Title: Take Up Your Cross and Follow: Daily Lenten Reflections  Author: Rev. Mark G. Boyer ISBN: 0-8189-1294-4  Paperback: xviii + 108 pp.  Price: $12.95 + shipping  To Order call:  1 800-343-ALBA (2522)  Please have your Master  or Visa card ready To order online click here.

This book consists of fifteen reflections based on the passion narratives in each of the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each of the sixty reflections contains a title, a passage from Scripture, a reflection, a meditation, questions to assist in a person's private examination of conscience or for assistance in compiling a Lenten journal and concludes with a brief prayer. The author's idea behind this structure is to take the reader on a personal pilgrimage with Jesus through the gospels during Lent, highlighting his suffering, death and resurrection and applying the insights culled to everyday living. Each exercise is, therefore, designed to facilitate the reader's reflections, meditations and prayer. They are purposely kept short and simple so that they can be used profitably by the average very busy person at the beginning or end of each day in Lent.

 

Mark G. Boyer, a priest of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri, for thirty-three years, is the author of thirty books (five published by ST PAULS / Alba House) on biblical and liturgical spirituality. A monthly columnist for The Priest magazine, he is the founding pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Nixa, Missouri and a part-time member of the Religious Studies Department of Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri, where he has taught courses in the Bible and film for over twenty years.  Reviews           This book for Lent has a Scripture passage for each day followed by an example from daily life that reflects the Bible reading. Then there is a sentence to meditate on, closing with a prayer. The Scripture passages are most often from events in Holy Week. It is a handy small book convenient for Christians.           We are told that the author, a popular writer, seeks to take the reader "on a pilgrimage with Jesus during Lent." He wishes to make Lent more prayerful. The book is for the ordinary person. He can profit from these reflections.           How often during Holy Week we hear parishioners say, "I never did anything during Lent." With this book one can grow in knowledge and grace each day. This is a brief daily spiritual exercise for the busy person at the beginning or the end of the day. Work and family take up so much of our time. Without a program it seems hard to squeeze in some prayers during Lent. But with Father Boyer's book we are able to do so.           We can all profit from reflection on the life of Christ, especially his suffering for us in Holy Week. Christ suffered so much for love of us. The Christ-follower should recall all that Christ did for him.           Father Boyer concludes with the events of Easer and after.           One reflection tells us of the agony in the garden. "The sinless One is being prepared to be handed over to sinners in order to make the sinners sinless.... The cup of his death is held in his arms. He prays that God's will be done."           Another reflection says, "The women watch Joseph of Arimathea take down the body of Jesus. They wrap it to put it in the tomb. Jesus didn't own the tomb. He was only borrowing it." --Fr. Rawley Myers in the February 2010 issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review           Father Mark Boyer presents 15 brief reflections on the Passion narratives in each of the four Gospels in "Take Up Your Cross and Follow: Daily Lenten Reflections." Father Boyer, a priest of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau, MO, diocese, is a columnist for Priest magazine and author of 30 books. He prepared the reflections in a short and simple format to encourage people to use them every day. He envisioned the book as taking the reader on a personal pilgrimage with Christ through those Gospel narratives, and accompanies each Scriptural passage with a meditation, a prayer and thoughts to help in a private examination of conscience or in creating a Lenten journal.           "Those around the cross, those who think that they have power, want to see the one on the cross save himself," Father Boyer writes. "The plea is still heard today. We are always being tempted to save ourselves.... In the end, however, no one can save us but God. This is the great truth that Jesus spoke in silence from the wood of the cross. When his revilers said that Jesus should save himself, they were too blind to see that Jesus was being saved by God. In their illusory power they missed God's saving vulnerability." --Patricia Bartos in Pittsburgh Catholic, March 6, 2009. Top of Page