Lent 2026

This Lenten Season, use your passport to guide you through a journey of spiritual practices!

For the six full weeks of Lent, suggestions for practices are listed in your passport and correspond to the week we are in (e.g. Dream, Learn, etc.) Choose a practice (or two, or five!) to complete that week, and come back on Sunday to get your passport stamped! 

The asterisks * indicate practices that require further explanation, found here!

Passports

Pick up your Lenten passport at the FPC office. The QR code on the back of your passport will direct you to this page!

LEARN

Week 1: Jesus in the Wilderness

  1. Check out a book from the church’s rotating library.

  2. Bring bread to the food bank (Isaiah 58:7, Matthew 4:4).

  3. Learn to make bread or find a new bread recipe if you already make bread.

  4. Get a battery-operated candle and put it in your window to bring light to the world (Isaiah 58:8).

  5. Learn about Lent & its place in our spiritual lives. (LINK)

  6. Learn/practice the spiritual discipline of fasting. (LINK)

  7. Find someone at church you do not know well and learn three things about them.

  8. Learn something new about God by spending intentional time with Scripture, silence, or prayer, and let it shape one small act of love.

  9. Read Isaiah 58:1-8. Create art of an image or idea that jumps out at you.*

*Ideas for art creation:

  • Use paper and pencil/crayon/ marker/colored pencil to draw a picture.

  • Using magazines, junk mail, old cards, etc., tear out images, words, etc. and make a collage.

  • Use paints to create an image.

  • Use fabric or paper to make a 3-D image.

  • Use your imagination and any materials you have. (Beads, thread, yarn, glitter, sticks, etc.)

  • Use a digital medium to gather photos, images, or shapes.

The Judean desert landscape (iStock)

REST

Week 2: Sabbath in the Wilderness

  1. For one day this week, turn off your phone at all meals.

  2. Learn/practice the Biblical disciple of Sabbath and its place in the life of faith. (Article by Rev. Christina Thompson) (PCUSA Article)

  3. Take two naps this week.

  4. Listen to a worship song while you’re in the car.

  5. Attend FPC’s “Prayer for Our Nation and the World” at 10 a.m. in the Church Library on Sunday.

  6. Say the Lord’s Prayer when you wake up each morning, and when you fall asleep. Write it in erasable marker on your mirror!

  7. Choose one day to “fast” from negative self-talk.

  8. Choose one of our passages from the week and create art of one of the images or ideas that jumps out at you. *

*Ideas for art creation:

  • Use paper and pencil/crayon/ marker/colored pencil to draw a picture.

  • Using magazines, junk mail, old cards, etc., tear out images, words, etc. and make a collage.

  • Use paints to create an image.

  • Use fabric or paper to make a 3-D image.

  • Use your imagination and any materials you have. (Beads, thread, yarn, glitter, sticks, etc.)

  • Use a digital medium to gather photos, images, or shapes.

A beautiful nest where creatures come to rest (iStock)

REFUGE

Week 3: Born Upon the Waters

  1. Think about a place in your life that has been a refuge for you. When you are stressed this week, imagine going to that place of refuge, or go there if you can.

  2. Create a piece of art depicting God as a refuge.*

  3. Sit in silence for 5-10 minutes. Let that stillness inspire one quiet act of kindness.

  4. Create an acrostic poem out of the letters in REFUGE.

  5. Build a blanket fort in your home. Spend a few quiet moments there each day this week.

  6. Creatively plan a way that you can provide refuge for a neighbor near or far. Put your plan into practice!

  7. Pray for the many people in our world who are in need of refuge.

  8. Offer someone else a moment of refuge by giving your time, attention, or encouragement.

  9. Learn/practice a Breath Prayer.

*Ideas for art creation:

  • Use paper and pencil/crayon/ marker/colored pencil to draw a picture.

  • Using magazines, junk mail, old cards, etc., tear out images, words, etc. and make a collage.

  • Use paints to create an image.

  • Use fabric or paper to make a 3-D image.

  • Use your imagination and any materials you have. (Beads, thread, yarn, glitter, sticks, etc.)

  • Use a digital medium to gather photos, images, or shapes.

Water, inspired by Genesis 7 (iStock)

ASH WEDNESDAY WEEK

FEBRUARY 18-21: Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

Please see the practices for Ash Wednesday Week below. All other practices will appear in your passports, with a QR code linking to the companion materials that appear on this webpage.

  1. Find a beaded necklace/bracelet or tie a few knots in a string. With each bead/knot, pray, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

  2. Challenge yourself to name 40 things that bring you joy.

  3. Fill a jar with dust and dirt. Place it somewhere you can see it to remember, “Dust we are, to dust we shall return.”

  4. Carry a small cross with you throughout Lent.

  5. Write a note of appreciation (and give it!) to someone with whom you wish to deepen a connection.

  6. Learn about and practice one of the Corporal Works of Mercy from the Catholic tradition.

  7. Practice Statio: The Holy Pause. Statio draws our attention to the moments of stillness between one task and the next. It is the practice of being fully present before beginning something new. Today, and throughout Lent, practice the three-breath Statio. Before you start a task (opening your laptop, starting the car, or eating a meal), stop for a moment. Take three conscious breaths.

    • On the first breath, acknowledge you are "dust,” that is to say, acknowledge your humanity and your limits.

    • On the second, acknowledge God, or divine presence.

    • On the third, listen for the intent of the task ahead. Proceed gently.