Ave Maria Press author Lisa Hendey departed Wednesday, January 25, for an eight-day tour of Israel with the Catholic Press Association. Stops on the itinerary include the Dead Sea, Qumran, Jerusalem, the Via Dolorosa, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall, and much, much more.
Hendey invites her online community to send her their prayer intentions and to follow her tour via postings on her Facebook and Twitter profiles. For more information, listen to her Audio Boo posted while packing the day before departure:
Packing for Israel (mp3)
New for Lent 2012, Paula Huston, a Benedictine oblate, critically acclaimed author, and professor of creative writing, provides readers with the tools to de-clutter minds, hearts, and lives in her newest book, Simplifying the Soul, which is a Patheos Book Club selection for January 2012.
“What are you giving up for Lent this year?” It’s the expected question amongst Christian friends each spring. In Simplifying the Soul, Huston asks her readers a deeper, alternative sort of question: “How will you rid your life of excess this Lent?”
Huston encourages readers to see Lent as a time to seek out silence and free themselves of “stuff,” and to acknowledge the connections between what they pray about and what they do.
Huston focuses on seven categories in need of simplification, with a number of helpful
practices for each:
Space – give away something you are not using, clear out a junk drawer or closet
The use of money - avoid looking at advertisements, cut up one credit card
The care of the body - cover your mirrors for a whole morning, sleep on the floor for a night
The mind - turn off your cell phone for a day, learn how to do an examen of conscience
The schedule - pray the divine office, invite a lonely person in for tea and conversation
Relationships - sit in silence with a friend, seek out someone who is angry with you and apologize
Prayer - go to confession, pray for strangers you see throughout the day
In each chapter dedicated to a single week of Lent, Huston provides:
A short introduction to the theme of the week
A meditation offered for each day of the week
A simple practice to promote acting on the meditation
An encouraging passage from scripture in conclusion
With honesty, vulnerability, and grace, Huston challenges readers to move outward and act, showing them how such everyday actions can be surprisingly powerful ways of experiencing a more meaningful Lent and a simpler life. Readers experience, under Huston’s gentle and expert care, how such practices lead to a more authentic Christian faith.
