True Serenity Based on Thomas a Kempis' the Imitation of Christ

by Brother Lawrence (of the Resurrection)

Like Kirvan's guided journey, Brother Lawrence offers a 17th-century spiritual classic structured around practical daily exercises—but his approach is more radical, arguing that washing dishes with full attention is as sacred as formal prayer. If you appreciated Kempis' invitation to intimate relationship with the divine, you'll find Lawrence's insistence that God dwells in mundane moments equally transformative, just expressed through a different spiritual lens.

by Anne Lamott

Lamott writes spiritual memoir as if she's sitting across from you at a coffee shop—messy, honest, funny, and occasionally devastating. Where Kirvan offers structured daily meditations on Kempis' timeless wisdom, Lamott shows you what that wisdom actually looks like lived out by a flawed human in the late 20th century, complete with addiction, doubt, and the kind of grace that sneaks up on you when you're not looking for it.

by Anonymous

This is the spiritual predecessor to Kempis that fewer people know about—a medieval guide to contemplative prayer that's even more stripped-down and paradoxical. Johnston's modern translation makes the 14th-century monk's radical advice (to approach God by embracing what you *don't* understand rather than what you do) feel surprisingly contemporary and challenging in ways that complement Kirvan's more accessible approach.

by Shusaku Endo

This is the surprise pick: a literary novel set in 17th-century Japan about a priest whose faith is tested to its breaking point—not a devotional guide at all. But Endo does something Kirvan doesn't: he asks what happens when you follow Kempis' path of surrender and service, and God seems to answer with nothing but silence. If you're ready to sit with the harder questions that intimate faith sometimes raises, this novel will haunt you in the best way.

by Kavanaugh

Teresa, a 16th-century Spanish mystic, maps the soul's journey toward union with God through seven concentric 'mansions'—it's Kempis' spiritual intimacy reimagined as architecture you can actually navigate. Her writing is vivid and practical in a way that feels almost modern; she describes prayer experiences with the precision of someone who's actually lived them, not theorized about them, making her a perfect next step for someone ready to go deeper into contemplative experience.