What to Read This Lent: Lenten Books to Strengthen Your Spiritual Life

So how about doing Lent differently this year, growing ever closer to Jesus with spiritual reading that supports your Lenten penance? Take a look at our recommendations to help you strengthen your spiritual life this Lent.

It’s so easy for Lent to lose its meaning. Our Lenten penances can become like New Year’s Resolutions – they become a means to an end that is all about what we want to change about ourselves and our lives, such as giving up snacking to lose weight or kicking habits you’ve wanted to lose for a while, rather than using them to draw closer to Jesus.

So how about doing Lent differently this year, growing ever closer to Jesus with spiritual reading that supports your Lenten penance? Take a look at our recommendations to help you strengthen your spiritual life this Lent.

Reading with a Lenten Theme

You probably think you know the meaning of Lent and why we fast. But there’s a lot of depth to this incredible season the Church gives us in order to prepare for our spiritual rebirth at Easter. The books below will help you deepen your understanding of Lent and the purpose of fasting.

A Blessed Lent

Words for the Lent and Easter Season

Praying the Crucifix

Reconciliation

As we spend time considering the great sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross, it’s appropriate to go to Confession during Lent. Whether you go to Confession once a week or you haven’t been in years, reading about the Sacrament in the books below will help leave you with a greater sense of gratitude for what God did just for you.

The Beauty of Confession with Pope Francis

A Simple Penance Book

Reconciliation (ebook)

YOUCAT Confession

Discover how to improve your prayer life

The more we pray, and the richer our prayer life is, the closer we become to God and the easier it becomes to live out His commandments. Everyone has their own preferred way of praying, but every one of us can make improvements to how we pray. The titles we recommend below cover different methods of prayer, but can all help you develop an intimate relationship with the Lord.

Silent Prayer

Pathways to God

The Jesus Prayer

Practising the Presence of God (ebook)

Stations of the Cross

While not exactly spiritual reading, the Stations of the Cross is a beautiful and beloved practice of meditating on the Passion of Our Lord and so the devotion deserves a mention here. But even this practice can become meaningless if we merely recite the words without meaning them, or if our minds are constantly drifting. Two ways to improve this are praying them by yourself (in addition to praying them with your parish, as this is a great practice), and trying a new form of Stations that can help you reflect on the Passion from a fresh perspective. Here are our recommendations below.

Scriptural Way of the Cross

Stations of the Cross: The Way of Divine Mercy

Meditations on the Stations of the Cross

Calvary Through the Eyes of Mary

The Way of the Cross

 

We wish you a very fruitful Lent!