December 2016 BOTM - Voting

[John]

It is time to consider and vote for our December BOTM.

You may vote for two of the books listed below. Enter your votes by replying in this thread. Voting will end sometime after 5 PM, Central time, on November 18 - I will be traveling, but will cut off voting and post results when I can. A book will be randomly selected for elimination from the nominations list from those that don't receive any votes. Daphne Adeane, Amoris Laetitia and Life of St. Catherine of Siena are exempted from the randomizer as this is their first month on the list. The nominations are:

Amoris Laetitia: Apostolic Exhortation on the Family, by Pope Francis
Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation The Joy of Love: On Love in the Family is appreciated as an aid to reflection, dialogue and pastoral practice, and as a help and encouragement to families in their daily commitments and challenges.
This Exhortation is especially timely in this Jubilee Year of Mercy. First, because it represents an invitation to Christian families to value the gifts of marriage and the family, and to persevere in a love strengthened by the virtues of generosity, commitment, fidelity and patience. Second, because it seeks to encourage everyone to be a sign of mercy and closeness wherever family life remains imperfect or lacks peace and joy.

The Biblical Basis For Purgatory, by John Salza
Jesus taught us about it, and for centuries the Church has faithfully defined and defended it. Protestants deny it even exists, while many Catholics fundamentally misunderstand it. It is Purgatory: that place of purifying penance where souls saved by Christ are made perfect and acceptable to spend life eternal in heaven. In The Biblical Basis For Purgatory, author and apologist John Salza (Why Catholics Cannot Be Masons) offers the definitive scriptural explanation of this distinctively Catholic doctrine. Building on the teachings of Christ and St. Paul, he shows how the existence of a place of temporal punishment after death is not only a logical extension of what we know about the reality of sin and God's justice, but is also a supreme expression of God's love and mercy. Although Purgatory is a place of mercy, its pains are real, and they are severe. This book does more than defend and explain Purgatory it provides a solid plan, drawn from the Church's perennial wisdom for conquering our sins by God's grace, while still on earth.

The Cardinal, by Henry Morton Robinson
On its first publication, The Cardinal was an immediate bestseller. A selection of the Literary Guild, it was published in more than a dozen languages and sold over two million copies. Later made into an Academy Award-nominated film directed by Otto Preminger and starring John Huston, the book tells a story that captured the nation's attention: a working-class American's rise to become a cardinal of the Catholic Church. The daily trials and triumphs of Stephen Fermoyle, from the working-class suburbs of Boston, drive him to become first a parish priest, then secretary to a cardinal, later a bishop, and finally a wearer of the Red Hat. An essential work of American fiction that is newly relevant with the ordination of New York's Timothy Dolan as cardinal, Henry Morton Robinson's novel is back in print by popular demand.

Daphne Adeane, by Maurice Baring
Barrister Basil Wake and his arresting wife Hyacinth lead a well-appointed existence in the social whirl of London’s early 1900s. For eight years Hyacinth has conducted a most discreet affair with Parliamentarian Michael Choyce, who seems to fit into the Wakes’ lives so conveniently. But an invitation to attend a Private View and a startling portrait of the mysterious and beautiful Daphne Adeane signifies a change in this comfortable set-up.

Letters from the Desert, by Carlo Carretto
Shows that a life of prayer, a passion for justice and the spirit of solidarity cannot be separated.

The Life of St. Catherine of Siena: The Classic on Her Life and Accomplishments as Recorded by Her Spiritual Director, by Blessed Raymond of Capua
This is the classic life of St Catherine by her spiritual director. He tells of her only what he experienced firsthand, or of what he learned firsthand from her mother, her sisters, her family members and friends. An incredible life, told simply and straightforwardly, without embellishment and without dodging her many miracles, and miraculous conversions. This book puts you squarely in the presence of one of Holy Mother Church\'s greatest saints.

A Martyr for the Truth: Jerzy Popieuszko, by Grazyna Sikorska

On the God of the Christians:, by Rémi Brague
[The book description on GR is in French. The following is excerpted from Amazon, which indicates it is from the back cover of the book.]
On the God of the Christians tries to explain how Christians conceive of the God whom they worship. No proof for His existence is offered, but simply a description of the Christian image of God.

The Perfect Blindside, by Leslea Wahl
He's an egotistical snowboarder with a silver medal.
She's a judgmental honors student with a flair for photography.
Slashed tires.... False accusations.... A coded message.... When all they can see is each other's flaws, how can Jake and Sophie work together to figure out what's really been happening at the abandoned silver mine?

Reasonable Pleasures: The Strange Coherences of Catholicism, by James V. Schall
The fact of pleasure is obvious to us, but its relation to reason is less understood. We are beings who laugh and run, sing and dance, but we too seldom reflect on why we do these things. Above all, we are beings who think and who want to know whether our lives make sense. In this thought-provoking study of the relationship between our reason and our experience of pleasure, popular professor and author Fr. James Schall shows how reason, religion and pleasure are not in conflict with one another. Religion has to do with how man relates to God. Catholicism is not so much a religion as a revelation. It records and recalls how God relates to man.The popular mood of our time is that neither religion nor revelation has much to do with real life. Yet when we look at things as having meaning and order, they fit together in surprising ways. This coherence should bring us joy, and teach us how reason, religion and pleasure can work together for our benefit. Schall shows us in this book why we have many reasons to think that our lives make sense, that our pleasures can be reasonable, and our reason itself is a pleasure.

Remembering Belloc, by James V. Schall
Hilaire Belloc was a man of many parts. Half English, half French, with an American wife, Belloc was a man who thought and traveled widely. He was the best essayist in the English language. His historical studies covered much of European history. He wrote a book on America, another on Paris, another on the Servile State. He sailed his boat The Nona around England and into the Island of Patmos. He walked to Rome and, with his four companions, through Sussex. While he did so, he thought, reflected, laughed, wondered. He was a born Catholic. He saw the depths of European civilization in its classical and Christian heritage, as well as in their being lost.

The Spiritual Combat, by Dom Lorenzo Scupuli
The Combat is a practical manual of living. At first it teaches that the sense of life is incessant fighting against egoistic longings and replacing them with sacrifice and charity. The one who does not do this loses, and suffers in Hell; the one who does it, trusting not in his own, but God's power, triumphs and is happy in Heaven. The work of Scupoli analyses various usual situations and advises how to cope with them, preserving a pure conscience and improving virtue. It emphasizes also the boundless goodness of God, which is the cause of all good. What is bad originates from the human who rebels against God.

Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul, by Cathleen Medwick
A refreshingly modern reconsideration of Saint Teresa (1515-1582), one of the greatest mystics and reformers to emerge within the sixteenth-century Catholic Church, whose writings are a keystone of modern mystical thought.

The Upstart, by Piers Paul Read.
The son of a poor Yorkshire parson, Hilary Fletcher grows to manhood with a deep loathing of the smug and privileged upper classes, a loathing burned into him by his humiliation at the hands of the wealthy Metherall family.

Way of the Ascetics: The Ancient Tradition of Discipline and Inner Growth, by Tito Colliander
Written for lay persons living in the world, this is an excellent resource for daily meditation, spiritual guidance and a revitalized religious life.

[Fonch]

It is very dificult there are a lot of candiadtes. "The cardinal!" is a piece of the catholic american history, "Upstart" is a story in the middle of Brideshead revisited and "Human bondage" with pieces of a rogue novels, and "Daphne Adeane", perhaps one of the best novels of Maurice Baring i recomend to the marriage who is suffering a crisis.
The people can choose.

[C.D.]

I vote for Reasonable Pleasures.

[Donna]

"Remembering Belloc" would be my choice.

[Janice]

The Life of St. Catherine.

[Ann-Marie]

I vore for Remembering Belloc.

[MaryAnn (EmilyD1037)]

1. The Life of St. Catherine of Siena: The Classic on Her Life and Accomplishments as Recorded by Her Spiritual Director, by Blessed Raymond of Capua

2. Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul, by Cathleen Medwick

[Cynthia]

I've read The Perfect Blindside, a YA contemporary novel, and can recommend it.

[John]

Cynthia wrote: "I've read The Perfect Blindside, a YA contemporary novel, and can recommend it."

Cynthia, is that your vote?

[Jill]

Amoris Laetitia
Martyr for Truth

so many excellent choices!!

[Cynthia]

John wrote: "Cynthia wrote: "I've read The Perfect Blindside, a YA contemporary novel, and can recommend it."

Cynthia, is that your vote?"

I won't have time to read anything in Dec.

[Celia]

Remembering Belloc

[Nicole]

The Perfect Blindside.

[John]

Remembering Belloc
The God of the Christians

[Tynaja]

Carlo Caretto Letters from dessert.

[FAD]

"Remembering Belloc" and "The Spiritual Combat"