An Encounter: Easter

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (An Encounter: Easter) through Ascot Media Group.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated.  

So I’ve reviewed two of the An Encounter books before.  You’ll find Christmas and Lent reviews up.  Now I will freely admit that these are Roman Catholic-based devotions.  And you may wonder why I would willingly review them.  🙂  I review them because seeing scripture through a different lens can often be beneficial.  It does mean you need to be alert to scripture inaccuracies, or twists, but sometimes you’ll glean truth that amazes you.  You’ll see a glimpse of God that you hadn’t expected to see.   

An Encounter: Easter gives me a chance to take a closer look at how God graced us with his son, and how his son willingly went to the cross for us.   Do I agree with everything written in this devotional? No, I don’t!  I haven’t read it all, and some devotionals are making me say “Oh Lord, thank you for your mercy”.  Other posts, as what happens with most devotionals, have me digging deeper into scripture saying “but that’s not in this passage!”   So there are pros and cons.   More on that later. 🙂

The Basic Details

An Encounter – A Daily Discovery in Divine Word: Volume III Easter was written by Maurice Nkem Emelu.  Emelu is a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Orlu in Nigeria. Running at 226 pgs, this catholic devotional was published by Bien.   You will be taken through the 50 days of Easter, following the lectionary, with 68 readings.  The extra readings are in case you want to use an alternative devotion for a particular day.  Each reading has a prayer and a time of reflection.  This is the third in the An Encounter Series.   I received a copy from Ascot Media Group for my review.

Looking more closely at An Encounter: Easter

Despite this being a Catholic Devotional I did not find any readings from the apocryphal books.   Each devotional can be used with different scriptures depending on which lectionary year you are in. 

Each devotional reading is 2-3 pages long for the most part.  In flipping through what I did not read I noticed a few VERY short readings. 

Each reading comes with a time of reflection and prayer.  From the readings I did, I found the time of reflection and prayer very appropriate. 

I know of a few denominations that have a lectionary that pastors can follow.  If they do so, it ensures that every three years the entire bible is read.  Sometimes these lectionaries include alternative readings.  Following the lectionary, this devotional also provides alternative reflections.

Add it to your shelves?

I don’t know.  The others I read in the series I didn’t find anything objectionable in the parts I read.  For me to hit one (early that I so thoroughly disagreed with has me wondering if this third book is lacking.   I don’t think I will ever understand people putting their own ideas into the text.  Scripture stands on it’s own and doesn’t need us interjecting ideas into it that don’t belong. 

All that said, some of the readings had me reaching a deeper understanding of the mercy of God.  I was enabled to see his grace in my life anew.   So, should you choose to get this devotional, An Encounter: Easter, know that some readings you will disagree with and that will have you digging into scripture to discover the truth.   In some ways that’s not a bad thing, but oh, I do dislike when teachers skew God’s word because they are trying to make some point.