An Ocean of Grace: A Journey to Easter with Great Voices from the Past by Tim Chester

I really love this one. Chester has a little intro to each daily reading, usually about half a page, if that -- and it's just clear and succinct and helpful and gets you right into the writing from the earlier saint. The selections are mainly from early church fathers and Puritans, but not exclusively. The latest figure is Spurgeon. I also loved the inclusion of Catherine Parr and Anne Dutton. It's so profitable to read from our elder brothers and sisters in the faith.

It fits to read perfectly during Lent, but isn't specifically Lenten in its content (at least when I think in terms of a focus on fasting or good works, etc.), but it is beautifully focused on reawakening our hearts with a deeper spiritual preparation for Easter. The weekly headings are:

First Week: The Light of Love

Second Week: The Welcome of Grace

Third Week: The Exchange of Places

Fourth Week: The Assurance of Faith

Fifth Week: The Gift of Christ

Sixth Week (Holy Week and Easter Sunday): The Victory of God

I read some aloud to my daughter as well so the length and layout works very for either personal reading or aloud to the family. I really really loved it and looking forward to reading over again in the years to come. Highly recommend!

~

From the second week:

"Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back, 

guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

from my first entrance in,

drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

if I lacked any thing.

'A guest,' I answered, 'worthy to be here.'

Love said, 'You shall be he.'

'I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,

I cannot look on thee.'

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,

'Who made the eyes, but I?'

'Truth Lord, but I have marred them: 

let my shame go where it doth deserve.'

'And know you not,' says Love, 'who bore the blame?'

'My dear, then I will serve.'

'You must sit down,' says Love, 'and taste my meat.'

So I did sit and eat."

George Herbert (1593-1633)

~ 

From the fourth week:

"Jesus Christ, you are our compassionate Intercessor,

the Advocate who pleads our cause,

able to enter into our feelings

and make our case your own.

Your language, looks, tones and manner

melt all our doubts and hesitations.

Compassion flows not merely from your divinity

but from your humanity, with exquisite sensibility,

unaffected by the blunting influence of sin.

You plead the cause of those

whose miseries you once shared.

For of the severest afflictions, 

the bitterest temptations, the most pungent sorrows, 

the most awful privations,

you had full and frequent trial.

You were not only cast into the same mould as us

with respect to nature

but into the same furnace

with respect to affliction.

Although you had no knowledge

of the evil of sin from personal desire,

yet well you knew its weight and its bitterness,

having had its guilt imputed to you

and its punishment exacted from you.

And now your exaltation has produced no change

in your nature or your affections.

You are the same in heaven as you were on earth:

still possessing a human nature,

still the God-Man, Emmanuel, God with us.

Human blood still flows in your veins,

and human sympathies still glow in your breast.

The compassion we feel for ourselves can never equal

the compassion with which you regard us;

for ours is the compassion of a corrupted nature,

but yours is the compassion of uncontaminated humanity

indissolubly linked with all the tender mercies of deity.

Our needs never pass unnoticed.

We may miss the opportunity to bring our needs to God,

but not so our glorious Intercessor.

We can rely on you with perfect confidence:

that when we sin, you will plead for pardon;

when we are accused, you will vindicate us;

when we are afflicted, you will procure our comfort;

when we are tempted, 

you will pray that our faith does not fail;

when we perform with diligence our duties,

you will make them acceptable with the Father.

You are no cold or selfish pleader;

your soul is in the work.

Your prayers are the prayers of the heart;

love prompts all your requests,

selects the best arguments

and urges the strongest pleas.

Our prayers are never as fervent as yours.

'Therefore, brothers and sisters,

since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place

by the blood of Jesus,

by a new and living way opened for us

through the curtain, that is, his body,

and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

let us draw near to God with a sincere heart

and with the full assurance that faith brings.' (Hebrews 10 v 19-22)"

William Symington (1795-1862)