If you were to look up the term “personal growth,” the words that would most likely pop up would be self-improvement, success, goal-setting, etc. But I believe that personal growth also involves deepening one’s relationship with God. In this Easter season, I’d like to offer you five books that I return to over and over because they nourish my soul.

5 Books That Nourish Your Soul:

Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton
Merton, a Trappist monk and bestselling author who died in 1968, wrote this classic about monastic prayer. But I find its guidance and description of contemplative prayer extremely helpful for me as a layperson. Merton clearly writes from experience, and his words about union with God simply resonate with truth. I highly recommend the book for those who are inclined toward a practice of contemplative prayer.

Lost in Wonder: Rediscovering the Spiritual Art of Attentiveness by Esther de Waal
I discovered this book on a Holy Week retreat five years ago. Rather than highlight passages in the book, I took notes when I found some gem of wisdom or insight. As a result, I have pages and pages of quotes—about silence, listening, prayer and awe. The poetry she includes and the quotes she cites are somehow especially appropriate around this time of celebrating the Easter mysteries.

Listening Below the Noise: A Meditation on the Practice of Silence by Anne D. LeClaire
LeClaire took up a practice of a day of silence (and eventually two days of silence) a month and wrote about its impact on her creativity and her spiritual journey. Married with children at the time, she explains how she managed to keep silence in an active household. That alone would be tremendously useful for moms and dads who seem daunted by the very idea of such a practice. But the real benefit of the book for me is her beautiful description of the fruits of silence.

The Artist’s Way Every Day: A Year of Creative Living by Julia Cameron
The Artist’s Way is an international bestseller in which Cameron outlines very practical ways (morning pages, artist’s dates with yourself, etc.) to nourish your creativity and live a creative life. This volume culls passages from several of her books, all based on the same theme. I have used it as devotional reading after my morning prayer.

A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew by Stephen Mitchell
I can’t tell you how worn the pages are in my copy of this book. I once used this too every morning as a devotional. But I also dove into its pages when leading centering prayer groups or when simply feeling distressed or anxious. Mitchell uses very colloquial language in his translation of the psalms, so purists beware. But for those of us who simply seek solace from the psalms, I would highly recommend this book.

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Today there is more to read than ever. Traditional and social news sites are filled with the latest buzz stories repeated ad nauseam. One is pressed to keep up. Amid the endless competition to make headlines and build traffic there is no enduring value.

When I read exclusively new material for an extended period I lose confidence. Each story seems to blend together into meaningless jargon. I feel empty and depressed. Nothing matters because whatever I learn today will be old news tomorrow. If you are someone searching for meaning in life, I am sure you have felt this way as well.

Whenever this happens, I have learned to turn back to the classics, the old enduring books that have stood the test of time and retain their luster. The common perception of old books is that they are antiquated and useless. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We believe, with our technology, that we have reinvented life. But this is not the case. The gadgets that surround us are minor details, the essence of life remains unchanged. It feels the same to be alive today as it did a thousand years ago. Look into yourself and you will know this is true. We are still lone souls confined to our thoughts, facing the same challenges.

Everything has its particular place. Old books cannot give you the weather forecast or teach you to write a javascript. But what they will teach you is how to live. They will teach you what it means to be human. They will give you a firm place to stand against the assault of constant change. The wisdom of the greatest human minds passed down through centuries is our most reliable asset.

I am not alone in this opinion. I leave you with this passage from the immortal Albert Einstein.

Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best the books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely nearsighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous.

There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste with a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind.

Nothing is more needed than to overcome the modernist’s snobbishness.