Reading for Lent

Lent and Easter - Catholic Customs and Traditions By Joanna Bogle Published by CTS

If you are looking for a Catholic guide to Lent, this is a good place to start.  Joanna Bogle takes us through Lent and Eastertide, stage by stage, commenting both on the spiritual significance of the feasts and seasons, and on many of the traditional practices, both spiritual and secular, that accompany them.

From Collop Monday and Shrove Tuesday right through to Whit Sunday, we are invited both to consider the profound significance of this holy season, and also to enjoy - and understand - the many traditions that have grown up surrounding it.

This is a particularly valuable book if you have children, as it is full of suggestions for family celebrations and observances that will bring the season alive; from celebrating Mardi gras with a party, by way of simnel cake for Mothering Sunday and Easter, to a Holy Spirit fruit salad with twelve fruits for Pentecost (fruits of the Spirit...).

That said, there were a few omissions and inaccuracies which annoyed me, pedant that I am.  To talk of Laetare Sunday without mentioning that Laetare is the first word of the introit for the traditional Mass seems odd to me in a book on Catholic customs and traditions.  To go on and say that it is the only Sunday of the year when rose vestments are worn is simply mistaken: Gaudete Sunday in Advent shares that honour.

However, if you are less grouchy than me (and I hope that you are) then you will enjoy this book, and almost certainly learn something you did not know about this season, or be reminded of something that you used to know as a child.  And if it serves to help you create a more Catholic environment for your children year by year, that will be a job well done.

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If you are as grouchy as me, or you are looking for something all together more substantial for your Lenten Reading, I recommend:

Lent with Benedict XVl: Season of New Life By Pope Benedict XVl Published by CTS

I have to confess that I have only just started this, so cannot in justice review it.  However, I am confident it will be excellent: it is the collected sermons and addresses given by our Holy Father last Lent. Previous versions (see here for a review of one I have read) have been uniformly outstanding.  So that's on my Lenten reading list.