The Greatest Books Ever Written

I met an interesting man from Vietnam while attending the Unity Church of the Hills in Austin, Texas some time ago.  He was a chiropractor by profession and enjoyed reading and acquiring knowledge.  He had come to the conclusion that given he had only so much time to live, a limited time that is, he would compile and try to read from a list of the greatest books ever written.  He told me that he didn't have to go far to get such a list, Encylopedia Britanica had compiled one.

An avid reader myself, I was excited by what my friend had discovered and he went so far as to suggest the first one I should read: Plato's Republic.  A week or two later when I saw him again, he gave me an mp3 file of Plato's Republic to listen to while on the road.  The creaky wheels started to turn again.

Now of course book lists can be subjective; I wouldn't expect the atheist Richard Dawkins to have the same reading list as say Stephen Barr (all God, science, physics lovers MUST read his book: Modern Physics And Ancient Faith by Stephen M. Barr).

I'm going to post a link to Father Gary Coulter's Intellectual Catholic Book List.  Nearly every book that has been recommended to me over the last couple of years is on this list.  Here, you can sort titles by recommended age group.  Make sure to visit to his Apologetics book listings; many of those on my "must read" list show up in this group and I also like what I see in his Blog links. 

One book shows up in both lists, my friend's and Father Coulter's: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.  I originally heard about this book when Father Benedict Groeschel aptly described it as the best fiction work of its kind describing the reality, existence, and abject horrors of evil.  Nobody's going to suit up in spiritual battle armor unless they can clearly identify the foe of evil in this world.  Without giving it away, there is a section in this book that is absolutely horrendous in its description of the capacity of evil in man and I've never seen or read anything like it before. 

A revert to the Catholic church, I am totally free to pick whatever book I want to read, as are all Catholics and Christians that I know, but with the thousands upon thousands of choices available, spanning centuries of time, it's nice to see a common list emerge among those that I deem trustworthy. 

Indeed the beat goes on but one day the beat stops, that is sooner or later, I am going to die a mortal death.  Like my friend from Vietnam, within that span of time, I want to fill my mind with the best wisdom out there, to know and possess hope for the eternal life to come.

Peeling the Onion

It's an age old problem with mankind.  However or whenever you get them isn't important just rest assured you're not alone in committing them.

Now the problem is what to do with all of one's sins before God.

Why don't you just clasp your hands in prayer and ask God directly for forgiveness and resolve to reform once and for all? 

I've talked to several that believe this is possible and I've heard about others where this is really the ONLY and therefore the best option.  Don't take my word for it, I'm just a layman, a Catholic.  I was taught to man-up and confess my sins before an ordained Catholic priest, a man in persona Christi. 

One has to prepare a bit to make such a confession.  Primarily you've got to become introspective about how you have been living your life, mentally listing out the sins that you are going to confess.  Then you've got to get into your car and drive to a church, and usually you've got to wait inside the church while others ahead of you go about taking their turn.  You might even worry, but you shouldn't, he's heard it all.

But I had fallen away from the church and over 25 years had elapsed since my last confession.  

During this time away, I hadn't become introspective, I hadn't resolved to do better, I wasn't contrite at heart, and I doubt if I ever asked God for forgiveness.  I'm saying that leaving it up to me alone didn't accomplish a thing and ultimately  had left me with no real certainty regarding my own personal salvation. 

That's why now I really can't conceive of doing it any other way.

Confessing before a man in persona Christi is as supernaturally plausible as is God's creation story in Genesis or Jesus Christ's resurrection in the New Testament.  The sacrament (a physical manifestation of God's grace) is biblically sound and can be traced back to a command that Jesus Christ himself gave to his apostles.

When one walks out of the confessional after a long draught such as mine, having just received absolution from all of one's prior sins, one knows without a shadow of a doubt, great mercy and love exist and that God is supremely good.  A penance is performed, usually a short repetition of prayers during which time, out of sheer gratitude, one can't imagine ever repeating such sins again.  One feels physically lighter in the chest and shoulders, a heavy burden having just been lifted.

   

           Gary Geraci, 2016

Once all the "big ones" have been confessed (Catholics call them mortal sins) one continues, through regular confession, to peel away other layers of sins, imperfections, defects and frailties.   The regularity of this kind of looking inward begins to reveal things about oneself that have been hidden under layer upon layer of accumulated vice and sin.  It's like peeling away layers of an onion.  The result is that one starts to gradually expose other vices, sometimes being able to remember when they were first acquired.  Such vice is rooted out and replaced with virtue that one now tries to practice in reparation for sins.

Fallen in nature we are and so we will sin again and again but through regular confession and the intervention of God's grace, the seriousness and frequency of sin will diminish.  In the process, one improves one's character, one's holiness, and moves oneself closer to Christ's vision for each of us: to become perfect, to become saints.