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BOOKS
Devotional books can lead Catholics to a more fruitful Lent
One of the more popular practices during Lent is the use of those little devotional books that guide the reader through the season day by day. These daily devotionals are numerous and diverse in what they offer. They’re also very easy to come by.
This very non-scientific survey takes a look at three of these books, which were all readily available at the Catholic bookstore nearest to my apartment: La Torre at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish.
The Magnificat Lenten Companion
The Magnificat series is very popular with the daily Mass going crowd. It’s a subscription-based service that mails to its members a monthly book that includes the readings for the day, additional prayers, reflections on saints’ lives, etc.
The “Lenten Companion” offers a reflection on the Gospel of the day written by a host of different Catholic writers. Following the reflection comes a prayer for the day and a suggested penance.
The reflections in the “Lenten Companion” are a mixed bag. Some hew closely to the Gospel, reiterating and expanding its message. Others are more personal. Overall, the reflections are good. They’re brief and almost always pertinent to the Lenten journey.
Perhaps the best parts of the “Lenten Companion” are the daily prayers and penances. They help move the reader from contemplation to action for each day.
Daybreaks, by Fr. John F. Kavanaugh, SJ
“Daybreaks” is pretty no-frills. It’s comprised simply of daily reflections by the Jesuit Father John F. Kavanaugh, who teaches philosophy at Saint Louis University. So, whether or not this book is effective for the reader depends a great deal on his or her reaction to Fr. Kavanaugh’s writing.
Thankfully, he’s a very good writer: smart, precise and insightful in all the perils that threaten to make us unhappy in this life. I’ve heard Lent described as a time for Christians to get rid of the weeds choking their interior lives — a process that can be painful, but necessary for us to flourish.
Fr. Kavanaugh is one of those writers who can lead readers to confront these weeds without their even realizing it at the time. He takes a certain theme — love, deceit, abandonment to God — and explores it over the course of a few days, so there’s a gradual deepening of understanding and insight.
It’s very effective. Here’s a sample of his style.
“We are sinners, dear friends. If we do not know that, we suffer a poverty of self-knowledge. But if we yield to the truth, not only that we are creatures, but that we are in sore need of redemption, we are newly free, open to love,” he writes.
“We reverse the big lie of Eden as we embrace the big truth of Gethsemane, now able to say with the one who graced our fallen state, ‘Into your hands I commend my spirit.’”
The Little Black Book
“The Little Black Book” is, indeed, little and black. It comes originally from the Diocese of Saginaw and is based on the writings of that diocese’s late Bishop Ken Untener.
There’s a helpful introduction to the book that describes its uses to the reader. Each entry is supposed to take only six minutes to read. On each right-sided page an excerpt from the Passion according to Mark along with a few paragraphs that are part exegesis and part reflection.
“The left-hand page has a variety of quotes, suggestions, information, timely thoughts,” the introduction reads. “Treat it like a buffet table from which you can take what you like.”
This smorgasbord includes little bios on saints who are celebrating feast days, an interesting entry on the famous Oberammergau Passion Play, a refresher course on how to make a good confession and all sorts of other things.
It’s a great format that offers something for most everyone.
None of these three books cost more than two or three dollars, yet they — and the countless other Lenten devotional books — can go a long way in helping Catholics bear much fruit this Lent.
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