FIFTEEN BOOKS TO ACCOMPANY YOU ON YOUR LENTEN JOURNEY

If you’ve read our last several BookNotes you know there have been some trying times in the Borger household, and, also, that we have been consumed — as we always are in February — with prepping for and (with a lot of volunteer help) running the largest off-site book display we do each year, offering a pop-up bookstore for the CCOs annual Jubilee conference in Pittsburgh. Maybe you’ve seen a few Facebook posts (a couple ended up at our store’s group page) and I know more than a few of you were praying for us as we sold books about the wide-as-life transforming vision that undergirds the CCOs work of helping college students understand their majors as holy vocations. It is a joy to see others (especially young collegiates) buy books so they can think Christianly as they take up their places in God’s world, living into habits that allow them to be agents of God’s redemptive work from the workplace to the neighborhood to the public square.

Which is just a long way of saying we’ve been busy and are, as I’ve said to some friends who’ve asked, “exhilarated but exhausted.” Still, I feel badly that we just haven’t gotten a big Lenten list to you yet. Thanks for your patience as we all now shift into this season of sober spirituality, heading towards the cross.

We’ve done some pretty hefty lists in years past and many of those titles are still very useful. We even have some of them in stock now, and we can usually get more in a matter of days. Go to the BookNotes tab at our website and put “Lent” into the search box and see what comes up.

Check out these (mostly) new ones and send us an order if anything catches your attention. And if you wonder what this whole business even is, try our favorite introduction to the reason for the season, Lent: A Season of Repentance and Renewal by Esau McCaulley (IVP) $21.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59. It’s one of several in the great Fullness of Time series. It makes a nice little gift this time of year, too.

TEN (mostly) NEW ONES

Here are ten Lenten ones that are new this year and the five more that just seemed good to tell you about. As always, all are offered to you here at 20% off. We’re grateful for our online friends and enjoy our mail-out ministry. Thanks for your partnership. Read on!

Wardrobes and Rings: Through Lenten Lands with the Inklings Malcolm Guite, Julia Golding & Simon Horobin (Canterbury Press) $20.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.79

As we await the first volume of the extraordinary epic telling of the King Arthur legend redone by Malcolm Guite coming in April, we can dip into this, a great little Lenten reader which is arranged nicely as an introduction to various writings of the collaborative fellowship of Lewis, Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield and others (and their heros, including George MacDonald, T.S. Eliot, and G.K. Chesterton.) Each entry describes the particular writer in view, a survey of the part of the story under consideration (say, the Turkish delight scene from Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe or something from the Ransom “space trilogy” or a spotlight of Sam from LotR as “one who serves.”) This book would be fun and formative to read anytime, but the 40-day Lenten format, complete with Biblical texts and a prayer, makes it ideal for this season.

Christ in Our Midst: Daily Lenten Reflections Through Scripture & Gregorian Chant Paraclete Press $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

This handsome hardback is unlike any Lenten devotional we’ve seen in ages. There are QR codes throughout that link each devotional reading to a recording of a Gregorian chant, richly and traditionally performed. The publisher has a robust collection of award-winning chant recordings and it is nice to see them applied in a book. Each day’s reading offers a Scripture, a meditative reflection, and sacred chants to hear (and, dare I say, sing along with.) As it says on the back, “On this journey toward Easter, you will discover a wellspring of peace, stillness, and joy that is both ancient and ever new.”

Meeting Jesus on the Road: A Lenten Study Cynthia M. Campbell with Christine Coy Fohr (WJK) $17.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $13.60

A short, compact-sized resource from the beloved Cynthia Campbell, this is a lovely looking volume designed (as Kara Eidson puts it) “with reflections and practices that encourage full integration of mind, body, and soul.” Dr. Campbell is former president of McCOrmick Seminary and retired pastor of a large PC(USA) congregation in Louisville. She and Fohr collaborated before in a previous Lenten book called Meeting Jesus at the Table.

What’s also fun about this is there are introductory videos for each chapter (for group or individual use, of course) on YouTube. This really is a “come and see” invitation to pilgrimage with the Master.

When Did We See You? A Lenten Exploration of Poverty & Wealth Elizabeth Mae Magill (WJK) $17.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39

If you know your Bible even a little bit you know that concern about wealth and poverty is a major, unavoidable concern. The title of this book, of course, comes from Matthew 25. I want to suggest that this release is not done by a publisher grasping at wild straws to come up with a trendy Lenten curriculum. It’s not a liberal author trying to be radical for some hip marketing reason. No — it’s solid, Bible stuff, theologically grounded in gospel teaching.

And, you know, old-timers use words like charity and chastity and almsgiving in this season. When Did We See You is a Lenten book that was waiting to be written.

Like most of us, it seems that this author, a Disciples of Christ pastor with some experience with the underserved and poor), struggles to cope with the tensions the texts bring to us. Is it wrong to plan for the future? Is a saving account an act of holding (as the early church fathers might say — read Chrysostom!) How do we engage with matters of economic justice?

Anyway, this offers a chapter for each week of Lent with reflection questions for each day. There are litanies for Ash Wednesday and for Good Friday. She’s added good stories from real congregations and offers lots of practical ideas about how you and your community might get involved to alleviate poverty. There’s a lovely epilogue for Easter morning, too. Hallelujah!

Sacred & Still: Embrace the Holy Rhythms of the Lenten Season Julie Fisk, Kendra Riehl & Kristin Demers (Tyndale) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

This is a very handsome hardback with some nice design touches, making it a volume you’ll want to pick up and hold. It has a slightly classy feel, with two color ink, a reflection piece to ponder after the reading and prayer as well as a practice or application they called “sacred rhythms.”  As we surrender to Christ more deeply and make spacer God to work, we will perhaps understand Easter afresh.

Maybe this year the sacred beauty this season will bring healing and purpose in His presence.

Everyday Gospel: Easter Devotional Paul David Tripp (Crossway) $7.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $6.39

Paul Tripp is a pastor in Philadelphia who has written bunches of popular books and who drills down on the gospel-centered life based on the grace found in appropriating the cross of Christ for our inner formation. His New Morning Mercies is one of the biggest selling yearly devotionals in years, and his more recent one, Everyday Gospel is another intense hardback set of 365 reflections. This new Lenten one is adapted from portions of that.

It is curious that it isn’t called a Lenten devotional. I’m guessing his deeply Protestant / Reformed orientation makes him and his publisher reluctant to use that word that seems Roman Catholic. I’m just guessing, but this four-week set of 30 daily readings is not for post-Easter reading or about Eastertide. It’s a two-pages-a-day devo leading up to Easter.  It draws from all of Scripture from creation to new creation and offers a rumination and prayer for each day. Nice.

Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter — Revised and Expanded Plough Publishing $26.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $20.80

Hey — notice this! The fabulous Bread and Wine has been considered one of the great anthologies of our generation (a companion to the equally wonderful Advent reader called Watch for the Light) and it has now been significantly expanded with dozens of new readings and new authors. Brilliant. Man, the folks at the Bruderhof community do good work; we stock almost every book they’ve done. And this significantly expanded new edition is well worth having, especially at our sale price.

If you don’t know, this handsome hardback has short excerpts of primary source readings from a delightfully wide range of voices from throughout church history — from Augustine to Chesterton to Madeleine L’Engle to Bonhoeffer. You’ve got bits by Merton and Dorothy Sayers, Howard Thurman and Wendell Berry, Watchman Nee and Edith Stein and John Stott. The new excerpts represent, again, the best classic and contemporary Christian writers. Importantly, the new expanded version takes readers through Eastertide to Pentecost.

Thanks to the good folks at Plough (I hope you know their classy magazine by the same name.)

A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey Ruth Haley Barton, Sheila Wise Rowe, Tish Harrison Warren, and others (IVP) $14.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $11.99

I know this one is not new and I’ve mentioned it before but it is relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and includes an incredible array of our favorite authors. Created from the stable of IVP authors, it offers excerpts of various books, nicely curated and arranged with breath prayers for each week. There is a lovely (sometimes subtle, sometimes less so) on social justice and a Biblical call to public righteousness and servanthood. More than a few are writers of color.  I’m such a fan I have to mention it again. Please consider A Just Passion.

Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing Gayle Boss, illustrated by David G. Klein (Paraclete Press) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

This is another repeat from other years — there are so many good older titles — that I find so interesting and unique that I wanted to name it again. Yep, it is a Lenten devotion, each reading inspired by a different animal. Endangered species, actually. The Bible says the whole creation is groaning, waiting for redemption (see Romans 8) so this makes perfect sense and I’m grateful for the authors and publisher for bringing this to us, relating creaturely delight to the dangers of being vanquished, to the hope of redemption. In a way, this is just lovely natural history with fun stuff to learn about. But with Gayle Boss’s wise ways, it really does become a Lenten resource. And the wood cuts are truly excellent.

Wild Hope is a companion volume to the very lovely Advent book about hibernating animals, All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings, also illustrated expertly by David Klein. Boss lives and works in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The Ignatian Workout for Lent: 40 Days of Prayer, Reflections and Action Tim Muldoon (Loyola Press) $5.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $4.79

This mass-market sized paperback is a sharp little resource, a 40-day guide offering “40 ways to grow closer to God.” Obviously, it is rooted in the Ignatius method, reminding us that Lent is not primarily about giving up something but a time of seeking internal change — realigning our wills with God’s will by taking on the heart and mind of Christ. Not bad, eh?

We’ve got quite a lot of Ignatian resources here at the shop, and this little one looks very useful. We only have a few of these but hope more will arrive soon.

FIVE OTHERS FOR THIS SEASON

Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends Carmen Joy Imes (TUMI Press) $20.00 // OUR SALE PRICE = $16.00

I adore this well designed book in the bigger “Sacred Roots Spiritual Classics” series produced by an urban ministry team at Taylor University. Carmen is a good friend and grand supporter of Hearts & Minds and — hooray! — did one of the best Jubilee talks last weekend in the history of the storied Pittsburgh conference. (More on that next time.) Dr. Imes is a respected and beloved Old Testament professor and prolific author. This is a book which is perhaps not as well known and it’s a shame as it is a treasure.

Praying the Psalms with Augustine is not a Lenten resource (although it seems so very apropos) and it will take you further than the Lenten season. (There are eight sections here.) Besides the insights drawn from Saint Gus and other early Christians, Carmen teaches us well, opens up the Psalms as a prayer resource, and then offers a fabulous ending section of further resources and guidance to “continue the conversation.” This is a book, as they say, of “soul work and soul care.” Thanks be to God.

Wisdom’s Call: 100 Meditations for a Life in Christ K.A. Ellis (Moody Press) $17.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $14.39

What a delight it was to be greeted by Karen Ellis at Jubilee this past weekend. She did one of the most creative presentations ever done on that main conference stage as she did an eloquent one-woman retelling of the death of Christ, leading to an incredibly moving singing of an older black spiritual and “Amazing Grace.” What a way to invite people into the redemption story.

Dr. Ellis is a serious scholar of global Christianity (and has travelled to marginalized communities the world over.) As a black theologian she has focused deeply on the spirituality of public witness and social ethics. (Her husband is old Jubilee friend Carl Ellis, author of my favorite book of black history, Free At Last.) This handsome recent hardback offers 100 meditations about our union with Christ, inviting us to ponder the deeper meaning of being a follower of Jesus, born from above and in solidarity with His Kingdom. It is, finally, a book about life, about God’s ways, about wisdom.

You could read two a day (morning and evening, maybe?) for Lent, even if it isn’t exactly designed as a Lenten resource. It sure feels like an ideal book to read this season, leading to Holy Week, eh?  Wisdom’s Call.

Heaven Meets Earth: A 40-Day Journey of Transformation Through the Nicene Creed Josh Nadeau (Thomas Nelson) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

Oh, wow, this is very cool. A nice, trim-sized hardback with glossy paper and full-color illustrations (done by Nadeau who runs something called Sword and Pencil.) Of course it has a short phrase from the Creed, a meaningful meditation, and a bit of original art. I like how the reflection sometimes explains a feature of the illustration, helping us really use the art in a reflective manner, and seeing how it illumines the ancient words for modern times.

The back cover invites us to “step into a sacred rhyme that blends ancient tradition with a present-day insight.” You know it was the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed’s formation (in 325 AD in Nicaea, in modern-day Turkey.) It’s not Lenten, precisely, but it sure seems apropos, doesn’t it?

Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate Steven Garber (Paraclete Press) $24.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $19.99

I have shared much about my deep appreciation for this author and this major work. Maybe you saw our conversation online that was shared as a webinar — it’s at our store’s Facebook page. Steve is a good friend and one of the most interesting people I know. As joyful and hopeful as he is, he knows well the hurts of the fall, the wounds of the world, the wages of our idolatry. If there was ever a book that was germane and appropriate for a Lenten read, this is it. Garber leans into the cross, hopes for heaven, but for now he writes wonderfully about the trials, the distortions, and sadnesses of our messed world.

Do you feel alienated these days, maybe even from family and friends, from church, even? Are you weary? Do you want to make sense of life and seek a coherent and truthful way to know? Do you want to embody what you really know in honest ways? Hints of Hope is about this (Lenten) theme of the proximate. We may not “give something up for Lent” but we do need to take up practices of wrestling with the difficulties living well in these days.

I will keep reminding our customers of this eloquent, profound book, so you might as well pick it up now. Lent is a perfect time to ponder making peace with this wacky world and embracing the pains of the world as a spiritual practice. Read it slowly, perhaps with others.

Blessed Are the Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole Micha Boyett (Brazos Press) $19.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $15.99

If you are seeking solace or leaning in to this Lenten season with some sort of hope for a renewed faith, this lovely, beautiful book — part memoir, actually about longing and hope and the Sermon on the Mount — will be a great companion. A true companion, I’d say.

Memoirist Mary Karr says it is a “graceful, moving book that should required reading” that “conjures spiritual solutions for very real problems.” Nadia Bolz-Weber calls it “breathtaking.”

I will quote the back cover to explain it succinctly:

When Micha Boyett’s son was born with Down syndrome and later diagnosed with autism, she was drawn into the ancient teachings of the Beatitudes. There, she found an invitation to honor her limits in a world that values performance, perfection, and strength over mercy, meekness, and the longing for justice.

In Blessed Are the Rest of Us, Boyett invites us — especially those of us who are burned out, tired of performing, living with grief, feeling exhausted, or powerless — to discover our wholeness not in our own accomplishments but in the dream God has for the world.