Lent 2023
Greetings Prayer Bench friends,
Here are a few resources for you to use as Lent begins. I hope you find a word, a sentence, a resource that helps in the journey of deepening spirituality.
A Gratitude Log to use and share.
A Poster with ideas for Lent studies
A Toasty Ash Wednesday to use with children
A Desert Prayer
Lent at the Prayer Bench
A Gratitude Log
Practicing thankfulness is a power that turns our heart toward Love and that energy heals the world.
Here is a Gratitude practice you can use during Lent. Copy the page for the six weeks of Lent or use the page as a guideline for writing in your gratitude journal.
Permission is given to share the Gratitude log with a friend or small group or community of faith. If you have other ideas for using, just let me know.
A Poster with ideas for Lent studies
There are several small group studies at the Prayer Bench to use during Lent. Learn more about each one at the Prayer Bench.
Getting Toasty
I used this idea one Ash Wednesday. I found the idea of toasting marshmallows online, but the words are mine.
Abraham and Sarah did a lot of camping. No doubt they had campfires and maybe they their favourite activity was to roast marshmallows over the campfire.
Try toasting your marshmallow on a candle flame,
Watch as the outside of the marshmallow turns colour, charring and going brown, and then bite into it to find that it is still soft and white on the inside. It is not the same as before it was toasted, it is even softer inside than it was before.
Ash Wednesday is a time for softening our hearts. Perhaps there is something we are sorry for and we want to let it go. There might be something that didn’t go well and we are still hanging onto it. Perhaps there are challenges that we didn’t handle the way we wanted and we are calling ourselves names.
We turn our hearts to God and say we are sorry so we can work on softening our hearts and being more aware of God’s Love for us.
Create in me a SOFT heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. - Psalm 51:10
We always get to try again, remembering God loves us.
A Desert Prayer by Jane Doull
I have a happy announcement. The Prayer Bench is working with the Rev. Jane Doull, a retired minister of The United Church of Canada. She has a ministry lifetime of original prayers she is editing and I am formatting them and we are making them available in four sets through the Prayer Bench. In each set you’ll receive over 100 prayers for a reasonable cost. We hope these will be helpful to worship leaders, lay and ordered, and also as prayer resources for individual devotions.
There is a Prayer for the beginning of Lent on the Prayer Bench website. A Prayer for Lent 1.
Here is Jane’s bio and description of prayers.
Jane Doull, a writer, adult educator, spiritual seeker, has been leading worship mostly within rural prairie and Maritime churches for almost four decades. She lives in the small coastal resort town of St Andrews, New Brunswick, with her two cats. Her passions include creation, languages, literature, music, art, justice-seeking, theology, and good conversation.
I started writing my own prayers when printed resources did not say what I wanted said. I try to write simply, without abstract theological language. I try to open safe space for various life situations and spiritual paths. I try to write from an expansive, creation-centred, justice-seeking perspective. I consider that our words always fall short of expressing the Divine, and so I vary my language and imagery, to allow various points of connection with Divine Presence. I write always for particular contexts and communities, and so I encourage you to adapt these prayers for yourself or for your spiritual community, as long as you continue to credit my work.
Watch for more information about "Let Us Pray” sets in the Prayer Bench shop soon.
Lent at the Prayer Bench
I invite you to visit the Prayer Bench each Monday for a post that invites us into a Lent Pause. It might be quotes for rumination, a prayer for recollection, a praying the scripture video, a practice to ground us. Visit the Prayer Bench or follow along each day as we deepen the theme on the Facebook page.
Lent blessings, Janice
Host of the Prayer Bench.