Books, Blogs, and BTWs

Meditations for Lent

One of the best methods for helping us get into the mood of prayer, reflection and meditation is spiritual reading. Most often, we are always on the go, meeting deadlines and finding ways to be on time. But Lent is a special season we should not miss in terms of the opportunity to put aside some time for spiritual reading and renew our faith and relationship with the Lord.

There are many books on Lenten meditations. One book, or booklet to be more accurate, to have during this Lenten season is the one written by John Garcia. John Garcia wrote a booklet that has meditations for each day of Lent - starting from Ash Wednesday. The meditations are brief and can be read easily - taking no more than 5-7 paragraphs with quotations from the Scriptures, the documents of Vatican II, and the writings of St. Josemaría Escrivá. For some idea of what this booklet contains, you may see it in the archives of the list, The Spirit’s Love. It was posted several years back and is still recorded in the list’s archives. The title of the booklet is “From Death to Life: Daily Meditations for the Lenten Season”.

A quotation by St. Josemaría Escrivá is given at the back of this booklet published by Sinag-Tala Publishers, Inc.

“We are at the beginning of Lent: a time of penance, purification and conversion. It is not an easy program, but then Christianity is not an easy way of life. It is not enough just to be in the Church, letting the years roll by.”

            - St. Josemaría Escrivá

We hope that this booklet can help you in your Lenten preparation for the coming Easter season.

BTW, spiritual reading at its best is done with the reading of the Bible - especially those passages related to the readings of the celebration of the Mass during the Lenten season. Some bible translations are better for prayer and meditation. You can find out what this bible translations are so that it will help better your prayer and meditation. An article is published in the web site about this: “Knowing What Bible Translation to Use“.

Lent is a Time for Prayer and Renewal

Lent is fast approaching. This Sunday will be the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, and on Wednesday, the liturgical and holy season of Lent starts with Ash Wednesday. As we enter into this holy liturgical season, we are called to more prayer and fasting. It is a time special to Catholics because they once again experience through both Word and Sacrament how great the love of God is - sacrificing His only Son to the cross - so we may be saved from our sinfulness and wickedness.

Lent is a very special liturgical season. Since prayer is primary during this season, prayer books will certainly be very helpful. Important in Catholic spiritual exercises are: spiritual reading, retreats and recollections, the Way of the Cross, and making good confessions. One prayer book that can help in our Lenten preparation is The Catholic Prayer Book by Msgr. Buckley. Another prayer book is the Handbook of Prayers: A Complete Treasury of Prayers and Order of Mass by Charles Belmonte-James Socias.

BTW, if you also are engaged in many writing activities during this Lenten season, our WordPress blog post may be of help to you in discovering ideas for your writing assignments. There are books and other resources which you can find in “Search Ideas on the Topic of Prayer“. Also, to keep abreast of anything new - article, blog post, or any content in relation to this coming season of Lent, you can check our Latest Articles, Info and Updates from time to time.

We pray together with you so that this coming Lenten season, we may get to know more each Lenten day how great is God’s love for all of us and how He desires to save us from sin, destruction and death. We also seek together with you sorrow for our sins and a spirit of contrition because we have strayed from the call to serve God as we should, and also to serve our brothers and sisters as we should. If you wish to send any prayer request - for your family members or for your own personal needs, you may visit our Prayer Request Corner and send your prayer intention through our email address.

Finding Future Hope in Past Wisdom

In this time of great confusion and chaotic events, and when many issues, conflicts, and controversies afflict the Catholic Church, Catholics seek stable sources of wisdom by which they can be guided to address the many problems of our time. One good book that can help in this regard is “The Catholic Church in the 21st Century: Finding Hope for its Future in the Wisdom of its Past”. This book compiles six writings from various theologians who each wrote from the perspective of different Church eras so that our present Church of the 21st century can learn from those eras of the past.

The articles featured in this book are:

What Can We Learn From the Church in the New Testament? by Rev. Daniel Harrington, SJ

What Can We Learn From the Church in the First Millenium? by Rev. Michael Buckley, SJ

What Can We Learn From the Medieval Church? by Dr. Catherine Mooney

What Can We Learn From the Tridentine and Baroque Church? by Rev. Thomas O’Meara, OP

What Can We Learn From the Church in the Nineteenth Century? by Rev. Michael Himes

What Can We Learn From Vatican II? by Dr. Richard Gaillardetz

This book, edited by Rev. Himes, is very understandable for anyone with a basic background in theological education in the area of scripture, Church history, sacraments and moral theology. The book in general is very good as it establishes well our Catholic faith in all its roots: the person of Christ, scripture, early Christian communities, and the development of our faith in history. The book begins with an introduction on the problems and challenges of our contemporary Church. Then each of the six writers proceeds to give positive guidelines to these problems and challenges by examining how each period of Church history solved problems of a similar nature to what we presently experience. The writers are well-versed in their development of the Church period assigned to them. Though as a whole, the theology is quite liberal and radical, there are portions of their written works that are based on sound conservative directions. For anyone who wants to balance his conservative theological stance with a more liberal point of view in solving contemporary Church problems, this is a good reference to come in handy.

As contemporary problems and challenges are tackled in this book, it can be quite disturbing for some and may tend towards a negative picture of our present situation. However, when each of the six writers root their theological positions in the six Church eras mentioned, it can be quite a very educating experience. Readers of the books can not only learn a possible solution to a contemporary Church issue, but they can also discover with further thinking and reflection, how each Church era resolved its issues and then gift us with a legacy of wisdom to guide our present direction.

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