First Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Temptation of Jesus Lectionary:  22 Reading 1 -  Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17 Reading 2 -  Romans 5:12-19 Verse - Matthew 4:4b Gospel -  Matthew 4:1-11 One does not live on bread alone. Every year, we begin our Lenten journey in the same place: the desert.   The Gospel for this Sunday places Jesus in the wilderness, fasting and praying, confronted by temptation. In that stark setting we find the pattern of our own Lenten journey: a movement away from distraction toward the heart of God, a testing that reveals what truly sustains us, and a call to conversion that reshapes our lives.  Throughout our lives, we are frequently confronted with tests … and these tests generally reveal something about ourselves: In school, we demonstrate that we have mastered an academic subject with a test  in sports, we demonstrate our level of a particular skill with a contest  In life, we demonstrate the integri...
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Review: Introduction to the Spiritual Life: Walking the Path of Prayer with Jesus

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Introduction to the Spiritual Life: Walking the Path of Prayer with Jesus Introduction to the Spiritual Life: Walking the Path of Prayer with Jesus by Brant Pitre

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book springs from the author’s “transformative” experience from discovering and reading the “spiritual classics”, weaving quotes from them into each chapter. He opens with describing the three (3) types of prayer and stages of spiritual growth along with the “universal call to holiness” or spirituality in the Introduction before going more in depth on Prayer in the first section. The rest of the book is organized to look at the three (3) major temptations and their remedies, three (3) spirit exercises, seven (7) mortal sins and opposing virtues, and then it provides some guidance to keep you on the path.

Each chapter starts with a brief introduction of the topic with several illustrative quotes before looking at the Jewish roots of the topic, then how it was used/illustrated by Jesus before finishing with Christian tradition. As expected, each topic is well researched and supported, although not all chapters had the same impact on me (The author does emphasize that this is an introductory work, so parts of it might already be familiar depending on where you are on your path). Over all, I believe this to be something to come back to and reread, especially when I find myself struggling (Spiritual Dryness is discussed in Chapter 22).

Introduction

Prayer
Chapter 1: Vocal Prayer
Chapter 2: Meditation
Chapter 3: Contemplation

The Spiritual Path
Chapter 4: The First Step
Chapter 5: The Ten Commandments
Chapter 6: The Three Temptations
Chapter 7: Fasting
Chapter 8: Almsgiving
Chapter 9: The Lord’s Prayer

Vices and Virtues
Chapter 10: The Seven Sins
Chapter 11: Pride vs Humility
Chapter 12: Envy vs Mercy
Chapter 13: Anger vs Meekness
Chapter 14: Avarice vs Generosity
Chapter 15: Lust vs Chastity
Chapter 16: Gluttony vs Temperance
Chapter 17: Sloth vs Diligences
Chapter 18: Sorrow vs Patience

Making Progress
Chapter 19: Examination of Heart
Chapter 20: Lectio Divine and Jacob’s Ladder
Chapter 21: The Battle Prayer
Chapter 22: The Dark Night
Chapter 23: The Living Water

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#IntroductiontotheSpiritualLife #NetGalley.

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