In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year

It has taken me awhile to complete my set of this 7 volume set of daily meditations. But, it is well worth the time it has taken me to acquire and learn how to use this set of Daily Meditations......As a set of Daily Meditations, the idea is to read one Meditation for each day and thus, one does not read these books through at a few sittings, but, rather, one day at a time. The readings put one into their own Conversation with God and thus help one to spend some time with God. The important thing to know about this set is that it is tied to the daily liturgy, specifically, the Daily Mass Readings. Therefore, one can get a lot more out of reading these under a couple of sets of circumstances or preconditions. Firstly, one must familiarize oneself with the liturgical year of the Church. There is a chart inside the volume that helps you to do this. For Example, is the Church in Year A, B, or C? Is it the 14th week in Ordinary Time or is it the Eastertide? One MUST be aware of the ebb and flow of the Liturgical year which is different than the calendar year to maximize the power of your Conversation with God. Secondly, if you are not a daily Mass attendee, you may want to learn how to ascertain the daily scriptural readings for the weekdays when you may not frequent Mass. The reason for knowing or prereading the Mass reading for any specific day is that these Meditations refer to the Mass readings for any given day and therefore, it helps if one has read the Mass readings for the day or alternatively, knows how to find them. One way of finding the Mass readings for the day is through a Sunday Bulletin of a Catholic Church. Most parishes list in their weekly Bulletin the Mass readings for each day of the week. If this doesn't work for you, the daily Mass readings are easily found on line in a number of locations including the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops web site or EWTN's (Eternal World Television Network) web site. One can use the book without the daily Mass readings of course. The volumes are footnoted and referenced. Thus, a footnote can refer to a specific scripture in the Bible and one can refer to that Biblical location. OTHER SOURCES: In addition to the Bible, the daily commentary includes many other sources that are footnoted including writing of JOSEMARIE Escriva, like the "FORGE", "FURROW" and "Friends of God". Also, many writings of the SAINTS are referred to in the footnotes. One does not need to pursue the footnote references however to obtain value from the volume. I mention the footnote references only because you can see that the commentary is grounded in the teachings and Tradition of the Magisterium. Thus, your daily Conversation with God takes the Scripture reading for the day and EXPANDS upon it, and helps you to meditate upon its meaning for your life. This practice of "lectio divina" - reading, praying/conversing with our Lord will heighten your intimacy with Our Lord and bring you clo

Wow, this 7 volume set is a must have for anyone looking for a daily scriptural based meditation book. Fernandez does an excellent job of hitting the reader with real to life spirituality topics ranging anywhere from the sacraments and virtues to family interaction and friendship. Also, each spiritual reading ties in with the daily Gospel reading, which is very beneficial for meditating on the Mass. Overall, this is the best spiritual reading I have found and it is geared to anyone, whether religous, single, married, or just someone looking for a little spiritual guidance. Worth the money!