Best Easter Devotionals 2026: 5 Picks for a Meaningful Holy Week

1. “He Is Risen” Easter Devotional, various contributors — Best overall daily devotional

This devotional is designed for the days leading into Easter, structured around daily readings that take you from the events of Holy Week through to Resurrection Sunday. It draws from multiple contributors, which gives it a range of voices and perspectives without feeling scattered. The consistent thread is the resurrection itself: what it means, why it happened, and what it asks of us now.

The entries are short enough to read in ten minutes, which matters in a busy week. But they are not thin. Each reading points back to specific passages and invites you to sit with the text rather than rush through it. Readers have noted that the devotional helped them feel present to Holy Week in a way that simply going to church services did not. That is the goal: not just to attend Easter, but to enter it.

This is the pick if you want one accessible, well-paced daily devotional for individuals or couples. It suits most Protestant backgrounds without being doctrinally narrow.

2. “Lent and Easter Wisdom from St. Thomas Aquinas” — Best for theological depth

Thomas Aquinas wrote more about the resurrection, atonement, and the nature of Christ than perhaps any other theologian in the Western tradition. This volume draws from his writings across the Lent and Easter season, arranged as daily meditations. It is not light reading. But it is rewarding in a way that shorter, simpler devotionals are not, because Aquinas does not settle for sentiment. He asks the hard questions and presses toward rigorous answers.

Each entry is brief by Aquinas standards, but the ideas are dense. You will want to read slowly. This devotional suits someone who finds purely emotional approaches to Easter unsatisfying, or who comes from a Catholic or high-church Anglican background and wants their tradition's theological heritage to shape how they observe the season. It is also a good choice for anyone who has studied theology and wants their Easter devotions to match the seriousness of the subject.

Readers describe it as surprisingly personal for Aquinas, noting that the selections were chosen for their devotional quality, not just their theological precision. It works as both a meditation guide and a gentle introduction to scholastic theology.

3. “The Story of Easter” — Best for families and children

Sharing Easter with children requires a different kind of resource. The events of Holy Week are weighty. The crucifixion is not a comfortable story. A good family devotional does not sanitise those events, but it does present them in a way that children can receive without being overwhelmed, and that invites questions rather than shutting them down.

“The Story of Easter” takes the narrative arc from Palm Sunday to the empty tomb and presents it with clarity that works for young readers while remaining meaningful for adults reading alongside them. The format suits a daily family reading rhythm through Holy Week, and the illustrations and language are calibrated for children aged roughly 4 to 10 without being patronising to older readers joining in.

Parents who have used it report that it prompted genuine conversations, not just passive listening. Children asked about the disciples, about why Jesus had to die, about what resurrection actually means. That is exactly what a good Easter resource should do. If you have young children and want to mark Holy Week as a family, this is the practical choice.

4. “A Week in the Life of a Roman Centurion” — Best for historical immersion

This is not a devotional in the traditional sense. It is a historical novel, and that is exactly what makes it valuable for Easter. The events of Holy Week happened in a real place, in a real political moment, surrounded by real people who were not followers of Jesus and had no idea they were standing at the hinge of history. This book gives you that perspective.

Gary Burge writes with careful historical accuracy. The centurion at the centre of the story is a believable Roman soldier navigating the politics of occupied Judea, the volatility of Passover week in Jerusalem, and the strange events surrounding a Jewish teacher from Galilee. Each chapter is followed by a section grounding the narrative in actual historical and archaeological detail, which bridges the gap between story and scholarship.

Readers who come to this skeptical of narrative approaches to scripture history typically find it more informative than they expected. It answers questions about the Roman system, Jewish law, the mechanics of crucifixion, and the geography of Jerusalem in ways that make the Gospel accounts suddenly feel more immediate. Reading it in the days before Easter changes how you hear the Passion narrative on Good Friday.

5. “The Final Days of Jesus” by Andreas Kostenberger and Justin Taylor — Best for serious study

Kostenberger and Taylor have written the most rigorous accessible guide to Holy Week events currently in print. The book follows Jesus through the final seven days before the resurrection, drawing on all four Gospel accounts and placing each event in its historical and theological context. It is designed to be read day by day through Holy Week, with each chapter corresponding to a day from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday.

What distinguishes this from a standard devotional is the authors' willingness to engage with hard questions directly: the timing of the Last Supper, apparent discrepancies between the Gospel accounts, what the Jewish trial actually involved under Roman law, and why the resurrection accounts in the Gospels differ in their details. The answers are handled with care and scholarly honesty, not apologetic bluster. If you have questions about the historical reliability of the Passion narrative, this is the book to have in hand this Easter.

Readers who are in adult Sunday school settings, small groups, or simply want their personal study to be serious have consistently rated this as one of the most useful Easter resources they have encountered. It is written accessibly enough that no seminary background is required, but it does not talk down to its readers.

Quick comparison

A practical note

Easter Sunday is April 6, 2026. Holy Week begins April 1. If you want to do a day-by-day devotional through the week, order or download your chosen book now so you have it ready for Palm Sunday. The “Final Days of Jesus” by Kostenberger and Taylor is specifically structured for this, with a chapter for each day from Sunday to Sunday.

If you are buying a physical book, most of these ship within a few days on Amazon Prime. The Aquinas volume is also often available in Catholic bookshops. For families with young children, a quick check at your local Christian bookshop may turn up the same or similar picture devotionals if you prefer to see the illustrations before buying.

All five books on this list are genuine recommendations. None of them are here to fill a slot. Easter is worth preparing for, and any one of these will help you do that.

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