Week 1 – A New Start –
February 10th
What
is Lent?
Lent
is a Christian season of self-examination and contemplation. The Lent season of
the early church was to prepare new converts for baptism and today focuses on
our relationship with God, often selecting to give up something or to volunteer
to devote themselves for others.
Lent
is a season of forty days, excluding Sundays, which commence on Ash Wednesday
and ends on Holy Saturday. The word Lent is from the Anglo Saxon word “lencten”
meaning “spring. Lent commemorates
the time that Jesus was in the wilderness, perseverance through the temptation
of Satan in preparation of his ministry.
Ash Wednesday
Ash
Wednesday is the beginning day of Lent, where penitential season is adhered to
by many Christians. It is not clear the exact date of Ash Wednesday but it is
either the month of February or March. On Ash Wednesday, Christians attend
worship services and ashes are placed on their foreheads.
Ashes
are viewed throughout Christian history as a symbol of humility and sacrifice
for those who wear them.
Week 2 –February 17th
A Prayer of
Self-Reflection -
“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way,
creating more unintended consequences and failing to achieve anything useful.”
Margaret J. Wheatley
Scripture:
Ephesians 4.22-24
“to
put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is
corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your
minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness.”
Week
3- February 24th
A
Prayer for Guidance
“Don’t entrust your future on others’ hands. Rather
make decisions by yourself with the help of God’s guidance. Hold your beliefs
so tight and never let go of them.”
Scripture--Psalm
25.4-5
“Teach
me your ways, O Lord; make them known to me. Teach me to live according to your
truth, for you are my God, who saves me. I always trust in you.”
1
- O gracious and holy Father,
2
- Give me wisdom to perceive you,
3
- Intelligence to understand you,
4
- Diligence to seek you,
5
- Patience to wait for you,
6
- A heart to meditate on you,
7
- And a life to proclaim you.
--Adapted
from a Prayer of Saint Benedict
Week 4 - March 2
A
Prayer for God's Protection
“Safety comes in our nearness to God, not in our
distance from our enemies.”
Psalms 46.1-3;11
“God
is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will
not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of
the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their
surging. The Lord Almighty is with us the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
--
Week 5 – March 9
A
Prayer for Peace
“Peace
is not merely a distant goal we
seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” Dr. Martin Luther King, II
Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God.”
Scripture: Philippians 4.6
Week 6 - March 16
A
Prayer for Moments of Weakness
1
– Lord Jesus Christ, by your patience and suffering you hallowed earthly pain,
2
– Be near me in my time of weakness and pain;
3
– Sustain me by your grace, that my strength and courage may not fail;
4
– Heal me according to your will;
5
– Help me always to believe that what happens to me here is of little account
if you hold me in eternal life
6
– My Lord and my God.
7
– Amen.
--The
Book of Common Prayer
“Deliver
me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that
hate me and out of the deep waters. Let not the water flood overflow me,
neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the deep swallow me up and let
not the pit shut her mouth upon me.”
--Psalm
69.14-15
