Lent Courses
Called into Exile: Between the Stones and the Firelight (Book 2)
The Bishop of Chester’s Lent Book 2024
£5.99 (£4.99 in Kindle format)
It can be hard to navigate the complexities of modern life as a Christian. Where do we look for wisdom in balancing our call to love others, stay true to Christ, and hold it all together individually and in community? What might we learn from our forebears who wrestled with the same questions in their time and in their contexts?
'Called Into Exile' is the second of three books exploring the space ‘between Stones and Firelight’, searching for practical grace in a complex and demanding world. This second book unpacks the theme of exile in both Testaments, offering practical wisdom for everyday faithfulness.
Study material and podcasts will be coming shortly – watch this space!
It is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1739268814
& Kindle version here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C71VV9BB
(Please note that some of the links on the Amazon pages here do not work properly, so do check you’re purchasing what you expect!)
Tarry Awhile
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2024
£11.99
Tarry here and watch with me . . . (Matt 26.38, KJV)
Tarrying is a Black Christian spiritual practice in which believers actively wait to experience the manifestation of God's presence. It answers yes to the question Jesus once asked his disciples: will you tarry here and watch with me? Whether in the vibrancy of music and singing, or in the hushed silence of the congregation, people of all ages anticipate an encounter with God that will transform what they know, feel and experience day to day.
This book makes the wisdom of Black spiritualities and faith available for all people. It focuses on seven themes: darkness as a place of encounter with the divine; the unity of all things; movement, belonging and migration; the Spirit as one who moves in unexpected ways; quiet contemplation as essential to spiritual growth; healing in community; and weeping that turns to joy.
Tarry Awhile centres the stories of often overlooked people and communities, offering wisdom for all people who hope to encounter God in the midst of wearying times. It provides fresh reflections on familiar biblical passages, and draws on personal stories, theology and the spiritual wisdom of ancestors who have gone before us.
You can find it here (and other booksellers): https://spckpublishing.co.uk/tarry-awhile-drawing-on-the-riches-of-black-spirituality-for-the-whole-church-800
The Gift of Christ
York Courses
£5.99 – 14.99 depending on format
God has given us Christ, the greatest gift of all time. Through the Bible, we discover that he also gives each of us a special gift. Our growing relationship with God involves finding out what our gift is and using it in every circumstance God places us in. For through our special gifts, God blesses others - both inside and outside the Church.
This warm-hearted five-session course, which may be used during Lent or at any time of the year, draws on the skills Olivia Amartey learnt as a senior leader in the NHS. This was God's training ground for her. Despite facing numerous crises, Olivia found herself developing flexibility, wisdom and the grace to maintain a sense of fun amid the topsy-turviness of life. Now she invites us to embrace the adventure we are all on with Christ, as we look, in turn, at: The generosity of God; Discovering our gift and responding; Being with Jesus and becoming fruitful; When things go wrong, and ways of staying on track; and It's all good - how God changes everything.
The course book is accompanied not only by a CD/audio download but also by a video, filmed on location by Monkeynut in an enchanting Georgian country house. Olivia Amartey is joined in discussing the themes of The Gift of Christ by scriptwriter Paul Kerensa, and author and spiritual director Amy Boucher Pye.
Available as paperback or ebook, on CD, as a Digital Download, as well as participant booklets.
It can be ordered from: https://spckpublishing.co.uk/the-gift-of-christ
Previous York courses are still available from:
https://spckpublishing.co.uk/bible-studies-and-group-resources/york-courses
Lent and Easter for Everyone
SPCK Lent Book 2024
£11.99
Join Tom Wright on a transformative journey through the Gospels as he explores the life and impact of Jesus: the highs and lows of his earthly ministry, the power of his teaching and his victory over sin and death.
Offering seven weeks' worth of daily readings and reflections, Lent and Easter for Everyone enables you to relive Christ's journey - from his temptations in the wilderness to the darkness of the cross and beyond into the glory of Easter.
Each reflection is drawn from a key passage in Wright's immensely popular For Everyone series, and each one ends with practical suggestions for personal reflection or group discussion.
Whether used individually or in groups, Lent and Easter for Everyone serves as a trusted companion, encouraging spiritual growth, deepening understanding, and fostering a renewed sense of hope and purpose as you continue your Christian journey.
Contents
Prologue: Jesus in the wilderness
Week 1 Jesus in prayer
Week 2 Jesus among the crowds
Week 3 Jesus among friends
Week 4 Jesus among enemies
Week 5 Jesus in the city
Week 6 Jesus on the cross
Week 7 Jesus in glory
Epilogue: Jesus in us
Questions for discussion and reflection
Available at: https://spckpublishing.co.uk/lent-and-easter-for-everyone
Christ’s Costly Gift of Reconciliation
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
Free
NB Lent 2024 may be published shortly – keep an eye on the CTBI website
This Lent (2023), through Scripture reflection, questions for reflection and discussion, suggestions for action and prayer, we seek to continue the journey initiated at the World Council of Churches 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany. We look ahead to another major gathering of the global Church that will take place in Europe this year, the General Assembly of the Conference of European Churches, and we consider on the way some of the challenges facing the Church in the work of reconciliation, inspired by work CTBI is currently leading or supporting.
We are grateful for your prayers and contribution to this work as we explore together the significance of Christian Unity to the Church’s mission of reconciliation.
More details and the material can be found at: https://ctbi.org.uk/lent-study-2023/
Previous CCTBI courses are also available: https://ctbi.org.uk/category/spirituality-and-reflection/lent-courses/
Devotional Readings
Loving my Neighbour: A Lenten Journey
Bible Reading Fellowship
£9.99
The BRF Lent book for 2024
Lenten readings and reflections consider how to love in truth, love the vulnerable and the suffering, embrace difference, care for our world, love ourselves, and love to the very end. It’s never been more important to understand how much God loves us and how much he wants us to love each other. Loving My Neighbour takes us on a journey through the challenging terrain of how we can truly love one another, individually and in our communities. Daily Bible readings and reflections from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day explore how we can love in truth, love the vulnerable and the suffering, embrace difference, care for our world, and love ourselves as God loves us. Holy Week brings us back to reflect on Christ on the cross, who loved us to the very end.
Watch & Pray
Daily resources based on the C of E’s Lent 2024 theme (see above)
£2.50 (Discounts available for larger orders)
Watch and Pray invites us all to wait expectantly for God to meet us and sustain us through the storms and trials we all face. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus kneels in darkness in the Garden of Gethsemane. Though he pleads with his disciples, “Stay here with me … Watch and pray,” they all fall asleep, leaving him alone in his hour of deepest suffering. This Lent we are encouraged to draw on the wisdom of Black Spirituality, particularly the practice of “tarrying” (waiting) as a community to draw closer to Jesus and to each other. For each day of Lent, the Watch and Pray booklet offers a Bible verse, a short reflection, an idea for 'watching', and a prayer. It invites us to seek God in both familiar and unfamiliar places this Lent: in darkness and in quiet; in movement and migration; in the healing and transforming work of the Spirit; in the weeping of Holy Week and in the joy of Easter morning.
You can find it here (and other booksellers): https://www.chpublishing.co.uk/books/9781781404454/watch-and-pray-adult-single-copy
A Child (& family) version is also available.
Gathered into One: Devotions for Lent 2024
Augsburg Fortress Publishing
£2.97
Gathered into One provides daily devotions for each day from Ash Wednesday to the Resurrection of Our Lord/Vigil of Easter (traditionally known as Holy Saturday). Devotions begin with an evocative image and a brief passage from First Corinthians. The writers then bring their diverse voices and pastoral wisdom to the texts with quotations to ponder, reflections, and prayers.
Portions of First Corinthians appear in the Revised Common Lectionary during each lectionary year. The apostle Paul writes this letter to the church in Corinth after hearing of quarreling and divisions among the people. He teaches the Corinthians that each person has a unique set of gifts from the Holy Spirit, given for the common good, and reminds them that the church is the body of Christ, joined together with one bread, one cup, one baptism, one God, and one Spirit. This theme of unity amid diversity is as timely now as it was when Paul wrote to the Corinthians.
It can be found here: https://www.eden.co.uk/christian-books/christian-devotional-books/gathered-into-one-devotions-for-lent-2024/#description
The rest is worship
Engage Worship
£7.00 (eBook) £9.00 + p & p (physical book)
"This book is both practical and inspiring, reassuring and provocative, relevant and counter cultural. Sam and Sara will make you think about rest differently and inspire you to find new inspiration in the moments your mind is able to pause and your body relax." Kate Middleton, Mind and Soul Foundation
The Rest Is Worship explores how we can rest to the glory of God, and how our times of worship can be places where we are restored and renewed by him. It is written for anyone who wants to delve into how "being still" can help us to "know God", and how we can reject the rush and hurry of our contemporary world (and our contemporary church).
The book is based on Sara & Sam's experience of responding to Jesus' invitation to rest in their everyday lives and also when leading gathered worship. There are sections on Sabbath, fun, solitude, digital discipleship, saying "no" and many other practical aspects of rest, intertwined with biblical teaching, stories and examples. The final part of the book looks at rest in gathered worship.
It is arranged in 40 short chapters, so could work as a daily Lent book, or engaged with at whatever pace works for you. We've printed the text of prayers, song lyrics and other reflective resources to help you respond worshipfully. The book is beautifully illustrated by Gemma Scharnowski.
The first 3 chapters can be downloaded for free to see whether it might suit you.
It can be found here: https://engageworship.org/store/product/the-rest-is-worship
Not by Bread Alone: Daily reflections for Lent 2024
Liturgical Press
£2.97
Prayerfully journey through Lent with inspiring and meaningful reflections on the daily Mass readings. In just a few minutes each day, the insightful meditations of Not by Bread Alone can deepen your experience of this solemn season of prayer and penance.
Catherine (Cackie) Upchurch served for many years as the director of Little Rock Scripture Study and is the general editor of the Little Rock Catholic Study Bible. Cackie is the author of several books in the Alive in the Word series, including Mary: Favored by God and Easter: Season of Realized Hope. She is a regular contributor to Give Us This Day.
Available from: https://www.eden.co.uk/christian-books/easter-and-lent-books/lent-books-for-individuals/not-by-bread-alone-daily-reflections-for-lent-2024/#description
Journeying with God in the Wilderness
IVP 2024 Lent Book
£10.92
Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, which many Christians remember during Lent, echoes the story of God's people wandering for forty years in the wilderness. We often struggle to get to grips with the book of Numbers that tells of these wanderings. But this daily Lent devotional opens up how the Israelites' wilderness journey can speak to us in our daily struggles and challenges today, by reading the Book of Numbers alongside the New Testament and reflecting with daily prayers and questions.
Through all the ups-and-downs of their wilderness adventure, we join with God's people as they learn to see the sure and certain fulfilment of God's future promises. We discover God's abiding presence through, as well as in, the wilderness. We see how the wilderness points us forward to the Promised Land, and to Jesus as the one who brings us into the fulness of God's promises.
With readings from Numbers and from the New Testament each day, Journeying with God in the Wilderness guides us through an often-neglected book of the Bible, helping us to make sense of the Old Testament through the lens of the New, giving us Christ-centred hope.
Journeying with God in the Wilderness is written as an aide to the spiritual journey of faith, and can be read either individually or in small groups. It will encourage and inspire anyone feeling lost or bewildered on life's journey, or who wants to join in with the long Christian tradition of Lent as a wilderness experience, by showing them the fulfilment of the promises of God to his people in the wilderness.
Join Mark Broadway this Lent and find hope for your wilderness journey.
https://www.eden.co.uk/christian-books/easter-and-lent-books/journeying-with-god-in-the-wilderness-ivp-lent-book-2024/#description
A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding our True Hungers in Lent
Broadleaf Books
£12.99
Fasting is not just the physical practice of giving up food. Fasting can also be a way to combat our culture of endless distractions and busyness. Fasting is an act of letting go, of making more internal space to listen to the sacred whispers of our lives. Join Christine Valters Paintner, online abbess of Abbey of the Arts, on a spiritual journey through seven different kinds of fasts, including fasting from control, from our attachments, from our grasping, and more. When we practice these fasts, we can discover unexpected spiritual gifts, as well as answers to deeper questions, leading us to ask: "What is my true hunger?" Perfect for Lent, or any period when a deeper intention to clarify your true hunger is needed, A Different Kind of Fast helps us enter our hearts, stripping away old patterns and habits. Featuring striking woodcuts from artist Kreg Yingst, the book draws on the wisdom of the desert elders, Paintner offers practical contemplative practices like lectio divina, breath prayer, visio divina, meditation with desert wisdom, contemplative walks, and creative rituals. As we fast from rushing, planning, being strong, holding it all together, seeking certainty, and control, we can softly reorient ourselves toward that which nourishes and fulfills us, for the reflective Lenten season and beyond.
You can buy it here: https://chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781506492117/a-different-kind-of-fast