Trinity Books

Lent with Irenaeus

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Buy Now for $12 on Amazon
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Our Lent book is out and about! Available on Amazon: Lent with Irenaeus: Journeying with Jesus Towards Becoming Truly Human.

Spread the word: Lent starts soon! Ash Wednesday is March 5.  

In Lent With Irenaeus, Mako Nagasawa guides us through the reflective writings of Irenaeus--one of the great minds of the ancient church--about one of the most poignant seasons of the church's calendar. In an era that would rather signal virtue than cultivate it, Nagasawa points us down the narrow but satisfying road of formation. In an age obsessed with wellness and optimization, Nagasawa takes us to deeper places of surrender, joy, and peace. Lent With Irenaeus is the perfect companion for the modern reader who feels ready to embrace this vital and hungry season where, as W.H. Auden put it, we're called to "practice the scales of rejoicing."

As I read these reflections, it was as if I could see Mako beckoning to me, taking me by the hand and bringing me with him on a comfortingly intimate journey. Mako interweaves scripture, metaphors, anecdotes, and the words of Irenaeus, as he challenges us to delve deeply into the practice of Lent. He takes us by the hand and says, “Come. . . Come and see what God has revealed to me.  Come, discover with me, journey with me!” It was a delightful and insightful journey. It was challenging and yet comforting. I hope it is for you as well.

- Rev. Dr. Kazimiera Fraley, Pastor of First Church of the Nazarene of Cambridge (Massachusetts) 

Christmas with the
Green Knight
A Strange Pilgrimage
by Alex Miller

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Purchase in Person for $10 at Trinity Service
(pick up at Trinity)
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Buy Now for $12 on Amazon
(home delivery)

[A strange] situation unfolds at the beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the fourteenth-century epic poem of blood and chivalry that concerns us in this book. Near the end of King Arthur’s annual Christmas feast, which lasted the full, twelve-day length of what was once widely called Christmastide, a man whose armor and skin are all a single shade of “glittering green”—and riding a green horse no less—strides into the court of Camelot with a holly sprig in his hand and issues a challenge to the Knights of the Round Table. This challenge, as we will see, though absurdly dangerous and, on the surface, apparently quite simple, is actually an intricate mechanism perfectly calibrated to test the souls of men. The guest has chosen the party, and the party is not prepared for him. 

Surviving only in a single manuscript, Sir Gawain is one of the jewels of Middle English literature, beloved and translated by the likes of  J.R.R. Tolkien, whose version I will be quoting here. Yet, for all its wonders, it’s also odd enough to have befuddled and even repelled generations of readers. What, after all, are we supposed to do with this intricate Arthurian fable that begins with a beheading, ends with a bashful knight in a green baldric, and contains not a single sword fight?

Christmas with Irenaeus:
How Jesus’ Incarnation Honors Creation, Human Body, and the Human Story

What might Advent and Christmas have to do with justice, creation care, and social relationships? In Christmas with Irenaeus, we rediscover how the arrival of Christ compelled Irenaeus of Lyons to think deeply and act justly on these issues. This compelling book contains thought-provoking and heart-stirring reflections on Irenaeus’s organic-spiritual theology and its implications for today. Read this book to help center your Advent and Christmas around the thrilling incarnation of the Messiah.

"I love reading pretty much anything that Mako writes. Mako always does a great job connecting the past with the present and making both relevant for a spiritual sojourner. This little guide is filled with wonderful and marvelous truth about Jesus told through the lens of the writings of Irenaeus."
- Susan Cho Van Reisen, lead pastor of Palo Alto Vineyard Church, CA

Christmas with John Donne

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A pilgrimage to the Manger through the sacred poetry and sermon excerpts of John Donne, the greatest of the Metaphysical Poets and England’s most erudite and popular preacher of his day.

From the Introduction: "Donne found solidity in the event in which vulnerability was chosen by the Strong, and dependence by the self-existing, for love’s sake: in the Incarnation, he found paradox aplenty to provide mete fodder for his muse; to spark a fire of wit."

Fr Tim Clayton has curated selected poems and sermon excerpts. “Fr Tim’s book is a warm glass of wine, well-spiced and ready to comfort those of us who feel increasingly chilled by the mad salesmanship of the modern-day Christmas.” (Alex Miller, author of the poetry collection A Bow from My Shadow)

10% of profits go to international relief and development work.
Another 10% of profits go to ecological conservation work.

A pocket-sized guide to a spiritual pilgrimage to the Cross through the sacred poetry, meditations, prayers, and sermons of John Donne, the greatest of the Metaphysical Poets and England’s most popular preacher of his day.

Donne is particularly well-suited as a companion for Lent, having faced life’s hard realities. He suffered deep personal losses, knew grief intimately, and wondered if anything is solid, real, or trustworthy: whether anything abides.

He found hope in the most profound act of love known to humankind: when one gave his own life for his friends. And that voluntarily, with humble and quiet acceptance, no posturing, the furthest thing from the vogue arrogance of Donne’s own day. Donne’s sacred writings on this amazing love are refreshingly honest.

10% of profits go to international relief and development work.
Another 10% of profits go to ecological conservation work.

All that the soul does, it does in,
and with, and by the body.
…from a sermon preached at St. Pauls, in the Evening, upon Easter-day. 1623.

This is a spiritual pilgrimage - a kind of reverse spiritual pilgrimage - from the Empty Tomb, back to everyday life, and on into eternity, through sacred writings of John Donne.

Donne is particularly well-suited as a companion for Easter. He suffered deep personal losses, knew grief intimately, and wondered if anything is solid, real, or trustworthy: whether anything abides. He found hope in the most profound act of love known to humankind: when one gave his own life for his friends, as a full giving in voluntary love, and when that one was vindicated by being raised from the dead, thus pioneering the way to eternal life, opening the horizon again, as it were, and keeping the story alive.

10% of profits go to international relief and development work.
Another 10% of profits go to ecological conservation work.