Christianity

Bread and Wine, a Lenten and Easter companion

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For those of us who observe the Christian liturgical year, we have come to the end of Lent, and are now in the Easter season. Lent always feels long and this year even more so with what is happening here in the US and around the world.

When I am feeling the cold and bleakness of Lent, or when I am feeling anxious and fearful, I am always thankful for the words of wise people who have gone before me. And this is why Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, is a book I’ve kept close by throughout the Lenten and Easter seasons for many years. When my own faith wavers or my spiritual fire gets low, I can be inspired and uplifted by the insights and experiences of others, which fan the flame of my own spiritual hunger, and help me to keep walking.

Within these pages, I read (and re-read each year) passages from Barbara Brown Taylor, Wendell Berry, Amy Carmichael, Karl Barth, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Dorothy Day, and Dorothy Sayers, plus many more.

So I was delighted when Plough Publishing House sent me a copy of their new revised and expanded hardcover edition of Bread and Wine to review.

And I’ve been encouraged by these readings, such as by these words from Kahlil Gibran in the chapter entitled “The Crucified”:

“Jesus was not sent here to teach the people to build magnificent churches and temples amidst the cold wretched huts and dismal hovels. He came to make the human heart a temple, the soul an altar, and the mind a priest.”

Or from the chapter entitled “Not All Right” from Tish Harrison Warren:

“The ones Jesus calls are the weary ones, the ones who snap at those they love after a long day, the ones who battle addiction, the ones who aren’t who they wish they were, the ones who know they are not strong, the ones who wrestle and repent, who fail and fail again. This is the church, these ones through whom Jesus is strong.”

Or “Waiting With Mary” by Kathleen Mulhern which both honors Mary’s experience as mother and disciple of Christ and helps us imagine what it must have been like for her as he was crucified, buried, and resurrected.

If Lent is a season you observe, Bread and Wine may also become for you a companion to take you through the reflective season of repentance, fasting, and prayer to the celebration of Easter and beyond, all the way to Pentecost. Find Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter at your local bookstore, online at Bookshop.org and Amazon.

Everything Happens For A Reason (Book Review)

KimLeave a comment

I just finished reading Kate Bowler’s Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved, a memoir of her life before and with incurable Stage IV colon cancer. If you’re like me and tend to shy away from books about terminal illness, you might think it will be a dark, depressing, hopeless tale that will leave you in tears and in a blue mood for a week.

This book isn’t like that. Kate is smart, funny, and endearingly honest with how she faces this illness day by day. She has a young son and a husband whom she loves and doesn’t want to leave. There is no way to ignore her sense of grief as she lives with the fact she is dying, but she is no Debbie Downer. Her narrative goes along with her emotions and thoughts in a way that is tender and raw and completely relatable. She feels sadness, anger, and despair, but also joy, gratitude and hope.

Throughout, she expresses her thoughts on Christianity, particularly the prosperity message and how it does not serve people who face terminal illness or catastrophic events of any kind. By relating not only her experience, but those of many others who have gone through the loss of loved ones or who are ill themselves, she shows how this message does a lot more harm than good. Although she remains a believer, how she thinks about God and Divine interaction does go through an evolution as she attempts to make sense of her circumstances.

What stands out to me, aside from the fact that the book is interlaced with references to the Christian prosperity gospel, which I am very familiar with, is how well she brings the reader so close to herself and her story. You will feel like a trusted friend who is allowed to hear her unedited version of what it’s really like to be her as she makes this journey. Kate Bowler has given the world a gift with this book. I walked away thankful for even the tough things in my life and with a determination to not waste a moment of it. I highly recommend that you read this book for yourself.

* I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.