Lenten Devotionals

Lent is about more than going to church on weekdays and giving up chocolate or social media. It's also a time to form one's heart and mind through study and prayer. In  Where the Eye Alights, Marilyn McEntyre offers forty short meditations, based on excerpts from Scripture and poetry, that guide readers on a devotional journey from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday. As in  lectio divina--the spiritual practice of reading Scripture repetitively and meditatively--McEntyre invites us to notice words that may give us pause and summon us to reflection. This book calls our attention to how the Spirit speaks through phrases that can open doors to deep places for those willing to sit still with them.

"Lent is a time of permission," says McEntyre. "Many of us find it hard to give ourselves permission to pause, to sit still, to reflect or meditate or pray in the midst of daily occupations--most of them very likely worthy in themselves--that fill our waking minds and propel us out of bed and on to the next thing. We need the explicit invitation the liturgical year provides to change pace, to curtail our busyness a bit, to make our times with self and God a little more spacious, a little more leisurely, and see what comes. The reflections I offer here come from a very simple practice of daily meditation on whatever has come to mind in the quiet of early morning."

Have you ever wished to recite scripture quotes off the top of your head? Or do you long to build a habit of daily scripture reading?

Having a doable plan to regularly and prayerfully engage scripture can make this practice sustainable for people with busy lives. Simply Scripture for Lent and Easter is the perfect place to begin. This daily prayer guide, keyed to the Lenten and Easter seasons, provides a simple framework for reading and reflection upon Mark’s Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Bookend your day with morning and evening readings that incrementally walk you through these foundational books of the New Testament with greater confidence and understanding.

Without skipping a single word of the biblical text, Colleen Reiss Vermeulen, a director of the Catholic Biblical School of Michigan, offers a unique, prayerful approach to spiritual reading that satisfies both the mind and heart. Vermeulen guides you to begin and end your day with a prayerful reading of short passages from a single book of scripture, an approach that she has used for years with her own family. Each day contains helpful context and thoughtful questions to help you uncover both the literal and spiritual senses of the text. Whether you follow this method on your own or read with your family or another small group, this simple process of daily prayer firmly grounded in scripture will help you get to know your Bible and draw you closer and closer to God.

Join Fr. Agustino Torres, CFR—founder of Corazón Puro—on a multimedia Lenten journey inspired by St. Francis. Begin the season with a vow of poverty and end at Easter with a heart free from the desert of sin and open to love, serve, and care for others.

Made for Heaven features stunning original art by Valerie Delgado of Pax.Valerie, along with daily meditations on a passage from scripture, reflection questions, prayer, and space for journaling and notetaking.

A life of simplicity and poverty orients you toward God’s love and reminds you that you are made for heaven. Torres says the best way to prepare yourself for that final destination is to live as true pilgrims who need to “travel lightly” and detach from earthly pleasures.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus went into the wilderness? Some believe it was to reveal his divinity or to restore humanity’s relationship with God. In Wilderness Within, Sr. Josephine Garrett, a mental health counselor and popular speaker, reflects on the belief that Jesus went into the wilderness to rescue us—to rescue us! The Lord does not want us to view the wilderness as something that causes worry, anxiety, or fear. “What if, instead,” Sr. Josephine writes, “we looked at how God has been a faithful provider in the wilderness and trusted that He will do the same for us in the wilderness journey ahead? What if we joyfully take His hand and journey into the wilderness, because when Christ enters there, ‘this opposite place of the garden becomes the place of reconciliation and healing’” (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth)?

Let Praying with the Psalms be your daily companion as you walk with the Lord through the season of Lent. In just three meaningful minutes each day, you’ll be invited to lay down your burdens, open your heart to God’s mercy, and prepare your soul for the joy of Easter.

Reorient your mind and heart this Lent so you can more fully experience the joy of Easter Christs victory over sin and death.

In this beautiful guided journal for prayer and meditation, Fr. John Burns author of the bestselling and award-winning book Adoreinvites you to strip away your confusion, attachments, and sin so you can return to the Lord and undergo real and lasting conversion.

In the liturgys first reading on Ash Wednesday, the prophet Joel call us to wholehearted conversion: Even now, says the Lord, return to me, with your whole heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning, rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God (Jl 2:12).

Each week throughout Lent, Burns breaks down these two verses:

• Week 1, return to me recognize the need to reorient our lives through Lent;
• Week 2, return to me with your whole heart reorient not only the mind but also the heart to the Lord;
• Week 3,return to me with fasting acknowledge hardness of heart and the value of discipline;
• Week 4, return to me with weeping and mourning bring forward personal agonies and unbind hidden bitterness that divides us from God; and
• Week 5, Rend your hearts, not your garments, return to the Lord, your God.

Then, during Holy Week and the Resurrection on Easter, you are invited to weave your own stories into that of the Paschal Mystery.

Burns uses the opening prayer of each days Mass called the Collect as a starting point for your meditations through the forty days leading up to Easter Sunday. He also focuses on the traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, which come together as our sacred penance during this solemn season, and ultimately lead us to heaven.

Each day ofReturn includes the prayer from the Collect, an inspiring meditation, thought-provoking reflection questions, and a prayer. Theres plenty of space for journaling as well.

Return features stunning original art by Josiah Henley of Heart of IESVS. Free weekly companion videos, a downloadable discussion guide, and other resources make this book perfect for parish-wide, individual, and book club use leading up to Easter.

Follow the Lord into the depths of your heart this Lent and you will never be the same.

Take a healing journey with Sr. Miriam James Heidland, SOLT, as she helps you turn away from what wounds you and toward God who heals you and makes you whole.

In this beautiful guided journal for prayer and meditation, Sr. Miriam invites you to meet the tenderness of God's mercy, the power of his love, and the restoration of your heart and life as you practice prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Restore features stunning original art by Valerie Delgado of Pax.Valerie along with daily meditations on a passage from scripture, reflection questions, guided prayer, and space for journaling and notetaking.

Throughout Lent, you'll move through four different phases of healing, focusing on traditional Lenten practices:

1. Prayer is the means of healing our relationship with God.
2. Fasting disciplines us in healing our relationship with ourselves.
3. Almsgivingleads us to healing our relationships with others.
4. Sacrificeshows us the path to heaven and union with God.

If you enter into Lent with Christ, your heart will see more clearly, be pierced more easily, love more strongly, and serve more passionately. Jesus will be etched into the crevasses of your being.

Lent is a time in the yearly Christian calendar when we mourn our sin and let go of worldly things that keep our hearts from experiencing God more fully. But how do we reevaluate and recalibrate the values of our hearts to match those of our suffering Savior?

In this forty-day Lenten devotional, best-selling author Paul David Tripp invites us to set aside time from the busyness of our lives to focus on the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus. Each of the short readings encourages us to abide in the abundant joy found in Christ as we encounter the Savior more fully and follow him more faithfully during this Lenten season.

Lent calls us to undertake a journey, a step-by-step process in which our view of the world shifts almost imperceptibly - until we look around and realize how far we've come. Pastor and scholar Mary Alice Mulligan leads us through Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, examining the scriptures in which Jesus calls on his Disciples to leave everything and follow him, is baptized and announcements his ministry, predicts his own death, clears the temple and pledges to rebuild it in three days, and proclaims God's love for all. During Holy Week, Mulligan takes us through the events of that long-ago week with fresh eyes, new ways to understand an old story. Entries begin with the darkness of Ash Wednesday and voyage through the glory of Easter morning. These concise entries include scripture, reflections, suggested spiritual practices, and a prayer. Entries are undated, making this a perennial resource.

Lent is about more than just giving things up. It's about preparing your heart for Jesus. Reflect in this season with  The Hope of Easter.

Experience the Easter story in a fresh way with  The Hope of Easter -  a beautiful 40-day book of Scripture readings, featuring text from the Gospel of John in the accurate, readable, and clear New International Version. Short reflections on the Scripture, journaling prompts, and room to write your thoughts after each day's reading allow you to reflect on Jesus' life, sacrificial death, and resurrection during the holy season of Lent.

• Contains the majority of the text from the New International Version Gospel of John.

• Insightful reflections and prompt questions lead to a deeper personal interaction with the Easter story.

• Perfect for gift giving and solo or group study.

In Lenten Grace, members of the Daughters of St. Paul share the fruits of their lectio divina (a prayerful reading of Sacred Scripture). This handy volume contains their insightful reflections on the daily Gospel readings of Lent.

Features & Benefits:

• Implements and explains the lectio divina prayer method.
• Includes the Sunday readings for Cycles A, B, and C.
• Can be used for Lenten reflection year after year!

About the Authors:

The Daughters of St. Paul are an international congregation of women religious. They were founded in Italy in 1915 by Blessed James Alberione. Lenten Grace contains entries from 15 members of the Daughters of St. Paul, including Kathryn J. Hermes, Mary Peter Martin, Anne Eileen Heffernan, and Mary Lea Hill.

Binding: Paperback
Category: Spirituality/Lent
Trim size: 5" x 7 1/4"
Pages: 160

Daily Lenten Meditations: Prayerful Reflections from John Paul II edited by Fr. Max Polak

This book is a small representation of John Paul II's teaching presented as a help to those who wish to live the Christian Church's season of Lent more meaningfully. It can also meet the interest of inquirers who wish to know something of the Pope's message to Christians and of his hopes for a world in which the respect for truth and the knowledge of God's love bring joy and peace to the hearts of many.

Pope John Paul II's pontificate was one of the longest and most eventful of the whole history of the Catholic Church. More importantly, this Pope's enduring and courageous preaching of the Gospel message throughout the world has meant that an unprecedented number of people have been exposed to its challenging and invigorating influence. People of the most varied cultures and degrees of Christian commitment have listened to this ambassador of Christ as he addressed their needs and concerns while digging deep into the words of Jesus. Many have been moved to take up the Gospels themselves and rediscover their ongoing relevance while others have felt their devotion to the Church strengthened.

Father Max Polak is currently Catholic chaplain to the University of Tasmania (Australia). For more than sixteen years he was chaplain of Warrane College at the University of New South Wales and also served as Catholic chaplain to the University of Waikato (New Zealand). Before beginning studies for the priesthood, he completed degrees in aeronautical engineering at MIT. Later, before being ordained as a priest of the Opus Dei Prelature, he studied in Rome and at the University of Navarre (Spain), presenting a doctoral thesis in patristic theology on Saint Ambrose. He has published an earlier anthology of texts of Pope John Paul II as well as articles in a number of newspapers and magazines on topics of theology and bioethics. He was ordained in 1975.

978-1-56854-530-1 | Hardcover | 100 pages | Language: English

Catholic author and self-described recovering worrier Gary Zimak combines practical spirituality, daily scripture readings, and simple action steps to help you kick the worry habit as part of your Lenten renewal. He shows you how to let go of the anxiety-producing areas of life in order to find the lasting peace that comes from trusting God.

During the season of Lent, Catholics and other Christians frequently give up something they enjoy as a measure of penance or self-discipline and often fall back into old habits at the first Alleluia! In Give Up Worry for Lent!, Zimak offers fellow worriers practical, scripture-centered advice on how to relinquish the need to control the uncontrollable not just for Lent but for good and how to find peace in Christ.

From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, Zimak guides you to ponder a scripture passage and to apply it to your own life by following four simple steps:

• read
• reflect
• respond
• pray

As you continue to meditate on scripture and practice the simple action steps at the end of each reflection, you will find it easier to replace old worries with new messages of hope and to change your life forever.

Author: Gary Zimak

Format: Paperback

Pages: 160

Trim size: 5 x 7 inches

ISBN: 978-1-59471-881-6

On-sale date: January 25, 2019

Lenten Healing: 40 Days to Set You Free from Sin

Lenten Healing offers a twist to traditional Lenten fasting: instead of giving up chocolate, give up your sin. This daily Lenten devotional offers a unique approach to fasting, helping you reexamine the psychological and spiritual roots of sin in your life while sharing reflections and prayer exercises for overcoming sinful habits and acquiring virtuous ones.

Author: Ken Kniepmann

192 pages

January 5, 2018