Lent
During Lent, running roughly 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, we are invited to a “holy observance…by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.” (Book of Common Prayer, 265)
We continue to add resources for Lent. We offer these to help you, your family, and your congregation step back from daily routine and more fully participate in this time of preparation and reflection.
If you have resources you would like to share with the wider diocese, please let us know! We would love to include them here.
Ash Wednesday
Daily Reflections, Daily Disciplines
Lent invites us to reflect on our relationships with God, each other, and the Earth upon which all life depends. Episcopal Relief and Development invites you to sign up to receive an inspirational daily meditation during the Forty Days of Lent. This year’s reflections are written by Jerusalem Jackson Greer. Click on video to hear Jerusalem talk about this year’s themes. Learn more and sign up now to receive meditations >
The first head of Forward Movement is reported to have said, “If we want the Episcopal Church to be strong, we need our congregations to be strong. And if we want our congregations to be strong, we need them to be filled not with habitual Christians, but with disciples of Jesus Christ.” To celebrate and give thanks for 90 years of ministry, Forward Movement has re-released its first call to discipleship, featuring the original content enhanced by new reflections from current church leaders.
The Disciple’s Way: Daily Reflections for Lent reissues the call to individuals and the wider church to practice seven steps of discipleship: turn, follow, learn, pray, serve, worship, and share.
In this inspiring guide, wellness expert Anna Fitch Courie explores forty biblical journeys and how they can help improve readers’ physical and spiritual well-being. From Israel’s trek to the Promised Land to Paul’s missionary trips throughout Rome, this book takes readers on an adventure through scripture, encouraging them to travel on foot like their biblical forebears. Each chapter offers a passage from scripture, a spiritual lesson, and space to record the miles that have been journeyed. Learn more or order >
Many of us start our day with prayer, a discipline that helps us give thanks for the day we’ve been given, orient ourselves to the work and activities ahead of us, and pray for ourselves and for others. The Daily Examen can help us look back at our day through prayer and reflection. The traditional five-step examen helps us to look at the day through God’s eyes as well as our own, to give thanks, to review our actions, to face our shortcomings, and to look toward the day to come. The Ignatian Spirituality website has a wealth of resources about the Examen. For those wanting to get started, we recommend A Method of Making the General Examen, the downloadable Examen Prayer Card, and the book or app Reimagining the Examen.
Curricula, Series, & Activities for Adults
Book Resources for Individual Reflection and Group Study
“This is where the journey toward a “beloved community” begins And so, for all who truly want to get well from the pernicious disease that is racism, The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning is a must-read.” ~The Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas
In Dr. Catherine Meeks’ latest book, she shares stories and wisdom from her journey and “offers a much-needed meditative guide for the weary and frustrated.”
“By looking inward and at each other clearly, she argues, good people of all backgrounds can forge a long term and individual path to making a difference. With personal stories and thoughtful direction, she takes the reader on the trajectory from self-awareness to recognition of the past, to a new and individual way forward (Church Publishing).”
Recommended for small group study.
Pilgrim Road invites readers on an inner pilgrimage with Christ through the season of Lent. Author Albert Holtz is a Benedictine monk and he applies Benedict’s monastic wisdom to the everyday lives and aspirations of modern Christians. At the heart of each daily reflection is insight into our inner spiritual journey.
Emphasizing intercession, solidarity, and preparation, this book invites readers to learn to view the world incarnationally and sacramentally. “In rejecting one’s own embodiment and the natural world, the earth is being irreparably harmed by our destructive actions.” Readers are encouraged to move past sympathy and into action and advocacy for the earth and its marginalized inhabitants. A good read for creation care, social justice, and advocacy ministries. Learn more and order >Amy-Jill Levine is an author, professor, and biblical scholar. In Entering the Passion of Jesus she looks at the history and literature of Jesus’ last days and analyzes the risks and motives of the story’s characters. This is an excellent, challenging study for individuals and small groups, those new to the Bible and experienced readers. Read more >
This book of daily reflections focuses on the writings of the desert fathers, men and women who went into the wilderness to seek God. The author, Thomas McKenzie, a Benedictine oblate and Anglican priest, reflects on their words and challenges readers to walk their ancient path. Read more >
Children, Youth, and Families
Explore the Faces of Easter lesson at home. Enter more deeply into the story of your own family and discover how your family’s story is informed by the story of Jesus. Use the coloring pages and add a purple felt underlay to make your own set of lesson materials. The following resources are reproduced with permission from Godly Play Resources. Thank you!
The Faces of Easter coloring pages >
The Faces of Easter lesson for the home >
People observe lent by fasting, worshiping, Bible study, giving up something, and prayer. This is a daily prayer discipline for all ages, easily created with a free downloadable prayer sheet and the purchase of scratch-off stickers found in craft stores. Learn more and download >
Building Faith writes: “Lent-in-a-Bag is one of the most popular of our take-home activities.” Churches might consider sending bags to each household on the first Sunday of Lent. Bags contain six objects, each including a devotion. Kits also contains a booklet with the Bible reading that accompanies the devotions. You can create your own theme, or follow the 2020 theme “Praying with Jesus” laid out in this BuildFaith.org article.
We have put together a Pinterest page with ideas for Lent and Holy Week. Go to page >
Make Room by Laura Alary presents Lent as a special time for creating a welcoming space for God. Make Room uniquely connects activities for Lent to the story of Jesus. Simple and practical tasks such as baking bread, having a neighbor over for dinner, un-cluttering a room, and watching less TV become acts of justice and kindness, part of a life of following and imitating Christ, and a way to make room for God in our lives and in the world around us. While some books tell the Passion narrative for young readers, this book integrates themes of hospitality and self-giving that echo Jesus’ entire life. Make Room invites children to wonder about the story, to encounter Lent with all their senses, and to experience activities in Lent as part of a life of discipleship. This is a nice resource for storytime at home or church. Learn more or order >
“Lent,” at its root, means “spring,” a time for our stiff hearts to thaw and open to a fuller compassion. From polar bears to pangolins, animals magnificent, delicate, and intricate are vanishing at a rate faster than at any time in Earth’s history. In Wild Hope, vivid stories of 25 of these wild ones wake in us wonder—and grief at what they suffer on a planet shaped by human choices. Their stories also wake in us a wild hope that from all this death and ruin something new might rise. The promise of Lent is that something new will rise. In fact, as their stories attest, that Wild Hope is already loose in the world.
Twenty-five original woodcuts by award-winning illustrator David G. Klein convey the magnificence and beauty of each creature. Adults will also find this book compelling. Read an excerpt at Paraclete Press.