Shrove Tuesday: How to enjoy Lent Daybook Meditations

A Little Bit of Encouragement

(from me and the steely-eyed Dorothy Sayers)

“Lent is not intended to be an annual ordeal during which we begrudgingly forgo a handful of pleasures. It is meant to be the church’s springtime, a time when, out of the darkness of sin’s winter, a repentant, empowered people emerges.

Put another way, Lent is the season in which we ought to be surprised by joy. Our self-sacrifices serve no purpose unless, by laying aside this or that desire, we are able to focus on our heart’s deepest longing: unity with Christ. In him—in his suffering and death, his resurrection and triumph—we find our truest joy.””

— Dorothy Sayers, Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter

I’ve been thinking about you and praying for all of us as I put the finishing touches on this year’s guide. May each one of us enter the coming prayerful weeks with an awareness that we are deeply loved exactly in the state we find ourselves heading into this Lent.

Whatever it is you’re carrying is exactly what Jesus invites you to bring with you toward his arms outstretched on the cross. This is all we need to do to begin preparing our hearts, minds, and bodies for resurrection in Christ.

An Overview of the Guide

Today I’m sharing a brief introduction and overview of what you’ll be receiving the 40 days between tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, leading up to April 9, the day before Palm Sunday. During Holy Week, I’ll move our daily posts to my public blog for a special series of guest stories I’ll publish each day of Holy Week.

Why Lent?

Lent is a 40-day lesson in what it means to be bodies cursed by death and decay. If you've ever received the cross-shaped ash on your forehead, you've heard the pastoral reminder of a very real, and very sad state in which we find ourselves: Remember that you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.

Paradoxically, we discover joy in humility, peace in confession, and love in reconciliation.  

From Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, we follow the account of Christ as he makes his way to the Cross. In Epiphany, we encountered the light of divinity dwelling on Christ and followed His invitation to join Him as the light of the world.  In Lent, we recognize and mourn the curse of sin and death that separates us from God, each other, and our own selves. We follow Christ's invitation to carry the cross with Him on the road of suffering. We grow in humility and gratitude with the Lenten practice of remembering that once we were alienated from God and lived as people with no hope, we seek mercy for those still living in that state.

You can read more about how we prepare for Lent, including our favorite book recommendations on my LENT page.

40 Lent Daybook Meditations

Each day’s meditation leading up to Holy Week centers around the day’s Scripture passages found in the and includes a work of art, song, prayer, and a simple practice to help you journey through these prayerful weeks of Lent. The daily guide is organized around 5 prompts to help us prepare our hearts, minds, and bodies for resurrection: Look, Listen, Read, Pray, and Do.

LOOK

Some might call this devotional practice of visual contemplation Visio Divina or a divine looking. It’s not the actual work of art that is divine, but the Holy Spirit’s invitation to encounter Christ through nonverbal reflection. Throughout the year I collect digital images that I think will enhance the Scriptural themes of Lent. You’ll notice that some of the images evoke traditional scenes of the Passion of Christ, while others seem to have nothing to do with the traditional images of the season. The images rotate through classic and contemporary art of all media. Each week I include an image (usually a photograph) from news headlines of the previous year. My hope is that the Scripture passages for each day orient the visual art selection and, sometimes that's a difficult task. To help us enter in to the visual reflection, I offer a daily opening prayer: Heavenly Father, make me more like Jesus and more like the true self you’ve created as I savor your loving presence today. Please guide my thoughts and impressions by your Holy Spirit. Amen.


LISTEN

Many of the songs I share each day are worship songs and contemporary versions of old classic hymns, but each week I try to mix in a classical instrumental or choral arrangement as well. Lent is particularly suited to highlight the rich canon of old Spirituals and Gospel songs. Paradoxically, mainstream pop, rock, indie, and country catalogs are full of songs that reflect the weariness and anxiety of living in a broken world so you’ll hear some of them, too! I try to select quality recordings and include both Spotify and YouTube links for your convenience. I also include a link to lyrics for each song so you can sing along if you’d like.

Since the music is chosen to enhance the visual art, my family chooses to play the music as a backdrop for contemplating the image. You might choose to do each separately.

Playlists for Lent

Playlists for Lent

  • I’ll be sharing primarily from this playlist: LENT 2022

  • Occasionally, a song that no one would call “Christian” speaks truth beautifully. Here’s the archive I've created for that: Lent Songs for Everyone Archive

READ

If you don’t do anything else with the posts I send each day, read the Scripture passages. I include a link for the complete lectionary passages each day and then excerpt the portions that particularly spoke to me as I was preparing the post.

Ash Wednesday, Easter Octave, and Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year C of the Book of Common Prayer 2019 (Anglican Church of North America). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include both Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 2).

PRAY

Ash Wednesday, Easter Octave, and Sunday prayers highlight the weekly collect (a prayer said by the collected congregation in worship) from the Book of Common Prayer. I also include a guided prayer for each day. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I’ll include a longer-form prayer adapted from various prayer forms in the Book of Common Prayer. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I’ll offer guidance through a more contemplative prayer practice.

You are most welcome to use what feels most inviting to you on any given day and set aside what doesn’t. You could pray directly from the daily Scripture (especially the Psalms) or even some of the song lyrics included in the daily meditations. Your own words of need, gratitude, and lament are what Jesus most desires.

DO

The spiritual practice of contemplation moves between stillness and thoughtful action. We were made by a Creator to love Him, our neighbors, and ourselves with heart, mind, soul, and strength. Throughout I'll invite you to simple, daily actions to demonstrate that love outwardly. Many of the practices will feel familiar with the traditional Lenten customs of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving and others will focus on contemplative practices of journalling and prayerful reflection.

A Special Note About Holy Week

From Palm Sunday, April 10, through Holy Saturday, April 16, we add a focus on the litany of last words Jesus spoke from the cross, traditionally known as the Seven Last Words of Christ. The deathbed words of the Suffering Servant provide a framework for the stories of lament I’ve asked seven friends to share with us from their own life experiences of grief.

This is a highlight of the year for me on the blog and 2022 is our tenth year helping each other retrieve a Christlike lament for the brokenness of our lives and world. You can read each of the 7 reflections by subscribing to my free blog in the subscription box at the bottom of my home page HERE.

Shrove Tuesday, Sunday Feasting, and Lenten Fasting

Today is commonly known as Shrove Tuesday. While the name is derived from the word “shrive” which means to absolve, the cultural connotation of feasting on pancakes and other sweets before beginning a Lenten fast is far more popular. Last year, Brian bought a waffle maker just in time for Shrove Tuesday and we decided to bring it out each Sunday through all of Lent to help us remember that while we walk with Jesus in the way of the cross, we also carry with us in our hearts, minds, and bodies the reality of the resurrection. Through the years I’ve come to understand that as much as the practice of fasting certain pleasures during Lent, it’s also what I feast on during these weeks that remind me that resurrection is real and the feast days will come again not only in April but forever in our eternal home.

Know that as much as the fasting I’ll invite you to consider in the coming weeks, each Sunday, we’ll be enjoying fluffy, fruity yumminess of waffles as the “firstfruit” of all the feasting coming in Eastertide.

I want to say again that Lent is mostly about recognizing God’s heart for us and the gaps between what we understand about His heart and what we actually receive. My deep desire is to walk together more and more deeply into God’s heart for us this year.

There’s still time for your friends to join us!

If you enjoy the Lent Daybook series, please invite your friends to subscribe too! The Daybook Meditations provide a beautiful experience to be able to share and talk about together.

If your friends or family would like a devotional guide for Lent but becoming a Daybook Meditations member isn't a good fit right now, the Lent Daybook 2022 pdf download is the next best thing! My shop is updated with the complete Lent Daybook guide in one downloadable .pdf. Pass the link along to your friends and they’ll be able to purchase and download the entire guide immediately. I also offer gift certificates if you’d like to give the Lent Daybook to your family, fellow congregation members, or friends.

Please feel free to email me your questions.

With anticipation and a little bit of pancake syrup on my chin,

Tamara

LentTamara Hill MurphyLent Daybook 2022