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Readings for Lent by Christa Buswell Let me confess, Lent is not my favorite time of the year. It makes you think about things you'd rather not think about. Disturbing thoughts. Thoughts calling for action and change. What's been called "the intolerable labor of thought." (Upon reading the Feasting and Fasting article in the February Ebb & Flow, I see that I'm not supposed to think this way. Can't win for losing Ö) Being of a bookish bent, I have always turned to books for sustenance and guidance, for insight and understanding. So today, let me tell you about some books that might just do that for you during this most holy season. For perspective, there is The Wound of Knowledge: Christian Spirituality from the New Testament to St. John of the Cross, by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. It's a fascinating account of the formation of Christian thought and language, dogma and practice. A chapter on our own St. Augustine, aptly entitled "the clamor of the heart" is especially revealing. Here, the saint observes that "the only way you can be perfect in this life is by knowing that you can't be perfect." No wonder they named him the Doctor of the Church. Could use some help with prayer? Margaret Guenther's The Practice of Prayer is a down-to-earth book which answers many of the questions people ask. There is even a chapter on finding God in the ordinary: "your kitchen will teach you everything." (Sic!) Dietrich Donhoeffer, the German Lutheran pastor martyred by Hitler gives us Meditating on the Word. Interspersed with vignettes of the "confusing church" in Nazi Germany, these meditations show the author's deep love of scripture and offers advice on the how and why of meditation. As Bonhoeffer puts it, "our previous ordered life has been broken up and dissolved in these present days. We are in danger of losing our inner sense of order, too, because of the rush of events, the demands of work, doubts, temptations, conflicts and unrest of all kinds. Meditation can give to our lives a measure of steadiness." True in 1942, true in 2004. Pastor Bonhoeffer "paid for God's word with his life and taught God's work by his death." These and many other books available in the bookstore are sure to guide you along the rough path of Easter and the triumphant return of the Alleluia.
Copyright © 2004 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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