{"id":375,"date":"2007-02-26T17:03:13","date_gmt":"2007-02-27T01:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=375"},"modified":"2016-10-12T10:00:07","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T17:00:07","slug":"10-best-books-for-new-catholics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/10-best-books-for-new-catholics","title":{"rendered":"10 Best Books for New Catholics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you know someone who is joining the Catholic Church this Easter? Maybe you’re enrolled in RCIA classes yourself. The following books are what I consider to be the best books for newcomers to the Catholic Church, and would be especially appropriate to read during Lent, as preparation for Easter Vigil (assuming one already has a Bible). With exception of the first two titles, they are not listed in any particular order:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/span><\/a>: next to the Bible, probably the most indispensable book for Catholics<\/li>\n
  2. The Basic Sixteen Documents–Vatican II<\/span><\/a>: An excellent collection of the results of the Second Vatican Council, for those two young to have experienced it, or too far away from the Church to have noticed or cared<\/li>\n
  3. The Catholic Sourcebook<\/span><\/a>: a great reference book full of tidbits and lists and definitions; helpful for absorbing Catholic culture and tradition (with a small “t”)<\/li>\n
  4. Being Catholic Today<\/span><\/a> by Bert Ghezzi: A terrific survey of what it means to live a Catholic lifestyle, written in an accessible, friendly format; includes reflection and discussion questions, as well as practical action ideas<\/li>\n
  5. The Words We Pray<\/span><\/a> by Amy Welborn: A beautiful explanation of the origin and \"Themeaning of many of our formal prayers, including the Our Father, Hail Mary, Act of Contrition, and the Jesus Prayer; don’t miss the chapter on the Liturgy of the Hours<\/li>\n
  6. The School of Prayer, an Introduction to the Divine Office for All Christians<\/span><\/a> by John Brook: Speaking of the Liturgy of the Hours, this book is the defintive resource for learning how to pray the official office of the Church; okay, it may be a little intimidating for new members of the Church, but I’m sure there are some who would appreciate it, and I can’t resist putting in a plug for the Liturgy of the Hours whenever I can<\/li>\n
  7. The How-To Book of Catholic Devotions<\/span><\/a> by Mike Aquilina and Regis J. Flaherty: A basic primer on Catholic devotions, from morning offerings to offering it up, from novenas to scapulars, from First Fridays to…well, you get the idea<\/li>\n
  8. Catholic Christianity<\/span><\/a> by Peter Kreeft: Dr. Kreeft does his usual superb job of taking difficult concepts and making them clear and logical; this would be an excellent supplement to the Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Rediscovering Catholicism<\/span><\/a> by Matthew Kelly: One of the church’s most energetic young minds brings a hopeful message to all Catholics<\/li>\n
  10. Catholic Social Thought<\/span><\/a>: One of the Church’s least appreciated heritages is its social justice teaching; this book gives the full text of her most recent documents regarding work, labor, war and peace, poverty, and other social concerns; again, maybe too much for a new Catholic to digest so soon, but essential nonetheless<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I’d love to hear your comments on these choices, or your suggestions for people preparing to enter the Catholic Church this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Do you know someone who is joining the Catholic Church this Easter? Maybe you’re enrolled in RCIA classes yourself. The following books are what I consider to be the best books for newcomers to the Catholic Church, and would be especially appropriate to read during Lent, as preparation for Easter Vigil (assuming one already has a Bible). With exception of the first two titles, they are not listed in any particular order: The Catechism of the Catholic Church: next to the Bible, probably the most indispensable book for...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,14,10,9],"tags":[794,796,36,32,798,795,797,129,127],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-catholiceducation","category-spirituality","category-theology","tag-amy-welborn","tag-bert-ghezzi","tag-book-recommendations","tag-catholic","tag-john-brook","tag-matthew-kelly","tag-mike-aquilina","tag-peter-kreeft","tag-rcia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/wordswepray.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-63","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1754,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions\/1754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}