The Catholic Book Club discussion

It is time to vote for the September BOTM. You may vote for two of the books listed below. Enter your votes by replying in this thread. Voting will end at or about 5 PM, Central time on August 18. A book will be randomly selected for elimination from the nominations list from those that don't receive any votes. Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief and The Biblical Basis For Purgatory are exempted from the randomizer as this is their first month on the list. The nominations are:

The Biblical Basis For Purgatory, by The Biblical Basis For Purgatory
Jesus taught us about it, and for centuries the Church has faithfully defined and defended it. Protestants deny it even exists, while many Catholics fundamentally misunderstand it. It is Purgatory: that place of purifying penance where souls saved by Christ are made perfect and acceptable to spend life eternal in heaven. In The Biblical Basis For Purgatory, author and apologist John Salza (Why Catholics Cannot Be Masons) offers the definitive scriptural explanation of this distinctively Catholic doctrine. Building on the teachings of Christ and St. Paul, he shows how the existence of a place of temporal punishment after death is not only a logical extension of what we know about the reality of sin and God's justice, but is also a supreme expression of God's love and mercy. Although Purgatory is a place of mercy, its pains are real, and they are severe. This book does more than defend and explain Purgatory it provides a solid plan, drawn from the Church's perennial wisdom for conquering our sins by God's grace, while still on earth.

Cleansed by Fire, by James R. Callan
Churches are burning and a man is murdered, plunging a small Texas town into a state of fear. Father Frank DeLuca, pastor of Prince of Peace Church, is thrust into an impossible dilemma when he hears that another church will be burned. But the disturbing information comes to him via the confessional, and church law forbids him from telling anyone—even the police.
He doesn’t know which church, when, or by whom. Still, he can’t sit idly by, and no law prevents him from looking into the matter himself. The crimes have set the town’s residents on edge, fraying the bonds of trust. Is the mysterious newcomer with ties to the drug scene involved? What about the man who says maybe the churches deserved to burn? Or the school drop-out into alcohol and drugs who attacks the priest with a knife?
Countering this are a young widow whose mission is to make others shine, and a youth choir determined to help those whose churches have been destroyed by the arsonist.
Father Frank’s investigation leads him dangerously close to the local drug scene and he soon discovers the danger has come to him. Can he save his own church? Can he save his own life?

Introduction to the Devout Life, by Francis de Sales
Written for Christians in every walk of life and for every age, St. Francis De Sales' classic work transcends secular lines and provides a unique handbook of spiritual reflection for people in every avenue of life.

The Jesus Prayer: A Cry for Mercy, a Path of Renewal, by John Michael Talbot -
An ancient prayer for every day: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner." These words have strengthened and comforted believers for centuries. The Jesus Prayer comes to us from the Eastern Christian tradition. In these pages, John Michael Talbot explores more of the roots of the prayer along with the theological and practical meaning of each word in the lives of believers today. Readers are invited to meditate on the twelve simple words that lie at the heart of the Christian East. Complete with historical context and exercises for self-reflection, this book shows how a single prayer could sustain the spiritual life of a civilization. Each chapter ends with a brief practice using the prayer.

Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief, by Joseph Pearce
The twentieth century has been marked by both belief and unbelief. While church attendance has declined, the lives of many of the more salient figures of our times have been influenced and inspired by Christianity. Literary Converts is a biographical exploration into the spiritual lives of some of those figures. It takes us on a journey into the deepest beliefs of some of the great writers in the English language - from G.K. Chesterton to Evelyn Waugh, Edith Sitwell to Siegfried Sassoon.

A Martyr for the Truth: Jerzy Popieuszko, by Grazyna Sikorska

On the God of the Christians:, by Rémi Brague -
[The book description on GR is in French. The following is from Amazon, which indicates it is from the back cover of the book.]
On the God of the Christians tries to explain how Christians conceive of the God whom they worship. No proof for His existence is offered, but simply a description of the Christian image of God.
The first step consists in doing away with some commonly held opinions that put them together with the other “monotheists,” “religions of the book,” and “religions of Abraham.”
Christians do believe in one God, but they do not conceive of its being one in the same way as other “monotheists,” like the first of them, the pharaoh Akhenaton (18th century before J.C.), like some philosophers, e.g., Aristotle, or like Islam.
Christians admit the authority of a Holy Book, but don’t consider it as being the peak of God’s revelation. For them, revelation culminates in the person, life, and doings of Jesus – including his passion and resurrection.
Christians acknowledge the exemplary figure of Abraham, but the stories they tell about him they share with Jews, but not with Muslims, who see in him the first Muslim.
The Trinity is not a way to loosen the exclusivity of the only God. It is the very way in which God is one, i.e., in the inner richness and fecundity of love.
The God of the Christians is Father, but not male. Human males become fathers through the mediation of a female. God is so radically the Father of everything and, in a very special sense, of the eternal Son, that He is not in need of a partner. His fatherhood can in no way legitimate the superiority of the male over the female sex.
The God of the Christians doesn’t want us to obey Him in order to enslave us; He expects us to act freely according to what is good for us. Now, the Good is not something that He has in store and bestows on His creatures. The Good is what He is and He is the Good of His creatures.
The God of the Christians is merciful, but He takes seriously man’s freedom, even
when man doesn’t accept Him. Hence, He doesn’t content Himself with forgiving from the outside. He has to contrive a system (technically speaking: salvation history or “economy of salvation”) that will enable Man freely to accept His love.

The Spiritual Combat, by Dom Lorenzo Scupuli -
The Combat is a practical manual of living. At first it teaches that the sense of life is incessant fighting against egoistic longings and replacing them with sacrifice and charity. The one who does not do this loses, and suffers in Hell; the one who does it, trusting not in his own, but God's power, triumphs and is happy in Heaven. The work of Scupoli analyses various usual situations and advises how to cope with them, preserving a pure conscience and improving virtue. It emphasizes also the boundless goodness of God, which is the cause of all good. What is bad originates from the human who rebels against God.

Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul, by Cathleen Medwick -
A refreshingly modern reconsideration of Saint Teresa (1515-1582), one of the greatest mystics and reformers to emerge within the sixteenth-century Catholic Church, whose writings are a keystone of modern mystical thought.
From the very beginning of her life in a convent, following the death of her mother and the marriage of her older sister, it was clear that Teresa's expansive nature, intensity, and energy would not be easily confined. Cathleen Medwick shows us a powerful daughter of the Church and her times who was a very human mass of contradictions: a practical and no-nonsense manager, and yet a flamboyant and intrepid presence who bent the rules of monastic life to accomplish her work--while managing to stay one step ahead of the Inquisition. And she exhibited a very personal brand of spirituality, often experiencing raptures of an unorthodox, arguably erotic, nature that left her frozen in one position for hours, unable to speak. Out of a concern for her soul and her reputation, her superiors insisted that she account for every voice and vision, as well as the sins that might have engendered them, thus giving us the account of her life that is now considered a literary masterpiece.
Medwick makes it clear that Teresa considered her major work the reform of the Carmelites, an enterprise requiring all her considerable persuasiveness and her talent for administration. We see her moving about Spain with the assurance (if not the authority) of a man, in spite of debilitating illness, to establish communities of nuns who lived scrupulously devout lives, without luxuries. In an era when women were seldom taken seriously, she even sought and received permission to found two religious houses for men.
In this fascinating account Cathleen Medwick reveals Teresa as both more complex and more comprehensible than she has seemed in the past. She illuminates for us the devout and worldly woman behind the centuries-old iconography of the saint.

Way of the Ascetics: The Ancient Tradition of Discipline and Inner Growth, by Tito Colliander -
Written for lay persons living in the world, this is an excellent resource for daily meditation, spiritual guidance and a revitalized religious life.

Spiritual Combat
-or-
Teresa of Avila: Progress Of A Soul

Spiritual Combat gets my vote.

Introduction to the Devout Life
Martyr for Truth

My vote:
a) Introduction to the Devout Life
b) Pearce's Literary Converts

The Biblical Basis For Purgatory or Literary Converts

Two members emailed their votes to me:

Cynthia votes for Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief

Celia also votes for Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief

I will vote for:

On the God of the Christians: and
Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief

I vote for the big Joseph Pearce Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief, by Joseph Pearce. Perhaps the all books that i have read in my life. This book was decesive in my life. In my personal opinion all catholic writer should it to know the catholic writers of our age, especially the England Catholic Writers.

Fonch wrote: "I vote for the big Joseph Pearce Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief, by Joseph Pearce. Perhaps the all books that i have read in my life. This book was decesive in my li..."

Besides i wantto say thanks to John and the rest of the members Catholic book club for being the first of my recommendation i expct that it was the first of a lot of books that i recomend to this group.

Sarah wrote: "Aw, thanks Fonch! That's so nice of you!"

The pleasure is mine misstress Sarah :-).

1) Literary Converts
2) Martyr for Truth

Sorry for the delay. Voting is over. Results will be posted shortly