Book Review: Lent with Saint Teresa of Calcutta

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone! Every year I get a stack of books ready for Lent. Mostly I get books that will help me to remember that it is Lent and that the point of Lent is to shut out the outside world as much as possible to nourish my relationship with God. For me, God is mostly silent the whole time and my life goes up in flames. My life is crazy anyway so I am kind of used to it but Lent really brings out the extra special crazy. For example, for the last four years we get lice on the Monday of Holy Week. Every.year. That really isn’t even the worst of it, but you know it’s Lent so it is to be expected.

This year I have made it a point to make sure that prayer is the foundation of my Lenten journey because I think maybe the dumpster fire that is my life would be a lot easier to manage if I did that. I know, that isn’t exactly a radical idea but I am extremely lazy and somehow always think that I can fix my life on my own by just shouting “Help me God! WHERE ARE YOU?!” rather than begin each morning in quiet prayer building a relationship with Him. Spoiler alert: shouting at God in crisis doesn’t actually help anything. He is good and will always come to my rescue, but there is just a much easier way to do this.

Mother Teresa has been my role model for as long as I can remember. I’ve looked up to her most of my life, even before I became Catholic. Now that she is Saint Teresa, I have begged her for prayers and she has heard them because a book called “Lent with Saint Teresa of Calcutta” by Heidi Hess Saxton landed in my lap! This is a daily meditation book that makes it easy to wake up every morning and make that time for prayer before starting the day. Easy peasy! And I need easy peasy.

I have looked over the meditations and I am so excited to see how this book helps me get through this Lent and many more. I will be using it every year because Saint Teresa of Calcutta is the one person who gets how to keep obeying God when He is silent.

Hurry and get it! Tomorrow the journey begins!