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1. A Year with Rumi, Coleman Banks From Sarah Susanka in 3 books to enhance your spiritual life “I’ve found this Rumi volume to be incredibly valuable, and it’s the one I most recommend to people. Read a poem before you meditate each day, or just incorporate it into some sort of regular, everyday practice. Rumi’s words will open you up like nothing else that I know of.” |
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2. Sun After Dark, Pico Iyer From Dianne Aprile in Top 8 books on spirituality “There’s something very spiritual about the places Pico Iyer chooses to explore as well as the way he writes about them. They tend to be marginal places, countries that are poor in terms of material wealth but rich in culture and lore. Iyer always finds the essence of a place in spots where other people wouldn’t think to look. To me, that’s what spirituality is all about: finding the hidden truth. I’m also very interested in silence, which Iyer writes about beautifully; he’s very good at uncovering the peaceful heart of a place that might otherwise seem boisterous and active.” |
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3. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, Eckhart Tolle From Serenity in 3 books to enhance your spiritual life “The best spiritual book I read in 2008 It’s a book that I could read several times, and each time I would come away with another gem. It’s timeless.” From Gray Henry in 7 favorite books on spirituality “Tolle disentangles the ego and its nature and describes how it struggles to hold itself together. He writes about the one-upmanship, needing to be the one who knows — all the ways we strengthen the ego. These are essential things, and Tolle writes about them in a very accessible way. I think the whole world should sit down and read A New Earth together.” |
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4. The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels From Janet Poirrier in Top 9 books on spirituality “The Gnostic tradition of early Christianity taught that we are able to know God ourselves through gnosis or knowledge, without intermediaries of any kind. The Gnostics subscribed to a Father/Mother God, honored Jesus’s humanity, and sought to broaden Christ’s teachings beyond the already solidifying power of an organized Church. This is the book that taught me I could have it all — freedom and the Inner Christ, without dogma. And that Christianity’s earliest traditions are the most accessibly pure in intent.” |
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5. The Miracle of Mindfulness, by Thich Nhat Hanh From Prill Boyle in Imagine you’re ninety “The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh also speaks about the practice of mindfulness. He has written several books that you might enjoy reading, including The Miracle of Mindfulness.” From Lauree in Imagine you’re ninety I do know about Thich Nhat Hanh and I love his poems, writings and his work. Once I took a silent mindfulness walk around the UCLA Campus walking behind him with 1000 other people and I was amazed at how powerful it was. |
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6. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal From Dana Stabenow in 10 books that make me want to quit writing (I’ll never write anything this good!) “This is the first time Jesus ever died that I felt like I’d lost a friend. There are entirely too many great scenes to recount here, beginning with Jesus resurrecting his brother’s lizard. Later, a jittery Jesus on a caffeine high buzzes around Antioch marketplace healing everybody. A funny book, yes, but also very, very smart.” |
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7. The Way of a Pilgrim, Walter J. Ciszek From Gray Henry in 7 favorite books on spirituality This is the book I would assign to students if I could assign only one book. It’s the story of a Russian pilgrim crossing Russia. He has heard that St. Paul instructed us to “pray without ceasing” the prayer of the heart. So he wants to find a spiritual master to teach him that prayer. To witness total joy with having ceaseless prayer and a crust of bread makes a huge impression. It’s an essential text. |
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8. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, Terry Tempest Williams From Dianne Aprile in Top 8 books on spirituality “This book is a classic of its type. Williams combines a naturalist’s view of the story of the changing water levels in the Great Salt Lake with a feminist treatment of Mormon spirituality and with the personal story of her own grieving for her mother, who was dying of breast cancer at the time. The book has an unusual structure, moving back and forth between basic information about environmental issues and more lyrical passages about Williams’ experience with her mother.” |
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9. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith From Dr. Susan Meyer in 7 books for women in transition “Anne Lamott is always wonderful, witty, and touching. This collection reminds me again how to be graceful and grateful no matter what life brings.” |
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a vibrant woman is: nurturing NOT raped; strong but feminine;not passive/not raging; is FLUID–not too thin, not too fat, able to move in a fluid way; is in love—with life, herself worth, God—it shows. Vannette Vititow,
Here’s another amazing one about living a full life in the world and also having a deep, fulfilling spiritual practice: Giving Birth to God; A Woman’s Path to Enlightenment. By Mother Clare Watts. Available through amazon.com
I love Stasi and John Eldrige’s book, Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul.
The premise of Captivating is that there is an essence that God has given to every woman. “We share something deep and true, down in our hearts,” Stasi writes. And it’s this universal feminine heart that CAPTIVATING hopes to expose, heal, develop, and celebrate. Through Biblical and secular illustration, John and Stasi team up to challenge women to find, nurture and rejoice in the true woman’s heart we were all born with but which has struggled under our fate of sin.