Resources for Lent

Updated March 1, 2019

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday – this year on March 6, 2019. Several organizations offer materials for personal or group Lenten devotions; here are a few options to guide and enrich your reflection.

The Way of Love

This Lent, Bishop Scott Mayer has urged us to make use of the Rule of Life our presiding bishop, Michael Curry, has offered to us — the Way of Love.

The Episcopal Church Center staff has developed a huge variety of related digital resources, all of which are worth exploring. But one in particular is well suited to Lent. The Way of Love Small Group Curriculum is perfect for an individual, a congregation, or just a group of friends who commit to gathering regularly during Lent.

Growing a Rule of Life

The Society of St. John the Evangelist is offering a series on Growing a Rule of Life. Subscribe to receive a daily morning email and short video. Accompanying workbooks can be downloaded for free, or printed versions can be ordered from Amazon.com.

Lenten Meditations

Episcopal Relief and Development  is once again offering Lenten Meditation books.

Here’s what ERD says, “To help your congregation prepare for the Lenten journey, we encourage you to order the 2019 Lenten Meditations guide. The Lenten Meditation book is available in English and Spanish. Over the years, we have had wonderful feedback on our Lenten Meditations. That feedback has given us a sense of what readers find nurturing and life-giving on their own Lenten journeys. In this book, we have returned to meditations from the last ten years that have touched our readers most deeply. In doing so, we were reminded that we have been fortunate to share reflections from many gifted writers, teachers, theologians and spiritual guides.”

ERD also invites us to commemorate Episcopal Relief & Development Sunday on the first Sunday in Lent, March 10, 2019, or another convenient date during the year. On that day, Episcopalians are invited to pray for those living in poverty and dedicate a special offering for where help is most needed.

Praying in color for a personal devotion

Praying in Color offers adults and children a way to mark the day-by-day journey of Lent daily praying & drawing with a calendar template.

Of The Journey Through Lent on a Calendar Template Sybil MacBeth, the creator of Praying in Color, writes, “Using a calendar template is a simple, daily prayer practice for making the journey through Lent. Each day choose a word to ponder or a person to pray for. Write the word or name in the allotted space with a pen and draw or doodle around it. Add color with colored pencils or markers. Let the word or name speak to you. If words come to you as you draw, pray them. If not, just continue to draw, stay quiet, and let the word or name burrow into your mind and heart. Returning to the calendar each day establishes a hallowed time and a place to be present to God and listen.

Think of each mark of the pen or stroke of a colored marker/pencil as a small non-verbal prayer. The goal of the doodling and drawing is not to make a beautiful work of art, but to create a visual prayer.”