Here are a few books to help you attain such understanding and show it by your good life, “by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom” (James 3:13 NIV).

C. S. Lewis’ Little Book of Wisdom: Meditations on Faith, Life, Love, and Literature by C.S. Lewis  (Author), Andrea Kirk Assaf  (Compiler), Kelly Anne Leahy  (Compiler)

“This charming volume of quotes from C.S. Lewis’s works includes his Christian apologia (Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, Surprised by Joy) and his fiction (The Chronicles of Narnia, “The Space Trilogy”). Editors Assaf and Leahy have selected brief quotations and placed them in thematic groupings relevant to modern Christians, such as “Living a Full Life with Christ” and “Recognizing Sin.” Quotes are mainly short but pack punches: “Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead”; “As image and apprehension are in organic unity, so, for a Christian, are human body and human soul.” A complete Lewis bibliography is included for those interested in following up on works quoted. Also provided are several blank pages at the end of the volume for readers to jot their own thoughts. These well-chosen Lewis quotes will inspire readers and prompt them to make their own spiritual reflections.” – Publishers Weekly, (Sept. 2018)

The Wisdom of the Desert (New Directions Book 295) Kindle Edition by Thomas Merton

The Wisdom of the Desert was one of Thomas Merton’s favorites among his own books — surely because he had hoped to spend his last years as a hermit. The personal tone of the translations, the blend of reverence and humor so characteristic of him, show how deeply Merton identified with the legendary authors of these sayings and parables, the fourth-century Christian Fathers who sought solitude and contemplation in the deserts of the Near East.

On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts by James K. A. Smith

This is not a book about Saint Augustine. In a way, it’s a book Augustine has written about each of us. Popular speaker and award-winning author James K. A. Smith has spent time on the road with Augustine, and he invites us to take this journey too, for this ancient African thinker knows far more about us than we might expect.