Novels For Those Discerning

[Vin]

Phatmassers,

Check out these novels:

1) [i]In this House of Brede[/i] by Rumer Godden is the story of a professional woman who enters a Benedictine monastery. The novel is a modern Catholic classic. Godden converted to Catholicism in 1968, she died in 1998.

2) [i]Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy[/i] also by Rumer Godden is the story of a former prostitute and prisioner who enters the Dominican Sisters of Bethany. In the nineteenth century, French Dominican Father Joseph Lataste founded the Bethany community to accept women prisioners into religous life. He also offered his life that St. Joseph would be proclaimed universal patron of the Church.

3) [i]Cosmas [/i] by Pierre De Calan is the story of a man who believes he is called to be a Trappist monk. This wonderful novel explores the mystery of a vocation and the mystery of sanctity.

4) [i]Mr. Blue[/i] by Myles Connolly is an excellent little novel about a layman who is a modern day St. Francis. The apocalyptic dream in the novel is brilliant. Connolly worked as a screen-writer in Hollywood and was once editor of the Knights of Columbus Magazine, [i]Columbia[/i].

5) [i]The Keys of the Kingdom [/i]is a delightful novel by A.J. Cronin. The novel follows the adventures of a Scottish missionary priest. A pure joy to read. It was also made into an enjoyable film starring Gregory Peck.

6) [i]The Edge of Sadness[/i] by Edwin O'Connor won a Pulitzer Prize circa 1960. The novel tells the story, with well depicted characters, of Boston Irish Catholics. The main character is a priest recovering from alcoholism.

All these novels have been republished and are available at:

[url="http://http://www.loyolabooks.org/seriesdetail.asp?prodcatname=Loyola%20Classics&bhcp=1"]Loyola Classics[/url]

[Deus te Amat]

Thank you SOOOOOO much. I officially have a birthday list.

[jkaands]

Also [b]Black Narcissus[/b] by Rumer Godden. This was made into a sensationalistic movie which is quite different from the Book, which is about an Anglican nun who becomes superior of a small group of sisters in the far east. I think that this is mandatory reading for anyone who is seriously thinking about a missionary vocation.

[b]A Nun's Story [/b]is a very good read about a nun in a very traditional European order who becomes a missionary nun in the Congo in the 1930's, then returns for her mandatory sabbatical year in Belgium, her homeland, during WWII.

Both can be gotten cheaply online thru bookfinder.com, biblio.com or amazon.com.

[Saint Therese]

I can think of a few more books which are excellent, but aren't novels:

Saint Teresa of Avila, by Marcelle Auclair

A Right to Be Merry, by Mother Mary Francis

My Beloved

[CatherineM]

Shoes of the Fisherman

[Laudem Gloriae]

"Madame de Chantal: Portrait of a Saint" by Elizabeth Stopp

"Tyburn Hill of Glory" by the Tyburn Nuns - book on their foundress, Mother Mary of St. Peter (Marie Adele Garnier)

"Blessed Marie Celine of the Presentation, PCC" by the Poor Clare Colletines of Rockford, IL

"Flame of Joy" autobio by Sr.Marie-Angelique of Jesus, OCD Carmel of Pontoise

"The Life of St. Faustina Kowalska" by Sr. Sophia Michalenko, CMGT and St. Faustina's "Diary"

"Walled in Light: St. Colette" by Mother Mary Francis, PCC

"(St.) Clare: Her Light and Her Song" by Sr. Mary Seraphim, PCPA

"The Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque" by Rt. Rev. Emile Bougaud

"Barefoot Journey" by Sr. Felicity, PCC

"Clare and Her Sisters: Lovers of the Poor Christ" by Madeline Pecora Nugent, SFO

"Leonie Martin: A Difficult Life" by Marie Baudoin-Croix

"God is Love: St. Teresa Margaret: Her Life" by Margaret Rowe

"Way of Divine Love" by Sr. Josepha Menendez

"Jeanne Jugan: Humble So As To Love More" by Paul Milcent

"A Few Lines to Tell You: My Life in Carmel" by Sr. Marie

"The Golden Arrow: The Autobiography and Revelations of Sr. Mary of St. Peter" - devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus

"Her Spiritual Journey: Mother Catherine Aurelia Caouette" by Dom Gerard Mercier, OSB - foundress of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood

"He is My Heaven: Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity" by Jennifer Moorcraft and any of Bl. Elzabeth's book of her letters

"Rose Hawthorne Lathrop - Selected Writings" edited and with a biography by Diana Culbertson, OP - foundress, Mother Alphonsa, of the Hawthorne Dominicans

[cathoholic_anonymous]

Back on to the novel theme, I recommend Evelyn Waugh's [i]Brideshead Revisited[/i]. Vocation (and vocation not followed) is one of the main themes of the novel, along with the disintegration of the English nobility in the interwar years and a titled family's struggle to retain a Catholic identity. It's a very good read and one of my all-time favourite novels.

And I second the people who have recommended Rumer Godden.

[DameAgnes]

Thanks for the selection of Novels, Vin - I've always wondered about Mr. Blue.

Many of the books listed later in the thread are not works of fiction, but there is no reason to downplay the value of fiction in attracting vocations. I suspect that In This House of Brede has been read by nearly any young woman considering a vocation to the cloister! Great books!

[praying4carmel]

I really loved Mark Salzman's "Lying Awake" about a Carmelite Nun. Thought provoking.

[AccountDeleted]

I love Michael D O'Brien, especially Father Elijah and Sophia House. They are not vocational books but they are very beautiful. And I just read Anne Rice's two fiction novels about the early life of Christ, and I enjoyed them as well. Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord, Road to Cana.

[Saint Therese]

I'm almost finished reading the book mentioned above" Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy". Its an AMAZING book and is all about grace, redemption, converstion, vocation and the Mercy of God. This is one of the finest works of religious fiction I have read; I rank it near
[b]Franz Werfel's Song of Berndadette.[/b]

Another great novel is Gertrude Von leFort's [b] The Song at the Scaffold.[/b]

Both Song at the Scaffold and Song of Bernadette are simply masterpiece works of fiction.

Edited April 9, 2008 by Saint Therese

[Thomist-in-Training]

"Come Rack! Come Rope!" is more about the English martyrs than vocation, but the latter comes into it. It's a really wonderful historical novel, sort of if you like Scarlet Pimpernel you will like it, but more serious since it is about Catholic martyrs.

[praying4carmel]

[quote name='nunsense' post='1489803' date='Mar 31 2008, 08:52 PM']I love Michael D O'Brien, especially Father Elijah and Sophia House. They are not vocational books but they are very beautiful. And I just read Anne Rice's two fiction novels about the early life of Christ, and I enjoyed them as well. Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord, Road to Cana.[/quote]


Yes! She Came Back to the Church! That was wonderful news!
Have not read them yet, but want to read them.

[veroni213]

[quote name='Saint Therese' post='1489179' date='Mar 30 2008, 10:49 PM']A Right to Be Merry, by Mother Mary Francis[/quote]
I second this one.

[Saint Therese]

This one isn't a novel, but it is fiction: [b]A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt[/b]. I think its excellent because its about experiencing hardship as a result of christian faithfulness. It was made into a great movie too.