Lenten books, everybody cheer!

Happy Sunday all! I hope that you are all enjoying our last Sunday in Ordinary Time until the summer. This will be a very short post, and my final in the 7 posts in 7 days series! It's been lovely talking to you each day. :) I have to admit though, you will likely not be seeing me here tomorrow. I have at least 3 meetings tomorrow, obviously God is trying to smite me or something, to make sure I'm ready for Lent. :0


Ok, so what have I got? I'm the librarian, so I'm going to recommend some books and periodicals. ;-) Make sure you check your library catalog!

This Lent, I'm going to be using my Magnificat magazine like gangbusters.  This is a beautiful little devotional with the daily Mass readings and prayers, Morning and Evening Prayer (not the official Liturgy of the Hours version, but lovely nonetheless) plus daily meditations, saint stories and other themed pieces. I have a subscription, and while not cheap, it is WELL worth it for what you get. You can, however, buy the issues individually if you'd like to just get March for Lent, here at the Online Catholic Store.

Magnificat also publishes companions each year for Lent and Advent, with daily meditations and other devotions, and this year's Lenten Companion is available for Kindle for 99 cents! The paper copies are sold out, but information on this booklet in an app form, as well as other ebook formats, is available here.

I will also be using Sacred Space for Lent 2014, an inexpensive but powerful daily prayer tool.

In terms of lengthier spiritual reading, I have always wanted to read Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, by George Weigel, during Lent. This is an imposing book, and I bought a print copy when it originally came out. I have started reading it several times, only to leave off somewhere in the middle. Lent is a good time to have a tangible finishing goal, and it's now available for Kindle. The author has updated the book since it was first published, as well, and so I downloaded it to my Kindle when it was on sale to capture this new content and have it in an easier to read format.

A few other books I have read previously in Lent are the excellent With God in Russia, and He Leadeth Me, both by Fr. Walter Ciszek. Both are *powerful* accounts of a priest unjustly sentenced to prison and hard labor camps in the former Soviet Union.

Also, don't forget about the two upcoming selections for my Catholic Book Club. *beams* I'll be reading these over my Lent this year. They are More Catholic Than the Pope: An Inside Look at Extreme Traditionalism, by Patrick Madrid, and The Cloistered Heart, by Nancy Shuman.

As a sneak peek, it's not listed in the book club information just yet, but another possibility for Lenten reading is a book I'll list for May soon, which is The Life of Christina of Markyate.  Stories of ancient Christian women who wished to remain unmarried and focused solely on God in the face of tremendous opposition are inevitably quite fascinating, and this book looks to be no exception.

All right, I hope that this gave you some ideas for your own Lenten reading plan! The Catholic Librarian is at your disposal to create a pathfinder of titles just for you if you ask. *beams*

See you all Tuesday!

I’m writing seven posts in seven days this week with Jen at Conversion Diary. To check out other bloggers who are doing the same, see the list here.