St. Robert Bellarmine
Imagine that you owned a very expensive car? A Ferrari Modena perhaps. You’d probably construct a whole new garage for it, use nothing but the best fuel, only drive it in certain areas and treat it like you’ve treated nothing before.
At this point, many fitness conscious people would put in a plug for exercising and eating right. They certainly have a point. After all, you can always get a new car? If you have a truckload of money, you can even buy a new Ferrari. What you can’t buy is a new body. Why would you treat it poorly? Makes sense, doesn’t it?
The same thing can be said about your soul. You only get one just like you only get one body. Technically, the soul fits the analogy better than the body because you can get organ transplants or plastic surgery. You cannot get a soul transplant. The only thing that you can do is nourish the soul.
This is where the books we read come into play. Many people don’t pay as much attention to this as they should. It’s easy to look on the Bestseller List and read what is says. This will get you reading novels like Fifty Shades of Grey. In other words, not good at all.
The Church has produced good literature throughout the centuries. I have a list of recommended reading as well as a list of encyclicals in an earlier post. That list can be greatly expanded, especially when looking at works from the 19th Century. The writings of the Saints are never a bad choice. Since they’re in heaven, it’s good to know about them and what they wrote.
In the last 500 years, three Saints really stand out to me. They all have plenty of writings available. Some may be a little harder to find but many of their books are quite simple to find.
The first is St. Francis de Sales. He really stands out to me because his writings reveal a man who could write about every area of the faith. He could write about apologetics, philosophy, theology, spiritual topics, and other areas. How many people can claim this? He certainly stands out in this area.
The second is St. Robert Bellarmine. Without a doubt, the greatest mind of the Church after St. Thomas Aquinas. He lived at a time when his writings would prove very useful. St. Francis de Sales took his writings when he went to evangelize the people of Chablais. Without a doubt, the greatest Christian mind in the last 500 years.
The last one is St. Alphonsus Liguori. He is referred to as the Doctor of Moral Theology. When one studies his writings, one only begins to discover the treasury of the graces given to him from above. He also has very good writings on the Virgin Mary. They are very good to have in a day where Mariology is being attacked.
These three men are not only saints, but Doctors of the Church as well. Only a few dozen exist in the entire two millennia of the Church. When most people think about the word Doctor, they think about a physician but traditionally, doctor meant teacher. That is why doctor and doctrine have the same root.
These doctors nourish the soul. They simply beat out any defective doctors of the world like the ones seen on the Bestseller List. What you read matters so stick to the saints and doctors. These three are the not the only ones but they’re certainly a good place to start.
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