In preparation for and celebration of Easter, I am giving up a daily prayer for Lent after a year when we have given up so much already.
Lent Days 1-5
DAY 1 – Today marks the beginning of Lent and 40 days until Easter. “Lord, I want to remember how much I need you in my life and how much my life needs redemption. I want to remember it clearly and in the background of my day today.”
Day 2 – “Lord, to take up my cross, die to self and follow you is to be a disciple. Nothing in my life is important unless it glorifies you in some way. Be glorified. Today.”
Day 3 – “Lord, I know how much you love me. I know your love is always with me. Help me to use your love as a way to persevere. I know with your help, I can use these days to draw closer to you.”
Day 4 – “I ask for the ability to use my weaknesses in some way to glorify you. Let me be aware of the many ways you reach out to help me today and let me stand in awe of the power that you use in loving ways.”
Day 5 – “Bring me to your truth and help me to respond to your generous love. Let me recognize the fullness of your grace which will fill my life.”
Lent Days 6-10
Day 6 – “Lord, your commandment of love is so simple. And so challenging. Help me to let go of my pride and to be humble. I want only to live the way you ask me to love, and to love the way you ask me to live.”
Day 7 – “God, guide me and protect me. I so often believe I can save myself, and do things my way and that usually ends in failure. Lead me on the right path. May your Spirit inspire your Church to be an instrument of your compassion.”
Day 8 – “I surrender my impatience with others. With your love and your grace, I might be less and less absorbed with myself, and more and more full of the desire to follow you, in laying down my life according to your example.”
Day 9 – “Lead me today in good works I can do in your name. Guide me and strengthen my faith. I ask only that others would feel your love through my life today.”
Day 10 – Lord, I am a child who often doesn’t appreciate your love. Please accept my small acts of sorrow today. Help to release me from the self-absorption that closes my heart to you. As I journey through Lent, l am filled with thanks to you!”
Lent Days 11-15
Day 11 – “Lord, help me to be aware of the many ways you allow me to share in your life so intimately today. Thank you for the gifts you have placed in my life.”
Day 12 – “Your mercy and love give me confidence I may fail or fall and be welcomed on return. Thank you for the invitation to fast and pray so that you can form a new heart within me. Your compassion leads me to ask for mercy and await with great hope.”
Day 13 – “Merciful God, protect us from the evil we see and the evil we prefer to ignore. We need your guidance, Lord for we cannot do this alone.”
Day 14 – “God of infinite love, thank you for your call that we be more patient, gentle and compassionate with others. Inform my heart. Help me to let go of judging others.”
Day 15 – “God, you love me as your own child. May I bend my life and will toward you so that I might accept your teaching and guidance. I am so grateful for your support in my life, now and in the eternal life you are preparing for me.”
Lent Days 16-20
Day 16 – “Lead me today in good works done in your name. Guide me by your Spirit to those in need. I ask only to reflect your love in my life today.”
Day 17 – “Lord, I live to be faithful to your word. I am so grateful that your mercy for my failings is as strong as your love for me.”
Day 18 – “Father, open my heart more fully to the mysteries of the suffering and death of your Son. Help me to be humble in this journey and remember that any mercy and compassion I feel is a gift from you.”
Day 19 – “Father, teach me to follow the example of your Son. Help me to live each day as he did, turning hatred to love and storms to peace.”
Day 20 – “Lord, help me to grow this Lent in an awareness of the gifts of relationships you place in my life and in a greater appreciation for your care. Give me the humility to ask for help.”
Lent Days 21-25
Day 21 – “I confess that my natural posture is to fight for myself, to take, to keep, to hold, to hang on. I surrender to the choice of an open-handed posture of generosity.”
Day 22 – “Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” I see the forgiving love I need in my life. Teach me to love as you love.”
Day 23 – ‘Life is a sacred journey. Small sacrifices in following Jesus make my life whole. I surrender all. All to Jesus I freely give. In his presence daily live.”
Day 24 – “Loving God of forgiveness, I hold out my hands as a petitioner would. Thank you for the love you pour out on me so lavishly. Help me to follow more closely in the path you have set for me, the path of your Son.”
Day 25 – “Jesus, what you ask of my life is so right. It is how I envision each day. To follow you, and put you first in everything. I do not do it alone. I surrender to your help, guidance and patience.”
Lent Days 26-30
Day 26 – “To love the way Jesus did seems impossible. Help me to be inspired by your love and guided by your example, today. I accept that I can’t do it alone, and that trying in my own strength is arrogant self-centredness. The joy of Easter is in surrender.”
Day 27 – “Jesus, you are the source of all that is good and gracious in my life. You know what I need. With you, I lack no good thing.”
Day 28 – “Loving God, you have heard my complaints, my impatience. Help me to think beyond my own wants and to desire only to do your will. Thank you for the many blessings in my life and for the ways I feel your presence.”
Day 29 – “I keep my eyes focused and fixed on you. Take my will and align it with yours. You surround me with people and resources that help me stay on track as I commit my life to seeking after you.”
Day 30 – “Jesus, you endured everything for me. I know that momentary trials won’t last forever. So today I commit to keep moving forward, with my eyes fixed on you.”
Lent Days 31-35
Day 31 – “It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day of my life. Help me to rely on you for help. Remind me that perfection isn’t the crazy, successful way I try to live my life, but a perfection of my most authentic self.”
Day 32 – “Loving God, you invite me deeper into your world, your people, your Lent. May this time be one of outward focus; seeking you in those I often ignore. Help me live a Lent focused on freedom, generosity, and encounter.”
Day 33 – “Jesus, you have known us from the beginning of time. You have known us in the depths of our dreams and in the darkness of our shame. You call us as your beloved. Help us to own that identity more and more in this season of repentance and mercy.”
Day 34 – “Almighty God, it is arrogant to think that we are masters of our own fate. And it is ludicrous to believe that we are victims of fate. We humbly see ourselves as co-creators. We repent of blame-shifting for sins we could have avoided.”
Day 35 – “God, guide my mind with your truth. Strengthen my life by the example of Jesus. He died so that I would no longer be separated from you. Help me to feel how close you are and to live in union with you.”
Lent Days 36-40
Day 36 – “My prayer is simple: Your son, Jesus, suffered and died for me. I know only that I cannot have real strength unless I rely on you. I cannot feel protected from my weaknesses unless I turn to you for forgiveness and your unalterable love.”
Day 37 – “I choose to fast from judging others and feast on God’s image in them. To fast from fear of illness and feast on the healing power of God. To fast from discontent and feast on gratitude.”
Day 38 – “Today I fast from anger and feast on patience. I fast from pessimism and feast on hope. To fast from negatives and feast on encouragement. To fast from bitterness and feast on forgiveness.”
Day 39 – “This day I will fast from self-concern and feast on compassion. I will fast from suspicion; and feast on truth. I will fast from gossip and feast on purposeful silence.”
Day 40 – “Create a clean heart in me, O God: a humble heart, a meek heart, a peaceful heart, a benevolent heart, a devout heart which does evil to no one, which does not repay evil for evil, but overcomes evil with good, which loves you above all things.”
Reflect on these prayers for Lent as you prepare Easter.
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