Reading During Lent
An Invitation into a Season of Engaging with God
In New Orleans, we are in full Mardi Gras mode, so it feels a little funny to talk about Lent while also eating King Cake at every turn, going to parades, and being in a season of general merriment. If you don’t know, Mardi Gras parades take over the city during the two weeks leading up to actual Mardi Gras day. Our church has a King Cake showdown this Sunday where everyone brings a King Cake, we all taste them and vote on the best one. And I just have to include that I WON two years ago with a savory King Cake–so good.
Anyways, all that to say, talking about Lent, a season known for restraint and fasting, feels odd right now, but it begins on Ash Wednesday, one week from today!
If you’ve never participated in Lent before, let this be a gentle invitation to consider doing so. Many might have a raised eyebrow depending on their experience of it: purely cultural: like the Friday fish fries in New Orleans, or purely religious: feeling like a time of legalistic restraint.
However, there is another way. A way where we recognize that when we orient our lives around the life of Christ, we have an anchor to hold onto. In cultural upheaval, in times of grief and in times of joy, retraining our eyes to Jesus is a powerful act. The season of Lent is a time to immerse ourselves in the days leading up to the most significant time of the Christian year: Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday.
The heart of Lent is making ourselves available to God by leaving behind ways that we grasp for self fulfillment and instead embracing complete and full dependance on God.
Lent has been practiced for hundreds of years by the church, it is part of the church calendar, which is organized around the life of Christ and stands as a reminder of the story of God.
I have experienced Lent as a life giving opportunity to make space in my heart for God. Yes, to put aside some things like social media and certain days for fasting. But also to add in spiritual practices. The three pillars of Lent are fasting, prayer, and giving: beautiful practices that can allow our souls to open up to God in deeper ways. If the Christian life is all about union with God, Lent is an invitation to remove some things that may be keeping us from full relational connection with God.
There is much, much more I could say, but I hope this invitation will give you an itch to find out more for yourself. I’d like to recommend some books and resources to help you do just that.
Book buying note: First I check my library or the Libby app. Then, I like to buy books from Thriftbooks.com (highly recommend), Half Price Books, Bookshop.org, or one of many lovely local bookstores. Amazon is my last resort. :)
For the family:
Sacred Seasons: A Family Guide to Center Your Year Around Jesus by Danielle Hitchen. I absolutely love this beautiful guide! The author includes details about each part of the church calendar as well as family friendly ideas about how to observe each season. There are recipes, scriptures, simple history, and activities.
Jesus Storybook Bible readings & Resurrection Eggs are what we’ve done with our kids in past years. Both of these are specific to Holy Week.
This year, I am considering the Lent and Holy Week Guides from Little Way Chapel. I’m looking forward to incorporating these into our family devotional time.
Also! I’m working on a Family Lent Guide and I really hope to have it ready next week. It’ll be similar to my Advent Guide, so keep a look out for that.
Year Around:
Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross: I talk about this book all the time. I recommend it to and buy it for everyone! It’s such a good one. And the great thing is that it covers entire Christian Year so you don’t have to keep purchasing new resources. You’ll get a bit of context and history for each season plus scripture, prayers, and simple devotional thoughts. I’ve read it several times and it is always refreshing and spiritually nourishing!
A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God by Norman Shawchuck & Reuben P. Job. My mom bought me this for me for Christmas eight years ago and it’s one I’ve returned to again and again. It follows the church calendar and includes prayers, scriptures, and readings for reflection.
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne. This is basically an updated version of the Book of Common Prayer. Again it covers the whole year and includes the scriptures read by the church all around the world plus prayers.
Lent specific:
Bitter and Sweet by Tsh Oxenreider. A beautiful devotion that includes thoughts, scripture, and a prayer prompt. My favorite part of Bitter and Sweet is the recommendations for music to listen to or art to look up each day.
Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal by Esau McCaulley. This book is part of the Fullness of Time series which is a collection of short books about each season of the church calendar. These are less devotional and give more church history context and ways to observe the season. Really helpful for anyone wanting to go deeper into understanding how to participate in the church calendar.
Bread and Wine. This is a collection of spiritual essays by a lengthy list of authors including Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton and many others. The readings are a bit heady and literary in nature as well as uplifting and encouraging. I really love this one.
My 2025 Lenten Line Up:
The Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross by Brian Zahnd. I bought this book a few months ago and have been saving it for Lent. I really love Zahnd’s work and I feel like this book is absolutely perfect for the season of Lent. He also has a Lent specific devotional called The Unvarnished Jesus: A Lenten Journey that I have on my list for next year.
This is Happiness by Niall Williams. I am beside myself with excitement to read this book. It’s a novel, but it’s set during Lent and Easter and I am such a seasonal reader so it fits perfectly. I absolutely loved reading Time of the Child by Niall Williams during Advent. These books are set in a tiny town in Ireland with beloved characters and an immersive setting. His writing is absolute perfection.
A Mother’s Education: Lent 2025 from Little World Wanderers. This is extraordinarily niche, but I recently found out about a series of literature guides from a homeschool mom blogger. In these guides she includes a booklist and reading schedule as well as reflective prompts for journaling, nature study, and creativity.
The booklist includes five books plus the Gospel of John: Preparing for Easter by C.S. Lewis (Devotional), Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart by Russ Ramsey (History), Savior of the World Volume 2 by Charlotte Mason (Poetry), The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C. Davis (Fiction-about Simon Peter!), and Reclaiming Quiet by Sarah Clarkson (Motherhood). Reading multiple books in different genres is exactly my style and I am thrilled to have found this gem!
Whew! That feels like a lot. I hope you find something in this list that can serve as an invitation to know God in new ways.
Books & Food
Are you shocked that I have more books to recommend? I almost skipped this part because things are getting lengthy.
But this is who I am and I have to tell you about two books I’m currently reading:
Introduction to the Spiritual Life by Brant Pitre. This would also make a great Lent read! In the book, Pitre digs into the Biblical roots–both from the Old Testament and the words of Jesus–of many practices in church tradition (think fasting, prayer, the seven sins, etc…). He also highlights the words of Classic and mystic Christian teachers. It’s really well done and so edifying!
Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz. Oof!! On a completely different note, this is the memoir of actress Bethany Joy Lenz and her time on the show One Tree Hill (a show I loved in high school) as well as her journey in and out of a religious cult. I’m still reading this one but it is absolutely riveting. I highly recommend the audio version because she narrates it fantastically.
Put this on your tacos! We eat ground beef tacos every week. This is our new addition:
Cabbage Slaw: a package of shredded cabbage, juice of 1-2 limes, dollop of greek yogurt (¼ cup-ish), a clove of minced garlic. Salt to taste. There’s not much to it. Put on your taco with some Chipotle Tabasco. Yum!
I read through Bread and Wine every year and it is food for the soul! Added several other titles to my want to read list per your amazing recs and was thrilled that my Libby app had This Is Happiness available for checkout now-thank you🤍
Bread and Wine is one of my all-time favorite collections. Timeless. I love Tsh’s Bitter and Sweet, too! Beautiful blend of ancient and modern. What a great list that I know must have taken a long time to compile!