Also, Ray, have you connected with Abigail Favale? She has a similar conversion story to your own and her book The Genesis of Gender is Excellent! Leah Libresco Sargeant is someone else you should connect with as well, as she was a prominent atheist blogger before she converted to Catholicism and she is around the same age as you and me.
My pleasure, brother! I’m very proud of you and you are in my daily prayers. Also, while you cannot yet receive the Eucharist, you definitely CAN go up and receive ashes on your forehead so please do that at Mass on Ash Wednesday this coming Wednesday if you can! It’s such a powerful and humbling experience. 🙂
I was definitely planning on it! It is good timing to go into Lent right now to fortify my resolve and steel myself through spiritual discipline against the many temptations my critics are constantly telling me will inevitably destroy my piety and cause me to lose faith.
And if you do fall, pick yourself up and keep trying. Other than the Blessed Mother, all the saints were also sinners. And thank God for the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). Jesus will forgive any sin if we seek His mercy in Confession, and He nourishes us with His Body and Blood. I love Pope Francis’ metaphor of the Church as a Field Hospital for sinners, and along those lines, think of the 7 Sacraments as the medicine we need. And please keep praying for Pope Francis as he battles his grave illness.
Hey Ray, have you read any of these following books, brother?
Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor are two of the best living Catholic philosophers (and MacIntyre was previously both a Marxist and an atheist or agnostic before his conversion, so he in particular you might want to read because he has some similarities to your own background). I’m not sure whether Charles Taylor is a cradle Catholic or a convert or revert.
Some books by Alasdair MacIntyre you might enjoy:
After Virtue
Dependent Rational Animals
Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry
God, Philosophy, Universities
For Charles Taylor, the book of his I strongly recommend to you is A Secular Age
Also, I recommend the following 2 books by G.K. Chesterton, 2 books by Pope Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger, and 2 books by Romano Guardini
I read Taylor’s A Secular Age a long time ago in grad school but I’ve forgotten most of it. I didn’t know he was Catholic! Also, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about After Virtue, but never read it for myself. My specialty in grad school was philosophy of mind, not ethics, so there’s a lot of classics I’ve never read. Thank you for all the recommendations! My reading list ever expands 😅
Also, Ray, have you connected with Abigail Favale? She has a similar conversion story to your own and her book The Genesis of Gender is Excellent! Leah Libresco Sargeant is someone else you should connect with as well, as she was a prominent atheist blogger before she converted to Catholicism and she is around the same age as you and me.
Thank you for the recommendations 🙏
My pleasure, brother! I’m very proud of you and you are in my daily prayers. Also, while you cannot yet receive the Eucharist, you definitely CAN go up and receive ashes on your forehead so please do that at Mass on Ash Wednesday this coming Wednesday if you can! It’s such a powerful and humbling experience. 🙂
I was definitely planning on it! It is good timing to go into Lent right now to fortify my resolve and steel myself through spiritual discipline against the many temptations my critics are constantly telling me will inevitably destroy my piety and cause me to lose faith.
And if you do fall, pick yourself up and keep trying. Other than the Blessed Mother, all the saints were also sinners. And thank God for the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). Jesus will forgive any sin if we seek His mercy in Confession, and He nourishes us with His Body and Blood. I love Pope Francis’ metaphor of the Church as a Field Hospital for sinners, and along those lines, think of the 7 Sacraments as the medicine we need. And please keep praying for Pope Francis as he battles his grave illness.
Hey Ray, have you read any of these following books, brother?
Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor are two of the best living Catholic philosophers (and MacIntyre was previously both a Marxist and an atheist or agnostic before his conversion, so he in particular you might want to read because he has some similarities to your own background). I’m not sure whether Charles Taylor is a cradle Catholic or a convert or revert.
Some books by Alasdair MacIntyre you might enjoy:
After Virtue
Dependent Rational Animals
Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry
God, Philosophy, Universities
For Charles Taylor, the book of his I strongly recommend to you is A Secular Age
Also, I recommend the following 2 books by G.K. Chesterton, 2 books by Pope Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger, and 2 books by Romano Guardini
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton
The Spirit of the Liturgy by Pope Benedict XVI
Introduction to Christianity by Pope Benedict XVI
The Lord by Romano Guardini
The End of the Modern World by Romano Guardini
I read Taylor’s A Secular Age a long time ago in grad school but I’ve forgotten most of it. I didn’t know he was Catholic! Also, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about After Virtue, but never read it for myself. My specialty in grad school was philosophy of mind, not ethics, so there’s a lot of classics I’ve never read. Thank you for all the recommendations! My reading list ever expands 😅
God Bless 🙏
Iron sharpening iron, that’s what brothers do for each other. I want us both to become the great saints that God created us to be 🙂
Thank you brother 🙏❤️