Customer Reviews

Contemplating the Cross: A 40 Day Pilgrimage of Prayer

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This is really not the first review of this marvelous little book. There is an earlier edition that also has two great reviews. And while I agree whole-heartedly with their reviews, there is one thing missing: The reviewers write from the perspective of their individual experience. While this book has much to recommend it as an individual read, its benefits are greatly enhanced as a small-group experience.

As a Christian of close to 40 years, the pilgrimages I have made with others using "Contemplating the Cross" is one of the major highlights of my life.

We live in the "information age." Much of this has crossed over to the Christian church with its obsession with acquiring endless exegesis of scripture, sermonizing, homeletics, etc. Steve Meeks in his book "Relational Christianity" states that contemporary Christianity is "data-based." We are soaked to the bone with biblical information, precept upon biblical precept, principle upon biblical principal, but somewhow we remained unchanged, unchallenged, and unrepentive.

"Contemplating the Cross" sets us on a different path. It jolts us out of our fascination with biblical information and plants our feet, and our hearts, on an interactive journey with Christ from Gethsemane to the Cross. We do not just "read" the story; we "enter" it. And while the disciples slept after Christ asked them to stay up with Him, and while they all fled, we can, in some small measure, rectify this by staying up with Him "one hour" and walking with Him to the Cross.

In "Contemplating the Cross" the prayer pilgrims are introduced to "sacred reading" or lectio divina. In this ancient prayer form, we are invited to cultivate an approach to scripture that doesn't seek to control the content in our typical abstract, linear fashion, but allow the sacred text to spill into our hearts as we learn to "be still and know God."

"Contemplating the Cross" also invites the participants to prayer-journal their responses. And when the little group of pilgrims meet on a weekly basis, their journal entries can be shared with the rest of the group. I say "can" because there is no compulsion. All such deep sharing is a free-will gift for the others, from the heart. But all such sharing brings insights too deep for words, tears of repentence and tears of gratitude. And the group experiences a deep, spiritual connectedness that has nothing to do with how many cars we have in the garage, how big our houses are, or what political party we belong to. In the shadow of His Cross, all of us are reduced to what we all hold in common: our need for grace.

What tends to come out of this 40-day pilgrimage is not only a renewed love of our wonderful Savior, but spiritual gifting as well, and the gift of prayer. Those who have never had a very deep prayer life all of a sudden discover that they can indeed pray, deeply and intimately, using a pin and their journals. And the gifts of prayer-writing that come out of this are awesome! (And it's not often thought about in this fashion, but the book of Psalms are really David's prayer journal).

I currently meet in a house church. This material lends itself beautifully regarding helping to cultivate "spiritual gifts" and "mutual participation" with "every member functioning" as described by Paul in I Corinthians 12 & 14. There is no one person "teaching" the material; the Holy Spirit truly becomes guide and teacher through each member.

"Contemplating the Cross" is designed to be read with the Lent season, with 40 days of prayer and contemplation leading to Easter. I hope you'll meet us at "the Cross".

"If we share in His sufferings, we shall certainly share in His Glory." Romans 8:17

This is an amazing book that has changed the way I view the cross. I highly recommend it.

I have been carried back to the Garden, the Cross, the Tomb and the Resurrection via this wonderful book each year since I purchased it.

Jesus is fresh and real in these pages. I can feel the fabric of his robe as I sit next to him at the Last Supper table, hear the catch in his voice at parting, the sound of hammer on nails, of a stone rolling away. I hear him say, "Kathy, put your dirty feet in my lap, have some bread, don't cry, I forgive you and I'll be back."

Give yourself a blessed gift. It is Bread to carry you down the road with nourishment, strength and thanksgiving.

"And yet all these things are merely a shadow of the beauty and power displayed in the heavenlies when the veil of Jesus' flesh was rent, sprinkling His blood across the altar of history. For this sacrificial Lamb atones for sins, not once a year, but once and for all, leading the way for humankind to live forever in the wonder of God's holy presence." (Contemplating the Cross pg 152)