For many Christians, Lent is a time for prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. For religion publishers, it’s a time to release new titles aimed at helping the spiritually minded gain a new perspective on the liturgical season.
Simplifying the Soul: Lenten Practices to Renew Your Spirit by Paula Huston (Ave Maria, Nov.) encourages a simple lifestyle, as inspired by the desert fathers. “It is an approach to asceticism that isn’t based on a how-to method but on why we need it today in our lives,” says Bob Hamma, editorial director at Ave Maria. The book offers quotations from the monks and mystics, as well as the author’s personal narratives and practical tips. Also from Ave Maria, Bringing Lent Home with Mother Teresa: Prayers, Reflections, and Activities for Families by Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle (Jan.) is intended for use by parents, both for their own enrichment and for prayer with children. The readings include quotations from Mother Teresa, as well as reflections on and vignettes from her life. Related lesson plans are available for use at the parish level.
Lent for Everyone: Mark, Year B: A Daily Devotional by N. T. Wright (Westminster John Knox, Feb.) is the first in a three-volume series that will cover the liturgical cycle, and a companion to Wright’s New Testament for Everyone commentary series. David Dobson, editorial director, says Wright’s insights offer “a wonderful grounding in the readings of the Lectionary.” The book uses Wright’s own translation of scripture, and each passage is accompanied by a brief commentary and prayer.
Living the Days of Lent 2012 by Ellen Dauwer and Mary McCormick (Paulist, Jan.) also focuses on Scripture. The book includes reflections by the Sisters of Charity of New York and of St. Elizabeth, N.J. Donna Crilly, managing editor at Paulist Press, says the book aims to “help the reader connect with the liturgy.” Each page of the small-format book is perforated so it can be easily torn out and carried in one’s pocket throughout the day.
The fact that Love Unknown: Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book 2012 by Ruth Burrows (Continuum, Jan.)is commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and includes a foreword by him, is a major selling point, says Robin Baird Smith, publisher at Bloomsbury. But he added that the author’s perspective as a cloistered Carmelite nun also makes makes the book a distinctive. “We’re making a virtue out of the fact that she won’t promote the book,” says Smith, although Burrows has granted interviews through the cloister grill in her monastery. “Her urgent plea is for silence and contemplation and cutting out the frenetic and modern world,” Smith says.
Jane Shaw also explores the relationship between the spiritual and material worlds in her new book, A Practical Christianity: Meditations for the Season of Lent (Morehouse, Feb.). “I’m interested in the ways in which one might come to understand fully the key doctrines of faith through practicing forgiveness, letting go, and loving,” she says. Her book ventures beyond scripture for inspiration and includes practical tips and reflections involving art, poetry, and movies. “The gap between regular life and church seems very big to people,” Shaw says. “I’m trying to say that there are small steps you can take.”
