Books for Lent promote devotion, reflection

By Marcia Z. Nelson -- Publishers Weekly, 2/26/2009 9:30:00 AM

The 40-day period of Lent, a time of reflection and penitence for Christians, begins today, with a handful of ashes marking the foreheads of believers and a shelf of books to provoke reflection.

Making Crosses: A Creative Connection to God by Ellen Morris Prewitt (Paraclete Press, Mar. 1) offers instruction in and reflection on a practice of kinetic prayer. Prewitt, a writer who lives in Memphis, began making crosses, the central symbol of Christianity, as a spiritual response to September 11; she uses found objects as her materials. The book is part of Paraclete’s Active Prayer Series. “The churches are just loving the series,” said Carol Showalter, senior marketing associate at Paraclete. Directors of religious education have found the books useful, she added.  

For decades the incumbent archbishop of Canterbury has commissioned a Lent book that focuses on a theological or devotional theme appropriate to the season that culminates in the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. This year’s book, Why Go to Church? The Drama of the Eucharist by Timothy Radcliffe (Continuum, Feb.), features a foreword by Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury and also a prolific author. Radcliffe, a Dominican friar who won the 2007 Michael Ramsey Prize for theological reflection, asks and answers a question relevant to a culture in which fewer people know the answer, judging by the increase in number of those unaffiliated with any religion.

Lent with Bishop Morneau by Robert F. Morneau (Liturgical Press, Feb.) offers daily reflections, questions and prayers developed by a bishop in the Catholic diocese of Green Bay, Wis., and drawn from scripture used in the Catholic Mass. Theologian Wendy Wright of Creighton University writes a foreword.