Books for Lent 2024
This Lent I’m choosing to read one new book, finish one I started last year and never got through, and re-read an old favorite.
The one I have to finish is “What If It’s True? A Storyteller’s Journey with Jesus.” Last year, for whatever reason, I never made it past chapter 3. Here’s hoping I can actually read it this Lent and give you a review!
Next up on my list is to finish my re-read of “The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis. My bookclub, The Inklings, is reading this classic this winter. I’ve read it several times, and each time I marvel at the description of a bus tour from Hell into Heaven, and the souls who are redeemed. It’s an exploration of Lewis’ complex thoughts on the possibility that Purgatory exists – and that some saved souls may need to be purified (or, in this book, “made solid”) in order to be able to withstand the holiness of Heaven. My favorite part is the description of the lady who was one of the “Great Ones” in Heaven. Who she was on Earth was quite a surprise to the traveler.
And new this year – I’m reading “The Collects of Thomas Cranmer.” Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury who wrote the Book of Common Prayer, the greatest collection of prayers and services in the English language. He wrote different collects for every week of the liturgical year. These beautiful short prayers are composed of five parts: 1) the Address, 2) the Acknowledgement, 3) the Petition, 4) the Aspiration, and 5) the Pleading. Here’s one example – the famous Collect for Purity:
- Almighty God,
- unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid,
- cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit
- that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name,
- through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Notes from Aunt Gem 