For Your Lenten Reflection

As noted last week, we would like to share some resources that might assist with your Lenten reflection.  While these do not bear the word "Lent" in their titles, we feel you might find them helpful during this sacred time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in prepartion for Easter.

• How to Live: What the Rule of St. Benedict Teaches Us About Happiness, Meaning, and Community, by Judith Valente. In 22 short chapters, the author weaves The Rule of St. Benedict with practical stories, prose and poetry to bring the title alive. If you tend to shy away from books that have the words "How to," in their titles, consider this thought from the Afterword of the book by Martin E. Marty, emeritus, The University of Chicago:  "Many, many thousands of book titles begin with "How to. . . ."  Critics, snipers, humorists, reviewers, and the professionally bored find it easy to dismiss everything in this category.  Certainly the author of How to Live had to know the risks they were taking by adding one more title to the list.  It was even more daring to link "How to" with the word "Live," which represents the most challenging concept this side of "Die."  We picture that authors who hope to be of service to readers would compete for attention with emphatic, boisterous, noisy claims.  Yet readers of How to Live will treasure this approach precisely because it is marked by quiet and simplicity."    [If you are in the mood for a book of poetry reflections only, it is possible that The Art of Pausing: Meditations for the Overworked and the Overwhelmed, co-authored by Valente, Brother Paul Quenon, and Michael Bever, might appeal to you.]
• In this post from December 2018, we shared the publication of The Strength of a Vocation, a book-length interview with Pope Francis about Consecrated Life today.  Perhaps Lent would also be a good time to catch up not only on the writings of Pope Francis on Consecrated Life, but those from other sources, as well.  The CMSWR website lists the Magisterial Documents related to Consecrated Life.  Click here to access the list.
• "Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love, A Pastoral Letter Against Racism," by the USCCB is available here. This pastoral letter, approved and published in November 2018, represents the first time in 40 years that the USCCB has spoken collectively on racism.

Do you have a suggestion for Lenten reflection?  Please reply and let us know!