Lent Meditation Guide

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We’re excited to offer a Lenten Meditation for personal use or for your church’s corporate reflection. We pray this guide will allow you and your church to lean into lent and Christ’s Crucifixion.

This lenten devotion may be a little bit different than others you’ve utilized. This is not so much of a devotional as it is a guide for meditation and contemplation. The purpose of this guide is not deeper Biblical knowledge. As valuable as that is, this guide is about a deeper connection with the Word of God and a deeper understanding of ourselves.

This meditation follows the final words of Christ from the cross. The four gospels account for the final moments of Christ’s life and give us seven phrases, or Words, he speaks. Each day will focus on one particular Word. This lent, spend time focusing on Christ’s crucifixion and death. For it is only in appreciating his death that we can fully appreciate his life.

The way this guide works is that each week during lent you start over. Every Wednesday meditate on the First Word. Every Thursday meditate on the Second Word. etc. As the season of Lent is 40 days plus Sundays, there are, roughly, seven weeks during Lent. You should reflect on each meditation 7 times during lent (minus the final three days). The meditation starts on Wednesday because Lent starts on Ash Wednesday.

Spend time in silence and reflection this Lent. Be not quick to speak but quick to listen. Be not easily distracted but focused. Take on this spiritual practice with earnest devotion.

Here is a preview of what one of the days meditations looks like.

Wednesday “Forgive Them” Luke 23:34

The first “word” of Christ at his crucifixion was “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus was talking to the Father about those who were in the process of killing him. Is there any greater act of forgiveness than this? We might be inclined to say, “Well, that’s Jesus… I can’t forgive like Jesus!” But if we look at St. Stephen, the first Martyr for his faith (Acts 7), we see that Stephen echoes Jesus’ forgiveness. As he is being stoned, Stephen cries out, “Do not hold this against them.”

Forgiveness is never easy. We have an innate sense of justice and when we’ve been maligned or wronged or dismissed it’s often very hard to forgive the perpetrators. 

Who is it today that needs your forgiveness? What does it look like to forgive them? Do you need to say something to them about your forgiveness? Or would it be more kind to forgive them without notification?

Take a few minutes to meditate on Christ’s forgiveness of you.  Take a few minutes to meditate on your forgiveness of others. 

Reflect on the image for today’s meditation How does Christ’s death communicate forgiveness? What does this image depict about forgiveness? Was there anything different that stood out with this week’s meditation?

Repeat this simple phrase as much as you can “Forgive them”