What do you think?
Rate this book
The Seven Pillars of Catholic Spirituality
the seven pillars of catholic spirituality (dvd)
128 pages, Hardcover
Published December 1, 2025
111 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Kelly
193 books1,421 followersMatthew Kelly is a best-selling author, speaker, thought leader, entrepreneur, consultant, spiritual leader, and innovator.
He has dedicated his life to helping people and organizations become the-best-version-of-themselves. Born in Sydney, Australia, he began speaking and writing in his late teens while he was attending business school. Since that time, 5 million people have attended his seminars and presentations in more than 50 countries.
Today, Kelly is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, and business consultant. His books have been published in more than 30 languages, have appeared on The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller lists, and have sold more than 50 million copies.
In his early-twenties he developed "the-best-version-of-yourself" concept and has been sharing it in every arena of life for more than twenty-five years. It is quoted by presidents and celebrities, athletes and their coaches, business leaders and innovators, though perhaps it is never more powerfully quoted than when a mother or father asks a child, "Will that help you become the-best-version-of-yourself?"
Kelly's personal interests include golf, music, art, literature, investing, spirituality, and spending time with his wife, Meggie, and their children Walter, Isabel, Harry, Ralph, and Simon.
He has dedicated his life to helping people and organizations become the-best-version-of-themselves. Born in Sydney, Australia, he began speaking and writing in his late teens while he was attending business school. Since that time, 5 million people have attended his seminars and presentations in more than 50 countries.
Today, Kelly is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, and business consultant. His books have been published in more than 30 languages, have appeared on The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller lists, and have sold more than 50 million copies.
In his early-twenties he developed "the-best-version-of-yourself" concept and has been sharing it in every arena of life for more than twenty-five years. It is quoted by presidents and celebrities, athletes and their coaches, business leaders and innovators, though perhaps it is never more powerfully quoted than when a mother or father asks a child, "Will that help you become the-best-version-of-yourself?"
Kelly's personal interests include golf, music, art, literature, investing, spirituality, and spending time with his wife, Meggie, and their children Walter, Isabel, Harry, Ralph, and Simon.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 24, 2026
Matthew Kelly is a fabulous writer. I always find a take away from his books. I don’t walk away feeling guilty or judged that I am not a good enough catholic. I also am reminded about why Catholics do and believe what we do.
January 6, 2026
“God sees your unrealized potential. He sees not only who you are but also who you can be. Ask Him to share that vision with you.”
This line captures the heart of The Seven Pillars of Catholic Spirituality. Kelly’s central claim is simple but demanding: the Church offers concrete, time-tested practices that help us grow into the people God already knows we can become. He presents seven such practices here, not as abstract theology, but as lived disciplines that shape character, freedom, and joy.
Those most resistant to the Church may, paradoxically, benefit the most from understanding the richness of its spiritual tradition. Kelly opens with the disarming question, “What if everything the Catholic Church teaches is true?” I would add a second: If everyone actually lived according to those teachings, would the world be a place of greater human flourishing? My answer is an unequivocal yes.
That conviction is what ultimately made me a revert—someone who returned to the Church after a long absence caused, ironically and tragically, by majoring in religious studies at a Jesuit university and earning a graduate degree in religion at a Marxist Reformed Christian institution. What drove me away intellectually eventually led me back existentially.
This is a quick read, but not a shallow one. For some readers, much of this material will be new; for others, it will serve as a reminder; and for still others, as encouragement. In every case, it is practical and clarifying.
Kelly frames the spiritual life using an analogy anyone can understand. If you want to be a great athlete, you analyze your performance honestly and do what it takes to improve. If you don’t, you remain mediocre. When Confession—the Sacrament of Reconciliation—is viewed through this lens, its value becomes obvious: it is, as Kelly puts it, “the perfect spiritual practice to rekindle our passion for excellence in the spiritual life.”
Perhaps the problem with Confession is that we have absorbed the world’s lie that we are “fine just the way we are” and need not take an honest inventory of our thoughts, words, and actions. The world does not want saints; it wants better consumers. It insists there is no such thing as sin or evil, no objective truth, and no universal right and wrong.
A better question to ask is: "What thoughts, words, and actions deviate from the natural order and separate me from the peace of knowing I am contributing positively to the common good of the unfolding universe?"
Many people object that they will not confess sins to a priest who himself sins. This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the sacrament. The priest does not absolve by his own authority; he stands in persona Christi. Psychological research confirms what the Church has long known: being forgiven, starting over, and being invited to reorient one’s attitudes and behavior is profoundly healing.
Kelly’s discussion of daily prayer is similarly grounded. A seven-year-old sums it up best: “God is my friend, and friends like to know what is going on in each other’s lives.” Prayer shapes the mind, and what we allow into the mind shapes our responses to life. As Kelly notes, “If you can direct what happens in your mind, you can influence what happens in your life.” The difference between happy and miserable people, he argues, is often a sense of mission. Life is vocational—it is about discovering and living out one’s purpose. Even Jesus withdrew into silence to pray. If He needed that, how much more do we?
On the Mass, Kelly convinced me to rethink my own habits. I don’t keep a Mass journal—I usually jot notes in Magnificat or The Word Among Us—but his insistence that “our lives change when our habits change” landed. Christ is present body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist, and Mass orients us toward God, fortifying us for the Way.
Kelly’s chapter on Scripture is a welcome corrective to modern assumptions—especially the idea that Christianity was ever meant to be a “Bible-only” religion. For the first 1,500 years of Christianity, before the printing press, the faithful did not possess personal Bibles. Scripture was copied laboriously by monks, proclaimed aloud, and encountered communally within the life of the Church. The Protestant doctrine of sola Scriptura is nowhere stated in Scripture itself; in fact, St. Paul explicitly instructs believers to “stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Further, read in its fuller context, Scripture is not merely analyzed but entered. We are meant to see ourselves in every person in the biblical narrative. Take any scene and imagine yourself as each character in turn. That practice alone transforms how Scripture is read.
The chapter on fasting is particularly helpful. Drawing on Aquinas, Kelly identifies three purposes: the restraint of disordered desires, atonement for sin, and greater openness to higher things. Paul VI’s teaching on fasting and almsgiving reinforces the same hierarchy: the spirit over the body, the eternal over the temporal. Our culture relentlessly promises happiness without discipline. “Do whatever you feel like doing and you will be happy.” The Church insists on the opposite: discipline is the path to happiness. Both claim to offer joy, but only one delivers.
Fasting must involve conversion of the heart. We can fast not only from food, but from judging others, criticizing, cursing, and complaining. Self-control matters. The ability to delay gratification is one of the strongest predictors of realizing one’s full potential.
Kelly’s treatment of spiritual reading is bracingly honest. “When was the last time you read a newspaper and said, ‘I’m a better person for having read that’?” We have bought into the modern myth that constant awareness of everyone else’s business is necessary or virtuous. It rarely is.
Finally, the Rosary: a practice that invites us to contemplate the life of Christ through the eyes of His mother. Quiet. Repetitive. Countercultural. And deeply formative.
Kelly’s gift is not originality, but clarity. He reminds us that holiness is not mysterious or reserved for a few. It is built, patiently and imperfectly, through habits that have worked for centuries—if we are willing to practice them.
This line captures the heart of The Seven Pillars of Catholic Spirituality. Kelly’s central claim is simple but demanding: the Church offers concrete, time-tested practices that help us grow into the people God already knows we can become. He presents seven such practices here, not as abstract theology, but as lived disciplines that shape character, freedom, and joy.
Those most resistant to the Church may, paradoxically, benefit the most from understanding the richness of its spiritual tradition. Kelly opens with the disarming question, “What if everything the Catholic Church teaches is true?” I would add a second: If everyone actually lived according to those teachings, would the world be a place of greater human flourishing? My answer is an unequivocal yes.
That conviction is what ultimately made me a revert—someone who returned to the Church after a long absence caused, ironically and tragically, by majoring in religious studies at a Jesuit university and earning a graduate degree in religion at a Marxist Reformed Christian institution. What drove me away intellectually eventually led me back existentially.
This is a quick read, but not a shallow one. For some readers, much of this material will be new; for others, it will serve as a reminder; and for still others, as encouragement. In every case, it is practical and clarifying.
Kelly frames the spiritual life using an analogy anyone can understand. If you want to be a great athlete, you analyze your performance honestly and do what it takes to improve. If you don’t, you remain mediocre. When Confession—the Sacrament of Reconciliation—is viewed through this lens, its value becomes obvious: it is, as Kelly puts it, “the perfect spiritual practice to rekindle our passion for excellence in the spiritual life.”
Perhaps the problem with Confession is that we have absorbed the world’s lie that we are “fine just the way we are” and need not take an honest inventory of our thoughts, words, and actions. The world does not want saints; it wants better consumers. It insists there is no such thing as sin or evil, no objective truth, and no universal right and wrong.
A better question to ask is: "What thoughts, words, and actions deviate from the natural order and separate me from the peace of knowing I am contributing positively to the common good of the unfolding universe?"
Many people object that they will not confess sins to a priest who himself sins. This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the sacrament. The priest does not absolve by his own authority; he stands in persona Christi. Psychological research confirms what the Church has long known: being forgiven, starting over, and being invited to reorient one’s attitudes and behavior is profoundly healing.
Kelly’s discussion of daily prayer is similarly grounded. A seven-year-old sums it up best: “God is my friend, and friends like to know what is going on in each other’s lives.” Prayer shapes the mind, and what we allow into the mind shapes our responses to life. As Kelly notes, “If you can direct what happens in your mind, you can influence what happens in your life.” The difference between happy and miserable people, he argues, is often a sense of mission. Life is vocational—it is about discovering and living out one’s purpose. Even Jesus withdrew into silence to pray. If He needed that, how much more do we?
On the Mass, Kelly convinced me to rethink my own habits. I don’t keep a Mass journal—I usually jot notes in Magnificat or The Word Among Us—but his insistence that “our lives change when our habits change” landed. Christ is present body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist, and Mass orients us toward God, fortifying us for the Way.
Kelly’s chapter on Scripture is a welcome corrective to modern assumptions—especially the idea that Christianity was ever meant to be a “Bible-only” religion. For the first 1,500 years of Christianity, before the printing press, the faithful did not possess personal Bibles. Scripture was copied laboriously by monks, proclaimed aloud, and encountered communally within the life of the Church. The Protestant doctrine of sola Scriptura is nowhere stated in Scripture itself; in fact, St. Paul explicitly instructs believers to “stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Further, read in its fuller context, Scripture is not merely analyzed but entered. We are meant to see ourselves in every person in the biblical narrative. Take any scene and imagine yourself as each character in turn. That practice alone transforms how Scripture is read.
The chapter on fasting is particularly helpful. Drawing on Aquinas, Kelly identifies three purposes: the restraint of disordered desires, atonement for sin, and greater openness to higher things. Paul VI’s teaching on fasting and almsgiving reinforces the same hierarchy: the spirit over the body, the eternal over the temporal. Our culture relentlessly promises happiness without discipline. “Do whatever you feel like doing and you will be happy.” The Church insists on the opposite: discipline is the path to happiness. Both claim to offer joy, but only one delivers.
Fasting must involve conversion of the heart. We can fast not only from food, but from judging others, criticizing, cursing, and complaining. Self-control matters. The ability to delay gratification is one of the strongest predictors of realizing one’s full potential.
Kelly’s treatment of spiritual reading is bracingly honest. “When was the last time you read a newspaper and said, ‘I’m a better person for having read that’?” We have bought into the modern myth that constant awareness of everyone else’s business is necessary or virtuous. It rarely is.
Finally, the Rosary: a practice that invites us to contemplate the life of Christ through the eyes of His mother. Quiet. Repetitive. Countercultural. And deeply formative.
Kelly’s gift is not originality, but clarity. He reminds us that holiness is not mysterious or reserved for a few. It is built, patiently and imperfectly, through habits that have worked for centuries—if we are willing to practice them.
September 27, 2025
Very good book, took me a long time to finish but I am glad that I read it.
January 31, 2026
our church giave away copies of this book for Christmas and I almost didn't pick one up. but I did pick one up and then I almost chose not to read it. but I did read it and I'm very glad that I did.
I read so many Matthew Kelly books in college and eventually just started feeling like they were all the same. and the beginning of this book really wasn't different than that experience since he referenced several of his other books in the first 25 pages..... but I persisted and am overall glad that I did.
the question that caught me and led me to read the rest of the book was "if you had a spiritual house, what would it look like??" i really liked that question which was posed early on in the book, took it to prayer and asked my friends to do the same. it's a good exercise!
I thought he did a really nice job outlining the pillars in a quick, easy to digest manner. however, the last two pillars felt rushed. those chapters are significantly shorter than the other chapters, so I think they could have had more.
I read so many Matthew Kelly books in college and eventually just started feeling like they were all the same. and the beginning of this book really wasn't different than that experience since he referenced several of his other books in the first 25 pages..... but I persisted and am overall glad that I did.
the question that caught me and led me to read the rest of the book was "if you had a spiritual house, what would it look like??" i really liked that question which was posed early on in the book, took it to prayer and asked my friends to do the same. it's a good exercise!
I thought he did a really nice job outlining the pillars in a quick, easy to digest manner. however, the last two pillars felt rushed. those chapters are significantly shorter than the other chapters, so I think they could have had more.
November 12, 2025
A good Matthew Keely book, summarizing good practices of a spiritual life.
Maybe a game changer for me. I will keep this a while and see if its wisdom percolates through my life. Many of Matthew Kelly's books have changed my life; I have passed n about half of them to other people so he can change their lives as well.
Just good basic stuff.
Maybe a game changer for me. I will keep this a while and see if its wisdom percolates through my life. Many of Matthew Kelly's books have changed my life; I have passed n about half of them to other people so he can change their lives as well.
Just good basic stuff.
November 28, 2025
Actually I did not finish this book. That rarely happens but I have read a lot of matthew Kelly and this is kind of a repeat. And now that we are headed into Advent I have other devotional readings I will do. Sorry Matthew. You do great work.
January 6, 2026
Well written and easy to understand book diving into the Catholic faith for somebody like me currently going through the OCIA program. Will revisit as a tool to deepen prayer life and spirituality on this journey
January 19, 2026
This book was given to us by our church at Christmas. It isn't for everyone but I enjoyed it. It provided insights that I never thought of or considered and that I will try my best to incorporate in my daily life.
August 1, 2019
'Seven Pillars' is a fresh look at our Catholic faith. Kelly has a great accent, and a great talent for story-telling. I'm new to the Faith, and this CD reinforced many things from RCIA.
April 23, 2020
Great book. Love Matthew Kelly's books.
Entertaining. Informative. "Catholic church is genius" favorite quote. Shows what a deep well the Church is. Highly recommend.
Entertaining. Informative. "Catholic church is genius" favorite quote. Shows what a deep well the Church is. Highly recommend.
Read
January 9, 2026Easy and quick read. Accessible language. Pulled out a few powerful things to contemplate!
January 10, 2026
Really makes you think about your relationship with the church.
January 18, 2026
Plenty of food for thought!
January 23, 2026
Matthew Kelly does a great job explaining how our faith in God is so strong.
January 29, 2026
a really good spiritual read especially if you are trying to grow in your faith! there’s a lot of truth to read in this!
November 25, 2025
A Great Guide to help anyone who is Catholic get back on track after being away. Also for those who want to know what and how we believe.
January 28, 2026
Church gave us a copy. I kind of felt like I was forcing myself to read it. But it was a good reflection on how different traditional practices in the Catholic Church helped make you a better person.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews