5th Sunday of Lent Grain of Wheat

Repost - video filmed in 2015

Suggestions for Lenten Reading

Every Lent I like to find a spiritually challenging or enlightening book to read and meditate upon. Seeing the Lenten begins next Wednesday I thought I would share with you some of my favorite titles for Lent.

The Spear: A Novel of the Crucifixion
Louis de Wohl is by far my favorite Catholic author. The Spear takes the reader through the events surrounding the Crucifixion of Our Lord from the perspective of Cassius Longinus, the man who thrust the spear into the side of Christ.

The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
This book is a retelling, in detail, of the Lord's Passion as seen by the Anne Catherine Emmerich herself through various visions. It is a fascinating book and was drawn heavily upon by Mel Gibson for The Passion of the Christ.

Life of Christ
Life Of Christ has been hailed as the most eloquent of Fulton Sheen's writings, the fruit of many years of dedication and research. Filled with compassion and brilliant scholarship, his recounting of the birth, life, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Christ is as dramatic and moving as the subject Himself. Here is a passionate portrait of the God-Man, the teacher, the healer, and most of all the Savior whose promise has sustained humanity for two millennia.

In Conversation with God: Vol. 2: Lent, Holy Week, Eastertide by Francis Fernandez.
Man's highest aspiration is to be able to converse with Jesus - to pray. In Conversation with God helps the reader to pray with piety and with confidence. It is aimed not at the 'specialist' but is for the ordinary person - for the housewife, for the teacher, for the secretary, for the shop assistant... This book is a great spiritual gift for Lent with daily meditations to contemplate throughout the day.

Lent and Easter Wisdom from Fulton J. Sheen
Timeless words from the pen of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen inspire the heart and imagination as readers embark on a Lenten journey toward a better understanding of their spiritual selves. Covering the traditional themes of Lent--sin and salvation, death and Resurrection, sorrow and hope, ashes and lilies--these 50 passages and accompanying mini-prayers offer readers a practical spiritual program as a retreat from the cares and concerns of a secular world view.

The Sacred Passion
In this book, Fr. de la Palma provides an aid for meditating on the Passion. He recreates the events of Jesus' life beginning with Holy Thursday and concluding with the burial of Our Lord and a powerful evocation of the coming resurrection. With vivid detail and a constant recognition of the role the Blessed Mother played in those days, Fr. de la Palma helps the reader enter into the Last Supper, the institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist, the arrest of Our Lord, the denial of St. Peter, the trials before Caiaphas and Pilate, the scourging and mocking, and finally, the Crucifixion. His meditations hew closely to the Gospel accounts, adding to them insights from other scriptures and frequently culminating in fervent prayers to Our Lord and Our Lady.

Way of the Cross
Enter into the wounds of Christ Crucified. When Msgr. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer proposed this way to those who asked him for advice on how to deepen their interior life, he was doing no more than pass on his own experience, pointing out the short cut he had been using throughout his life, and which led him to the highest peaks of spiritual life. This posthumous work of Msgr. Escriva, like the previous ones, has been prepared to help people to pray and, with the grace of God, to grow in a spirit of reparation - of love-sorrow - and of gratitude to our Lord, who has rescued us at the cost of his Blood. For this same reason, some words of Msgr. Escriva have been included as points for meditation; they have been taken from his preaching and his conversation, which reflected his zeal to speak only about God and about nothing but God.

Comments

Emily said…
The Dolorous Passion is very good.
Also on my Must Read Lent List:
**On a Friday Afternoon, by Richard John Neuhaus (very appropriate, especiallyt his year)
**The Passion of Christ according to the evangelists, by St. Thomas a Kempis. It's spiritual readings and is very, very good.
Of course I also watch The Passion many, many times.
Emily said…
Oh, whoops, it's "DEATH on a Friday Afternoon". Duh me.