Lenten Prayer 2026

40 Days Of Lent

Giving, Prayer, Fasting

Our journey through Lent will include the disciplines of Giving, Praying and Fasting. For Giving, pick worthy causes as the Lord leads. For praying, use this prayer guide each day (except Sunday’s) so that we can be united in our petitions. For Fasting, join us in fasting from Thursday dinner until after 3 pm on Friday (that moment when Jesus conquered death by His death).

 

 

This guide will also be available daily on social media, on our app, and online at CypressMC.org/LENT.

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Week 1

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Ash Wednesday • February 18​

 

For dust you are, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:19)​

 

For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. (Psalm 103:14)​

 

So begins the Lenten journey. It opens with a jolting truth – in the words of scripture we are but dust. But Dust. Mortal. Frail. Fragile. Finite. We begin lent by returning to this truth. But Dust. In our forgetting this truth, we expect both too much and too little. Too much of what we can do in our own strength and too little of what we can do in God’s. The Lord knows our fragility. In Psalm 103, the psalmist reminds us: For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” Trevor Hudson in his book, Pauses for Lent writes: We are fragile, fallible, fallen human beings. From the moment we emerge from our mother’s womb, we begin the process of dying. ... However, the fact that we are marked by the sign of the cross tells us we are infinitely more than dust. We are God’s beloved, and nothing—not even death—can separate us from God’s love through Jesus Christ. Our dust is charged with God’s own life-sustaining and death-defeating breath. We are beloved dust.

 

So in lent remember we are but dust and yet beloved.​

 

Gracious Lord, remind me that I am but dust and yet beloved. Help me to walk in the wisdom of this truth and in the hope that looks to your grace in all circumstances. Amen.

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Thursday: Returning • February 19

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12 “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

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13 Rend your heart and not your garments.

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Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate,

 

The journey of lent is informed by this passage from Joel 2. It mentions the discipline of fasting with a call to “Rend our hearts.” In Lent, we always return to rending our hearts. For some reason, we never seem to get past beginning this journey again and again with the call to a repentance of the heart. Sister Josephine Garrett, in a Lenten journal says: I have learned that it takes far more courage to be in a state of beginning again than it does to be in a state of getting it right.

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We are embarrassed to admit that we must begin again – that we are always having to pick ourselves up after another fall. But getting back up, beginning again and again is not failure but courage coupled with humility.

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Josephine Garrett suggests, “Maybe we can reframe these forty days from a journey toward our own perfection to instead a time to strive to have the courage to begin again, and again, again . . . well.” We need to remember that God, always gracious and compassionate, receives us with grace and encourages us to keep going.

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Gracious Father, thank you that your grace is inexhaustible. Remind me that falling is not failure – only quitting is.

As I begin again, open my heart that I may reflect yours. Amen.

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Friday: The Fast • February 20

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“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness.. (Isaiah 58:6)

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To fast is to choose another nourishment. It seeks the spiritual nourishment of repentance. Fasting is not negation but replacement. Consider the following fast: “To fast from negative thoughts about yourself, replacing those thoughts with brief prayers. To fast from uncharitable thoughts and gossip about others and strive to presume good will. To regularly spend more time with your family in a common area of your home, or to plan to eat a meal together at the table (so many families no longer practice this simple, yet profound routine that establishes powerful bonds).” (Garrett CSFN, Sr. Josephine.)

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Such a fast replaces harmful thoughts and words with healthy and holy ones.

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Heavenly Father, by Spirit, transform me by changing my thoughts and deeds.

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Saturday: Fasting to Feasting • February 21

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“But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:17-18

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Trevor Hudson writes: Throughout the ages, those who have made an impact on their generation for the sake of Christ have fasted. This usually involves going without food for a set length of time. Certainly Jesus assumes that his followers will do this as part of their relationship with God. He says, “When you fast . . . ” not “If you fast. . . . ” Fasting is really feasting. It provides us with an opportunity to feast on God’s overwhelming goodness and love for us. We do this during our fast by nourishing ourselves on those words that God speaks to us. We learn that we do not live on bread alone but by every word of God.

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Lord, in this journey to the cross, I look to you as my true bread. And I look for you in the secret place. Let us sup together. Amen.

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