Bible Verses and Devotionals for Lent

Wednesday, February 25 (Ash Wednesday)

Joel 2:12-14

Yet even now, says the Lord,
Return to me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
Rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
for the Lord, your God?

We are at that time of the year when we are invited to test our inner freedom and to question the notion: I can take it, or leave it. Try that with pornography, alcohol, complaining, gossiping, anger, gambling. What habits make me hard to live with?
Lent is about regaining self-control, especially in those areas that damage others. We don't admire those whose appetites or habits lead them by the nose. A pure heart create for me, O God. Put a steadfast spirit within me.

Sunday, March 1, First Sunday of Lent

Mark 1:12-15

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the Good News of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the Good News."

There is time for every activity under the sun- a time to act and a time to pray.
Sometimes the need is to act, and God calls me to go out and do something.
At other times, I just need to spend time alone with God, and that will give me the strength and the wisdom to do the right thing when it is the time for doing.
Can I speak to the Lord and ask him where he is calling me now?

Sunday, March 8, Second Sunday of Lent

Mark 9:2-10

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.

Imagine yourself to be present at this scene. What is it like? What are Elijah, Moses and Jesus talking to each other about?
How do you imagine the voice that says, "This is my son?"
At the end of the scene, when Jesus is standing there alone, what do you want to say to him?

Sunday, March 15, Third Sunday of Lent

1 Corinthians 1:25-30

For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

You could not ask for a clearer expression of the revolutionary character of Christianity than these lines from St. Paul.
How do I feel when I read these lines? Inspired? Ashamed? Challenged?
What might I do differently if I were putting into practice the standard spelled out here?
What do I really want? To live my life by this standard, or to be "somebody," to be influential and important? Can I talk to the Lord about this?

Sunday, March 22, Fourth Sunday of Lent

John 3:14-18

Jesus said to Nicodemus "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

With Moses in the desert, the people looked up at the serpent and were healed. Jesus wants me to look up at him and be healed.

Our lives are serious and can go very badly wrong. In the times of greatest chaos, the Son is there for me.

Can I open my heart to accept that all God's love is there for me?

Sunday, March 29, Fifth Sunday of Lent

John 12:20-24

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Imagine the scene. Some Greeks, complete newcomers, went to meet Jesus. What attracted them?

They immediately hear ominous predictions about suffering and death. We don't even know if the understood or were frightened off.

How do I react to Jesus’ talk of coming trials.

Remember that I am told these things not to frighten me but to strengthen me.