Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and we will once again mark the beginning of the holy season of Lent — our forty day journey to Easter — with ashes on our foreheads and the ancient words of invitation to “the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.”
There are as many ways to observe Lent as there are people observing it, and for some of us it is a season to take on a book or two to “read and meditate on” as we journey through those forty days. We asked members of our ASC staff what they were reading during Lent, and here are some of their responses. We’d love to know what YOU are reading … or what you’ve read in the past you would commend to other pilgrims as food for the soul on this Lenten journey we share.
Melissa Hayes is reading:
Life Together
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9780060608521
The classic exploration of Christian Community
And — “because it’s balm in tumultuous times” — is re-reading
The Art of Possibility
https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9780142001103
by Ben and Rose Zander
Christina Honchell recommends:
The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times
by Pema Chodron
https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9781611805963
Because I always read a Pema Chodron book in Lent
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9781571313560
Because I am drawn more and more to the places where the mystical and the scientific merge
Mike Kinman’s list includes:
Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
by Eric Klinenberg
https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9781524761172
Arenas where people are able to come together across divides are disappearing … here’s what communities like All Saints can do to be a part of providing it!
Exodus: The Book of Redemption
by Jonathan Sacks
https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9781592640218
Spend Lent in the desert with this phenomenal companion to the book of Exodus by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. You’re guaranteed to walk away with new and deep insights about your journey and the journey we are on together.
Susan Russell suggests:
Winged with Longing for Better Things
by Sylvia Sweeney
https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9781640651425
A Lenten devotional focused around ecological issues and our role as advocates for the earth which begins by asking this question: “What might Lent look like if we spent those 40 days actively seeking to love our neighbors as ourselves with a renewed level of intentionality and focus?”
And is re-reading a favorite from seminary:
Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination
by Walter Wink
https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9781506438160
Exploring the problem of evil and how it relates to the New Testament concept of principalities and powers Wink asks the question, “How can we oppose evil without creating new evils and being made evil ourselves?”
