Dear Friends,
This Lent, I am offering a Book Club over zoom! We will meet on Sundays from 4:00-5:00 pm EST, beginning Feb. 15. I love the idea of gathering with others from many different places. Zoom offers a surprisingly intimate way to gather, reflect and pray.
The book we will use is Joyce Rupp’s Jesus, Companion in My Suffering: Reflections for the Lenten Journey. What I like about Joyce Rupp’s daily meditations are that they give space to look at the reality of the sufferings we are facing as a nation, throughout the world, in our communities and in our personal lives. In the Catholic tradition, our lives are part of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus: life, death and the resurrection. In order to authentically live our lives, it’s important to give time and attention to our sorrows as well as our joys. Lent is an appropriate time to name the darkness and the light and to allow Jesus to heal and restore us so that together we can grow in compassion for ourselves and others as we welcome God’s mercy and love.
Joyce Rupp is a Sister of the Servite (Servants of Mary) community. She is an author of numerous books and she is a poet. I love her writing because it stirs my imagination and invites me to be closer to God.
You can read a sample from her book on Amazon. It also might be the best way to order her book to arrive in time for Ash Wed - Feb. 18. I normally order from www.betterworldbooks.com or thriftbooks.com but they do not have many copies of her book. You can also order it directly from her website: joycerupp.com or avemariapress.org. The book is $13.95. You can get the audio version, but it’s organized in short daily reflections so you can decide if that would work for you.
Please join me this Lent on a shared journey. Know that you will never be pressured to share. Come as you are!
You can email me at janerush@catholicwonder.com if you’d like to join in or if you have any questions. I will send a zoom link before our first meeting (February 15th at 4:00) when we will meet one another and I will explain how our weekly zoom meetings will go.
Peace, Jane