So much of life is filled with busyness, noise, and chaos. The Christian tradition of Lent (February 18 through April 1 this year) calls us inward and offers us a time of intentionality and rest, a time we can all benefit from, whether we celebrate in the Christian tradition or not. The books below invite us to slow down, find moments of quiet and peace, and engage the sacred with our whole being.
Clarify your true hungers—and nourish your soul. Contemplative author Christine Valters Paintner explores seven unique fasts tied to spiritual practices, for Lent or a time of focus, to discover our truest hungers and our deepest spiritual reserves. Drawing on desert wisdom and contemplative practice, A Different Kind of Fast helps us enter into our own journey of spiritual growth, both for Lent and beyond.
Sojourners Magazine (Volume Editor)
For five decades, Sojourners magazine has been deeply engaged with the world while calling its readers to a new kind of life and faith rooted in justice and peace. Light for the Way is a powerful, yet meditative collection of pieces from the last fifty years of Sojourners magazine, exploring how contemplative practices, rest, simplicity, environmental engagement, and communal care are essential for sustaining our resistance and repairing our world.
What if desert elders from more than a millennium ago could walk beside us and nourish our spirits now? Desert spirituality doesn't mean going it alone; it means finding companions to walk with us. The Way of the Desert Elders is a spiritual expedition into the stories and wisdom of ancient, desert-dwelling Christians, who show us how to forge faith at the edges of empire.
Rocks. Cast iron skillets. Portraits. Calendars. Shoes. The regular objects of our lives can be conduits of God's love and grace—if we notice them. In Souvenirs of the Holy, join Laurie M. Brock on a journey of spiritual direction through everyday things, and discover the sacred in the ordinary. Reflect on the items in your life that connect you to a God who dwells within and beyond the material world. With creative ideas for praying with objects, this book is ideal for book clubs, church circles, and small groups seeking deeper, more tangible spiritual experiences.
The Christian industrial complex teaches us that whatever is centered, celebrated, and large is a movement of God, and that Jesus is at work in existing structures. So why are we surprised that many churches are obsessed with power, size, and reputation—and that people are leaving them in droves? Lost, Hidden, Small, a stirring book of spiritual formation, asks us to consider: What if the abundant life lies in finding what's been lost, uncovering what is hidden, and learning to hope in what is small?
Sometimes we imagine prayer as a magical incantation—a way to change our circumstances. We try to pray our way toward success, safety, health, or love. But what if true prayer is more about undoing our desires for power and profit than indulging them? Prayed through millennia by believers in groups and alone, the Lord's Prayer speaks precisely to our age. With stories from scripture, whimsical anecdotes, and pastoral wisdom, The Prayer of Unwanting guides us into profound interaction with each line of the Lord's Prayer.
Pray and meditate along with saints through this luminous collection of one hundred block prints by artist Kreg Yingst, curator of the Instagram account @psalmprayers. Mystics like Teresa of Ávila, Howard Thurman, Black Elk, and Fannie Lou Hamer come alive. Everything Could Be a Prayer is a rich resource for private prayer and communal reflection.
Backmatter includes a reading guide for the season of Lent.
For millennia, humans have been shaped by the Psalms. And before the Nazis banned him from publishing, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer published this book on the Psalms. In the pages of Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, discover the richness this book of Scripture held for Bonhoeffer, and learn to pray psalms along with Christ. First published in 1940, this classic reveals how the Psalms are essential to the life of the believer and offers Bonhoeffer's reflections on psalms of thanksgiving, suffering, guilt, praise, and lament. This expanded edition features an introduction by Walter Brueggemann, excerpts from the Psalms, and a biographical sketch of Bonhoeffer.
The ordinary moments of life can be sacred, if we simply take a moment to notice. From gifted poet and empathetic pastor Meta Herrick Carlson, Ordinary Blessings collects blessings for loving yourself, enduring hard things, authenticity, living with others, and the rhythms of each day. Pause, take a deep breath, and open these pages to find that you've been standing on holy ground all along.
Beginning in around the third century CE, a group of monastics known as the desert mothers and fathers retreated to the deserts of northern Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to pursue lives of silence and prayer. A key phrase, repeated often among the sayings of the desert mothers and fathers, is "Give me a word." Fast-forward many centuries to the present day, and we find the practice of seeking a word being reclaimed by the spiritually minded in new ways. Give Me a Word will gently lead you through the process of receiving your word, testing its resonance, and embracing its meaning.
When the Spirit speaks to him in his daily prayers, Choctaw elder and spiritual explorer Steven Charleston takes a pen and writes down the messages. This stunning collection of more than two hundred meditations introduces us to the Spirit Wheel and the four directions that ground Native spirituality: tradition, kinship, vision, and balance. We are all searching for belonging and a vision of the world that makes sense. Together we can turn toward the wisdom of our ancestors, kinship with all of Mother Earth's creatures, the vision of the Spirit, and mindful balance of life.
Throughout millennia and across the monotheistic religions, the natural was often revered as a sacred text. As we grapple to make sense of today's tumultuous world, one where nature is at once a damaged and damaging source of disaster, as well as a place of refuge and retreat, we are called again to examine how generously it awaits our attention and devotion, standing ready to be read by all. Weaving together the astonishments of science; the profound wisdom and literary gems of thinkers, poets, and observers who have come before us; and her own spiritual practice and gentle observation, Barbara Mahany reintroduces us to The Book of Nature. We needn't look farther for the divine.
To view all of our books and resources, visit broadleafbooks.com.
