Our 2026 Lenten Guide is built around a simple and hopeful theme: “And so we say it again.”
Lent invites us to return to the words, prayers, and practices that quietly shape our lives—spoken not once, but over time, and together. This guide is designed to help you slow down, listen more carefully, and discover how God uses repeated prayer and Scripture to form us in truth, humility, and hope.
What you’ll find inside the guide
The guide walks you through how repetition works in Christian life and worship—why returning to the same prayers and words is not dull, but deeply formative. You’ll be invited to notice how shared language trains our instincts, gives us words when our own fail, and helps us tell the truth about ourselves and the world before God.
Praying with the Great Litany
A central focus of this Lent is the Great Litany—one of the Church’s oldest prayers. The guide explains its history, its steady rhythm of honest petition, and why its repeated response, “Good Lord, deliver us,” is especially fitting for this season. Below is a recorded version of the Great Litany you can pray at home, on a walk, or whenever you need faithful words to lean on.
Words Jesus speaks—and words we carry
Each Sunday in Lent centers on a short, powerful phrase from the Gospel—such as “It is written,” “Come and see,” “One thing I do know,” and “Unbind him, and let him go.”
The guide invites you to dwell with one phrase at a time across the week, allowing Scripture to work slowly on the heart and imagination rather than rushing past it.
Simple practices for everyday life
You’ll also find gentle, realistic Lenten practices designed for busy lives—ideas such as carrying one short prayer through the week, noticing repeated responses in worship, reflecting on which words stay with you after prayer, and creating space through fasting or new rhythms of prayer and service. These are not meant as spiritual achievements, but as steady ways of making room for God.
Resources to go deeper
The guide includes a curated list of books and devotional resources—ranging from Scripture and prayer, to memoir, fiction, and cultural reflection—to accompany you through Lent and help you notice what is shaping your thinking, attention, and prayer.
Download the full Lenten Guide to explore the prayers, practices, weekly Gospel journey, and recommended resources in depth—and to walk this season with words the Church has trusted, and returned to, again and again.
Lenten Events & Services
Vessels of Faith: Crafting a Lenten Communion Set
Sunday, February 15 | 10:15 AM | Carter Chapel
Learn the story behind the handcrafted wooden Communion set created for Lent.
Ash Wednesday: The Beginning We Return To
Wednesday, February 18 | 7:00 PM, 12:10 PM & 6:30 PM*
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” *6:30 PM service will be livestreamed and have incense.
Friday Book Study
Fridays during Lent | Starting February 20 | 12 PM on Zoom
Book study featuring “Psalms, The Prayer Book of the Bible,” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Lent I Worship Service
Sunday, February 22 | 7:45, 9, & 11:15 AM | Church
On the First Sunday in Lent at St. John’s, we will begin the season by praying the Great Litany together, with the choir processing among the congregation at the 9 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. services.
Morning Prayer in Carter Chapel
Tuesdays during Lent | Starting February 24 | 7:10 AM | Carter Chapel
Join St. John’s lay leaders as we gather and pray the Daily Office.
Lenten Quiet Day
Saturday, March 14, 9 AM – 12 PM | St. John’s Campus
Step away from the noise of everyday life for a gentle Lenten Quiet Day of rest, reflection, and renewal, complete with an Anglican Prayer Beads Workshop, contemplative prayer, and an Instructed Holy Eucharist led by Fr. Lonnie Lacy. This event is sponsored by the St. John Chapter of the Daughters of the King. (Attending the Lenten Quiet Day is free, but the Anglican Prayer Beads Workshop is $15 for supplies.) REGISTER ONLINE.
Lenten Service of Comfort & Healing: Feast of the Annunciation
Wednesday, March 25 | 12:10 PM | Carter Chapel
Lent can be a heavy season, but even in sorrow, light breaks through. This special 12:10 p.m. Wednesday Comfort & Healing Service, tied to the Feast of the Annunciation, invites us to bring our burdens before God in prayer, music, and anointing.
A Model Passover Seder with Rabbi Paul Sidlofsky
Thursday, March 26, 5:45 – 8:30 PM | Alfriend Hall
Join us at St. John’s for a two-and-a-half-hour, guided model Passover Seder led by Rabbi Paul Sidlofsky—a participatory, prayerful, and gently paced ceremonial meal that invites all ages to learn, listen, and linger with traditions familiar to Jesus and his disciples (cost: $20 adults, $10 children). REGISTER ONLINE.
