Lent is often a time for picking up a spiritual book and delving deeper into Christ’s Passion. These five books go deeper in unique ways. With one exception, these books are, or include, biblical fiction. We know fiction builds empathy, so what a great way to immerse yourself in the life of Christ this holy season!

Praying with Jesus and Faustina during Lent and in Times of Suffering is nonfiction and can be turned to each day of Lent. Why not pair it with another book here? Walk in Her Sandals will appeal most to women and is perfect for use by groups. Awakening is geared to a teen audience. And The Thief (by a contemporary author) and The Spear (a Catholic classic) both depict a Roman Centurion present at the crucifixion.

I’ve read and recommend each book, though I’ll be working through Praying with Jesus and Faustina for the first time this Lent. The black text is the book’s description, and, for those books I’ve reviewed, my words are in purple.

5 Books to Read This Lent #LentenReads #Lent Click To Tweet

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Walk in Her Sandals: Experiencing Christ’s Passion through the Eyes of Women

edited by Kelly Wahlquist

Pray in a new and creative way this Lent by joining the women of WINE: Women In the New Evangelization on a journey through Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. What if you could have been a witness to the events of the last days of Jesus’ life—walking with him as he entered Jerusalem, observing his crucifixion, and embracing him on Easter?

Walk in Her Sandals, edited by popular Catholic author and speaker Kelly M. Wahlquist, takes you deeper into your relationship with Jesus by helping you relate to him in a profoundly intimate way. Looking at six universal gifts of women through the eyes of women in the gospels, the book guides you on a prayerful and creative journey through the days of Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost.

As you imagine the experience of the women who met Jesus, you will discover how each of them expressed one of six, distinctive, feminine gifts identified in the writings of St. John Paul II. Through the eyes of an imagined woman who watched Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, you will understand how she conveyed the gift of receptivity. Through the hands of Veronica, who reached out to wipe the face of Jesus, you will discover how sensitivity is present and can grow in your own life. These gifts, along with generosity, prayer, maternity, and the Holy Spirit, come to life through the vivid portrayal of women who walked with Jesus. Their imagined stories are complemented by the real accounts of contemporary women who share their own stories of receiving and cultivating these gifts.

Walk in Her Sandals is a collaborative effort, edited by Wahlquist with contributions from twelve leading Catholic women writers, all of whom are associated with the organization she founded—WINE: Women In the New Evangelization. The contributors will help you break open the scripture, reflect upon it and apply it to your own life, and share those insights in a small-group setting through the use of questions and challenges. Each chapter unfolds in eight movements:

A Moment to Ponder: Wahlquist sets the stage for the theme of that chapter.

Entering the Scripture: Sarah Christmyer, codeveloper of The Great Adventure Catholic Bible Study, reveals the riches of the scripture that corresponds with the day, both in the biblical narrative and in the liturgical year.

Walk in Her Sandals: Stephanie Landsem, author of the biblical fiction series The Living Water, draws you into the story and allows you to experience what it may have been like for women who lived and walked with Jesus.

Unwrapping the Gift: Catholic author, speaker, and faith-formation leader Pat Gohn shows how each woman demonstrates a particular feminine gift and invites you to nurture that gift in yourself and understand anew the beauty of your dignity and vocation.

Reflect on the Meaning: Writers including CatholicMom.comfounder Lisa M. Hendey and popular media personality Teresa Tomeo offer insight, encouragement, and inspiration for your own journey through their personal stories.

Lectio and Meditatio: A prayerful reading of the scripture and a guided meditation to draw you more deeply into an intimate relationship with Jesus.

Questions for Group Discussion: Carol Younger, senior fellow at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, offers a helpful tool to share your experience with other women.

Walking in the New Evangelization: Wahlquist offers two ways to contribute to the New Evangelization—first by growing in your contemplative spiritual life and then by giving you practical suggestions to enhance your active spiritual life.

Walk in Her Sandals will allow you to enter more fully into life in Christ by praying over his passion, death, and resurrection. It will help you experience a conversion of heart and recognize your own giftedness.

Walk In Her Sandals takes an innovate approach to meditating on the Passion of Christ. By combining fiction and nonfiction, this little volume offers the best of both types of writing. It draws you into the heart of Holy Week with Scripture and Stephanie Landsem’s wonderful prose, then takes you a step beyond with reflection and questions designed to draw you closer to Jesus.

If you’ve read Stephanie Landsem’s Living Water Series, which I highly recommend, you’ll recognize her hand here as she draws you into the life of Christ from the margins. By offering the perspectives of women of various ages on the periphery of Jesus’s ministry, you’ll become immersed in the life-changing events of Holy Week.

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Praying with Jesus and Faustina during Lent and in Times of Suffering

by Susan Tassone

St. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) immersed herself in a vision of Christ’s Passion that became a predominant theme in her famed Diary. In Praying with Jesus and Faustina During Lent and in Times of Suffering, award-winning and best-selling author Susan Tassone presents the Diary’s words of Christ and St. Faustina on his sorrowful Passion. The book will engage you in Jesus’ horrific sufferings, giving you grace, light and strength to bear your own sufferings.

The book opens with daily Lenten meditations featuring the words of Jesus and St. Faustina on the Passion. Each day also includes both special reflections for times of suffering and a prayer. In the following chapters, St. Faustina will lead you through heartfelt prayers on the Way of the Cross, Christ’s wounds, and on the Blessed Mother’s sorrows. Susan also includes chapters on unique litanies, the Divine Mercy devotion, and confession.

In Praying with Jesus and Faustina During Lent and in Times of Suffering, you will learn to more deeply:

• Meditate with Jesus and St. Faustina daily in Lent and in suffering;
• Participate in St. Faustina’s vision of Christ’s passion;
• Find comfort and strength from the Crucified Christ ;
• Pray the Stations of the Cross using the words of Jesus and St. Faustina;
• Join your sufferings to Christ’s sorrowful passion;
• Find refuge, consolation and mercy in Christ’s wounds;
• Unite your sorrows with the sufferings that afflicted of Our Lady’s heart;
• Pray a vast variety of litanies for the troubled times of your life;
• Come to appreciate the beauty and value of confession from the words of Jesus and St. Faustina;
• And much more!

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The Thief

by Stephanie Landsem

Nissa is a Jewish woman with a sharp tongue and no hope of marriage. Abandoned by the God she once loved, her only recourse is to depend upon Mouse, the best thief in Jerusalem, to keep her blind brother, Cedron, fed and the landlord satisfied. 

A Roman centurion longing for peace and a Jewish woman hiding a deadly secret witness a miracle that transforms their lives and leads them to the foot of the cross.

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Longinus is a Roman centurion haunted by death and failure and is desperate to escape the accursed Judean province. Accepting a wager that will get him away from the aggravating Jews and their threats of revolt, he sets out to catch the thieves harassing the marketplace. 

When a controversial teacher miraculously heals Cedron, Nissa hopes for freedom from her life of lies. But the supposed miracle brings only more misfortune, and Longinus, seeking to learn more about the mysterious healer, finds himself drawn instead to Nissa, whose secret will determine the course of both their futures. 

Cedron, Longinus, and Nissa are unexpectedly caught up in the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus. As danger closes in on them from every side, they must decide if the love and redemption Jesus offers is true or just another false promise. How can the so-called Messiah save them from their shackles, when he cannot even save himself?

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Awakening

by Claudia Cangilla McAdams

Fear drives me forward as I rush down a rocky path in Jerusalem, trying to sort things out even as dusk makes it harder to hurry. Am I really an American girl, cast back to the time of Jesus? Or a delusional Jewish teen, plagued with visions of a place called America, thousands of years in the future? I don’t know anymore. But I do know that something awful is about to happen to my Jesus: they’re going to arrest him tonight, and kill him. No one believes me; they think I’m crazy. So it’s up to me to save him, hurrying down this dark path toward Gethsemane, toward the turning point of all history, the attempt to kill Jesus . . . toward the uncertainty of whether I can actually manage to change the future. 

Awakening is a little bit The Wizard of Oz, a little bit The Passion of the Christ. Interesting mix, huh? But it works.

Claudia Cangilla McAdam captures the mindset and moods of a teen girl very well, making Awakening a great book for young adults anytime, but especially for Lent.

The historical scenes were well done, and the overall message strong and clear.

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The Spear: A Novel of the Crucifixion

by Louis de Wohl

This panoramic novel of the last days of Christ ranges from the palaces of imperial Rome to the strife-torn hills of Judea — where the conflict of love and betrayal, revenge and redemption, reaches a mighty climax in the drama of the Crucifixion. For this is the full story of the world’s most dramatic execution, as it affected one of its least-known participants — the man who hurled his spear into Christ on the Cross. Among his many successful historical novels, Louis de Wohl considered The Spear the magnum opus of his literary career.

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