Each year, the season of Lent invites us into a time of reflection, repentance, and renewal. Beginning on Ash Wednesday and lasting 40 days, Lent mirrors Jesus’ time in the wilderness and calls us to slow down, take stock, and prepare spiritually for the joy of Easter. One way to do this is to choose a simple and intentional Lenten practice that helps create space for prayer, attentiveness, and deeper relationship with God.
A Lenten practice is typically a modest, realistic, and sustained habit over time. It needn’t be done perfectly. Below are several ideas for a practice you may wish to adopt during Lent, each offering a way to re-center daily life toward God and grow spiritually in the weeks leading to Easter.
1. Keep the Daily Office
The Daily Office of Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline from the Book of Common Prayer provides a steady rhythm of scripture, psalms, and prayer. Praying one office a day helps anchor us in God’s presence and allows Scripture to shape our spiritual imaginations over time. Pray using a physical Book of Common Prayer beginning on page 37, BCPonline.org, or through the My Daily Office podcast.
2. Establish a Simple Rule of Life
A Lenten rule of life offers gentle structure for the season, and ideally is something we can carry forward past Lent into the future. One of the most engaging books on this subject is Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer. Lent is a perfect time to read a book like this, or to even form a virtual or in-person book group with others.
3. Make Space for Discernment
Discernment is a daily practice of prayer and listening for God’s will in our lives. We may hear God’s message over a period of days or weeks, or all at once. Bishop Scanlan has provided this valuable tool for those interested in pursuing a practice of Discernment this Lent.
4. Observe a Fast
Fasting has long been part of Christian practice and can take many forms. We can choose to abstain from a particular food, habit, or activity (doomscrolling perhaps?) one day a week, or even the entire 40 days. On the traditional fast days of Ash Wednesday and Lenten Fridays, we can abstain from meat, or practice a more comprehensive fast from food involving one meal and two small snacks. Fasting can heighten awareness of our dependence on God and clear our minds of the noise that often gets in the way of spiritual connection.
5. Meditate With Sister Monica Claire
Like all things, social media has both its blessings and its curses. One of its blessings is certainly Sister Monica Clare, an Episcopal nun, Sister Superior at the Community of St. John Baptist in New Jersey — and an unlikely TikTok star with more than 225,000 followers. This Lent, Episcopal Relief and Development has teamed up with Sister Monica Clare to offer Holy Habits, Lenten prayers and meditations you can receive in your inbox each day.
6. Partake in the Rite of Reconciliation
Each week, we confess sin corporately during worship through the General Confession, affirming that forgiveness is a shared and ongoing part of Christian life. At the same time, the Rite of Reconciliation—a private and sacramental form of confession officially called Reconciliation of a Penitent—is available for those who find it helpful. Especially during Lent, this practice can offer space for deeper reflection, the naming of particular burdens, and the reassurance of hearing God’s forgiveness spoken personally and directly. If you feel a need for this sacrament, simply contact your parish priest.
7. Keep a Lenten Journal
Journaling during Lent can help us pay attention to our inner lives. Reflections might focus on prayer experiences, scripture passages, or questions that arise during the season. Writing regularly can bring clarity, invite self-awareness, and deepen attentiveness to God’s movement in our lives.
8. Pray the Psalms
The psalms give voice to a wide range of human experience, including grief, hope, confusion, and trust. Praying one or two psalms each day, especially aloud, connects our personal prayers to those of the wider Church and offers language when words can be difficult to find.
9. Practice Almsgiving
Almsgiving is a traditional Lenten discipline that focuses on generosity and care for others. This can include financial giving, volunteering time, starting a local ministry, or responding to specific needs in your community. Consider where your God-given gifts could be applied to help others.
10. Observe Holy Week Fully
The church pews fill up on Easter morning, but the culmination of Lent is actually Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday and includes the Monday in Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. After sundown on Saturday, Easter officially begins with The Great Vigil, the holiest, most dramatic, and ancient service of the Christian year. By participating in the entire week of services, we can walk through the final days of Jesus’ life and into the hope of resurrection. Each year, the deacons of our diocese offer a prayer vigil on Zoom on the Monday in Holy Week. Services for the triduum (Maundy Thursday – Holy Saturday) can be found in local congregations around the diocese.
Remember, our Lenten practices are meant to be sustainable and life-giving. We can do them humbly and to the best of our ability, letting them help shape the season as a time of spiritual grounding and preparation. Through prayer, reflection, and generosity, Lent opens our hearts to the promise of renewal that Easter proclaims.