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My Life with the Saints (10th Anniversary Edition)
I read this book in Lent of 2017. Someone sent it to me anonymously from Amazon to read during Lent. (If it was you- thanks!) I love saints- it’s not a huge secret. One of my biggest compliments from a student was that if I were a patron saint, I would be the patron saint of saints. But ever since college I’ve been slightly obsessed with learning more about saints. The book had been on my to-read list for a long time and I was really looking forward to reading it. Before this I had not read anything by Father Martin, although I follow him on facebook and had seen him on Stephen Colbert’s show.
This is a more in-depth study of saints than My Badass Book of Saints. Martin’s book goes through 15 different saints and how they have helped him through various stages in his life. I loved this book for several reasons. First of all, Father Martin’s writing style and story are very engaging. Secondly, I really enjoyed the mix of saints in this book. There are an almost even number of women and men, canonized and uncanonized, modern saints and saints from hundreds of years ago. At the end of the book he also provides ideas for further reading on each of the saints he features. Lastly, I loved the social justice focus that permeated this book.
While I knew the stories of many of the women and men in this book, I loved the new things I learned about them through the eyes of the author and the connections he makes to his own life and experience. I also enjoyed learning more about Thomas Merton and Pedro Arrupe, two Catholic role models I hadn’t known a whole lot about before this book. I also got one of my favorite quotes to live by from this book: The invitation to holiness is a lifelong call to draw closer to God, who wants nothing more than to encounter us as the people we are and the saints we are meant to be.
Popcorn- 4: Super interesting, but does require some mental effort 🙂
Stars-5: I loved the writing style and I learned so much from Father Martin and the saints in this book.
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