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