill ourselves. And certainly, would not have fulfilled if we had been in their place.

"And so, seek any correction, first of all in yourself. And when, with the help of God's blessing, you attain this, in proportion to your strength, then surely you will be able to see your fellow creatures, all your sisters as favorable, good and kind.

"First cast out the beam of thine own eye, and then thou shall see clearly to cast out the mote of their brothers."

So, that's Matthew 7. She's very Scriptural oriented and it's a beautiful spirituality; really beautiful.

Okay, Chronicles of the Bride. These are our experiences in Heaven. I think most of you probably are familiar with these already. Half of it is Ezekiel's experiences, and the other half is mine. And this is a wonderful book for understanding how grateful the Lord is for everything we do for Him; every little thing.

When I had these experiences that I wrote down in Chronicles of the Bride, I was absolutely flabbergasted; I came out of these heavenly experiences with my head spinning. I just could make no sense of it. I didn't understand; I had done nothing to merit the kind of gifts that the Lord had shown me were waiting for me in Heaven. Nothing! I could not reconcile what He had prepared for me in life, of how I lived my life.

And so, I think this book gives a lot of hope. And it's also very passionate about loving Him and about our feelings of love. Ezekiel is very straightforward about his deep love for the Lord, and his conversations with the Lord as His Bride. Not as a man, but as a woman as His bride; the conversations they had back and forth, and it's very enlightening. I love this book. I'd like to pull out more chronicles to share with you, and we're thinking about doing that.

Okay, another book, The Call by Rick Joyner. And all of Rick Joyner's things are just about solid gold. Although we don't agree on the early church that I know of. Because we draw from things that have happened in the Lord's Church since the very beginning but are not really in agreement with Rome.

You know, we might not be agreeable, Rick Joyner and I, but it doesn't matter. He is a wonderful prophet of God; he's got some wonderful analogies and allegories for the condition of the Church. I highly recommend you read him.

One of the things that stuck in my mind the most was in the vision when. A vision when the Lord put him in a prison yard, on a prison wall. And he saw this woman wearing, you know, like guard duty kind of clothes carrying a gun. And this was prison walls, you know. With barbed wires all around. And he said to this lady, he said, "Why is this a prison? What's going on here; why are you here?" She looked at him and she said, "Prison? This isn't a prison, this is a school. We are forming young minds."

Oh my gosh.

What I've experienced in the evangelical church, and I've seen it in the Catholic church, too. But what I've experienced is that it just made me laugh because, wow. It's exactly what was going on. It's like, 'You can't come in here with your new doctrine and spoil my parade! You know, 'You can't come in here with your ideas and whatever!' You know. So many churches hold people back.

It's tragic; it's so tragic because we need every gift in the Body. The Church should be building up charisms and training people up, not closing the door on them and telling them to sit down and shut up. "Just don't forget to bring your tithe, okay?" Anyway, I'm sorry. I'd better behave.

The Call is wonderful, because this lady was convinced that she was guarding these children down in the courtyard. And there were groups of people; there were adults actually, and different groups of adults that had formed little cells down there, you know; a little clique. And she was making sure that nothing got in there that would spoil it in the way of teachings and what-have-you. She was making sure, "Okay, we'll check out your credentials to see where you come from. What do you mean, a prison guard?? What do you mean, a gun; this is my Bible."

You know; it's funny. But I've seen it so much and that's what I try to avoid; I've been a victim of it I can't tell you how many times. But I think you can probably figure that out.

Okay, so, that is that book.

Now here's a really nice book called The Spiritual Diary. It's a spiritual diary; and I'm trying to think. It's published by St. Paul Books. I changed the cover, but I don't have the exact title; it's called Spiritual Diary, that's it. And this is really a neat book for rhemas; I mean really neat for rhemas.

Here's January's: Perfection; February: Humility. March: Mortifications. Oh yeah, Lent. April: Patience; May: Meekness.

So, I'll just take this book--and you can see it's pretty worn down, that's why I had to put it into something; I had this on the mountain, and I got it out on the bus for years.

Now, so, you know just make the sign of the cross and ask Holy Spirit please lead and guide me, please speak to my heart, what's on the Lord's mind. And I opened to confidence. Confidence and 'Let us place our confidence in God and set ourselves in complete dependence upon His providence."

Wow, that's a lot like the book on Providence that I shared with you.

"Then we need not worry what others say of us or do to us, for it will all turn out to our advantage." St. Vincent De Paul.

"One night;" and then they give an example. Okay, they give this idea in this teaching and then they give an example.

"One night, St. Gregory, Bishop of Agrigento, went to the Chapel to recite Matins;

That's from the book of The Office; you have prayers that you pray several times a day and it's called The Office and it has Scripture and psalms in it and readings.

So "he went to pray matins, which is the evening prayer and while he was praying, some enemies had a woman go to his room. Then after Matins they insisted on accompanying him to his room. When the woman saw them, she began to scream as they had arranged beforehand, and accused the holy bishop of sacrilege. As a result, his reputation was ruined, and he was condemned by the Pope. But God took care of him. Saints Peter and Paul appeared to him and consoled him.

"At the same time, the woman became possessed by the devil and was greatly tormented by him until she appeared at a bishop's council and revealed the entire plot. Then she was healed by the Saint. The evil men were condemned to severe punishment, and the Saint was absolved by the Pope and the fame of his holiness spread far and wide."

Isn't that beautiful? There's a lot of stories in here like that. Just a lot of them.

Another one on this page; I'm kind of hungry for this.

"When one places all his confidence in God, God protects him in a special way at all times, and thus he can rest assured that nothing evil will befall him." St. Vincent De Paul.

Here's the little story that's with it.

"Overhearing someone talking about current troubles Emperor Ferdinand II, said, "Let us do our part and then leave everything, ourselves and our affairs, up to God. He will take good care of everything. When speaking of a possible calamity, he would say, 'God will provide.'

That's beautiful, isn't it? That's beautiful. What a good example. So, this draws on many Saints. It seems to have St. John of the Cross, St.Francis of de Sales. And let's see, who else; I love St. Francis. St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, St. Vincent, St. John of the Cross. It has a lot of different parts in it; a lot of different quotes and incidents.

St. Thomas Aquinas. And I wish they had a story here on him; I had been thinking about St. Thomas Aquinas. And that's St. Vincent Du Paul. St. Bernard, he's beautiful. Anyway, I love St. Thomas Aquinas; I think he's the right one.

The Mother Serafina of God, another one; St. Bonaventure is wonderful. He's in the Omnibus, actually, he was a Franciscan.

So, Spiritual Diary. And like I said, I've covered it over so you can't really see what it looks like. That is a good book; a really good book; I need to use it more.

Okay. Now I want to get into just a couple of secular things. And this probably isn't covering everything, but these are the books that have been the most important to me.

Here are the authors; John Maxwell, and he writes for executives and business people and that kind of thing. Beyond Talent. And this is good for some of us who have talent and we haven't cultivated it to the point where we should. And this really spurs us on to do that.

He says here, "Make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction." Huh, that's from a Spanish philosopher. And then he quotes: "Look for unplanned teaching moments." So, he's talking to people about... let's see. "Always make your learning greater than your experience." I don't know if I agree with that.

Let me see. Well, the five pillars of practice. An excellent teacher/coach; your best effort; a clear purpose; the greatest potential and the right resources.

So, he's...really, the reason why I picked up this book. Is he's outlining as a musician, you know, to encourage me; he's outlining some of the things that are very important? When you have some kind of ability, in order to get it out to other people. So, this is very; it's very enlightening as far as leadership goes. And leadership and honing your skills.

Now, this is one of my favorite authors, and in fact, we have her on our LadyLightoftheWoods.org. She is one of the people I quote from and her name is; she's in the world. Her name is Laurie Beth Jones, and she has really helped me, really, really helped me get back up after a fall to go beyond discouragement. Go beyond discouragement to believe in the Lord, to believe in the gift and to work hard at it.

She's really, really good for that and she gives little stories. This is Jesus, Inc., the Visionary Path, which I think is the same as Jesus, CEO. And that book is totally worn out. That book is just, I don't know if I have it here on the shelf; it doesn't have a cover anymore. I've gone to it for rhemas so many times.

She is a really excellent author; she draws on the life example of Jesus and applying it to the business world. And I just really, really enjoy her.

And I'll see if I can find a reading here.

Okay, "He knew He could cry if He wanted to," right?

Okay. "I grew up hearing Leslie Gore's song coming over the radio. (I remember that. )"It's My Party and I'll cry if I want to." Ha, so there. And, let's see.

"It's My Party and I'll cry if I want to." If you're a baby boomer, you could probably recite most of the words with me. The situation described in the song is of a young girl who throws a birthday party, only to have the boy she loves reject her and walk out with someone else. She also says, through her tears, that she can cry if she wants to, if for no other reason than she paid for the balloons."

Hahaha. Okay.

"For some reason that song reminds me of Jesus on one of His really down days; He, too, had come to Earth in the celebration, and to have His lover, Israel, reject Him so continuously and literally, brought Him to tears.

"Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem; how oft I would have gathered you under my wings, but you would have none, and so Jesus wept." That's Matthew 23.

And she uses the Jerusalem Bible. I think she might be Catholic, although it's not obvious.

"As a spirit(?) I can relate to somewhat to that feeling; the feeling of being so rejected and misunderstood that all you can do is cry. At times like these, go ahead and cry. It is, after all, your party. Recently, I was conversing with a psychologist from Berkeley who is speculating on the interest people have these days in the subject of past lives. The doctor theorized that we seem to know more about the past than we do the future, because the human soul loves drama and surprise.

"Few of us really want to know what is going to happen in our future, because that would take all the fun out of the party."

Huh, okay. You're entitled.

"Tony Robbins asked his seminar participants, 'What is the story of your life: a soap opera, a romance, a comedy, an action adventure? What do you want it to be?'

"One woman went from victim to volunteer. Constance had known physical and verbal abuse as a child. So, even when she began a career in real estate, she made time to volunteer with some of the East Los Angeles at-risk youth. As she was tutoring them, she noticed all the schools shut down at 5 pm, leaving the children no place to congregate at night or weekends. So, she gathered up $50,000 of her own savings, rented an empty building in the heart of a gang-related area and opened up a place called At Home. Where kids could gather away from the street corners and the influence of gangs.

"The rules for membership in the At Home Club were simple. No guns, no drugs, no racist or sexist comments; no gang colors and the children began to come."

Wow, this is interesting. Let's hear what happens. I don't remember this; reading this story, but, short term memory loss goes that way. It's nice, you know, you can see a movie a second time and enjoy it just as much as you did the first time.