That You May Have Life:
Let the Mystics Be Your Guide for Lent
Great Spiritual Teachers
John J. Kirvan
ISBN 9780877936381
ISBN 0877936382
This is the seventeenth volume in the Great Spiritual Teachers series I have read, it is one of the ones that is currently out of print. It is one of the last titles in the original editions of this series, it was originally released in 1998. I believe it was not part of either rebranding’s the series has gone through, in the early 2000’s and again start in 2024. Two Years ago I read my first book in the series, it was Born to Do This: 30 Days with Joan of Arc by Jaymie Stuart Wolfe, and loved it and the concept of the series. I have read one almost every month since that first one, and if I can track down all the out of print, will do so until I finish all 24 released to date in the series. This one was harder to track down but well worth the effort.
The description of this volume states:
“This forty-day intinerary through the Lenten season provides an opportunity to experience the great spiritual tradition of Lent under the direction of revered spiritual teachers such as Julian of Norwich, Francis of Assisi, and Teresa of Avila.”
The back of the physical book states:
“"I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Lent is an opportunity to discover anew the meaning of these words of Jesus—to reach for a life beyond self, beyond sin, beyond suffering—ultimately to discover a life beyond death. Here's an opportunity to experience the great spiritual tradition of Lent under the direction of revered spiritual teachers such as Julian of Norwich, Francis of Assisi, and Teresa of Avila.
-♦♦♦♦♦-
Lent is not only a reminder, but a continual summons.
John Paul II.”
About the series we are informed:
“Each book in the Great Spiritual Teachers series provides a month of daily readings from one of Christianity's most beloved spiritual guides. For each day there is a brief and accessible morning meditation drawn from the mystic's writings, a simple mantra for use throughout the day, and a night prayer to focus one's thoughts as the day ends. These easy-to-use books are the perfect prayer companion for busy people who want to root their spiritual practice in the solid ground of these great spiritual teachers.”
I believe there are 17 volumes in this series currently in print, but only 15 of those have digital editions. There are also a number that are currently out of print, The oldest I have seen are from the late 1980’s and it looks like they went through a rebranding and format change in the mid 00’s, and they have undergone yet another rebranding in the 2020’s including some new titles available in the series.
I must admit I do not recall running across this series prior to that first volume on Joan. I have however added all of them to my ‘to be read list’. I love the all recent rebranding, and hope Ave Maria completes the rebranding across all volumes including another newly released title on Oscar Romero in 2026. I hope also that Ave Maria brings back into print some of the volumes currently not available; specifically the volumes on John of the Cross, Evelyn Underhill, Mother Theresa and others. This specific volume was released in 2021, making it one of the oldest in the series.
This volume is a little different than all the others I have encountered in the series. First it is not 30 days and second it is not 1 spiritual teacher. The sections in this volume are:
How to Pray This Book
These Forty Days
Called to Life: Hildegard of Bingen
Life Beyond Sin: Julian of Norwich
Life Beyond Repentance: Meister Eckhart
Life Beyond Self: Francis de Sales
Life Beyond Things: Thomas a Kempis
Life Beyond Riches: Francis of Assisi
Life Beyond Suffering: Teresa of Avila
Life Beyond Death: John Chrysostom
At the very beginning of this book is two quotes:
“I have come that you might have life and have it mote abundantly.”
John 10:10
“Lent is not only a reminder, but a continual summons.”
John Paul II
Both really struck me before I even began reading. The first was a verse that helped me return to the church man, many years ago, hand marked in an upper corner of a used Bible in a used Bookstore. I prefer the whole verse not just this second part of it. Go look it up it is worth quoting in the entirety!
While reading this I numerous passages, some of them are:
“The purpose of this book is to open a new gateway into one of the great spiritual traditions of western Christianity, the observance of Lent, forty days of preparation for celebrating the central mystery of Christianity—the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is a time to contemplate the inescapable connection between new life and our death to what has only seemed like life.”
“Obviously this is not a book for mere reading. It is a summons to new life. Rather than just engaging us in an act of spiritual and liturgical memory, or inviting us to repeat Lent as a season of familiar routines, this book is designed to take us along a path of meditation and prayer to a life beyond where we are. It is a guide through a series of small deaths blossoming in new life.”
“Just remember that this book is meant to free your spirit, not confine it. If on any day the reading does not resonate well for you, turn elsewhere to find a passage which seems to best fit the spirit of your day and your soul. Don't hesitate to repeat a day as often as you like until you feel that you have discovered what the Spirit, through the words of the author, has to say to your spirit.”
“The format employs the three forms of prayer central to the western spiritual tradition: the lesson, the meditation, and the petition. Or if you prefer, reading, reflection, and prayer. So for the forty days beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on Holy Saturday there is a daily reading for the start of each day selected from the works of the great mystics. There follows a meditation in the form of a mantra to carry with you for reflection throughout the day. And there is a final petitionary prayer for bringing your day to closure.”
“In the dying of this day help me to glimpse the first light of a new day and the beginnings of a new life. Help me to understand how great is your love for all of us, your children. You sent your only Son to the cross to bring back the lost sheep, to bring me back to where I belong, to a new life in the arms of your compassion.”
“Your gifts of love and justice are not meant to be hoarded, but to be multiplied, to be passed through our lives into the lives of everyone in reach of our hands and our hearts, everyone you have called to life.”
“Sin is the sharpest scourge that can strike anyone's spirit. It makes us loathsome in our own sight, until the Holy Spirit's touch moves us to contrition and turns bitterness into hope in God's mercy”
“Turn bitterness into hope in your mercy. Heal my wounds, revive my spirit, and return me to life. Lord, reach out to me when I seem to myself to be forsaken and cast away on account of my sins.”
“His mercy is at work within us.”
“Let me wake to your love's compassionate eye, your mercy at work within me. I know that I will certainly fail and my failure may be frightful, my dying wretched, but in your mercy preserve me.”
“Divine repentance is entirely different. There, not content with ourselves, we rise up at once to God, and we turn our backs on all sin with an adamant will.”
“For to be forgiven much is to love much, as our Lord Jesus pointed out, and God's forgiveness, like his love, is a cup filled to the point of running over.”
“Thinking that God is far away can cause great damage to your soul. For whether you are fleeing God or returning to him, God never leaves you. God is always present, always knocking at the door.”
“We cannot be angels, but we can serve God as who and what we are.
And he, in his patience, will accept what we have to offer.”
“It was by patient suffering that you saved us. Let me understand that I can expect nothing different. I will not be able to pick my trials, but will have to bear in patience whatever comes my way. Let me borrow your patience.”
“Use the things of this world, but put your trust in what is yet to be.”
“When has it ever gone well for us without God's grace? And when has it not been well for us when God was present?”
“God is our hope, our trust, our comfort, our most faithful friend. It is better to be poor with God than rich without him.”
“To trust in God, above all things, is the only comfort we need.”
“It is one thing to reproach the world and the things it offers us, to recognize them as vain and treacherous. It is quite another thing to turn our backs on them, to resist the pull of our passions, our vanity, our pride, our thirst for easy comfort.”
“To follow Christ is to deny self.”
“For my part, I believe that our love is measured by the crosses we carry.”
“As for me, given a choice, I would always choose the way of suffering, not just because it allows me to imitate the way of Jesus, but because it brings many other blessings with it. We cannot understand how suffering can be a grace, and how great a blessing it is, until we have left all things.”
Each day follows the same format with three main sections:
MY DAY BEGINS: “As the day begins set aside a quiet moment in a quiet place to do the reading provided for the day
The passages are short; they never run more than a couple of hundred words. They have been carefully selected, though, to give a spiritual focus, a spiritual center to your whole day. They are designed to remind you, as another day begins, of your own existence at a spiritual level. They are meant to put you in the presence of the spiritual master who is your companion and teacher on this journey. This is especially true of this journey with Catherine of Siena. The readings are her report of God’s words to her, God’s side of the dialogue. And since the purpose of the passage is to remind you that at every moment during you are in the presence of a God who invites you continually, but quietly, to live in and through him, what better source than the words of God himself?”
ALL THROUGH YOUR DAY: “Immediately following the day’s reading you will find a single sentence, a meditation in the form of a mantra, a phrase meant as a companion for your spirit as it moves through a busy day. Write it down on a 3" x 5" card or on the appropriate page of your daybook. Look at it as often as you can. Repeat it quietly to yourself, and go on your way.
It is not meant to stop you in your tracks or to distract you from responsibilities but simply, gently, to remind you of the presence of God and your desire to respond to this presence.”
MY DAY IS ENDING: “This is a time for letting go of the day, for entering a world of imaginative prayer … This exercise is not meant to last more than a few minutes. End it when you are comfortable doing so. It has two parts. The first, in keeping with Catherine’s model, is a personal response to the words spoken by God in the day’s reading. Just as God has spoken to you, so you speak to God. Second, you are invited to turn to the familiarity of a prayer based on Catherine’s own words. It is an act of trust and confidence, an entryway into peaceful sleep, a simple evening prayer that gathers together the spiritual character of the day that is now ending as it began—in the presence of God.
It is a time for summary and closure.”
A sample day is:
“DAY 13
My Day Begins
Many people think
that to show their sorrow for sin
they must do extraordinary things,
such as fasting, walking barefoot, and the like.
The best penitence, however,
is to turn away completely
from all that is not God and not divine,
whether it be in yourself
or some other person, place, or thing.
True repentance
is approaching God
in love
and squarely facing up
to what you have done.
Choose your own way of doing this,
and discover that the more you do it,
the more real your repentance will become.
True conversion
is like our Lord's passion.
The more you imitate it
the more your sins will fall away.
All Through The Day
To truly repent, approach God in love.
My Day Is Ending
In the dying of this day
help me to glimpse
the first light of a new day
and the beginnings of a new life.
If true repentance is a
approaching you in love
and squarely facing up
to what I have done,
then hear the prayers, t
he truths of my heart,
that I whisper here
in the dark silence of this night,
where I am alone—and open—with you.”
Wow! This was the last of the original volumes in this series published between 1995 and 1998. And it is an excellent read. I have now read 17 books in this series from the 24 I believe have ever been in print. And this is one of the best. Over Lent in 2026 I read a few books, and I really looked forward to pulling this one out each day. As mentioned it is different from the others in the series but the format is the same and it makes a wonderful Lent resource!
I really loved this volume and really wish it was in print and available digitally. I know a half dozen people I would give it to immediately for them to work through next Lent! I hope those quotes and the sample day give you a feel for this volume. I am very thankful I was able to track a copy of this one down.
I have benefited from every volume I have read and I have completed more than half of the series. I have now read 16 volumes in this series, and currently working on a seventeenth I can state this is another great offering in the series. I find that some speak to me more than others. I can state I benefited from the month with each person being profiled, and this time with a number of Saints over Lent. And if I went back and did a volume again at a different point or season in life I might interact with it differently. And if this became available digitally would be one of the first I returned to the next Lent. I already plan to circle back to the volume on Joan and some of the others and reread them once I have completed the series.
This is a great read, it is one I really enjoyed reading. I can easily recommend this volume, if you can track it down, and the series as a whole, and I look forward to reading others in the series. If you have not given any in this series a try this would be an excellent starting point or whichever one seems to call to you.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2026 Catholic Reading Plan!
Books in the Great Spiritual Teachers Series:
Abide in love: the Gospel spirituality of John the Evangelist – John Kirvan
Fear Not the Night - John of the Cross and John Kirvan
God Awaits You Based on the Classic Spirituality of Meister - Richard Chilson
Grace Through Simplicity - Evelyn Underhill and John Kirvan
Love Without Measure - Mother Teresa and John Kirvan
Where Only Love Can Go - The Cloud of Unknowing and John Kirvan
