The Church's Springtime: Lent Daybook 2024
Finding our truest joy in Christ's death and resurrection
Dear Restful friends,
I’ve been thinking about you and praying for all of us as I curate our meditations for this year. As I write and reflect, I’m reminded that Jesus's restful way always moves in the shape of the cross. No matter how you plan to walk through Lent, may you know the restful way of the cross as you prepare your hearts, minds, and bodies for resurrection in Christ.
Yet, walking the cruciform way with Jesus leads, shockingly, to joy. Lent reminds us we are surrounded by the Church across the world and throughout time and trains us together to “lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” And Jesus keeps us company and leads the way. Jesus, the “pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”1
For the joy set before us and already given to us as children of God whose kindness leads us to repentance and whose fatherhood invites us into discipline, we carry our cross with Jesus. The writer of Hebrews says that the discipline of God for the children of God is not always pleasant, but “later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”2 I think this is what the feisty Dorothy Sayers is getting at when she calls Lent the Church’s springtime.
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
So, my prayer for us all this Lent is the same as the writer of Hebrews, that the restful, cruciform way of Jesus would lift our “drooping hands and strengthen [our] weak knees and make straight paths for [our] feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”3
Five elements of a Restful Lent
Today I’m sharing a brief introduction and overview of what paid subscribers will be receiving each day between Ash Wednesday and March 24, the day before Palm Sunday. I’m preparing a separate resource for Holy Week and will keep you posted as it develops.
If you’ve never used my guides before, each week I invite us to participate in communal as well as personal contemplative prayer and practices. Here is a breakdown of the different elements you will find as you journey through these prayerful weeks of Lent.
LOOK
Throughout the year I collect digital images that I think will enhance the Scriptural themes of Lent and then I curate them to pair with the daily lectionary passages.
The images rotate through the classic and contemporary art of all media, some of them traditional biblical scenes, while others invite more open reflection. Each Wednesday I include an image (usually a photograph) from news headlines of the previous year. This devotional practice of visual contemplation is traditionally known as Visio Divina or a “divine looking.”
My hope is that the Scripture passages for each day orient the visual art selection and, sometimes that's a difficult task. It’s important to note that, unlike Lectio Divina, or divine reading of scripture, the art we use isn’t sacred (alternatively, neither is it secular) but we are listening for the the Holy Spirit’s invitation to encounter Christ through nonverbal reflection. By engaging in Visio Divina, we explore how art can speak to us in ways that words cannot. It's a reminder that God's presence can be found in unexpected places.
LISTEN
Many of the songs I share daily are worship songs and contemporary versions of classic hymns, but each week I try to mix in a classical instrumental or choral arrangement. 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 the 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.
READ
If you don’t do anything else with the Lent Daybook, 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 while curating the meditation.
This year, Ash Wednesday, Easter Octave, and Sunday scripture readings are taken from Year B 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).
Browse my LENT bookshelf on Bookshop, which includes our favorite book recommendations from all genres for the season.
PRAY
Each meditation includes a contemplative or liturgical prayer. 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 prayers in the Book of Common Prayer. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I’ll offer guidance through a more contemplative prayer practice.
Please 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.
PRACTICE
The spiritual practice of contemplation moves between stillness and thoughtful action. We were made by a Creator to love God, our neighbors, and ourselves with heart, mind, soul, and strength. Throughout Lent, I'll invite you to simple, daily actions to demonstrate that love outwardly. Many of the practices will feel familiar with the traditional Church Lenten disciplines 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, March 24, through Holy Saturday, March 30, we turn our daily focus to 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 2024 is our twelfth year helping each other retrieve a Christlike lament for the brokenness in our lives and the world. While the details of the daily lament stories will be hidden behind the paid subscriber paywall to protect the privacy of the storytellers, I will send a free preview each day to everyone.
Would you invite your small group, extended family, or church community to join us for A Restful Lent?
If you work at a church or educational institution or are in charge of a group of people you think would like to walk through Lent together, please email me. I will create a flat rate for unlimited participants that will fit your needs.
For example, one church reached out and asked for a $75 flat rate to share Lent Daybook 2024 with their small congregation.
Leave me a comment or just hit reply to this email and ask me for more details!
What others are saying about A Restful Lent Daybook
Here’s what an Advent and Christmas Daybook subscriber has to say about her experience:
“I chose to intentionally limit my online reading over the Advent and Christmas season. There is so much out there, and so much coming into my inbox. I chose to give my attention to your [Daybook] offerings, because it is full-orbed and rich. … I love that you offer music, and art, and scripture and books and simple spiritual exercises all in one place. And reflections from a really real person to help me see it all better. Thank you for putting your stuff out there. Thank you for putting yourself out there, for creating a space for me to keep on opening my real self to God.” (Elizabeth C.)
May each 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.
Tamara
p.s. Thank you so much for your continuous support. Every time you share my Restful invitations with a friend, you're helping to support my work that reaches beyond the scope of this website. I am grateful for your help!
Hebrews 12:1-2
Hebrews 2:11
Hebrews 12:12-13