Customer Reviews

Chocolate for Lent: A Creative Approach to Your Lenten Journey

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This is a great small group Lenten study book. It is user friendly and generates great conversation. Put on the coffee, pop in the DVD of "Chocolat," invite your friends, and celebrate the season of Lent.

Will continue to buy from this vendor. Good story to help focus for Lent. When I saw the movie version I did not realize that the story was Biblically based. Great read for Lent.

Our town is using Hilary Brand's other book, Christ and the Chocolaterie, for our ecumenical Lenten study groups in 2011. I'm a Catholic priest and given that a number of our parishioners have expressed concern about the book I've noted the following:
The book notes that, "Chocolat could easily be seen as an anti-Lent film" (p.15) because it pits traditional Lenten restraint against chocolate indulgence. The book also notes that, "The film's philosophy of indulging yourself... very much taps into the spirit of our age"(p.9). While the book does not aim to use the film as a blueprint for indulgent moral living, I'd nonetheless seriously question whether it's a useful starting point for Christian discussion in Lent. Having read the book carefully I would note a couple of seriously misleading statements and attitudes it contains:

(1) Jesus and the Apostles taught us to fast
The book makes the misleading claim that, "Christ never commanded his followers to fast... and neither did the apostles"(p.10). Such a statement misrepresents the words and example of Jesus and ignores what history and the Bible record as the practice of the Apostles.
(i) First, Christ taught us to fast by His example:
He fasted for 40 days in the desert (Mt 4:2)
(ii) Second, Christ not only showed us the importance of fasting but taught us how to fast:
" `When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father" (Mt 6:16-18)
(iii) Third, the Gospel shows us that prayer and fasting go together:
"this kind can only be driven out by prayer and fasting" (Mk 9:29)
(iv) Fourth, people sometimes confuse the fact that although Jesus did not have His disciples fast while He was among them He did nonetheless teach that they would fast later:
"Then John's disciples came and asked him, `How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?' Jesus answered, `How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.'" (Mt 9:14-15)
(v) Fifth, the New Testament shows us that the disciples actually did fast after Jesus' Ascension:
"after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off" (Acts13:1-3)
"Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord" (Acts 14:23)
(vi) Sixth, we know from historical records outside of the Bible that the Early Church fasted a great deal:
The late 1st Century record of the practice of the early Christians, The Didache [The Teaching of the 12 Apostles], required Christians to fast on many occasions, especially to "fast on Wednesdays and Fridays" (Didache 8). This gives us a clear record of how fasting was very common among the early Christians, and so should be common among us too!

Fr Dylan James, Shaftesbury Catholic Church

The books I ordered were received in the timeframe stated and in the condition described.