Author: Tara Owens

Today is my second post in my week long “10 Books” series that I’m writing as I track along with Sarah Bessey. While I don’t (yet) have a library of parenting books (one of the advantages of suddenly become a step-mom to adult children is that I got thrown out of the fridge into the fire and had no time to read books), I thought I’d share a list of 10 books that I always keep on hand in my spiritual direction office. In the meantime, I’ve put all 10 of Sarah’s suggestions on my Amazon Wishlist for future use.

As anyone who has been in my home office knows, I have more than 10 books on that particular bookshelf. In addition to my plaque that says Live by what you trust, not by what you fear and a beautiful shofar are a collection of books that serve as resources for all aspects of the spiritual life. Sometimes I loan them out, sometimes they spark a conversation and sometimes they are a source of prayers or meditations that begin a direction session. They are all, in one sense or another, doorways to the Divine. This list doesn’t preclude the others that line my shelves (many of which are books on the practice of Christian spiritual direction), but they are 10 that I wouldn’t do without.

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne, Enuma Okoro and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

For those unfamiliar with liturgy, a book as thick as this might seem intimidating. Appearances are deceiving here, though, as this book of prayer provides an accessible entryway into liturgical prayer. It’s important to note that this isn’t the same thing as the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, although it does incorporate many aspects of that tradition into its generally ecumenical pages. Because the readings are both Scripture and insights from saints modern and ancient, I often use this as a blueprint for my own daily prayer. And when I don’t want to lug the massive thing around, I use the Kindle version (and I’ve since discovered that there’s a pocket edition as well.)

Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits by Michael Harter

This beautiful little companion to St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises is where I first read one of my favorite prayers of all time, “Patient Trust.” You’ll often find this slim red volume in your quarters at Jesuit retreat centers. Although “praying with Jesuits” may sound almost as enticing to you as “dancing with porcupines”, this book is filled with poems, prayers and Scripture references that guide you deeper into the heart of Ignatian spirituality and imaginative prayer. Although it’s designed to accompany the Spiritual Exercises, I often use readings from this book in sessions.

Guerillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle by Ted Loder

Despite its belligerent title, Guerillas of Grace is one of the most grace-filled, Spirit-inviting, soul-refreshing collection of prayers that I’ve every found. There are prayers of quietness & listening, thanks & praise, unburdening & confession, comfort & reassurance, restoration & renewal, commitment & change and a final section on seasons & holidays. These prayers are challenging, eye-opening, permission-giving prayers that invite honesty with God and with ourselves. I have at least two copies of this book at all times (and sometimes more, because I give it away so often).

“There Are Things I Do Care About”

Holy One,
most of the time
you don’t seem very close or real to me—
only a word, an ought,
a longing, maybe, a hope—
and, for the most part,
I don’t care much about you,
and that is the not-so-pretty truth of it.

But there are things I do care about:
myself mostly,
and some people I feel close to—
families, friends, children,
most of all children.
I do care what happens to them.

Read the rest here…

Journey with Jesus: Discovering the Exercises of Saint Ignatius by Larry Warner

I’m not going to lie, this book’s a tough one. It’s a version of Annotation 19 of St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises, and it’s a rigorous experience of the life of Jesus. I say experience instead of study, because this is, in essence, a year-long immersion into prayer, Scripture, examen and encounter with Christ. I don’t know a single Christian leader who hasn’t come out of the exercises with a completely renewed, refreshed and awe-filled relationship with God after completing the Exercises—even after being in ministry for decades. Larry Warner’s version is accessible, clear and, in my opinion, kind. He wishes (and I do as well) that he could make it illegal to go through the Exercises without a spiritual director. This isn’t for the curious or the casual, but I keep it nearby because of the deeply transformative power of what was once a 40-day retreat prepared by a 13th century monk.

Good Goats: Healing Our Image of God by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn and Matthew Linn (illustrations by Francisco Miranda)

So many people come to spiritual direction with an image of God as judgmental, angry, punishing or just plain mean. Although they may not be able to articulate this at first, underneath the “correct” Christian answers lies a heart that is suffering from being given distorted ideas of God from often well-meaning sources. Part of the journey of spiritual direction is to accompany them on a healing journey as God reveals Himself as He truly is, bringing hope, life and redemption to weary, battered souls. The Linns are a great guide on the first steps on that journey. Although I don’t personally theologically agree with everything they say (and wouldn’t recommend it for everyone), their book gives people who have been stuck in their questions and fears a way to begin discussing and exploring what a different image of God in Christ might look like.

Enneagram Made Easy: Discover the 9 Types of People by Renee Baron and Elizabeth Wagele

This is my new favorite book on the Enneagram, a personality rubric I use often in spiritual direction. I don’t like boxing people in to personality types per se, but the Enneagram has proven so useful in helping people identify core struggles and passions, as well as defining a clear path to integration and soul health that I just can’t get away from it. I only recently discovered this slim and cartoon-festooned volume, at the recommendation of Jan Johnson (whose books are going to make another one of my lists, shortly), and I love the simple, clear way it presents the types. It’s the only book not pictured, as it’s currently out on loan to a directee.

The Deeper Journey: The Spirituality of Discovering Your True Self by M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

I talked yesterday about the liberation of discovering my false self, and all the ways that I go about trying to project a certain image to the world. The Deeper Journey is another wonderful book (in fact, one of my top ones) that really takes a look at the various machinations of the false self, pulling back the curtain to expose the frightened, needy, utterly loved True Self hidden by all this postering. If it weren’t such a hard book, I’d hand it out like candy. As it is, I keep it on hand as a corrective and a reminder to myself to engage both with my own True Self and to call out both the False and the True of those with whom I journey.

“Our religious false self is a master manipulator, always seeking to leverage our religious world and all those in it in ways most advantageous to its security, its prestige and, especially, our religious agenda.” (55)

To Bless The Space Between Us by John O’Donohue

If you’ve never read anything by John O’Donohue, please correct this immediately. This is a beautiful book of blessings for everything from the birth of a child to a blessing for the artist at the beginning of the day to a blessing for one who is exhausted. O’Donohue is a Celtic Christian, so some of his language may be stretching. So many of these blessings have been starting points for the Holy Spirit to invite, entice, convict and playfully tease during sessions that I can’t wait to see what God does with them when I read one to someone.

The Good & Beautiful God: Falling In Love With The God Jesus Knows by James Bryan Smith

This is the first book in a trilogy of books that are meant to be used in small group study. Smith’s book is another great resource for helping people heal their image of God. Smith takes a long look at our false narratives of God (his reading of Galatians 2:20 is worth the price of the book by itself, and will blow your mind) and provides practices and discussion questions that make engaging with the topics and one another inviting.

Open the Door: A Journey to the True Self by Joyce Rupp

Yup, I’ve got a True Self/False Self theme going. I love this book so much because it uses the door motif as a guiding principle. So many people are in places of transition—life stages, job changes, moves, shifts in self-perception—and so few have permission to engage with those transitions head on. Rupp’s book allows the image of the door guide to guide readers through the various stages of change, inviting God into each of them.

The Psalms: An Artist’s Impression by Eugene Peterson and Anneke Kai

Not every directee responds aurally. Not everyone experiences God the same way. This large-sized, slim volume is a set of beautiful abstract interpretations of The Message version of various psalms. I keep this on hand not only because it is stunning, but because art pierces the soul in ways that words do not (words pierce differently, but no less deeply). Sometimes, when a directee has felt disconnected to God for a long time, an encounter with an image, whether from this book or elsewhere, can open them up to an unexpected and redemptive encounter with the Spirit. I love watching God do that.

Honorary Mentions:

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming by Henri Nouwen

The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth by Gerald May

*Not pictured: The Enneagram Made Easy (and somehow one of the books for later in the week, The Paraclete Psalter, snuck in early. Sorry about that.)

 

Check back in each day for a new list, and be sure to click on over to Sarah’s blog to read hers as well. I mean, hey, she has a fancy button and everything:

Monday: 10 books that formed me spiritually

Tuesday: 10 books that I keep in my spiritual direction room

Wednesday: 10 books that I own but am embarrassed I haven’t read

Thursday: 10 books that help me pray

Friday: 10 books that remind me God’s the Great Storyteller

Saturday: 10 books I read on the weekends

Sunday: 20 books I read while writing my book

 

 

When I first started scanning my bookshelves for books that have formed me spiritually (and reading Sarah’s post here), I realized that I’d set myself up. Pretty much every spine on my shelves has formed me in one way or another. This is one of the many reasons that I believe reading is so invaluable. By reading books, we are formed and reformed, pushed, pulled, challenged and soothed. Even the books on my shelves that I wouldn’t recommend are ones that have made some sort of impact on me, forcing me to think through my positions and beliefs, even if only about what constitutes good writing. So, today’s list of 10 is not exhaustive. It’s not comprehensive. It’s not even a list of the “top” books that have formed me spiritually. There are a few books that I’ve left off because I’m not done chewing on them. I may have read them weeks or years ago, but their effects are still rolling through me, still forming me in one way or another.

What this list is is a glimpse inside my soul at the 10 books that most jumped out at me when ran my fingers over bindings and bent before my shelves. In some ways, it’s a lectio divina of my shelves. As such, the list would be different if I had made it yesterday or if I were to make it tomorrow. Enjoy.

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

I became a Christian as an adult. In my mid-twenties, I found my spiritual longings inescapable. I was confused, tired, angry, driven and depressed. I wanted God (whoever He or She was) to make sense. I needed know someone else had wrestled with and thought through these questions, too. Lewis was that person:

“It is no good asking for a simple religion. After all, real things are not simple. They look simple, but they are not. The table I am sitting at looks simple: but ask a scientist to tell you what it is really made of—all about the atoms and how they light waves rebound from them and hit my eye and what they do to the optic nerve and what it does to my brain—and, of course, you find that what we call ‘seeing a table’ lands you in mysteries and complications which you can hardly get to the end of. A child saying a child’s prayer looks simple. And if you are content to stop there, well and good. But if you are not—and the modern world usually is not—if you want to go on and ask what is really happening—then you must be prepared for something difficult. If we ask for something more than simplicity, it is silly then to complain that the something more is not simple.” (40)

Finding Faith by Brian McLaren

Finding Faith formed me at the same time and in an almost opposite way from my formation by Mere Christianity. While Mere Christianity gave me answers—good answers, real answers—Finding Faith gave me questions of the same nature. With chapter titles like “Does It Really Matter What I Believe?” and “Why Is Church the Last Place I Think of for Help in My Spiritual Search?”, McLaren took on some of the very questions that I was asking without pummeling me with correct but unsatisfactory responses. At the end of each chapter he supplied me with additional questions to ask—of myself, of others, and of God. The questions eventually became prayers and the prayers became experiences. Finding Faith gave me permission to be on a journey, and the inscription on my battered copy reads, Tara,
May God guide you on your journey of faith. Seek and I know you will find. Luke 11:10.
Blessings,
Molly & Greg

Finding Faith formed me by giving me permission to question in the context of relationship. God met me there, and I’ve been questioning, journeying and loving it all ever since.

The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

I don’t know how many times I’ve read “A Word Before” at the beginning of The Ragamuffin Gospel aloud. I’ve read it to friends, I’ve read it to myself, I’ve read it to directees. How quickly the gospel of grace, love and forgiveness becomes a gospel of drivenness and guilt. How quickly my own striving took over from the loving embrace of God that I experienced in those early years after God opened my eyes to Him. Brennan Manning reminded me (as he has reminded so many) that I am poor in spirit, trembling, broken, and right to be so. He reminded me this God of grace came and comes and comes again for me as I am, and that all I need do is be embraced by a Father who forgives me before I even repent, One who loves me because of myself not in spite of myself.

The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery by Henri J. M. Nouwen

Although I could pick almost any book by Nouwen as one that’s formed my soul, I chose The Genesee Diary over The Prodigal Son (which I love as well) because in the Diary I read the words of a man just like me. Nouwen’s neuroses and struggles were my own, and his inability to overcome his ego is also my inability to overcome mine. In Nouwen’s irascible prose I heard echoes of my own whiny faith.

Tuesday, 13

This morning Father John explained to me that the killdeer is a bird that fools you by simulating injury to pull your attention away from her eggs which she lays openly in a sandy place. Beautiful! Neurosis as weapon! How often I have asked pity for a very unreal problem in order to pull people’s attention away from what I didn’t want them to see.

Sometimes it seems that every bird has institutionalized one of my defense mechanisms. The cowbird lays her eggs in some other bird’s nest to let them do the brooding job; the Baltimore oriole imitates the sounds of more dangerous birds to keep the enemies away, and the red-wing blackbird keeps screaming so loudly overhead that you get tired of her noise and soon leave the area that she considers hers. It does not take long to realize that I do all of that and a lot more to protect myself or to get my own will done. (108)

Inner Compass: An Invitation to Ignatian Spirituality by Margaret Silf

Inner Compass was my first laywoman’s introduction to Ignatian spirituality, and it captured my soul. In simple terms, Silf made the teachings of Ignatius accessible to me, giving me metaphors and exercises that helped me to see God’s hand in my journey once more. The images Silf uses to explain the concepts of consolation and desolation have stayed with me since I first read them. Inner Compass helped me to read the compass of my own soul, to test the winds and begin to trust the urgings of my heart as they led me forward toward God. Suddenly, I really had my own inner compass, along with a clear manual for its use.

The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

Five years ago, I spent 9 hours on my knees scrubbing a friend’s basement floor. The linoleum was caked with dirt from years of use. I switched into new knee pads twice and when I was finished, every joint in my body ached. I had a raging headache from the fumes produced by the cleaning products we used. And, because I had just read Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God, it remains to this day one of the deepest, most intimate spiritual experiences of my life.

 The most effective way Brother Lawrence had for communicating with God was to simply do his ordinary work. He did this obediently, out of a pure love of God, purifying it as much as was humanly possible. He believed it was a serious mistake to think of our prayer time as being different from any other. Our actions should unite us with God when we are involved in our daily activities, just as our prayers unite us with Him in our quiet devotions. (24)

Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John & the Praying Imagination by Eugene Peterson

I could have picked almost anything by Eugene Peterson, from The Message to his most recent memoir, The Pastor. His words, his teaching, his life have inspired and formed me. When he speaks of God, I listen—and I am changed. I picked Reversed Thunder because it changed my relationship to the Book of Revelation. Frankly, I avoided Revelation. It scared me. It was hard to understand. I felt foolish and small in front of it, and, truth be told, Revelation is full of a lot of difficult passages both theologically and emotionally. Peterson’s book gave me a way into the final book of the Bible, a place of relationship, and an understanding of the centrality of worship. It opened the door of this part of Scripture to me, and when I walked in, I was transformed.

“Worship is the act in which our misunderstood and misspoken words are corrected and arranged into an expression of the whole truth of ourselves and our God; it is the act in which we find our fragmented lives corrected and arranged into a whole and perfect offering to God—by the action of the Lamb, we become ‘spotless’.” (129)

The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard

Of all of Willard’s books, this one moved me the most. Not because The Divine Conspiracy didn’t—it did. Not because Knowing Christ Today doesn’t move me—it does. But because in the first half of the book (which most people skip because they find it too dry and dull), Willard wove together theology and spirituality in a way that made the disciplines suddenly not only imperative but attractive. Fasting, attractive? Yes, very much so. And I will be forever grateful.

The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery by David Benner

This is the first of a slim series of three volumes by David Benner that I find indispensable (the other two are Surrender to Love and Desiring God’s Will). Like Ragamuffin Gospel, The Gift of Being Yourself is an invitation to be honest with yourself before God—and find yourself loved, truly and completely. It’s also a great resource for understanding the false self—the part of me that I present to the world but isn’t really me. Benner’s book gave me a gentle introduction to my dark side, and allowed me to see that there were parts of me that I needed to accept rather than reject in order to stand fully before God.

Space for God: Study and Practice of Spirituality and Prayer by Don Postema

Space for God was just going to be another book for another seminary class. Spiritual Formation. A required course. Ho-hum. I thought it would be a bird course. Instead, it was a course that changed everything: my degree program, my career path, and my relationship with God. Space for God was a guide to making space for God in my life in ways that Bible studies, classes and Sunday school never taught me. Through nine guided weeks, I spent time in meditation and prayer, and began learning how to find silence and solitude in a schedule that made room for neither. Interacting with Space for God was like being taught to swim for the very first time. Overwhelming and awkward and first. Later, empowering and thrilling. All in the ocean of God’s love, a place I’d only been able to dangle my feet in up to this point. And I say interacting instead of reading on purpose—Space for God is filled with artwork and poetry, anecdotes and Scripture. You don’t simply read Space for God, you experience it.

And one more for good measure:

The Renovaré Life With God Bible

Although I love all sorts of Bible translations, this Bible is the one that I carry with me at all times. Frankly, I couldn’t get through a list of what’s formed me spiritually without mentioning Scripture, but not because I want to beat people with it. The Bible has been friend and foe to me, refuge and prison, a soft place to fall and a concrete wall that I have smashed my heart against. I love this translation and annotation of the Bible the best for lots of reasons (what can be better than quoting the Beatles in a footnote on the Psalms?), but most of all because it reminds me that this really is about life with God.

So, what about you? What would happen if you practiced lectio divina on your shelves, guided by a list of 10 books that have formed you spiritually?

 

Check back in each day for a new list, and be sure to click on over to Sarah’s blog to read hers as well. I mean, hey, she has a fancy button and everything:

Monday: 10 books that formed me spiritually

Tuesday: 10 books that I keep in my spiritual direction room

Wednesday: 10 books that I own but am embarrassed I haven’t read

Thursday: 10 books that help me pray

Friday: 10 books that remind me God’s the Great Storyteller

Saturday: 10 books I read on the weekends

Sunday: 20 books I read while writing my book