The Twelve Steps of Holiness and Salvation

Rating:
Summary: One of my all-time favourite books
Review: St. Alphonusus is one of the most popular and easily readable Catholic authors. Although written in the 18th century his style is still very direct and appealing. Even though he was a great academic and is ranked as THE Doctor of Moral theology by the Catholic Church, he writes in a very understandable and popular style. This books is a collection taken from his books and sermons, grouped around 12 key themes. The one weakness of this book is that it was not written as a whole, and so some of the sections are unequal, for example, the section on chastity was drawn from talks for nuns so is not directly relevant to all Christians. Personally, I find the sections on prayer and recollection in this book to be the most penetrating that I've ever read. It also contains his brief description of how to practice mental prayer.