Crux: Daily Lenten Meditations
Fr. Columba Jordan, CFR
ISBN 9798892761468
eISBN 9798892761598
Prior to Lent in 2026 I picked up some resources to help along the Lenten Journey. This was one I was greatly interested in from when I first saw and heard about it. And the combination of the videos and readers were excellent. I watched the video in the morning then read the reflection most days in the afternoon. The overlap in the material really helped it to stick. But I am getting ahead of myself.
The description of this volume states:
“Meet God in Surrender this Lent
Join Fr. Columba Jordan with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal for daily Lenten meditations that help you learn to rely on God’s strength.
Rooted in the Crux program’s holistic balance of body and soul, this devotional offers daily reflections, Scripture passages to help you pray, reflect, and surrender more deeply to God.
You will read through the entirety of the Gospel of Mark, reflecting on your identity as God’s beloved child, and respond through prayer and practical action.
(Note: The Sunday readings follow the Sunday readings from Mass.)
Designed for individuals, families, and parish groups, Crux helps you unite physical and spiritual disciplines—fasting, exercise, reading, and prayer—into one transformative Lenten experience that leads you closer to Christ.
For the Family
The weekly family section features prayers, inspirational quotes, challenges, and other activities that align thematically with the Crux’s four Lenten disciplines and this devotional’s daily reflections. They are a helpful way for families to keep the season of fasting, penance, almsgiving, and prayer centered on the loving sacrifice of Jesus.”
The chapters in this volume are:
Introduction
Ash Wednesday
The First Week of Lent
The Second Week of Lent
The Third Week of Lent
The Fourth Week of Lent
The Fifth Week of Lent
Holy Week
Easter Sunday
Daily Challenge Tracker
Notes
About the author we are informed:
“A native of County Kildare, Ireland, Fr. Columba Jordan is a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal (CFR) currently serving in St. Patrick’s Friary, Limerick. His main ministry is youth work in addition to his work as a popular speaker and presenter. He hosts the weekly video podcast, Little By Little, offering short-form faith formation.”
Each day follows the same format:
Day and Title
A Word of the day to set the tone
A Scripture Verse
A reflection
Respond
Space for journaling.
For each week there is also:
For the Family Section
Challenge of the Week
Prayer of The Week
Bible Verse
Song of the Week
A sample day is:
“Day 1
Ash Wednesday
Surrender
Read Mark 1:1–11
“A voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”
Reflect
Welcome to the “first” day of Lent. This season, our goal is to grow closer to God through surrender—and we’re going to do this by choosing to do hard things. Why? Because doing hard things—things that stretch us, things that challenge us, things that we would rather avoid—is what helps us recognize our limitations. Doing hard things helps us encounter our weaknesses, which is precisely where God wants to meet us. Doing hard things teaches us to surrender to Christ in faith.
One of the biggest obstacles to real growth in Christ is the opposite of surrender: namely, self-reliance. When we try to do everything on our own, we get in the way of the work Christ wants to do in us and for us. If we want to make progress in our relationship with God, we first need to get out of our own way by relinquishing control and allowing God to act.
To that end, I’m challenging you to take on four disciplines throughout Lent, two physical and two spiritual, that will help lead you to the point of surrender to God. The two physical disciplines are daily exercise and fasting. The two spiritual disciplines are spiritual reading (primarily with Scripture) and prayer. The meditations in this book will help guide you as you strive to put these disciplines into practice.
Don’t be afraid when your weaknesses are brought to the surface. That’s the entire goal of these disciplines. The words to keep in mind throughout our Lenten journey together are the ones that the Lord spoke to St. Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). That weakness is actually a blessing: It will draw you closer to God. When you push yourself to what you think are your limits, you’ll realize you have to rely on God to go any further.
On that note, let’s hit the ground running, as St. Mark does in today’s Scripture reading. In the first chapter of his Gospel, Mark gives us a brief introduction before jumping into the account of Jesus’ baptism. In this very brief passage, Mark doesn’t waste a single word. As the Spirit descends upon Jesus, the Father declares, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11).
What we see declared at Jesus’ baptism is, in a hidden, sacramental way, what God declares at our own baptism. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) tells us, Baptism makes us “‘a new creature,’ an adopted son of God, who has become a ‘partaker of the divine nature,’ member of Christ and coheir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1265). In other words, just as the Father is speaking these things to Jesus at his baptism, he also speaks them to you. At the moment in Baptism when you become his adopted son or daughter, God makes this declaration of love to you.
Many Catholics don’t fully get this, myself included. They just don’t live it. They read this Scripture passage and think that the Father is just speaking to Jesus rather than to us. But in reality, this is the message that God is constantly trying to tell you: You are his child. You are his beloved. And he delights in you.
This is where our Lenten journey starts. Everything from this point on is about accepting these truths. The goal is to simply believe, internalize, and live these truths, removing every obstacle to them in your heart and mind.
That’s where surrender comes into play. We can accept these truths with our whole hearts, knowing that because God loves us so deeply, he will work everything out for our good. God is always pouring out a waterfall of love and grace upon us as he did at our baptism; all we need to do from this point on is to surrender to it.
Respond
Look up a Catholic prayer of surrender or trust: for example, the Suscipe prayer by St. Ignatius; the “Prayer of Abandonment” by St. Charles de Foucauld; the “Surrender Novena” by Servant of God Don Dolindo Ruotolo; or the “Litany of Trust” by the Sisters of Life. Which line (or lines) of the prayer(s) do you most struggle with? Journal about these lines or bring them into conversation with God.”
I highlighted numerous passages while reading this volume, some of them are:
“Welcome to the “first” day of Lent. This season, our goal is to grow closer to God through surrender—and we’re going to do this by choosing to do hard things. Why? Because doing hard things—things that stretch us, things that challenge us, things that we would rather avoid—is what helps us recognize our limitations. Doing hard things helps us encounter our weaknesses, which is precisely where God wants to meet us. Doing hard things teaches us to surrender to Christ in faith.”
“But in reality, this is the message that God is constantly trying to tell you: You are his child. You are his beloved. And he delights in you.”
“Our repentance, our sorrow for sin, is transformative; since we have the hope of salvation through Christ, we can allow that sorrow to spur us to continually turn towards him and grow closer to him.”
“Repentance does not imply a one-time event. Metanoia involves turning to God again and again.”
“Fostering our relationship with God requires stillness and silence. Even if we fill our time with many good things, the things we’re called to do in service to others—feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick or imprisoned, comfort the dying and grieving—if we do those things without spending time with God, we will fall into the trap of busyness, not holiness.”
“God sees us in our physical need and our spiritual need; he cares for both. When either our physical health or spiritual health is neglected, our whole person suffers. Jesus longs to heal us in body and in soul.”
“For this reason, in order to make this Lent fruitful, we will strive to engage our heart, mind, body, and soul in loving the Lord. To this end, we have our four spiritual disciplines: spiritual reading, prayer, fasting, and physical exercise.”
“Being a follower of Christ often means doing hard things, sometimes things we would much rather not do.”
“A great indicator of our growth in the spiritual life is where we are on the spectrum between fear and faith.”
“In this new Israel, Jesus’ new family, our relationship with him is based on faith, on really trusting him because we know him from our heart.”
“Sometimes the terrifying thing is that God’s hand is there, and we’re worried about what he will do.”
“We don’t have trust in God because he always makes everything easy and delightful for us. We have trust in him because we know that even if we can’t understand the reason for the storm, we know that he is only letting us struggle through it because it will ultimately be better for us than having no storms at all.”
“I would have hated to be on the receiving end of Jesus’ condemnations. So uncomfortable! But Jesus isn’t worried about being nice and comforting all the time. He came not to bring peace but a sword. He’s not afraid of shaking things up when we need it or of challenging us to our core.”
“This is the great challenge we face in our faith: to surrender all our opinions about how God should do things.”
“If you’re struggling with your faith, don’t fret. Just work on letting the mustard seed grow, on trusting him more, and surrendering your control.”
“Different people reveal different facets of a person, and we are glad to be able to know our friends even more thoroughly through their friendships with others. This is especially true of friendship with the infinite God, about whom there is always more to learn.”
“Recently, I’ve been trying to make it my practice to embrace difficult things, especially inconvenient things, requests, jobs, and the like, because, in some mysterious way, God is present to me in those activities. Perhaps he meets me there because my intention is a bit purer. I’m definitely not doing these things because I want to do them or enjoy them—but I enjoy him.”
“Even when we know what the final chapter of the history of the world will look like, even when we know Jesus’ triumph is certain, we sometimes don’t understand the path he’s leading us on to get to that point when that path is so strewn with suffering. It is in these moments of darkness that the virtue of hope comes to bear.”
“Think of how, for all of Holy Saturday, the disciples couldn’t see the joy of Easter because Christ lay hidden behind that stone. As you endure these moments in your own life, ask God to help you endure those times when you can’t see him at work, when you feel like you’re standing before the tomb. Ask him to increase the virtue of hope in you, to increase in you the confidence that he will bring about a resurrection in your heart.”
“For us, then, let us affirm our belief in Christ’s Resurrection and allow the joy of Easter to well up in our hearts and overflow into praise.”
I hope that sample day and those quotes give you a feel for this volume. This was a wonderful tool for a Lenten retreat. The combination of the book, and the videos worked very well together. Father Columba shares extensively from his own journey and his life experiences.
Father Columba’s written and audio reflections are deeply moving. They are also challenging. I do not think anyone could come away from this program unchanged. It is easy to engage with, but the deeper you are willing to go the more you will get out of it. I could easily see returning to it and working through it over a future lent. And I really wish there were other books available from Father Columba, for I would pick them up immediately.
This book was a great resource for helping me to have a better Lent. It was challenging, but also rewarding and inspiring. I can easily recommend it!
Another excellent resource from Ascension!
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2026 Catholic Reading Plan! For all Lent resource reviews click here. For all reviews of Ascension Press Resources click here.
