Meditations for Every Day in the Year Paperback – 21 April 2012

The meditations are very deep & spiritually enriching for the soul… I'd never heard of Bishop Challoner before so had to do a search and found out he was an English Roman Catholic bishop from the 18th-century. The average meditation for each day is about 2 pages give or take a little The only thing that I thought was confusing were the headings used for each of the daily meditations as I was not familiar with some of the terminology that was used… Another reviewer has touched on this subject but to help others navigate their way through these meditations I will just clarify a few of the most confusing words that I came across that caused me to get a little lost in the hopes that it will help others when using these links:(a) passion week is the 5th week of Lent which precedes holy week(b) low Sunday is what is now known as divine mercy Sunday (2nd week of Easter)(c) Rogation days are made up of one major day on Sunday followed by 3 minor days (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) which fall just before Ascension Day(d) Whitsunday is the same as Pentecost SundayThese meditations are so enriching that even if a reader was to get a bit muddled with which day of the year they should be using I don't think it would matter all that much because all of these meditations are so deep and meaningful.

Richard Challoner wrote this work as a resource for Catholics labouring under great difficulties, when Catholicism was still officially outlawed in the United Kingdom (the executions had ceased) and therefore access to the Sacraments and preaching was infrequent. In many ways Catholics today are labouring under the same difficulties in gaining access to the Faith, therefore this book will be of great help as a means of deepening the Faith and growing in holiness. The meditations cover every day of the year and cover every aspect of Catholic doctrine and the spiritual life. There is only one drawback, for some reason I cannot fathom, the author decided to use the solar calendar for most of the year but switched to the lunar calendar from Ash Wednesday to Corpus Christi, which makes the reading cycle tricky. He also incorporated days such as Septuagesima Sunday into the solar calendar, meaning the reader would be meditating on that day long before or after it occurs in the Church year. However the overall benefit the reader will gain from reading these meditations renders these quibbles a minor consideration. The preface gives full instruction on how to use the book and derive profit from it. It's only a pity that it isn't widely available in print.