My Life With the Saints

By: James Martin SJ

Narrated by: James Martin SJ

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Be inspired by saints like never before in My Life with the Saints by James Martin, SJ. This best-selling memoir of spiritual self-discovery is an homage to the saints who have accompanied Fr. Martin throughout his life. From a lukewarm childhood Catholicism, to the Wharton School of Business, to the executive fast track at General Electric, to the Jesuits, to a media career in Manhattan, Martin has relied on the saints to intervene in and guide his life.

As Martin shares with us his many surprising encounters and journeys with the saints, he convincingly explains how we, too, can be close friends with the saints.

©2006 James Martin, SJ (P)2009 St. Anthony Messenger Press

Critic reviews

"Martin, a Jesuit priest and associate editor of America magazine, takes a splendid idea and develops it masterfully by weaving stories from his life into those of his favorite saints." ( Publishers Weekly)

"It is one thing to read the lives of the saints, quite another to hear about somebody who lives with the saints, who thinks about, researches, and calls upon certain saints regularly. Such a person is, today, a rarity. Such a person is GE-exec-turned-Jesuit Martin, associate editor of the national Catholic weekly America, who details his introduction to and relationship with more than a dozen of his favorite haloed heroes in this book." ( Booklist)

Life changing!

A moving book wonderfully narrated by Father Martin. Fantastic in every sense. Thank you Father Martin for sharing your experiences!

Great detail. Good summation

Loved hearing the good, bad and ugly sides of the daints. Fr Martin humanized then while still upholding their faith and determination to live in God's love. I could actually imagine the scen3s he described and his emotions of anger, hope, humor, humility and serenity.

For those of you thinking of quitting a few chapters in... please don't. Fr Martin's ministry in jail was hysterical.... "Hail mary, hail Mary, hail Mary." I almost spit out my coffee. Thanks Fr Martin you have done a great job.

A Truly Thought Provoking Book

Father Martin does a wonderful job of putting the reader in the journey of the Saint. It was easy to picture each Saint as he described their journey. In addition, I appreciated the way Father Martin incorporated his own story as he was learning about the Saints.

I really like this author, and am a fan of saints.

What made the experience of listening to My Life With the Saints the most enjoyable?

There's a certain charm in the blending of personal narrative and saintly biography that I find delightful. I enjoy people who are comfortable talking about themselves--not in the narcissistic way, but in the "I've done some reflecting on my life and would like to share it with you" way. Father Martin has that quality, and this is a good example of how he mixes himself with this subject.

What did you like best about this story?

The stories of the saints themselves, particularly those I didn't know much about, including the African martyrs.

easy listening hagiography

I was so excited to see St Anthony Messenger Press titles added to Audible that I quickly used up all my accumulated credits on several. In fact, I misread the title of this and thought it was a memoir of contemporary life in the Jesuits.

After my inital disappointment, it turned out to be easy listening stories of Saints, mostly from a fresh perspective -- a vehicle for Martin's tale of his spiritual pilgrmage ---which of course did eventually involve Jesuits, but much more also.

An inspiring approach to the life of the saints

While telling the life of the saints James Martins inspires us to ask for our own sanctuality.

One of my Favorites

My Life With the Saints is a special audiobook for me. I was first given the book by a friend at Church and was really hoping to find it in audio format and when I did I was very happy. I listen to parts of this audiobook almost every night.

James Martin is a Jesuit Priest and a wonderful storyteller. I especially like that he narrated his own book. That makes it all the more better. This has been a helpful audiobook for me at all times and I would definitely recommend the audio version for those who haven't heard or read his books before.

A real joy in my life.

Will expand your reading list

An excellent overview of the life of various saints and why they matter. Written as a personal memoir, but also highly relatable. I find myself adding several full biographies to my reading list based on these intriguing overviews

The title describes the book

I almost deleted this book after the first 20 minutes. I had just listened to a purely factual book and expected 'My Life with the Saints' to be similar: a condensed biography of a selection of saints. It seemed too slow and conversational. But then I understood that this was his "life" with the Saints, not a book about the "lives of the Saints". Well it isn't. It interweaves the life of James Martin with lessons and some history of the Saints he selects. To use a cliche, he "makes the Saints come alive". Through the book you see the relevance of these Saints in a modern world, to the poor in Africa, to the homeless, to the student and office workers. There are some who are not canonized Saints - Pedro Arupe for example and Thomas Merton. But what "saintly" lives they led. And then there is the very last chapter. It brings perspective to "sainthood" that I hardly imaged. That was the great tour de force. I listened to the book over about a month to and from work and was excited to see who the next Saint was. I miss Father Martin's conversational style and the people - both Saints and the "ordinary" people he met in his travels. This is a great start if any one wants to visit with the Saints prior to jumping headlong into biographies of individual ones. I hope he writes / records volume 2. By the way, I am not Catholic - but my life was inspired by these men and women through the book.

Excellent Book and Interesting Reading

What did you like best about this story?

This story was as much autobiographical as it was spiritual.

What about James Martin’s performance did you like?

This narrator kept me listening. Very good.