Lenten Devotional

Author: Anne Vial
January 20, 2021

The season of Lent is around the corner, Ash Wednesday a mere four weeks away. Lent provides the opportunity to focus, contemplate, and reflect. Individually we can use the time to reorient our sense of purpose both in the church and in the world. As a community, we can do the same, considering together how the words of the scriptures take on meaning for our journeys ahead.

Our usual small Lenten study groups cannot gather, nor can we worship together. Yet we can still share the journey from Ash Wednesday through the pain of cross to the triumph of Easter. We can accompany each other in discerning where those miraculous events lead us in 2021. One way to come together is by sharing the texts we meditate on as each day goes by. To facilitate that, we are compiling a Lenten devotional with reflections and prayers written by church members and based on the common lectionary readings.

Please consider this your invitation to contribute a short devotion based on one Bible verse for one day of Lent. We are eager to hear from every corner of our expanding church community, which now has followers far beyond our Camden County borders. Couples and families are welcome to write a devotion together. This booklet is yours in both the creation and in the reflections it enables throughout the congregation.

The instructions are fairly straightforward:

1. Sign up for one day during Lent using this Sign-up Genius link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040E4AAAA822A5F85-lenten
2. Download the Lectionary readings for Lent, Holy Week, and Easter here. This PDF includes instructions and examples.
3. Choose one of the scripture passages listed for your date and write a short reflection—4-5 sentences—and brief prayer.
4. Email the result to Anne Vial at avial@haddonfieldpres.org. Be sure to include your name as you would like to see it in print and your role in the church. The deadline is February 1.

If any of these steps gives you trouble, feel free to contact Anne. Links will also be available on the website. Once compiled, our devotional will be available online and in print starting February 14.

We hope to include your thoughts on the Lenten texts this season. And we hope that all of us find in our shared verses, reflections, and prayers a way to come together though we can’t physically gather.

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