By now you have surely discovered the Lent Madness Channel with our weekly webcasts of Monday Madness. Well, friends, there is good news. The book that goes behind the movie is now available. It’s only $6.99 for Kindle or Nook (ebook only!). Calendar of Saints: Lent Madness 2012 Edition is the ultimate guidebook for Lent Madness and devotional handbook for the saints of the Episcopal Church.
Back in 1972 (before Holy Women, Holy Men was a glimmer in anyone’s eye), Canon David Veal wrote a book for Forward Movement called Saints Galore! It was popular. So popular that it was reprinted and updated a bunch of times, most recently in 2004. Canon Veal write brief devotional essays about each saint in the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church. These essays were intended to convey something of God’s grace at work in the saints and to inspire us with the idea that God might work in our lives too.
For Lent Madness, Forward Movement decided to update Canon Veal’s book. For the most part, we left his good work as it stands, just freshening things up a bit here and there. We added all the saints who have been added to the calendar up through General Convention 2009. And as a Lent Madness BONUS, we added all the saints who are in Lent Madness this year, but who are not in the official calendar of the Episcopal Church. So this is the definitive book if you want to follow along for Lent Madness.
But more than that, this book is an inspiring survey of some extraordinary folks. Each essay ends with a brief prayer. These are not collects, because we don’t intend the book for liturgical use, but rather for personal devotional use. Of course, the saints in the 2012 bracket are duly noted.
Saints who appear only in the trial use Holy Women, Holy Men of the Episcopal Church are not included here. We will probably publish a new collection of saints after General Convention later this year.
This is a great way to learn more about the ways in which God’s grace can shine in the hearts of faithful women and men of every generation. And it’s yours for only $6.99. You can buy it for Kindle or Nook, and ask us if you want it in other formats (besides paper). You buying this won’t make the authors rich, but the proceeds will be reinvested in an even bigger, better Lent Madness 2013. Why not buy several copies of Calendar of Saints: Lent Madness 2012 Edition as gifts?
Invitation to a Holy Lent Madness
Therefore we have written an invitation to be read at all “Ash Thursday” liturgies to make sure everyone engaging in Lent Madness does so with the appropriate attitude of the heart. Although approval of this invitation by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music is pending, it has been fully authorized for trial use by the Supreme Executive Committee of Lent Madness (ie. Scott and Tim). Nonetheless, please don’t share this with their respective bishops as they will deny any knowledge of said invitation.
Invitation to the Observance of a Holy Lent Madness
Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence, fasting, and Lent Madness. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism and taught to vote for their favorite saints by logging onto www.lentmadness.org. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins in refusing to engage in Lent Madness, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church – but only after proving their worth by purchasing a Lent Madness mug. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith by participating in Lent Madness.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, the Supreme Executive Committee, and our “celebrity bloggers,” to the observance of a holy Lent Madness, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, voting in a timely fashion, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Lent Madness. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord and our computer, only one of which is our maker and redeemer.