recommended reading

Below are selections about, and for discerning, the priesthood. However, the best source for discovering God’s will for your life is the Bible. Click below to find topical references and links.

Books on Vocation Discernment

To Save a Thousand Souls: A Guide for Discerning a Vocation to Diocesan Priesthood
Fr. Brett Brannen

Personal Vocation: God Calls Everyone By Name
Dr. Germain Grisez and Russell Shaw

What Does God Want?
Fr. Michael Scanlon

Discovering Your Personal Vocation
Herbert Alphonso, S.J.

Is Jesus Calling You To Be A Catholic Priest? A Helpful Guide
Fr. Thomas Richter, published by the NCDVD

Radical Surrender; Letters to Seminarians
Fr. Michael Najim

Paths of Love: The Discernment of Vocation According to the Teaching of Aquinas, Ignatius, and Pope John Paul II
Joseph Bolin

Could You Ever Become a Catholic Priest
Christopher J. Duquin & Lorene Hanley Duquin

Called by Name: The Inspiring Stories of 12 Men Who Became Catholic Priests
Christine Mugridge

Tuning in to God’s Call
Fr. Andrew Carl Wisdom and Sr. Christine Kiley

Books on Priesthood


Priests for the Third Millennium
Archbishop Timothy Dolan

The Priest is Not His Own
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, 2004

Those Mysterious Priests
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, 2005

A Priest’s Life: The Calling, The Cost, The Joy
The Word Among Us Press

The Joy of Priesthood
Msgr. Steve Rosetti

Reclaiming our Priestly Character
Fr. David Toups

Maurice and Therese: The Story of a Love
Saint Therese of Lisieux

Short Catechism on the Priesthood
St. John Vianney


The Grace of Ars
Fr. Frederick Miller

Together on the Road: A Vision of Lived Communion for the Church and the Priesthood
Massimo Camisasca

Dear Father: A Message of Love to Priests
Catherine De Hueck Doherty

Be Holy! God’s First Call to Priests Today
Thomas Forrest, C.Ss.R.

A Celebration of Priestly Ministry: Challenge, Renewal, and Joy in the Catholic Priesthood
Cardinal Walter Kasper

Books on Celibacy

The Courage to be Chaste
Fr. Benedict Groeschel

When God Asks for an Undivided Heart
Fr. Andrew Apostoli

Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (Priestly Celibacy)
Pope Paul VI, 1967

Virginity
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa

“…And You are Christ’s” The Charism of Virginity and the Celibate Life
Thomas Dubay, S.M.

Magisterial Documents

Presbyterorum Ordinis (Order of Priests), 1965

Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia (From the Beginning of Our Priesthood) 1959

Pastores Dabo Vobis (I will Give You Shepherds), 1992

Program of Priestly Formation (5th Edition), U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2005

Biographies or Autobiographies of Priests

Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney and American Catholicism
Douglas Brinkley and Julie M. Fenster

The Cure D’Ars: St. Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney
F. Trochu

A Priest Forever
Fr. Benedict Groeschel

He Leadeth Me
Fr. Walter J. Ciszek, S.J.

Edmund Campion
Evelyn Waugh

From Slave to Priest: A Biography of the Reverend Augustine Tolton (1854 – 1897): First Black American Priest of the United States
Caroline Hemesath


Treasure in Clay
Archbishop Fulton Sheen

The Grunt Padre
Fr. Daniel Mode

A Shepherd in Combat Boots: Chaplain Emil Kapaun of the 1st Cavalry Division 
William L. Maher

Holy Man: Father Damien of Molokai
Gavan Daws

The Shadow of His Wings: The True Story of Fr. Gereon Goldmann, OFM
Gereon Karl Goldmann

Autobiography of a Hunted Priest
John Gerard