Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, begins a time of deep reflection for Christians leading to rejoicing in Christ's resurrection at Easter. Believers seeking insight and inspiration in these 40 days of spiritual contemplation and celebration can find many choices.

Many authors organize their devotionals—a format usually providing Scripture selections, prayers and prompts for reflection—around a particular theme. Out now are devotionals designed to prompt prayer and soul searching by bestselling authors such as Ann Voskamp and New Testament scholar N.T. Wright. Voskamp's Loved to Life: A 40-Day Pilgrimage with Love Himself That Will Change Your Life (Tyndale Momentum) is packed with hope and reminders that "You are not alone." And in From Wilderness to Glory: Lent and Easter for Everyone (Westminster John Knox), Wright does his own translation of scripture and "provides a compelling story about the passage, helping the reader to see it in new light," says WJK president and publishers David Dobson, as well as to "ponder the significance of Jesus’s actions, teachings, and relationships."

Given the essential Christian premise that Jesus died to save mankind from sin and find eternal life, some devotional authors guide readers in repentance and appreciation for God's mercy. Eighth Day Prayers: Daily Mercy for Lent and Eastertide (Forefront), is a call to repentance by the four evangelical authors: Sally Breedlove, Willa Kane, Madison Perry, and Alysia Yates. The "Eighth Day" in their title posits that after the original seven days of creation in Genesis there comes the day of Jesus's resurrection, "the day of new creation," according to the publisher.

Calls to Look Inward and Reach Outward

Pastor and social activist Kathy Escobar takes aim at inequality and injustice in Turning Over Tables: A Lenten Call for Disrupting Power (WJK). “In a time when we are seeing firsthand what unhealthy, self-serving power does to our collective well-being, Kathy Escobar’s Lenten study challenges readers to internalize Jesus’s approach to power, which flipped the tables on society’s ways of granting and using power," says executive WJK editor Jessica Miller Kelley.

Hunger for Righteousness: A Lenten Journey Towards Intimacy with God and Loving Our Neighbor (Paraclete) by Phoebe Farag Mikhail, a writer and blogger at BeinginCommunity.com, highlights traditional Lenten disciplines. She writes that prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and repentance not only draw one closer to God, but also "call us to serve others, mend relationships, and fight injustice."

Some writers highlight the experiences of women in the Bible and their resonance for women of today. With Prone to Wander: A Lenten Journey with Women in the Wilderness (Herald Press), Mennonite pastor and Spacious Faith blogger Joanna Harader looks to 30 biblical women whose struggles with "doubt and questioning" hold lessons "for the inevitable wilderness periods in our own lives," according to the publisher. Guideposts, a Christian publishing house and inspirational magazine, offers Walking with Jesus for Lent and Easter, featuring reflections from the same team of women of faith who write Guideposts' popular annual devotional Mornings With Jesus.

Anna Fitch Courie, a nurse who specializes in the intersection of health and spirituality, suggests that women—and men—should literally hoof it through Lent. Her book Walking with God: The 40-Day Fitness Program and Biblical Journey (Morehouse) couples Scripture passages with exercise prompts to "enrich both body and soul," according to the publisher.

Fasting is a traditional Lenten practice that doesn't just mean forgoing treats and comforts. It can also mean stepping way from habits like being hooked on screen time. Sister Nancy Usselmann, director of Pauline Media Studios, which also published her book Media Fasting: Six Weeks to Recharge in Christ, suggests ways to transform one's media habits with devotional readings and reflection questions.

Looking toward Christ's resurrection also means thinking deeply about the significance of his sacrificial suffering. Healing Wounds: The 2025 Lent Book (Bloomsbury Continuum) by Bishop Erik Varden, a Catholic monk, guides readers in considering how faith and introspection can transform suffering and pain in their own lives. Amy Ekeh, an editor at Liturgical Press, offers Stretch Out Your Hand: Reflections on the Healing Ministry of Jesus to guide readers to draw on and find strength in the compassion Jesus showed in his every encounter. And in The Perfect Savior: Celebrating the Living Hope of Easter (Our Daily Bread), semi-retired pastor Barney Cargile III shares how he relied on hope in the dark time after his wife died of cancer.

Every Title Leads to Easter

There is no Easter without Good Friday, and two Paulist titles address Jesus's path to crucifixion. Sister of St. Joseph Christine Kresho, in A Way of the Cross: In Communion with Creation, emphasizes Jesus's words and "links his historical suffering to present day pain and distress experienced by our brothers and sisters and," according to the publisher, "we respond by asking for open eyes, open hearts, forgiveness, and conversion. Carlota Valenzuela, who leads Christian pilgrimage walking tours in Spain, writes The Way of the Cross with Mary (Paulist) highlighting the perspectives of the women Jesus encountered on the road to Calvary.

While somber reflection and atonement is a "right and good" path through Lent, Ronnie Martin, a musician-turned-pastor, writes in The Road to Joy (Christianity Today), "As we look to the cross, we don’t want to forget that this is a road with a joyful conclusion—the resurrection of Christ."

Episcopal priest and New Testament professor Wesley Hill exults in Easter: The Season of the Resurrection of Jesus (IVP-Formatio) that for believers reborn in Christ, "Easter is the new, joyous, and radical way of living. The world is turned upside down." Pastor Andrew Arndt makes the same his point in A Strange and Gracious Light: How the Story of Jesus Changes the Way We See Everything (Herald)

The holiday never really ends for Rev. Joseph A. Tetlow, a Jesuit spiritual director. To him, 40 days aren't long enough to truly incorporate a deep understanding of the resurrection. His book Becoming an Easter People: Considering the Joy of the Lord (Institute of Jesuit Sources) is a 12-week retreat based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits.