On Wednesday, February 14, 2024 we begin the season of Lent. On Sunday, March 31, we celebrate Easter.

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

Read and share this reflection on the significance of Ash Wednesday as call to a holy Lent, a reminder that we are dust, and an invitation to turn anew to Christ. Read more now >

Daily Reflections, Daily Disciplines

Lent invites us to reflect on our relationships with God, each other, and the Earth upon which all life depends. The Creation Care Leadership Circle of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts invites you to sign up to receive an inspirational daily meditation during the Forty Days of Lent. Quotes come from many sources as we honor the wisdom of many voices and traditions. Please join us as we contemplate the gift of the natural world and our calling to reconcile humanity with the rest of God’s creation. Sign up now to receive meditations >

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

Lent is a time to embrace the hard places in our life as we sojourn in the desert and walk with Jesus to the cross. This year the formation team is offering a five-part series that invites participants to practice moving through grief into hope, through lament into Easter joy.

Each week focuses on one of the five realities areas congregations across the diocese have collectively identified as being incompatible with the life we seek in Christ: race injustice, gun violence, suicide crisis, the exclusion of LGBTQIA+ people, and the devastation of our creational home resulting from climate change.

We will embrace the ancient practice of lament and learn to give voice to the individual and collective grief stemming from these realities. Through video reflections and small group discussion we will be invited to grieve, embrace the pain, move through fear, imagine a new reality, and reorient ourselves to living in hope. Together we will discern a way forward toward tangible action instead of being stuck in the pain of not knowing what to do. Together, we will journey through grief into a place of agency and renewed hope.

Journey through Lament is being offered in two formats:

  • Bundled curriculum for congregations (perfect for Soup Suppers)
  • Online (via Zoom) diocesan-wide experience with meetings on 2/27; 3/5, 3/12, 3/17, 3/26, 12:00-1:00 pm

Register now >

Questions? Please reach out to Missioners Tracy Methe or Elizabeth Cervasio.

This Lenten curriculum expands the repertoire of The Way of Love materials, tying the Easter Vigil readings to The Way of Love practices of: Turn, Pray, Learn, Bless, Rest, Worship, Go. It is intended to be used over seven weeks of an adult forum. “…The forums encourage participants to reflect on salvation history; walk toward the empty tomb; and embrace the transforming reality of love, life, and liberation.” Learn more and go to free curriculum download now >

Consider crafting your own Lenten series using videos from The Work of the People, a collection of videos that helps helps guide people into becoming fully themselves–the journey of becoming fully human. These are open, honest videos to help those grieving, struggling with faith, diving deeper in faith, and everywhere in between. Membership costs $7/month for unlimited personal streaming. Below are three videos we recommend and a few sample discussion questions to use in group reflection.

Go to sample discussion questions >

Lent Madness, a long-standing tradition offered by Forward Movement, invites you to learn about amazing people who have come before us in the faith. Thirty-two saints are placed in a tournament style single-elimination bracket. Lent Madness begins Wednesday, February 14. Learn more >

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.

Read more >

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.

Read more >

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

“Bread speaks to us of our daily reliance upon a Maker,” writes Christopher Levan in Give Us this Bread: Lenten Reflections on Baking Bread and Discipleship. Naming our faith as “our daily bread,” the book includes easy-to-make recipes ranging from Shrove Tuesday “No-Fret Pancakes” to Easter Challah bread. Daily meditations, scripture, and prayers are also included. This resource can be adapted to the needs of children’s formation, youth group, family settings, altar guild, or group study.

This resource from Milestone Ministries helps families celebrate Shrove Tuesday in the home. It includes the history of Shrove Tuesday, traditions of the day, reflections, discussion questions about the coming season of Lent, and ideas for meaningful follow-up. Read more >

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. We especially like the Prayer Links as a Lenten discipline. Go to page >

Stations of the Cross

This Way of the Cross liturgy combines text from Everyone’s Way of the Cross by Clarence Enzler and beautiful images of the stations on the wall of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lakewood. These sculptures were donated to the church by a parishioner several years ago. Instead of walking the Way of the Cross with Jesus as we have done in previous years, we are offering this meditative devotional via Zoom. View and download Everyone’s Way of the Cross >

“These guides provide children and adults a way to discover that the story of Good Friday and the cross is written into the natural world about them if they only know where to look! “Stations” are very common natural occurrences and not hard to spot – such as a flower or fallen log. The guide allows the experience of the stations to be self-directed and done at one’s own pace. Each station includes a relevant scripture passage, a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, and a reflection question. In the children’s guide, each station has a summary of the story of the station, a sentence from scripture, a simple prayer, a wondering question, and a simple activity for an embodied response.” Read more and download Stations >