The letters are full of topics that Paul considered important to share while he was still able! The author has drawn out of the letters seven themes to form the chapters of the book and guide our Lenten journey. These include family, unity, spiritual warfare, prayer, living for Jesus, suffering, and concluding at Easter week with He is risen. Each day provides teaching on a topic as part of the theme for that week. This Lent devotional brings fresh insight, and practical application, of foundational truths for Christian living. From Glory Into Glory follows Jesus on this journey from the veiled glory of the cross into the blazing brightness of the resurrection. Our guide is Jesus’ beloved disciple, John, and our longing is that the word of Christ will dwell richly within us. Travel along, then, with these daily comments and prayers in your hand. They will accompany you from the start of Lent to the Sunday after Easter. There are some glorious views along the way. Her last chapter, “How to fail really well”, is a helpful and practical encouragement to accept that failure is natural, but fear of failure doesn’t have to be. Some may find reflections on failure all a bit middle-class. Failure is not so frightening when you have the mental, financial, or time resources to learn resilience and creativity from it. Without those resources, failure can be overbearing and paralysing, feeling utterly irredeemable. What faith communities offer people in this situation is a pretty pressing question.

New edition of a classic Easter resource. Three complete sessions for Lent, Holy Week and Easter, together with a wealth of activities to extend the range of excitingly messy activities for your Messy Church – creative prayers, games, food crafts, and ideas for organising an Easter trail. Craft templates and a session planning grid are included. The book and booklets will be accompanied by daily #DustAndGlory social media posts from Ash Wednesday (22 February) to Easter Day (9 April), together with a wide range of free digital resources for individuals, groups and churches. The question “Whose life am I actually living?” is resonant at a time when so many voices are shouting at us from the wings about what we should be doing on stage. Merton’s relentless commitment to seeing beyond what he is good at, to seeing where the mask has eaten into his face, and the destructive ways in which we are made to fit in with expectations, is an important provocation to us. Elaine Storkey’s Meeting God in Matthew is a very welcome addition to this Lent’s library. With a self-effacing scholarship that wants to share its discoveries to deepen faith rather than win admiration, Storkey introduces us to St Matthew and his Gospel in some fresh and insightful ways. With questions also set for discussion, this is a book to help the parish or chaplaincy congregation, or house group, to immerse themselves in a Gospel’s entirety, a Gospel that begins by telling us that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, and ends with his telling his disciples that he is with them always, to the very end of the age. This Lent, refresh your relationship with God by exploring the way Jesus Himself prayed to His Father. Focusing on six of the prayers of Jesus leading up to the central events of our faith, encounter the Saviour in a new way and reach new depths of intimacy with God in prayer.

OTHER STORIES

The Room Where It Happens is an exciting new Lent course for 2022, written by Bishop Rose and based on the award-winning musical Hamilton. It is suitable for people to follow either as a group meeting in person or remotely or as individuals. The five sessions invite us to explore what the Bible and the experience of Christian faith teach us about some key issues that Alexander Hamilton faced – and that we face today. Hamilton’s responses to injustice, adversity and temptation, his search for identity, and his realisation that he (and all of us) can make a difference in the world have much to teach us. Each session contains an opening prayer, an introduction, film excerpts to watch/listen to and discuss, Bible passages to read and explore, ‘share and discuss’ and ‘think and discuss’ sections, reflections, suggested action, and a closing prayer.

Failure: What Jesus said about sin, mistakes and messing stuff up (The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2023) John O’Donoghue observed that “Life is growth in the art of loss.” This theme is pursued in Robert Inchausti’s The Way of Thomas Merton: A prayer journey through Lent. Nineteen short chapters, each followed by some questions for reflection, introduce us to Merton’s work, particularly his emphasis on being liberated from the “false self”. The author knows his subject, but presents Merton accessibly, without letting the material become trite or thin.For members of the Latin Catholic Church within the United States, please see the USCCB's Pastoral Statement on Penance and Abstinence and the complementary norm to canon 1253 and the Code of Canon Law (cc. 1249-1253) Like the poet R. S. Thomas, who scratched his soul on the glass that had been handed to him, Cottrell is able to hold together our chaotic worldly life and our more attuned selves that know what it is to be ambushed by epiphany and hope. Though often breathless as a speaker, his is a patient priesthood as he attends to where we are in our inner lives and where we might yet be with God. As Jesus hung on the cross, jeered at and, yes, humiliated, love was winning, as it always does, because it is the nature of the one who is our source. The author has also included at the beginning of each week the outline for leading a short celebration. This would be particularly useful for those practicing lent with their families. Each week ends with suggestions for activities to put into practice the three main spiritual disciplines of lent in an authentic way today. For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy." -St. Therese of Lisieux (CCC 2558)

I found this a contemplative book, I would have liked it though to be in a larger size to really appreciate the paintings! If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the "paschal fast" to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection. Resources on Fasting

Images of Grace builds slowly as we travel through Old Testament stories and New Testament parables to deepen our understanding of these abstract themes. As we journey through Scripture reflecting on different images of God’s mercy we begin to glimpse the promise of peace. Finally, we come to Holy week, and see the fulfilment of God’s salvation plan with fresh insight and wonder!

Each week it considers the idea of failure from a different angle and explores the difference God's redeeming work in Jesus makes to the struggles and shortcomings of human life.Dust and Glory is the Church of England's Lent campaign for 2023. Offering 40 daily reflections for Lent on faith, failure and forgiveness, it invites you to find God in the mess of everyday life. This booklet offers daily Bible readings, short reflections, prayers and practical ideas to help you make sense of life's challenges and draw closer to God during Lent.