It has been eight years since I have purchased this volume, I have now read this edition eight times. There are three editions of these book available in English. The original vinyl bound. The Kindle Editions that split each volume (based on Kindle max file size at the time they were released.) And New Single volume eBook editions direct from Scepter. I have owned a few copies of the vinyl, but now I love these Kindle editions. It has taken me a while but this is the review of the 14th of 14 eBook volumes. If I could only have one book or series other than the Bible to read, this would be it.
I have been reading this series for 30 years now. Since they first started being available in English. At first, I bought them in the individual vinyl covered editions. And later replaced them with the boxset, twice. And then once the eBooks were available, I grabbed them up, and after 2 years of using the eBooks I gave my physical copy to a local schoolteacher to use in his high school class. I love these books and have read them around 15 times over years. I love these eBook editions. And have read them every year since getting the eBook editions.
I have said it before, and will say it again, there are a few features I love about the eBook versions that I want to highlight. First as a reader you can highlight and make notes easily in the digital editions. You can also pick colors and change your highlighting from year to year. But the best feature of the Kindle version is you can export your highlights and notes and start fresh. I also always like having all the volumes on me. As mike Aquilina stated:
“Now we can travel with more books stored in our telephones than the ancient Egyptians kept in their vast library at Alexandria.”
And I always appreciate having them all on me. I can use them to look something up, using the Subject index or index of quotations to look something up in any volume. I also love that in eBooks you can change the page color, the font, and even font size to make reading better suited to your personally with my dual form of dyslexia.
When these books were originally released in English this was the first half of the fourth volume. This volume consists of 54 meditations for Weeks 13 through to 18 of Ordinary Time. A sample of the highlights I made in this volume this year are:
“Embracing the Cross should lead us never to complain when confronting difficulties, and even to thank God for the failures, suffering, and setbacks that purify us. Such adversities should be additional occasions for drawing us closer to God.”
“Are you suffering some great tribulation? Do you have setbacks? Say very slowly, as if savouring the words, this powerful and manly prayer: ‘May the most just and most lovable will of God be done, be fulfilled, be praised, and eternally exalted above all things. Amen. Amen.’ I assure you that you’ll find peace.”
“Joy and optimism during rough moments is not a fruit of temperament or of age. It is born of a deep interior life and the frequent consideration of our divine filiation.”
“Our Lady is always vigilant where her children are concerned. The Catalan poet continues his poem saying: Why, Most Holy Virgin, do you look at us with eyes so wide open? Create in our soul a holy fear. May the miracles of the past be repeated today, and may you free us from every sin and from vile cowardice.”
Across the 7 Volumes in this series; or 14 eBook volumes because each book is split in two there are over 450 meditations. There is a meditation for each day of the church calendar, Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent, Eastertide and of course the 34 weeks of Ordinary time. And as mentioned this is part of 1 volume 4 dedicated to Ordinary time weeks 13 through to 18.
These books are incredible for your spiritual life. Every time I read them, every day I am challenged, challenged to become a better version of myself, challenged to live more joy, more hope, more dedication. These books will change your life, and as you read them again and again you will only grow to appreciate them more.
I had planned on reviewing each of the eBook editions as I read them but have fallen behind. As stated, this is my eighth time reading this volume as an eBook. This series has been invaluable in my spiritual life. Sometimes I read it for years in a row. And every time I benefit from it. I grow, I deepen. I strive to mature.
I would love to see what Francis Fernandez would do with a volume 8, focusing on modern saints like: Maria Goretti, John Henry Newman, Josemaria Escriva, John XXIII, John Paul II, Guadalupe Ortiz, … and many more.
Of all the devotionals and spiritual books, I have read over the last nearly 30 years I can recommend this series as one of the best. You can read it again and again and always get something more out of it. A few years ago I was asked to come up with my all-time Top Ten Catholic Books this series came in at number 4 but to be honest 2-5 are almost all interchangeable. This is one of my all-time top Christian reads!
Books edited by Francis Fernandez Carvajal:
Year of Faith Treasury: The Sacrament of Confession
Year of Faith Treasury: The Virtue of Faith
Year of Faith Treasury: The Virtue of Fortitude
In Conversation with God:
Books by Francis Fernandez Carvajal:
