1. Pope Francis, A Gift of Joy and Hope, 2022.

‘This is Christian hope: the certainty of walking towards something that exists, not something I hope might be there.’ In response to the devastating loss the world faced during the pandemic, Pope Francis was inspired to write a book to help people find hope and meaning. God is joyful, he writes. And God’s compassion is no less than the deepest expression of God’s joy, and the heart of all Christian preaching. The liberating revolution of the Gospel is encapsulated here. We are not supposed to carry burdens heavier than those we already have, but to bear witness to a new, beautiful and surprising horizon: to share a joy that has been prepared for everyone. From the anxieties of the age to the importance of nature, A Gift of Joy and Hope encourages readers to look outside themselves to embrace authentic beauty, change attitudes that exclude others, overcome life’s challenges with courage and, trust that joy and hope are still possible, even in challenging times; for joy has the last word – always.

Get your copy from Koorong.

2. Fr Jacques Philippe, Trusting God in the Present, 2022

Life is always full of new and unexpected challenges, but each challenge is also an opportunity to draw closer to God. Fr. Jacques Philippe, a beloved author and renowned spiritual director, will show you how to maintain peace of heart through turbulent times and discern the choices that will be helpful for you and others.
Written in a simple and inviting style, Trusting God in the Present is your spiritual direction manual to trusting God in the midst of difficult times. You’ll find that God is, indeed, with you, and he is inviting you to a new perspective, renewed hope, and a more abundant life.

Amazon seems to be the only reliable way to get this one at the moment! https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/159325704X

3. Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salve: “Saved in Hope”, 2007.

Pope Benedict XVI’s second encyclical, Saved In Hope, (“Spe Salvi” in Latin) takes its title from St. Paul, who wrote, “In hope we have been saved”. In this special deluxe hardcover edition of the work, the Holy Father continues a line of thought he began with his first encyclical, God is Love.

Love and Hope are closely related in the spiritual life. Love of God involves hope or trust in God. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man”. Hope enables us to look to the next life, but it also inspires and purifies our actions in this life. Pope Benedict considers modern philosophies and the challenges of faith today in light of the virtue of hope.

“Confronted by today’s changing and complex panorama, the virtue of hope is subject to harsh trials in the community of believers. For this very reason, we must be apostles who are filled with hope and joyful trust in God’s promises. In contemporary society, which shows such visible signs of secularism, we must not give in to despair.”
— Pope Benedict XVI

Available as a reprint direct from Ignatius Press: https://ignatius.com/saved-in-hope-sihp/

4. Fr Jacques Philippe, Searching for and Maintaining Inner Peace, 2002

We live in a day and age characterized by an extraordinary amount of agitation and lack of peace. This tendency manifests itself in our spiritual as well as our secular life. In our search for God and holiness, in our service to our neighbor, a kind of restlessness and anxiety take the place of the confidence and peace which ought to be ours. What must we do to overcome the moments of fear and distress which assail us all too often in our lives? How can we learn to place all our confidence in God and abandon ourselves into his loving care? This is what is taught in this simple, yet profound little treatise on peace of heart. Taking concrete examples from our everyday life, the author invites us to respond in a Gospel fashion to the upsetting situations we must all confront. Since peace of heart is a pure gift of God, it is something we should seek, pursue and ask him for without cease. Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Fr. Jacques Philippe is here to help us in that pursuit.

Get it direct from the publisher: https://scepterpublishers.org/products/searching-for-and-maintaining-peace?srsltid=AfmBOoqDhqpUtTqb3cp-ARVi31fCVhrXfE6TdOHw4GBlGRZDVQXG4C15

5. Fr. Philip Bochanski, The Virtue of Hope: How Confidence in God Can Lead You to Heaven, 2019.

In this marvelous series of reflections on Hope, adapted from a series of talks, Father Philip Bochanski not only lays out what hope is but also shows how we can exercise this theological virtue, through being daring, changing our ways, serving the Lord, struggling, suffering, and praying. Beginning with the Book of Genesis and proceeding through the Gospels, Aquinas, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he examines how hope directs us to our ultimate goal of life with God and gives us the strength and perseverance to attain it.

Bochanski’s fascinating stories of “Heroes of Hope”– inspiring saints such as St. Augustine and St. Teresa of Calcutta–show us how these familiar names learned to hope through moments of intense personal difficulty and crisis. Bochanski also tells fascinating stories about the lives of individuals like Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, St. Gianna Beretta Molla, and Chiara Luce Badano, showing how these seemingly ordinary Catholic laypeople applied their hope in God to the challenges of their state in life and the modern world.

The Virtue of Hope is excellent spiritual reading for everyone, an instruction manual for how to grow in hope and in bravery in the face of life’s challenges. It is a clarion call that hope must not be merely theoretical, but must “lead us to a deeper relationship with God, an encounter with the One who loves us and calls us to friendship with Himself.”

Again, this one is a little difficult to get your hands on in Australia, but is well worth the effort of going to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/Virtue-Hope-Confidence-Lead-Heaven/dp/1505114187

6. Steven R. Hemler, Catholic Stories of Faith and Hope: How God brings good out of suffering, 2021.

If God loves us and is so powerful, why does God allow disease and natural disasters, as well as terrorism and other human atrocities? What are some true stories of Catholics today who faced significant suffering and now see the good that God brought from it? Catholic Stories of Faith and Hope provides a Catholic response to the big question, “Why would a loving God allow evil, pain, and suffering?” This includes exploring why God would allow disease and natural disasters (natural evil) and evil human behaviour (moral evil), as well as how suffering can help us find a deeper meaning and purpose in life. This book contains several poignant and inspiring personal testimonies of Catholics who have dealt positively with significant suffering in their own lives. These stories provide contemporary accounts of how suffering can lead to personal and spiritual growth and bring us closer to God, others, and the Church. Catholic Stories of Faith and Hope helps us see suffering and hardship as an opportunity to experience God’s grace and love by focusing on Jesus Christ, who experienced profound pain and suffering himself and who cares deeply about our own suffering. Catholic Stories of Faith and Hope helps readers undertake the Spiritual Works of Mercy to “comfort the afflicted,” “counsel the doubtful,” and “educate the uninformed.” Understanding the purpose of suffering and the greater good that can come from it will help us and those we love become better, instead of bitter, when facing life’s inevitable hardships and difficulties.

There are copies available at the Cardinal Newman Resource Centre: https://cardinal-newman-aus.myshopify.com/products/hemler-catholic-stories-of-faith-and-hope?_pos=2&_sid=62db8a599&_ss=r

7. Sr. Josephine Garrell CSFN. Hope: An Invitation, 2023.

Sr. Josephine Garrett, CSFN, is a woman full of hope, and she’s here to help you find authentic hope in your life, too. What she offers is real hope — not wishing on a shooting star or hoping you win the lottery, but the messy and risky kind. She also takes an unflinching look at the painful parts of hope, our struggles with hope, and our labors in hope.

Authentic hope is powerful and life-giving. It appears foolish to man. But it is the foolishness of God, and “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom” (1 Cor 1:25). Authentic hope shines light into complete and utter darkness.

In HOPE: An Invitation, Sr. Josephine invites you to journey with her to new heights of hope, to discover the courage to press ahead into the unknown even in difficult or seemingly impossible circumstances. She shares her own struggles to live in hope amidst the circumstances of her life, and she reflects on the great problem and the great gift of hope. Ultimately, we must find our hope in the strength of the Lord, not in worldly promises, in which we deceive ourselves into thinking we can manifest good things in our life through our own strength. We need a hope that extends well beyond ourselves and into eternity — a hope that comes from God, who not only has given us hope but allows us to spread this hope to others.

Another hard one to get locally: https://www.amazon.com.au/Hope-Invitation-Josephine-Garrett-Csfn/dp/1639660402

8. Dr. Bob Schuchts, Be Healed: A Guide to Encountering the Powerful Love of Jesus in Your Life,

In the tradition of such beloved spiritual teachers as Francis MacNutt and Michael Scanlan, Be Healed: A Guide to Encountering the Powerful Love of Jesus in Your Life offers in book form Bob Schuchts’s popular program for spiritual, emotional, and physical healing through the power of the Holy Spirit and the sacraments.

This renowned program for spiritual restoration is steeped in scripture and the wisdom of the Catholic Church. Deeply intimate and vulnerable about his own journey of healing, Catholic therapist Bob Schuchts connects with his readers by sharing the series of betrayals he endured in high school—his father’s infidelity, his parents’ divorce, and his older brother’s drug addiction—and his subsequent seasons of struggle with God and faith.

Be Healed is based on the program first used in dioceses across the United States to form the hearts and minds of Catholic clergy. Schuchts’ trusted process for finding inner peace and healing is now expanded to serve the entire body of Christ, helping people recognize their brokenness and find hope in the risen Christ.

This one is stocked at the Mustard Seed Bookshop.

9. St John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 1995.

A great international bestseller, the book in which, on the eve of the millennium, Pope John Paul II brings to an accessible level the profoundest theological concerns of our lives. He goes to the heart of his personal beliefs and speaks with passion about the existence of God; about the dignity of man; about pain, suffering, and evil; about eternal life and the meaning of salvation; about hope; about the relationship of Christianity to other faits and that of Catholicism to other branches of the Christian faith.With the humility and generosity of spirit for which he is known, John Paul II speaks directly and forthrightly to all people. His message: Be not afraid!

Available at Koorong: https://koorong.com/product/crossing-the-threshold-of-hope-john-paul-ii_9780679765615?srsltid=AfmBOorOoUw4Qnh5lJeTvOMpYyOynLKNwXwJPthJwqHygqkYxZi3QhTf

10. Craig Turner, Words of Hope: Revelations of Our Lord to Saints Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Genoa, Gertrude the Great and Margaret Mary Alacoque, 2014.

Words of Hope recounts the words of Christ spoken to four great saints—Saint Gertrude the Great, Saint Catherine of Genoa, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque—who dared to receive the eternal message of Our Lord.

They lovingly and faithfully listened to His message, repeated through the centuries. It is a message of suffering, and yet it is overflowing with hope. Through the words these four holy souls received, we can see Christ’s message of peace and hope born out of suffering written anew.

Through these intimate words of Jesus and the example of the saints within these pages, the reader will be renewed and rejuve­nated with the hope and comfort of Christ in times of suffering.

Get yours here: https://freedompublishingbooks.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=21066

There is another book in the same series called Words of Faith: Revelations of Our Lord to Saints Margaret of Cortona, Bridget of Sweden and Catherine of Siena, 2014, which you can get here: https://tanbooks.com/products/books/words-of-faith-revelations-of-our-lord-to-saints-margaret-of-cortona-bridget-of-sweden-and-catherine-of-siena/?srsltid=AfmBOopYeD3ifaY42bA1eo-eTt3llY4u8lQ8VtMJ5QQQ2hQUxS3gfMEx