Lent Reading & Fasting Guide

“Lent invites us into practices where the Gospel is felt in our bodies—in hunger, in longings that go unsatisfied, in wants deferred. And these aren’t just “intellectual” realizations. My growling belly has stories to tell me about who I am and who I’m made for.” James K.A. Smith

Next Wednesday, the season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. This time in the Church Calendar carries us to Easter and the Passion Week. Our church has provided a Daily Reading and Weekly Fasting Guide. The daily reading plan focuses on Easter, and then during Passion Week it shifts to the events of Christ’s life from the Gospels.

To understand more about this season in the Church Calendar, see Lent: History, Cautions, and Benefits.

The fasts suggested are are put forward as ideas to help us giving something up so we can take on or focus on something else.

Why Exodus?

The book of Exodus has often been read during the Lenten season because of how many of its themes overlap: humility, needing redemption, following after God, and seeing him at work. It also parallels in many ways the life of Christ and the gospel. Jesus endures a wilderness season similar to Israel. We are redeemed and delivered from sin like Israel was from Egypt. Jesus becomes our Passover. Israel was led into obedience to God through the giving of the 10 Commandments, and we are led into obedience by following after Jesus.

As you read Exodus each day, here’s a format of Look-Understand-Apply-Pray to help you dig in and meditate on what you’re reading about.

“A journey, a pilgrimage! Yet, as we begin it, as we make the first step into the ‘bright sadness’ of Lent, we see—far, far away—the destination. It is the joy of Easter, it is the entrance into the glory of the Kingdom.” Alexander Schemann