This volume was originally published in 2007 by Our Sunday Visitor. A newer edition, 2024, is available and there is a digital edition now. I read the eBook over Lent in 2026. I did pick up the eBook in 2024 but had not got around to reading it. Do not make my mistake. This volume can be read over lent, or any time of the year. There are extra chapters at the end if you want to read it over Lent starting with Ash Wednesday, but I am getting ahead of myself.
The description of this volume states:
“There is power in the Cross of Christ that, sad to say, many Christians don't experience. Now you can learn to see Jesus' suffering and death not as a spectacle or theatrical production, but as a blueprint for how to live your life.
Here is the radical teaching of Our Lord presented in a series of concrete steps that you can take at your own pace, whether you use this book alone or with a group.
• How to follow Christ more closely.
• God's unique purpose and mission for you.
• How to overcome the evil that you have suffered at the hands of others.
• To find God's presence in difficult times.
• The keys to unleashing the power of the Cross in your life.
Day by day for five weeks, here are the prayers, the reflections, the stories, and the teaching that will help you not only better comprehend the power of Christ's great sacrifice for you, but come to a better understanding of why and how to accept that power now.
Michael Dubruiel was a writer and speaker. He was the author of The How-To Book of the Mass and several other books. He died in 2009.
Amy Welborn is the author of many books, including The Loyola Kids Book of Saints and The Words We Pray.”
The chapters and sections in this volume are:
Introduction
“Is This Really Necessary?”
How To Use This Book
“How Should I Meditate?”
The Cross of Christ Teaches Us. . .
(Week One)
Day 1. Our Mission
Day 2. to Live the Gospel
Day 3. How to Pray
Day 4. About Repentance
Day 5. How to Trust and Give Thanks
Day 6. Reconciliation
Day 7. How to Love
The Cross of Christ Unites. . .
(Week Two)
Day 8. the Temporal and Eternal
Day 9. Those Divided by Sin
Day 10. In Humility
Day 11. In Liberty
Day 12. Those Who Suffer for Justice
Day 13. Us in the Work We Have to Do
Day 14. God’s Mercy and Love
The Cross of Christ Transforms. . .
(Week Three)
Day 15. How We Worship
Day 16. How We See Jesus
Day 17. How We Forgive
Day 18. Law and Love
Day 19. Our Lives
Day 20. Our Priorities
Day 21. How We See Ourselves
The Cross of Christ Illumines. . .
(Week Four)
Day 22. Blindness
Day 23. Lag Time
Day 24. Weakness
Day 25. Death
Day 26. Our Choices
Day 27. The Truth
Day 28. The Way to True Unity
The Cross of Christ Restores. . .
(Week Five)
Day 29. Life
Day 30. Forgiveness
Day 31. The Image of God
Day 32. Our Freedom
Day 33. Obedience
Day 34. The Dignity of Work
Day 35. Justice
Taking Up Our Cross. . .
(Week Six)
Day 36. In Abandonment
Day 37. In Reverence
Day 38. To Follow the Lord
Day 39. Be Prepared
Day 40. In Imitation of Christ
Day 41. To Stay with Jesus
Day 42. Be Not Afraid
Appendixes
Questions for Group Discussions
How to Use This Book as a Lenten Devotional
The Power of the Cross ( Week of Ash Wednesday)
Ash Wednesday: Eternal Life or Death?
Thursday: ‘Jesus’ Invitation
Friday: How Much We Need Jesus
Saturday: A Matter of Life and Death
Notes
I highlighted several sections while working through this book, some of them are:
“Start reading this book. Each section is designed to be read and pondered on its own; read one of the entries each day, or take up one section each week. There are parts of this book with which you may readily agree; other sections will probably anger you. Don’t worry about that; parts of this book elicit the same reaction in me. When faced with the cross, my inner demons rebel. Surrendering to the cross of Christ is the only way to rid oneself of whatever evil may be lurking in our lives.”
“Scripture has many examples of God using Satan’s ploys to accomplish his own purposes.”
“Those of us who know Christ have little excuse if we do not recognize him in the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, or in prison. We have the good news of the gospel preached to us; we have heard it and are required to put it into practice.”
“Like Moses, we need the help of our fellow Christians to hold up our arms when they grow tired. We, too, need the help of the Holy Spirit to make up for what is lacking in our prayer.”
“May the cross with which we sign ourselves, and the cross we place before our eyes, always keep us mindful of what we are doing and what is at stake.”
“The cross of Christ either convicts us of murdering God’s Son or makes us into a new creation—a being who is truly remarkable to behold.”
“Ask for good things from God and believe that God will give them to you. Believe God wants what is best for you, even when it appears that the opposite is happening. Believe even when men reject you and persecute you. Keep the cross of Christ before you, and you will be reminded that God’s ways are not ours, but “that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8: 28).”
“St. Paul told the Corinthians that those who follow Christ are controlled by his love. He died for all, so that all might live. No one, not even the vilest and most evil person imaginable, is excluded from the love of Christ.”
“In the face of evil, we need help. We need the Holy Spirit to give us courage to love and forgive as Christ did, to confront evil as Christ confronted it, and to let go of anything that hinders us from worshipping the one true God who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
“Thomas Merton wrote about what he called a person’s True Self. Prayer, Merton argued, helps us to discover our True Self: the person God created us to be, totally free from the expectations and demands of others. By contrast, the False Self is enslaved; he cannot be himself, but only what he thinks others want him to be. Starting today, ask God to redeem you from the slavery of the False Self.”
“Ironically, some Scripture scholars think that in the parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus is the son who takes the inheritance of the Father—his divine mercy and love—and squanders it on sinners! In the end, the Father is pleased. Once you’ve heard this way of looking at the parable, it’s hard to see it in any other way.”
“If we truly believed this, our lives would be immediately transformed. Gone forever would be the idea that God doesn’t care what we do with our lives. There would be no area of our lives that would be off-limits to God. Because when we worship in spirit and truth, we realize that we live because God’s breath is within us, and we live best when we acknowledge the source of every breath we take.”
“Forgiving others is an act of the cross. In the same way that a priest absolves us while making the sign of the cross over us—so it is necessary to trace the sign of God’s love in the direction of those who wrong us. By seeing them through the eyes of our Savior, we may find the courage to offer them the forgiveness that he has offered to us.”
“The bishop who was responsible for the conversion of St. Augustine said, “Faith means battles. If there are no contests, it is because there are none who desire to contend.” What Ambrose meant is that if we find our faith relatively easy, we should look again to see how much faith we really have.”
“Frequently call upon the Lord for his help throughout the day. Life was not intended to be a solitary venture; recognize that God is always present, and is there for us when we call upon him.”
“Today there are eye surgeries that allow people to see clearly without corrective lenses. We need the “surgery of the cross” to restore our vision, allowing us to see the world as God sees it.”
“Be open to the healing of Christ. Never presume that what Jesus has to offer is only for someone else. Allow the cross of Christ to enlighten the path you walk daily, transforming all of your experiences in God’s light.”
“The death of a loved one is more like Good Friday than Easter Sunday. The darkness that covered the earth on that first Good Friday points, I believe, to the grief of God at the death of his Son. Though Jesus would rise on the third day, the first day was one of horror, pain, and utter grief for all of creation.”
“Our Lord is recorded in Scripture as crying three times. In the Garden of Gethsemane (Hebrews 5: 7), he prayed with tears; he wept over Jerusalem and prophesied its destruction (Luke 19: 41); and Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11: 35). The third instance is especially puzzling. Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. So why did he cry? Were his tears for other senseless deaths that take place at every moment of the day? Or was it because the death and sin Our Lord had come to save us from had not yet been utterly vanquished?”
“Funerals aren’t for the dead? To be charitable, one could imagine that such a statement reflects the belief that those who believe in Christ do not die but fall asleep. I have attended some services where such statements have been uttered, but they ring hollow. The loss is all too real.”
“To build a lasting relationship with someone, however, it is not enough to read about that person; it is also important to talk with him and those closest to him—holy men and women throughout the history of the Church who devoted their lives to serving him and telling others about him.”
“The Lord comes to each of us in the way that best meets our needs; he knows what we need because we were created by him.”
“Too many of us carry with us our past deaths; we don’t let them go. What John’s brother saw John doing was exactly this: although John had been freed from his drinking and past experiences, he hadn’t let them go. Remember life, keep Jesus in mind, unbind whatever else is there, and let it go.”
“Remember life; too often we live in the past. Live for the present moment in Christ.”
“This is what God is like, how Jesus reveals God the Father to us. So why do some continue to punish themselves for past sins? Why do others find it impossible to admit their own faults? It is simply because they are listening to the voice of the world and not to the voice of Christ.”
“Pick up any work of a great saint and you will hear that person say he or she is the greatest of sinners; those of us who are not so saintly are apt to think of this as pious jargon. However, I think there is a greater truth in their claims. The difference between them and us is not in the number of sins they have to confess. The difference is in how they keep from repeating their errors; trusting in Jesus is the only way to “go and sin no more.””
“St. Ignatius of Loyola taught that we should make use of created things inasmuch as they aid us in praising, reverencing, and serving God, for that is the purpose of our existence. Spend your life seeing all of creation in these terms, remaining in the teaching of Jesus, and witness how your life is totally transformed.”
“Some have suggested that we are born princes but turn to frogs. It seems far more likely that we are born princes who would rather be frogs than members of a royal family. So, our fallen nature works overtime to redefine what it does not want to do in the first place.”
“While recovering, Ignatius read the lives of the saints, and found that when he read these stories, he was left with a feeling of contentment. When he read other, more worldly works, he felt agitated. Ignatius concluded that when we are where God wants us to be, we are at peace no matter how much conflict we face.”
“Prayer keeps us hooked into our Source of life. It should be more important to us than food or sleep—again because our very life depends upon it.”
“One of the most ancient titles for the pope, as a successor of St. Peter, is “Servant of the Servants of God.” The saints all share in common this ability to be the servant of the servants, whether they are poor materially or spiritually.”
“Jesus told his disciples that the pagans liked to lord it over each other but it wasn’t to be that way with them. Two thousand years later, have we learned that lesson? Whose feet are we washing, beside our own?”
“Our parish used the stations of St. Alphonsus Ligouri, which began at each station, “We adore thee, O Christ, and we praise thee, because by thy holy cross thou has redeemed the world.” Over and over again those words would be repeated as a mantra that planted itself deeply within. Christ was to be praised above all things because by his suffering he had redeemed the world.”
“I left their home feeling very sad for both of them. Without the gospel message, some people see only accidents in their lives—all of which have prevented them from reaching some dreamed of earthly paradise. They never seem to realize they cannot reach this paradise without help from above.”
“One experience, two groups of people, two different reactions. One group looks at the empty tomb and rushes to tell what they have witnessed. The other group is paralyzed by the life event. This wasn’t just something that happened thousands of years ago; it happens every moment of every day. Those who see the cross as the end of their life, meet death there; those who believe and place their trust in God, find in the cross life and victory.”
“Forty years ago, civil rights leaders—many of them Christian ministers—endured great suffering because they believed in God’s ultimate victory. Today those who once would have used the cross to defeat evil now are apt to fear this powerful symbol of the Christian faith. How do we explain this modern fear of the cross? How has the symbol of salvation become such a threat to those who should embrace it?”
“Fear of the cross is now a recognized psychological disorder called staurophobia, coming from the Greek word, “stauros” for cross and “phobia” for fear. Overcoming this fear involves clarifying what one associates with the cross. What does the sight of the cross trigger within an individual?”
“Regarding fasting before receiving Eucharist, Father Alexander Schmemann says that from the earliest moments of the Christian Church’s history, “it had been understood as a state of preparation and expectation—the state of spiritual concentration on what is about to come. Physical hunger corresponds here to spiritual expectation of fulfillment, the ‘opening up’ of the entire human being to the approaching joy.””
“Practice fasting before your reception of the Eucharist. Also find special times to fast before high points in the Christian year and during high points in your own life so that you may always remain focused on your need for Christ. Try doing more than is required by the Church.”
“Jesus came to save us from all of this. This is why we are not to judge. This is why Paul could be bitten by the serpent and live. This is why husbands are to be as “Christ” to their wives, who “took the form of a slave.” This is why in Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, East or West!”
A sample section from an end of a chapter is:
“Steps to Take as You Follow Christ
Ask—How can dying to myself help me to know God’s purpose?
Seek—Ask others to describe what your gifts are, and where they see you as being most authentic in your life. Resolve to see everyone who crosses your path as the servants that God sends to obtain fruit from the harvest.
Knock—Meditate on Revelation 22:1–2. How has your Baptism changed the curse of original sin in your life into the blessing of the mission that God gives you in Christ? When you receive the Eucharist, imagine that Christ is grafting you to himself, so that his life, his healing, his strength flow through you.
Transform Your Life—Ask Our Lord to reveal to you any areas of your life where you might be serving false gods. Ask him to help you to abandon yourself to God’s will in your life in the same way that he did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Believe in God’s providential care for you, no matter what has happened in your life in the past or present.”
This was an excellent volume to work through. And with the way the book is written it can be used as a Lenten devotion or anytime throughout the year. Each reflection is a few pages. And This is one of those volumes I could easily return to again and again and each time come away with more and something new from the reading.
This is a great book. One I can easily recommend.
