Joy of Lent

"My love for Lent inspired this book. I wanted to know what other people thought about during these forty days. Do they fast? Do they honor Lent in a way I haven't thought about? I asked forty people in my life to share their thoughts on the Lenten readings. I hope you enjoy reading their responses as much as I did."  --From the Introduction by Pat McDonough

"Lent always has more to teach us: not fearfully to flee our helplessness but to find a love that moves us out to the other suffering people. In this way, Lent is always a special season anointing us, not for pride and privilege, but for courage in compassion that renews the Body of Christ now in our midst."  --George Aschenbrenner, Ash Wednesday

"Lent is like a 40-day Sabbath, an extended time to re-orient my life, re-create my tired spiritual life as well as my relationships with family and members of my faith community, and re-order my priori-ties. God first." —Dave Bennigan,  Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

"It's not easy to write about Lent and Easter. This sequence shakes both the earth and the heavens for Christians, because it contains all the dramas of existence and mysteries of Creation. It is about the explosion of God out to humankind and the synthesis of humankind with God.

"...I marvel with gratitude as I have come to learn that Lent and Easter are all about the mystery of a Divine promise—Love conquers all deaths." —Antoinette Bosco,  Easter Sunday

PAT MCDONOUGH is a psychologist who has coordinated marriage preparation in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. She is also the author of the syndicated column Family Faith.