CC#46--A Lenten Roadmap: Dante, De Sales, And a Kempis

Lent doesn’t open with a pep talk; it starts with ashes and the hard grace of honesty. We map a clear, three-step journey that trades vague resolutions for substance: Dante’s Inferno to see sin in sharp relief, Father John Burns’ Lift Up Your Heart to walk into repentance with trust, and Thomas à Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ to practice quiet, durable holiness. Along the way, we sit with unforgettable Dante scenes that act like moral X-rays, explore why indifference is never neutral, and learn how a holy hatred of sin grows from mercy, not pride.

Then we shift from diagnosis to accompaniment. Drawing on St. Francis de Sales, Fr. Burns offers a ten-day retreat you can repeat or stretch across the season. We talk about how to handle dryness, shame, and the stumbles that usually derail good intentions, reframing repentance as a steady return rather than a flawless run. Each day ends with one small response—an honest prayer, a concrete work of mercy, a needed apology—so transformation becomes practical and repeatable.

Finally, we anchor life in the hidden path of The Imitation of Christ. Humility over spectacle. Detachment over approval. Union with Jesus, especially in the Eucharist, over restless striving. You’ll leave with a simple plan: a few cantos of Inferno each week with an examen, a short retreat reading with one action, and a one-page chapter from à Kempis with three focused questions for your next 24 hours. Start with all three, or just begin with one. Ashes clear our sight; grace carries us forward; daily fidelity makes it stick.

If this path helps you begin again, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show. What’s the first small step you’ll take today?

Key Points from the Episode:

• Lent beginning with ashes and clarity about sin
• Dante’s Inferno as moral X-ray of disordered love
• Practical weekly reading and examen prompts
• Father John Burns’ 10-day retreat as trusted guide
• Repentance as trusting return after failure
• Daily small responses: prayer, mercy, confession
• The Imitation of Christ on humility and detachment
• One chapter a day with three reflective questions
• Integrating diagnosis, accompaniment, imitation
• Start small, begin where you are, keep returning


Be sure to check out our show page at teammojocademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources

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Transcript

Ashes And A Hard Look At Hell

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Lent doesn't begin with hope. It begins with ashes and a hard look at hell. Yes, hell. Because before we can rise with Christ, we have to see clearly what we are being saved from. Let's talk about it on this.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Circles Of Sin And Moral Clarity

Hoarding, Squandering, And Stewardship

A Weekly Plan For Reading Inferno

Enter Father John Burns’ Retreat

Repentance As Trust, Not Performance

Daily Practice From Burns’ Reflections

Enter The Imitation Of Christ

Humility, Detachment, And Hiddenness

How The Three Books Work Together

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Hello, I am David, and welcome back to this Catholic Corner. So glad you are be here. So glad you are here, rather, listening with me. So as we stand at the very beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday was just yesterday at this airing, this is a sacred season of preparation, repentance, and renewal. So I'd like to invite you on to something a little different this year. Instead of the usual checklist of fasting rules and resolutions that usually fade by mid-March, though those were always good, not saying that, but perhaps we could just a suggestion, embark on a three book journey. One designed to engage your mind and your imagination, heal a wounded heart, perhaps, and draw your soul quietly closer to Christ. I'm suggesting a three book recommendation for a beautiful Lenten progression. First, Dante's Divine Comedy with a special focus on the inferno. Second book is Lift Up Your Heart, a 10-day personal retreat with St. Francis de Sales by Father John Burns. And third, the Timeless Classic, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Akempis. So over the next few minutes, let's walk through why these three books so powerfully fit together for Lent, how they build on one another, and then we'll offer some practical ways to let them shape your journey. So with that, let's dive in. So as we begin with Dante's Inferno, and yes, I said at the beginning of this, we're starting in hell. Now that might sound counterintuitive for a season of hope, but hear me out. Dante's divine comedy is the epic poem, tracing the soul's journey to God, from the depths of hell and inferno, through the purifying mountain of purgatorio, to the heights of paradise and paradiso. For Lent, though, I'm asking us just to camp out in that first part, Inferno. So many people struggle just trying to get through all three books. And if you just break everything down to one book, Inferno, let's start there. Because Lent is a good time to start. Begins with ashes, and it's the reminder that we are dust, and to dust we will return. Calls us to have a clear eyed confrontation with sin, not in a morbid way that our culture always talks about, but in a frank and honest way. Inferno gives us that opportunity. Dante the great writer structures hell as nine descending circles, each punishing a different category of sin. The sins grow more serious as we go deeper. First incontinence, the lack of self-control, then violence, and then finally fraud, the worst because it perverts trust and reason, gifts meant for love given to us by God. The whole work is an allegory. Dante the pilgrim represents every soul recognizing and rejecting sin on the path to God. One of the most chilling moments for me comes early in canto number three, as Dante or as Virgil passes through Hell's Gate, inscribed with the sign Abandon all hope ye who enter here. Just inside the pilgrim encounters the uncommitted. The souls who never chose for or against God only live for themselves. They chase a meaningless banner. They're stung by wasp and hornets, forever lukewarm and forever tormented. It's a stark Lenten wake up call because indifference and self-suutherness and neutrality is never neutral at all. What makes Inferno so valuable for us in Lent is how it forces us to name our sins concretely, not vaguely. Each circle in Dante's hell acts like a moral x-ray, exposing specific vices, lust in the whirlwind of driven lovers, greed in the boiling pitch of the the baroters, and hypocrisy in the leaden cloaks. Sin isn't just breaking rules, Dante shows it's a disordered love. Good desires that are twisted into self-destruction. That's what sin really is. Good desires but twisted into self-destruction and self-love. Lust twists love into possession, anger twists justice into vengeance. As Dante journeys, something shifts. At first he pities the damned, even faints with sympathy, but gradually, guided by his guide, Virgil, he moves toward a holy hatred of sin, which aligns with God's justice. That's the transformation that we hope for, and that Lent invites us to. From a sentimental indulgence of our faults to a genuine sorrow and resolve. Let me paint the one more vivid scene for you from Kanto No. 7. The circle of the misers and the spendthrifts. Here we have two groups pushing enormous weights in opposite directions. They ultimately crash into each other, shouting, Why do you hoard? And the other group, why do you squander? Then they turn and crash again. Forever this happens. It's a perfect image of two sides of the same distortion. Hoarding clutches material goods and fear. Squandering flings them away in excess. Both miss the point of stewardship. So here's our invitation. Where do you hoard? Why where do you squander? Not just with money, but your time, your attention, your affection, your energy, your loves. Your not loves. Let Dante's scenes prompt you to have the honest questions with yourself. For this lent my challenge is simple. Read just a few contos of Dante's Inferno each week, slowly. After each session, ask where is the sin present in my life? Where is even a seed? Where is a shoot coming from? As a weed in my garden. Jot it down. Bring it to your examination of conscience. Let it guide your next confession. A good confessor will root this out. Dante's diagnosis Dante helps us to diagnose our diseases, our spiritual diseases. He shows us that the dark wood we wander in when sin entangles us, but then diagnoses us. But the diagnosis is not alone. Certainly not enough. We need someone to walk with us in this wood, in this spiritual desert. And that's where our second book comes from. Father John Burns' Lift Up Your Soul comes in. And Father John Burns is a priest and a retreat leader who draws from the great saint Saint Francis de Sales. And his classic meditations. He reinterprets ten key ones for us modern readers. The book is structured as a 10-day personal retreat, which you can do at home. It's perfect for dipping into during Lent's long 40 days. Each day focuses on the essentials like sin, death, judgment, hell, paradise, and God's love. Father Burns blends scripture, honest reflection, and practical steps. He writes as a pastor who knows real people get stuck. You and me, we often get stuck. He doesn't offer the cultural quick fix, doesn't offer spiritual self-help tricks. He keeps the focus on following Christ into the wilderness. Lent isn't about a flawless performance or sheer willpower. It's about growing and it's about knowing who you are following. Burns takes seriously the wounds, the attachments, the fears, the dryness that surface when we try to surrender. He shows us how those very places become the very points of encounter with God's mercy. And maybe you've started Lent strong before. Maybe you remember last year's Lent when we only became to fizzle by week two or week three. We were disappointed with ourselves. Burns leans into that reality. He asks us of us, what if Lent isn't about never failing, but about constantly returning to the heart of Jesus, even after you've stumbled again and again and again. Father Burns invites us to repentance, not as punishment, but as a trusting turning back to the one who waits, like little child who always turns back to the parents with full trust to their mom or their dad. And their mom and their dad will always pick them up with loving eyes, wipe their nose, wipe their eyes, hug them tightly. So here's that concrete plan. Use this second book, lift up your heart as a primary Lenten devotional. Take one reflection a day, or perhaps a few per week. After each choose one simple response, a short prayer of trust, a small act of repentance, or a concrete work of mercy. Because Dante shows us our disease, our spiritual disease. Burns walks us to the clinic where Christ the physician is at, meeting you right in your weakness. Finally, we would arrive at the imitation of Christ by Thomas Akempis, one of the most beloved spiritual classics in our history. Written in the late Middle Ages, it's a series of short, piercing meditations on spiritual perfection through humility, one of the most important virtues we could ever acquire. Also, self-denial and devotion are in the book. It emphasizes the vanity of earthly desires, the need for inner purity and a deep union with Christ, especially in the Eucharist. So for Lent, three themes stand out. Humility is the foundation of every virtue self denial and detachment from worldly praise and the redemptive value of suffering. Trials are not random, they are paths to closer union with the crucified Christ. One line that always stops me in this book is this one. Such a powerful statement. In a culture obsessed with visibility and likes, this is revolutionary. What if your lentin penance penance isn't just giving up chocolate, but quietly accepting being overlooked, being misunderstood or unpraised, and offering that hidden humiliation to Jesus? Here's how to engage this book practically. Read one short chapter a day. Most are just a page or two, very easy to get through. And afterward, ask yourself three questions. What is this asking me to detach from? How is this calling me to humility today? And what's one concrete active imitation of Christ I can do in the next 24 hours? Carry one line into your mental prayer or to a holy hour each week and let it shape how you live your ordinary moments of your life. So how do all three of these work together? Well, Dante's Inferno, like we said, diagnoses the sins, seeing its logic, its gravity, and its consequences. And when we read a few cantos weekly, we can use those scenes for a very strong examination of conscience. Our second book, Lift Up Your Heart, by Father John Burns, helps us to walk the desert, letting Christ meet us in our weakness and our resistance. We can use this as a Lenten devotional. End each reading with one concrete response. And then our third book, Imitation of Christ, helps us to live the holiness through humility, self-denial, and union with God made man. We can read one short chapter daily and choose one simple act of imitation. All three form a clear path from honest confrontation with sin through merciful accompaniment and conversion to a practical daily imitation of Jesus the Christ. Now, if all three are feeling overwhelming right now, just pick one. Start where you are. Maybe on your nightly exam, maybe in a holy hour or spiritual reading after mass. You can just use the text feature in the show notes to let me know. So in today's Catholic Corner, Lent isn't about spiritual heroics. It's about letting God lead you out of the dark wood that Dante told us about through an honest gaze at sin into a desert of conversion and finally into a life that quietly looks more like Christ. These three books can be faithful companions on that road. Let's close with a simple prayer for all of us. Lord Jesus, as we enter this holy season, lift up our hearts to you. Help us to see our sins clearly. Meet us in our deserts with mercy, and teach us to imitate you in humility and love. Grant us a fruitful Lent that leads to that glorious Easter joy. Amen. Thank you for joining. Thank you for listening. This episode spoke to you. Subscribe, share it with a friend, join me next time on our next Catholic corner. Until then, for this Lent, let's walk humbly, trust deeply, know you're not alone, and certainly God bless you. As always, keep fighting the good fight.

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Be sure to check out our show page at teammojocademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your emojo up.