Meditations For Lent by Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Paperback: Even three hundred years ago, believers found it difficult to sustain for forty days the proper Lenten spirit. 

That is why even then, countless Christians turned to the writings of Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704), whose great piety and simple eloquence won him renown as one of the greatest preachers of his time. 

From Bishop Bossuet's sermons and spiritual writings, believers drew ever greater Lenten wisdom and strength. 

Now editor and translator Christopher O Blum has selected from Bishop Bossuet's voluminous works fifty brief but remarkably powerful meditations that complement the daily readings at Mass during the Lenten season, thus offering to us the perfect companion for a thoughtful and fruitful Lent.

Meditations for Lent (2013) is a selection and translation of Méditations sur l'Évangile in Oeuvres choisies de Bossuet; Elévations à Dieu sur tous les mystères de la religion chrétienne in Oeuvres complètes de Bossuet and Oeuvres Oratoires de Bossuet.

About the author: Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop and theologian, was renowned for his sermons and other addresses. As a student of St Vincent de Paul, he was considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French stylist. He had been compared very favourably with two of the Church's greatest preachers: St Augustine and St John Chrysostom, whose theological writings and sermons helped to shape Bossuet's. But most importantly, Bossuet's work reflected his lifelong love for and study of Sacred Scripture and his vital interior life, and as such it had been prized by holy souls such as Blessed Junípero Serra and Pope Pius XII, who kept Bossuet's writing on his bedside table. Bossuet was also a favourite of the influential retreat master of the twentieth century, Fr Edward Leen.  

He was appointed tutor to the dauphin in 1670 by Louis XIV, a position he held until 1681. He was the most eloquent and influential spokesman for the rights of the French church against papal authority. He is now chiefly remembered for his literary works, including funeral panegyrics for great personages.