Recommended Reading!
Here are some books members of our Community recommend for self-learning, small group book studies, or pure enjoyment. This list will change over time, so please visit often!
(NOTE: Most books have links for purchasing.)
Dignity
One of the leading experts on conflict resolution provides an innovative new way of looking at the role and power of dignity in our everyday lives and how we can put it into practice in our businesses, homes, schools, coimmunities, politics, and personal lives. Practical guidelines offered in the book include identifying essential elements of dignity, and recognizing dignity violations.This book can be used to define our Baptismal Vow of “respecting the dignity of every person.”Recommended by: Sr Gobnait 2025Donna Hicks,Ph.D.
The Immortal Mind
Many scientists and doctors believe that there is no such thing as the soul. That there is no part of us that persists beyond death. We are not spiritual in any respect. We are made up of cells and tissue, and completely controlled by a material organ in our heads: the brain. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Michael Egnor makes the case—based on 40 years of practice and over 7,000 brain surgeries—that science has gotten it all wrong.
The human brain is incredible, mysterious, and powerful. But it’s not what makes us who we are. The soul does that. Drawing on the most important research studies in neuroscience, Dr. Egnor presents evidence that the brain alone does not explain the mind. He explores, using modern neuroscience and his vast surgical experience, how inside every damaged brain there is a thinking, feeling person with a spiritual soul that transcends the brain. He also uses fascinating case studies to show how research on conjoined twins who share parts of their brains, on patients in deep coma who are still able to communicate with people around them, on near-death experiences, and on artificial intelligence all make a scientific case for the existence of the spiritual human soul.
Engaging, thought-provoking, and groundbreaking, The Immortal Mind shows here that some aspect of who we are is spiritual and immortal, transcending the physical body. Recommended by: Br Daniel-Joseph Jan 2026
Michael Egnor and Denyse O'Leary
L. Roger OwensEveryday Contemplative
What does it mean to live a contemplative life? How does someone become contemplative? Does being contemplative mean sitting around thinking about God all day? Does it require living a simple or even austere life, like a monk or a nun?
Roger Owens challenges readers to expand their definition of contemplative living to encompass all ways of seeking to be more open, available, and responsive to God. God may be found just as easily in an office cubicle, a donut shop, or a laundry room as in a monastic cell.
In Everyday Contemplative, Owens presents seven characteristics of contemplative living: longing, attention, patience, playfulness, vulnerability, nonjudgment, and freedom. One ingredient he considers essential to the contemplative life is sharing it with others, and this book invites readers to discover the joys of contemplative living.Recommended by: Br Andrew Feb 2026
Cherished Belonging
Over the past thirty years, Gregory Boyle has transformed tens of thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world. The program runs on two unwavering principles: 1) We are all inherently good (no exceptions), and 2) we belong to each other (no exceptions).
Boyle believes that these two ideas allow all of us to cultivate a new way of seeing the world. Rather than the tribalism that excludes and punishes, this new narrative proposes a village that cherishes. Pooka, a former gang member, puts it plainly: “Here, love is our lens. It is how we see things.”
In Cherished Belonging, Boyle calls back to Christianity’s origins as a spiritual movement of equality, emancipation, and peace. Early Christianity was a way of life—not a set of beliefs. Boyle’s vision of community is a space for people to join together and heal one another in a new collective living, a world dedicated to kindness as a constant and radical act of defiance. As one homie, Marcus, told a classroom filled with inner-city teenagers, “If love was a place, it would be Homeboy.”
Cherished Belonging invites us to nurture the connections that are all around us and live with kindness. Boyle believes that “the answer to every question is, indeed, compassion.” Through colorful and profound stories brimming with wisdom, humor, and inspiration, we understand that love is the light inside everything. ISBN-13 : 978-1668061855Recommended by: Br Scott-Francis Feb 2026
Gregory Boyle
Being Disciples
Basic instruction in Christian discipleship from one of the world’s greatest living theologians
“Discipleship,” says Rowan Williams in this companion to his best-selling Being Christian, “is a state of being. Discipleship is about how we live; not just the decisions we make, not just the things we believe, but a state of being.”
Having covered baptism, Bible, Eucharist, and prayer in Being Christian, Williams turns his attention in this book to what is required for us to continue following Jesus and growing in faith. The book has six succinct chapters:
Being Disciples
Faith, Hope, and Love
Forgiveness
Holiness
Faith in Society
Life in the Spirit
In his typically gentle, inviting, pastoral writing style, Williams offers biblically grounded wisdom for Christians at all stages of their journeys as disciples of Jesus.Recommended by: Sr Dymphna Feb 2026
Justin Welby
John Fugelsaang
Separation of Church and Hate
For more than two centuries, the United States Constitution has given us the right to a society where church and state exist independently. But Christianity has been hijacked by far-right groups and politicians who seek to impose their narrow views on government, often to justify oppressive and unequal policies. The extremists who weaponize the Bible for earthly power aren’t actually on the side of Jesus—and historically they never have been. How do we fight back against those acting—literally—in bad faith?
Comedian and broadcaster John Fugelsang finally offers the answers. In this informative, perspective-shifting book, Fugelsang takes readers through common fundamentalist arguments on abortion, immigration, LGBTQ rights, and more—exposing their hypocrisy and inaccuracy through scripture, common sense, and deeply inappropriate humor. It offers practical tips on how to debate your loved one, coworker, or neighbor on the issues that divide us using that Bible they claim to follow.
But Fugelsang’s message is about more than just taking down hypocrites. It’s about fighting for the love, mercy, and service that are supposed to make up the heart of Christianity. Told with Fugelsang’s trademark blend of radical honesty, comedy, and deep political and religious knowledge, Separation of Church and Hate is the book every American needs today. It’s a rallying cry for compassion and clarity for anyone of any faith who’s sick of religion being used as a cloaking device for hate.
Recommended by: Br Juan-Charles 2-13-26
Wondrous Encounters
What if Lent were not primarily about self-improvement, but about real transformation through encountering God?
In Wondrous Encounters, Richard Rohr invites readers into a forty-day journey through Scripture that is less about explanation and more about lived experience. Written during a season of silence and solitude, these reflections follow the daily Lenten readings from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, tracing a downward path of surrender that quietly becomes a movement toward new life.
Rather than offering moral instruction or theological argument, Rohr approaches the Bible as a living dialogue—one that mirrors our inner struggles, unmasks false certainties, and opens us to deeper seeing. Drawing on themes of non-dual awareness, mercy, and divine intimacy, he shows how Scripture shapes us not by answers alone, but by encounter itself.
Written in Rohr’s characteristically spacious pastoral voice, Wondrous Encounters offers a contemplative companion for Lent—one that invites readers to be fully known, fully honest, and gradually transformed through the slow, faithful reading of God’s Word.Recommended by: Br Timotheos 2-14-26
Richard Rohr
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