I have a new best friend. She’s wise and authentic and has taught me so much from the lessons of her life. She does so with incredible transparency and vulnerability. I only wish I had known her before I was 71 years old!
Sadly, I don’t get to spend time with her face-to-face. I know where she lives, but unfortunately I won’t be able to visit her in the foreseeable future. So, for now, I relish the wisdom she’s given me. It’s changing my life. She’s my new hero.
Her name is Catherine Marshall, and I met her this past year in the pages of many of her books. Her name sounded familiar, but I really had no idea who she was or the incredible treasure awaiting me. I’d been researching the author, Sarah Young who wrote the best-selling devotion – JESUS CALLING. I discovered that Catherine was one of her early inspirations. So, I bought my first Catherine Marshall book, Beyond Ourselves and was literally transformed!
Even though Catherine began writing books in 1951, the year before I was born – her writing and teaching has impacted me more this year than any other single author I’ve ever read. And I’ve read a LOT!
If Catherine were alive today, she’d be 109 years old. She left her residency on earth in 1983 at the age of 68 after a heart attack. She had deposited such a huge body of work that I’m assuming the Lord considered her assignment complete. I hope that God is allowing her to know that her Spirit inspired books are still drawing people into a more intimate walk with Jesus.
My prayer is that I can write even one book that impacts someone’s spiritual life even half as much as hers has mine. Her stories are raw in places and her life lessons are riveting. But most of all, her deep love of God and intimate connection with the Holy Spirit inspire me into action. After almost 50 years as a Christ follower, I’m growing and experiencing a very fresh spiritual igniting. And that’s why I am so passionate about sharing my “new best friend” with you!
I will be sad when I run out of Catherine Marshall books to read. By then, who knows…it could be time to meet her face-to-face at her heavenly address!
From my Quite Time Chair,
Danna
As we approach the Christmas season, I encourage you to consider one or more of Catherine’s books as gifts to some of the women of faith in your life. A few of them have been updated and republished. Others can only be found on the used market. I have a few that are as old as me!
I highly recommend starting with the three below which do have newer versions:
Beyond OurselvesWhy Am I Here?
This question, if we are honest, often comes from a restless, nagging feeling that you should be getting more out of life or putting more into it. The search for something more—something beyond your own self—begins when your spirit cries out for It Maker and refuses to be satisfied with anything less. At that point, how do you go about finding God? How does an ordinary person gain intimacy with Him for a lifetime of meaning and significance?
Catherine Marshall digs deep in Beyond Our Selves to tackle such questions as:
- Whether prayer affects the circumstances of our lives?
- How do you find God’s guidance for you?
- Will God heal when medicine fails?
- How does the Prayer of Relinquishment and the Prayer that Makes Dreams come True work in our lives?
- What does it mean to dare to trust God with our lives?
- Can we really have a close and personal relationship with the God who created the universe?
- How do we relate to the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives?
In Beyond Our Selves, Catherine Marshall shares transparently her own spiritual adventure as she searched for such answers on her quest for a meaningful life, a practical faith, and a closer relationship with God.
The Helper
The Helper, written as forty short chapters, can be used as a personal devotional guide, during Lent, or any time of the year, to enable you to pursue your own quest to meet the Helper and discern the Helper’s role in your own spiritual life. Each chapter reveals an aspect of this relationship between a believer in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and expands the insights with a scripture reading, a personal word, and a prayer.
Something MoreThis is one of Catherine’s later books. She writes movingly of her continued quest for Something More – a fuller, richer, more personal relationship with God. In her winsome, narrative style beloved by millions, she candidly reveals her own faith challenges and the life-changing understanding of how God works in our lives.
If you are longing for a deeper faith, Something More will help you discover:
- how to trust and obey God’s will
- how to forgive and receive forgiveness
- how to live in faith during times of discouragement
- how to experience God’s faithfulness in the midst of challenging circumstances.
- how to listen to and learn from the Holy Spirit
- how to pray and relinquish your highest dreams to a loving God
Tackling the tough questions such as why a loving God permits good people to suffer and why some are healed and not others, this book is a frank, honest, and fascinating lens into the life of a Christian.
Inspirational Fiction
Christy
Inspired by her mother’s life and experience, Catherine Marshall tells this moving story with such passion, it seems like you can actually feel all that Christy is going through. I chose to listen to the audio book and loved it!
The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions.
But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her–and her one-room school–as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged and her heart is torn between two strong men with conflicting views about how to care for the families of the Cove.
