Friends of Jesus:
A Lenten Meditation
Fr Philip Caldwell
ISBN 9781784698355
eISBN 9781784697242
ASIN B0F1DYKWMC
CTS Booklet D851
As of the reading this I have read over 440 volumes from the Catholic Truth Society over the last 7 years, many of them more than once. This is a great volume for Lent, of that could be worked through at any point in the year. It is a great little volume.
The description of this volume states:
“In this Lenten retreat, Fr Philip Caldwell guides readers through five weeks (or days) of Gospel reflections, introducing both major and minor figures from Scripture, which helps us to deepen our understanding, friendship, and love for Christ.
Lent is a season in which we deepen our friendship with Christ. In this five-week retreat, Fr Philip Caldwell invites us to contemplate friends of Jesus from the Gospels – some well-known like His Mother, Mary and the Beloved Disciple, others often overlooked like Nicodemus and Zacchaeus – in order to come to know Him more clearly and love Him more dearly ourselves.
Through biblical meditations, reflective questions, and suggested Scripture passages, this book provides a structured yet flexible guide for personal devotion or group study. Rooted in prayerful contemplation, Friends of Jesus encourages us to discover a Friend who invites us to His table to drink His wine, who washes our feet, lies peacefully next to us, is with us in fear and darkness, dies forgiving us and rises to say He will be with us always.”
The chapters in this volume are:
Preface
A Lenten Journey of Friendship with Jesus Christ
Daily Meditation Guide
Week One: Three Lenten Women of Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving
Week Two: Three Friends Who Come by Night – Judas, Nicodemus, and the Magdalene
Week Three: What Jesus Sees in His Friends – Martha, Mary, and Lazarus
Week Four: Friendships Forged in Forgiveness – Zacchaeus and Peter
Week Five: Special Friends of the Lord – His Beloved Disciple and His Mother, Mary
From the preface we are informed:
“This little booklet has been put together as a five-week retreat for Lent. Comprising a combination of biblical meditations, passages for prayerful reflection, and questions to stimulate consideration or discussion, it was first delivered to the Sisters of Mercy in Sunderland, as a preached retreat. Now, it has been shaped to help lead you on a spiritual journey through this season according to a particular theme. It might be used individually or in a group. Each section begins with a longer meditation which could be read at the weekend, when perhaps you have more time, and returned to for prayerful reflection during the week, when perhaps you have less. Using the Daily Meditation Guide, choose some points from the opening reflection and one of the scriptural passages referenced. Some questions will also be given to stimulate your consideration or discussion. The pattern for each of the five weeks is the same – offering, I hope enough structure for you to develop a rhythm, but loose enough for you to adapt in a way that suits you best. The booklet can be used in conjunction with some podcasts, and the artwork it contains is also meant as stimulus to prayer. I hope you’ll find it user-friendly, and through it come to a deeper knowledge of your faith and to an experience of the friendship of Jesus.”
I found the loose nature of the structure a little difficult for me. I would have preferred some more details or a clear reference for going back to specific sections for each day during the week after reading the whole reflection. But even with that I greatly enjoyed the volume and benefited from it.
“This little booklet has been put together as a five-week retreat for Lent. Comprising a combination of biblical meditations, passages for prayerful reflection, and questions to stimulate consideration or discussion, it was first delivered to the Sisters of Mercy in Sunderland, as a preached retreat.”
“Each section begins with a longer meditation which could be read at the weekend, when perhaps you have more time, and returned to for prayerful reflection during the week, when perhaps you have less.”
“I’m sure everyone wants the same thing from this blessed time of Lent–to come closer to Jesus, to be one with Him as He lives out the days of His Passion in the loving gaze of His Father.”
“When he began his pontificate, Benedict XVI said some beautiful words: If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful, and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation.”
“You must be born again. When it comes down to it, there must be a personal inner choice for the Spirit and against the flesh. Either we choose the security of wealth, power, prestige, whatever, or the freedom of the Spirit, who cannot be controlled but who blows where He will.”
“If each of us says ‘yes’ to that Spirit, our lives will testify to what we have seen and, even though that might only mean a smile or a kind word, people will accept our testimony and believe.”
“Cardinal Martini tells us that we should never cease to marvel at this–that the solemn event of Resurrection, the turning point of the whole of history, is conveyed in the simple and intimate conversation of two friends, a conversation which is built around such common human experiences as tears and weeping. But there is a reason why the news of Resurrection comes to us in this way–the revelation is so personal, so particular to each one of us, that hearing it makes us suddenly aware of who we are in the sight of God.”
“We too, if we listen, can hear the Lord call our name, and we can leave our past and all its hurt and embrace the light which He has made eternal. Jesus, through His friend Mary Magdalene, has shown us that we are all reconciled.”
“We should have started with Lazarus first, because now it seems to me that knowing Jesus has chosen you as a friend–for reasons known only to His heart and not to anyone else–should give you enormous confidence.”
“If you would like to contemplate these characters today, think of each of them as you, but though it might be a funny thing to say, imagine yourself as Lazarus. Imagine your surprise and delight that this most popular Wonder Worker has chosen you, comes to your house and enjoys your company. Try to be convinced, today, of the absolute choice God has made for you in Christ. He came to be your Friend as if you were the only person in the world, and, in these days, He will prove it to you.”
“The anger of God is something manufactured on our side. It results from our movements, not from God’s. God, in fact, is constant, unchanging love–like the surface of the mirror, God does not move.”
“In it, we see Peter’s very self, and his whole world, collapse. His identity, origin, relationships are gone without Jesus, he is without every meaningful compass point in life. All he had put his hopes on is gone.”
“We’re each of us special in God’s eyes, loved differently and uniquely. We are favoured and, in a sense, ‘favourites’, beloved disciples.”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume. This is an excellent little volume. The recommended daily practice is:
“DAILY MEDITATION GUIDE
Suggested time for prayer: thirty minutes
Preparation
1 Choose one of the scriptural passages from the week’s reflection.
2 Read the scriptural text through a couple of times, slowly.
Prayer
1 Imagine yourself on your way to meet a friend – briefly rehearse the meeting.
2 Pray to the Holy Spirit to enable you to enter the passage and encounter the Word.
3 What is God saying to you today?
4 What do you desire from your encounter?
Passage
1 What do you notice most in this passage?
2 To whom do you feel drawn in this story?
3 What speaks to you most here?
Praise
1 Take some time to thank God for your friendship with Jesus and to note what you have experienced today.”
The methodology introduced in this volume is excellent. Once you use it for a few weeks, you can apply it to many biblical passages. Or pick a passage from the daily mass readings and use this reflective method.
This is a great little resource from the Catholic Truth Society it is wonderful to work through over Lent, or you could work through it any time of the church year. And it will give you tools you can use on an ongoing basis. I can easily recommend this booklet.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.
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