Lent begins on March 5th, 2025. Yes, I share my birthday with Ash Wednesday this year. What a way to celebrate 53!
During the following 3 weeks I’ll be posting about preparing for Lent. Like Advent, this season often creeps up on me and catches me unaware and unprepared. Not this year, Lent, not this year. So keep your eyes here if you’re interested in making this Lent a truly holy, spiritual experience for yourself and your family.
Today I begin with suggesting some possible books to read during Lent; this should give you plenty of time to decide which one is best for you and order or borrow it.
Reading a spiritual book, preferably one that focuses on the life of Christ, for Lent has been a practice of mine for years. If you’re thinking of giving up television or Social Media for Lent, consider replacing that time with some spiritual reading. Here are my book suggestions. Feel free to share your favorites in the comments.
The Spear: A Novel of the Crucifixion
Louis de Wohl is by far my favorite Catholic author. The Spear takes the reader through the events surrounding the Crucifixion of Our Lord from the perspective of Cassius Longinus, the man who thrust the spear into the side of Christ. We’ve read this story aloud during Lent to our family and everyone loves it.
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
This book is a retelling, in detail, of the Lord’s Passion as seen by the Anne Catherine Emmerich herself through various visions. It is a fascinating book and was drawn heavily upon by Mel Gibson for the movie The Passion of the Christ.
Life of Christ
Life Of Christ has been hailed as the most eloquent of the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen’s writings, the fruit of many years of dedication and research. Filled with compassion and brilliant scholarship, his recounting of the birth, life, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Christ is as dramatic and moving as the subject Himself. Here is a passionate portrait of the God-Man, the teacher, the healer, and most of all the Savior whose promise has sustained humanity for two millennia.
In Conversation with God: Vol. 2: Lent, Holy Week, Eastertide by Francis Fernandez.
Man’s highest aspiration is to be able to converse with Jesus – to pray. In Conversation with God helps the reader to pray with piety and with confidence. It is aimed not at the ‘specialist’ but is for the ordinary person – for the housewife, for the teacher, for the secretary, for the shop assistant… This book is a great spiritual gift for Lent with daily meditations to contemplate throughout each day of Lent.
Lent and Easter Wisdom from Fulton J. Sheen
Timeless words from the pen of Venerable Bishop Fulton J. Sheen inspire the heart and imagination as readers embark on a Lenten journey toward a better understanding of their spiritual selves. Covering the traditional themes of Lent–sin and salvation, death and Resurrection, sorrow and hope, ashes and lilies–these 50 passages and accompanying mini-prayers offer readers a practical spiritual program as a retreat from the cares and concerns of a secular world view.
The Sacred Passion
In this book, Fr. de la Palma provides an aid for meditating on the Passion. He recreates the events of Jesus’ life beginning with Holy Thursday and concluding with the burial of Our Lord and a powerful evocation of the coming Resurrection. With vivid detail and a constant recognition of the role the Blessed Mother played in those days, Fr. de la Palma helps the reader enter into the Last Supper, the institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist, the arrest of Our Lord, the denial of St. Peter, the trials before Caiaphas and Pilate, the scourging and mocking, and finally, the Crucifixion. His meditations hew closely to the Gospel accounts, adding to them insights from other scriptures and frequently culminating in fervent prayers to Our Lord and Our Lady.
Way of the Cross
Enter into the wounds of Christ Crucified. When Saint Josemaria Escriva proposed this way to those who asked him for advice on how to deepen their interior life, he was doing no more than passing on his own experience, pointing out the shortcut he had been using throughout his life, and which led him to the highest peaks of spiritual life. This posthumous work of St. Escriva, like the previous ones, has been prepared to help people to pray and, with the grace of God, to grow in a spirit of reparation – of love-sorrow – and of gratitude to our Lord, who has rescued us at the cost of his Blood. For this same reason, some words of Saint Josemaria Escriva have been included as points for meditation; they have been taken from his preaching and his conversation, which reflected his zeal to speak only about God and about nothing but God.
Meditations on the Crucifix: They Shall Look Upon Him Whom They Have Pierced
Twenty-three years ago for Lent I took it upon myself to spend an hour in adoration everyday of Lent (YES even Sundays – it’s a feast day and what better way to feast!).
The fruit of that time was
1) being with Jesus for over 40 hours and
2) a little meditation book on the crucifix
In our adoration chapel there was a beautiful carved crucifix on the wall above and behind the monstrance. So, for those 40 + hours I meditated on the crucifix and talked about it to Jesus.
Each visit I would focus on different aspects of the crucifix. I would contemplate not only the wounds of Christ but every part I could imagine: His hands, knees, feet, the writing of Pilate and more. This little book is the fruit of that Lenten Meditation.
It was first published by a local printer and my wife and I spent evenings in the basement stapling the booklet together. Now on it’s 3rd printing, this beautifully bound meditation will stick with you for years to come. I guarantee you’ll never be able to look at the Crucifix in the same way again. Also available as a PDF here.
Do you have a favorite Lenten book? Let us know in the comments below!
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James M. Hahn, Author 