The Dispatch: More from CWR...

Lenten literary companions

Spiritual reading comes in many forms, pre-eminent among them the Holy Scriptures.

(Image: Aaron Burden/Unsplash.com)

The traditional Lenten practices of intensified prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are spiritual disciplines to be followed along the six-week pilgrimage from Ash Wednesday to the Easter Triduum. As I suggested in Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches, that journey can be lived as a kind of annual catechumenate-for-the-already-baptized, in which we join the catechumens — who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil or received into full communion with the Catholic Church — in a deep-dive examination of conscience and a more thorough reflection on baptism as the font of Christian vocation.

Having literary companions along the Lenten journey can help us live those traditional practices more intensely. Spiritual reading comes in many forms, pre-eminent among them the Holy Scriptures.

In its Lenten daily prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church reads from the Book of Exodus and the Letter to the Hebrews; those who don’t pray the Divine Office might prioritize those biblical texts in their Lenten spiritual reading. Then there are the three great catechetical gospels by which the catechumens of early Christianity completed their preparation for baptism: Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4:5-42, lyrically explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2559-2561); the cure of the man born blind (John 9:1-41); and the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-45).

The always-insightful homilies and reflections of Bishop Erik Varden, OCSO, posted on his website, Coram Fratribus (Face to Face with My Brethren), will enhance anyone’s Lenten biblical readings; so will the commentaries in the Word on Fire Bible.

Dante Alighieri, the greatest of Christian poets, is a noble Lenten literary companion, especially in the Purgatorio, the second “volume” of the Divine Comedy — an extended meditation on purification from sin and growth into the life of grace. Dante beginners will want to use Anthony Esolen’s fine translation: The theologically inclined will appreciate the insightful notes in the Dorothy L. Sayers translation.

Paul Horgan was the most distinguished Catholic man of letters in mid-20th century America. Things As They Are, the first volume of Horgan’s Richard Trilogy, is arguably the best American novel about a boy growing up since Huckleberry Finn and makes good Lenten reading as the protagonist struggles with various of the seven deadly sins. Horgan never wore his Catholicism on his literary sleeve, but his profoundly sacramental vision of the human condition is especially evident in Things As They Are: for in learning to see reality square-on, we learn to appreciate the supernatural reality that is just on the far side of what seems ordinary.

A similar sensibility, and a similar literary structure, infuse Willa Cather’s masterpiece, Death Comes for the Archbishop: a fictional recreation of the life and adventures of the first archbishop of Santa Fe and a moving tale of vocational living for the cause of Christ.

In Evelyn Waugh’s experimental novel, Helena, the mother of the emperor Constantine sometimes talks like a flapper in 1920s London, while her father (King Cole) anticipates the brilliantly crusty Leo McKern in Rumpole of the Bailey. Beneath the Wavian humor, however, is another literary reflection on the drama of vocation: the life-long project of discerning what God is asking of us now, and then configuring our lives to that summons. The final sections paint a striking portrait of Lent in fourth-century Jerusalem.

Science fiction offers more Lenten literary companionship. Those whose tastes incline in that direction will immediately turn to C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra and its striking re-telling of the temptation in Genesis 3. I also think of Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s, tale, A Canticle for Leibowitz, with its Augustinian sense of the enduring effects of original sin on a humanity constantly tempted to substitute its judgment for God’s.

Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week – From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI can be read bit-by-bit throughout Lent, as a daily meditation on the ultimate drama: the salvific passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Anglican scholar and preacher Fleming Rutledge offers a more challenging, but ultimately rewarding, Lenten read with The Crucifixion – Understanding the Death of Jesus.

And if I may return to Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches: I am far more a book reader than a Kindle reader, but in this case I am happy to recommend the Kindle edition of my Lenten walk through Rome with art historian Elizabeth Lev and my photographer son, Stephen. For in the electronic Roman Pilgrimage, all of Stephen’s magnificent photographs are in color, with a zoom-in function that puts you “inside” some of the greatest works of Western art: more companions along the pathways of Lent, brought to life by Professor Lev.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About George Weigel 520 Articles
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. He is the author of over twenty books, including Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (1999), The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy (2010), and The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How the Church Rediscovered Itself and Challenged the Modern World to Reform. His most recent books are The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission (2020), Not Forgotten: Elegies for, and Reminiscences of, a Diverse Cast of Characters, Most of Them Admirable (Ignatius, 2021), and To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II (Basic Books, 2022).

5 Comments

  1. Thanks to Mr. Weigel. If I may add another suggestion – Saint John Henry Newman was a holy man, a brilliant preacher and a master of the English language. His “Parochial and Plain Sermons” fit the bill and may be found online at newmanreader.org. Ignatius press has published the sermons all in one volume.
    God Bless all with a holy Lent

  2. Great suggestions. I’ll add Fr. Paul Keller’s (OP) A Lenten Journey with Jesus Christ and St. Thomas Aquinas, a daily Thomistic commentary on the Gospel readings (Ordinary Form). It’s sadly out of print but you can likely find a copy on Amazon Marketplace.

  3. My heartfelt thanks for these suggestions, Dr. Weigel. I immediately purchased Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches. A new addition to my library that will increase the spirit of this holy season.

  4. Mr. Weigel’s “Roman Pilgrimage” is also available as an ebook on Apple Books.

    The recent release of a new version of Amazon’s Kindle for Mac application has resulted in a flurry of negative reviews at the Apple App Store. A new update was released yesterday, but it unlikely to be be much of an improvement, considering that Amazon described only providing an improved user experience and unspecified bug fixes.

    Apple Books has the ability to open more than one book at a time, so you can compare translations. Its major limitations are that it has no web-based option and can be used only with Apple devices.

  5. Mr. Weigel commends the translation of Dorothy Sayers for the theologically inclined by virtue of its notes. Fair enough. But Anthony Esolen’s version has copious notes, many of which are necessarily of a theological nature and none too shabby either.

    And while I’m at it, Mr. Weigel refers in passing to Huckleberry Finn as a novel about a boy growing up. Well, in a sense, yes, but it is so much more. One will also find in the main character an embodiment of genuine, selfless charity and compassion that any Christian would do well to emulate.

2 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. VVEDNESDAY NIGHT EDITION • BigPulpit.com
  2. The Good News: One Dead, 20+ Injured at Kansas City Super Bowl Parade, & More Dispatches. . . - Catholics for Catholics

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*