Wilderness Within: A Guided Lent Journal for Prayer and Meditation

by Sr. Josephine Garrett CSFN, June Jameson (Illustrator)

Overview

Winner of a 2025 CMA Book Award from the Catholic Media Association: Design and Production (Honorable Mention).

This Lent, allow Sr. Josephine Garrett to be your guide as you explore the interior wilderness of your heart and invite Jesus in to heal you with his love.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus went into the wilderness? Some believe it was to reveal his divinity or to restore humanity’s relationship with God. In Wilderness Within, Sr. Josephine Garrett, a mental health counselor and popular speaker, reflects on the belief that Jesus went into the wilderness to rescue us—to rescue us! The Lord does not want us to view the wilderness as something that causes worry, anxiety, or fear. “What if, instead,” Sr. Josephine writes, “we looked at how God has been a faithful provider in the wilderness and trusted that He will do the same for us in the wilderness journey ahead? What if we joyfully take His hand and journey into the wilderness, because when Christ enters there, ‘this opposite place of the garden becomes the place of reconciliation and healing’” (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth)?

In Wilderness Within, Sr. Josephine will guide you through the forty days of Lent to attend to the wilderness of your heart as a place to be explored, restored, and sent on mission by Jesus’s tender love.

• Week of Ash Wednesday: Enter Lent by recognizing your ability to always begin anew in Christ.
• Week One: Open your heart to God’s love, allowing yourself to reverence your heart as a gift from your Creator.
• Week Two: Reflect on the truth that we are created for relationships, and examine the relationships in your life.
• Week Three: Take an honest look at your limitations, wounds, and sin guided by a spirit of humility and repentance.
• Week Four: Begin to see how God designed your heart to be rescued by him and grow in your capacity to be healed by him.
• Week Five: Leave the wilderness of your heart so that you can go on mission—with a heart restored by Christ’s love—to love your neighbor and be a good steward of the gifts and charisms given to you.
• Holy Week: Follow in Jesus’s footsteps to the Cross and discover how you can love him well through each stage of the Passion and Resurrection.

Each day’s content includes brief meditations, specially crafted illustrations, thought-provoking reflection questions, heartfelt prayers curated to uplift your spirit, and ample journaling space for personal revelations and insights. Whether you’re journeying alone or with a group, Wilderness Within is your guide to a beautiful and renewing Lent.

Free companion videos featuring Sr. Josephine and a free downloadable leader’s guide are available at avemariapress.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646802982
Publisher:	Ave Maria Press
Publication date:	12/06/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	19 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Sr. Josephine Garrett, CSFN, is a sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth, a licensed counselor, host of the Hope Stories podcast, and a Catholic speaker and author.

Garrett earned a bachelor’s degree in political philosophy from the University of Dallas. Prior to entering religious life, she worked as vice president in the home loans division of Bank of America. In 2019, she earned a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and became a nationally certified counselor licensed in Texas.

She worked as a school counselor in Tyler, Texas, and is presently serving as a counselor in private practice. Garret is a voice for mental health on various platforms such as Formed and Hallow.

She resides in Tyler, Texas.

June Jameson is an independent artist who creates large oils on canvases for galleries, churches, hospitals, and private collections. Jameson has developed a unique style that blends her strong Catholic faith with her impressionist paintings.

Jameson earned her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Florida. Many of her original paintings are represented by the Sacred Art Gallery in Arizona and several of her images are available to license for liturgical use through the Diocesan Library of Art.

Jameson lives in Ocala, Florida with her husband and nine children.

Prints of her work can be found at junejameson.com.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In Wilderness Within, Sr. Josephine Garrett shares her heart with us, blending her mental health expertise and beautiful witness as a disciple of Christ in this important work. This journal will bless any reader’s Lenten journey and beyond. Seriously, it was an amazing read. This is going to bless so many people!” —Jackie and Bobby Angel, Catholic speakers, authors, and YouTubers

“Lent can be my favorite time of the year because of the intentional spiritual reset I get to do. It can also be my least favorite time of the year for the same reason. Spiritual resets are hard. They require trust. They can be wild and scary. I can think of no one more perfect to accompany any of us in that wild spiritual reset in the Lenten season than Sr. Josephine Garrett. Wilderness Within is the perfect Lenten companion. Sr. Josephine’s gentle guidance, steady insights, and encouraging words are just what we need over these forty days, and I’m glad I can walk through a (sometimes) favorite season with an (always) favorite friend.” —Katie Prejean McGrady, host of The Katie McGrady Show on SiriusXM and author of Lent: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens

“Wilderness Within is more than just a journal for meditation; it is a beautiful integration of mental health strategies for breaking open your understanding of God, yourself, and others. As Sr. Josephine Garrett walks you through the deep areas of your heart that are in desperate need of Jesus’s restorative love, you’ll find yourself experiencing the season of Lent and God’s love like never before. This journal showed me what Lent should really be about—beginning again in my relationships with God, myself, and others.” —Brya Hanan, author of Befriending Your Inner Child

“Drawing from her experience as a licensed mental health clinician and her many years of formation in religious life, Sr. Josephine Garrett has produced a daily devotional rooted in biblical wisdom, insights from the saints, and personal stories that aim to help the reader receive what Jesus Christ desires to do in us in the Lenten season.” —Fr. Josh Johnson, director of vocations, pastor, author, and host of Ask Father Josh podcast