Wednesday, March 01, 2006

my favorite Lent book

Ok. If I had to pick one, just one...which would it be?

Bread and Wine. I use it every single Lent. It's a book of short readings for the whole season, Lent and Easter (72 readings in all), but it's different from all the others because of the great authors it has in this one book. Kathleen Norris, Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Thomas Merton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Romano Guardini, Christina Rosetti, Blaise Pascal, Peter Kreeft, Dag Hammarskjold, G.K.Chesterton, Edith Stein, Mother Teresa, St. Augustine, Simone Weil, C.S.Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, Walter Cisek, Dorothy Day, Leo Tolstoy.... and I'm not listing all of them! No matter how much time you're able to devote to lenten reading, these are short enough - only a page or two - as well as substantial! It's a keeper!

So....now it's your turn to share. What's your favorite?

The thing with blogging...

Because I like to talk, most of my sisters and friends are under the mistaken impression that I'm able to write, or that I like to "give" talks (as in official public speaking). I can't and I don't, so why in the world would I bother with blogging, when it kind of involves both? I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. Maybe because I love a good conversation?

Anyhow, today being Ash Wednesday, it got me thinking about the on-going conversation that blogging essentially is, a kind of spillway, a place where I can put the overflow, and if others are listening in...maybe they'll find it helpful, and maybe they'll share something helpful with me! So I'm sitting in chapel this morning and it came to me that the first blogsite I should be maintaining is the one with Jesus, where in the truest sense, I can pour the overflow of my heart into his, where the conversation is ongoing, and whether through words or silences, he is able to pour the overflow of his heart into mine.

Whether with blogging or with prayer, seems to be a discipline and a commitment to being present to the other. So my resolution this Lent is to spend more time "blogging" with Jesus and to keep in mind the beautiful words he addressed to a mystic, "Talk to me....for me there is no sweeter prayer."