Welcome friends to my chat with Olivia Spears, author of the new Lent Devotional Under the Olive Tree.

Olivia Spears lives in Kentucky where she is a wife and homeschooling mom.

She shares her heart and wisdom with Blessed Is She in many books and as a daily devotional writer since the beginning,

and over at Into the Deep where she creates catechetical resources for children.

Now in this conversation we're going to share all about the book, the theme, the weekly

prompts, the gorgeous art, what you can expect this lent and why.

And so to begin this conversation, I'm going to ask Liv the following.

Tell us about the inspiration for this book.

Why this title, why this theme, what does it mean to be under the olive tree?

Here's Liv.

We really dwell with him where his passion began, which was on Holy Thursday night under the olive tree.

So we read in the Gospels that after the last supper, Jesus goes out to a place that he was

a place where he prayed often, which was the mount of olives. It was one of his go-to spots, shall we say, to kind of

retreat from the crowds and even his apostles to pray and commune with the Father. And so it's

no surprise that he chose that place to go again in such a pivotal moment in his last moments of um shall we say normalcy before

the events of Good Friday and so that is where our invitation is this Lent is to be with

Jesus under the olive tree in the Mount of Olives.

And that's where we're just going to kind of stick and stay is under the olive tree with him.

That's so beautifully said that the Mount of Olives, that garden of Gisemite, this is a preferred place of prayer and intimacy for the Lord.

And so we're kind of meeting him on his home turf, a place that's very sacred, special to him.

And it's particularly sacred and special to you for what I hope is a very obvious reason, your name. Yes. So it's so funny because when you

had, when you asked me about writing this, I just giggled because as you know, this is,

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