{CLOSED} Lent & Easter Devotionals Giveaway!

*** CONGRATS to Deneen M. and Heather who have won.  Please check your email and reply back within 24 hours or a new winner will be selected. Thanks! ***

During Advent, I shared & gave away my favorite Advent/Christmas devotional, The Little Blue Book.   I also purchased copies of their Lent & Easter devotionals, the Little Black Book & Little White Book, respectively.

How to Use the Little Black Book

Six minutes a day.

That’s what you’re asked to give from now until Easter.  Each 24-hour day has 240 “six minute” packages.  During Lent, one of those will be given to the Lord.

The centerpiece of each day (except Sundays) is the Passion according to Mark, which is on the right hand page.  We’ll walk through the whole Passion a little bit at a time and offer some reflections with each piece.

Once you get into it, you’ll find this practice to be peaceful, even something to look forward to.  You’ll also find that it helps to make your day go a bit better.  Prayer does that.

Focus on the Scripture text.  God may take you down a path different from the written reflection that is provided.  Don’t worry about that.  God speaks to us through the Sacred Word.  Stay with the Scripture and the thoughts that come.  This is a traditional form of prayer.

The left-hand page has a variety of quotes, suggestions, information, and timely thoughts.  Treat it like a buffet table from which you can take what you like.  (If pressed for time, go directly to the right-hand page and spend your time with that.)

We won’t start reading the Passion until Ash Wednesday when Lent actually begins.  But we’ll start the six minute program on Sunday, Feb. 14 (the Sunday before Ash Wednesday), which will give us three days to get ready for Lent.

The last reflection in this book is for Easter Sunday.

From the Little White Book:

Six Minutes a day.

That’s what you’re asked to give during these next 50 days of the Easter season.

Each 24-hour day has 240 “six minute” package.  During the Easter season, one of those will be given to the Lord

The key is the right-hand page.  On that page each day (except Sundays) we’ll walk through Luke’s resurrection narrative and on into the first part of his Acts of the Apostles.  On Sundays, we will look at the different ways the Spirit affects our lives.

The left-hand page is like a buffet table with information about the Easter season, or various traditions and customs, or the lives of saints whose feasts land on that particular day.

Start with either page, as you wish.

All of this provides the framework for you to enjoy one of our oldest traditions of prayer called Lectio Devina — sacred reading.  We take a short Scripture package and simply let God speak to us through the words, guiding us to reflections that sometimes seem to come from nowhere.  But they’re not “from nowhere.”  They’re from God.

People are often surprised at how easy it is to pray this way, and how deep such prayer can be.

It can change your day…change your life.

This book picks up on Monday, April 5 and ends Sunday, May 23 (Pentacost).

If you would like to buy a copy of these, they are available from the Diocese of Saginaw.

I have 2 sets of containing both the Little Black Book & the Little White Book to give away.

Like last time, to enter just leave me a comment with your favorite thing about Lent and/or Easter.  Open to US & Canadian shipping addresses  only please.

Contest ends at midnight EST Wednesday, February 10 so that you will receive them in time for Lent.  Winners must respond within 24 hours or a new winner will be picked.