Lent is a forty-day season to slow down and prepare for Easter — not through guilt or self-punishment, but through attention. This year, we’re entering Lent through a simple image: a cup.
Inspired by The Cup of Our Life by Joyce Rupp, we’ll reflect on how transformation happens in ordinary, everyday moments. A cup is simple. It gets filled and emptied. It gets chipped and washed. And still — it holds what we need.
Some of us come to Lent feeling full.
Some empty.
Some cracked.
Most of us — a mix of it all.
This season, we’ll pay attention to our cups.
Our Focus: Practice
This Lent is about steady spiritual practice — small, daily invitations to pray, reflect, and pay attention in the “common crevices” of life. Nothing dramatic. Just faithful beginning again.
Giving as Practice
Consider setting aside $1 per day during Lent — forty days, forty dollars — as a simple act of generosity. You can dedicate it to our Sacred Steps Giving Program, helping sustain the everyday, holy work of hospitality, justice, recovery, and chosen family.
Lent isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about tending the life you already carry. Let’s walk these forty days together — gently and honestly.
You are a love song, beauty set to music. You are a love song, I have chosen you. – Theresa Hucul.
Breathpraver:
- Breathing in: i am.
- Breathing out: … a love song
Reflection: Hold the cup in your hands. Notice its style, shape, color, size. Be conscious of yourself as a cup held in God’s hands. Accept your uniqueness and your goodness. Thank God for creating you as you are.
Scriptures
- Mon: Isaiah 43:1-7
- Tue: John 15:1-11 or 1 Corinthians 3:1-17
- Wed: 2 Corinthians 4:5-12
- Thu: Matthew 14:22-27
- Fri: Luke 12:22-31
- Sat: Psalm 63
Journaling:
- When I think about God loving me unconditionally as I am, . . .
- As I pray through these six weeks of spiritual guidance, I most desire..
- Dear God . .. (write a letter, a song, a psalm, a poem . . . to God)
Prayer:
I turn to you, Divine Creator, and I thank you for the person I am. I am a cup of life.
I have love and goodness within me. Help me to hear your music in my soul today and to smile in gratitude when I think of my own uniqueness. Let me not doubt my value or question my worth. Help me to know and to accept who I am. I am yours. May I bring life to my world.
Today: I will try to be a love song for others. this day.
Space for Listening
When we pray, how often do we say: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”? More often, I think, we say: “Listen, Lord, for your servant is speaking!” – Robert Wicks.
Breath Prayer: Breathing in: I listen… Breathing out: . . . You are here
Reflection: Hold the cup in your open hands. See how the cup sits there quietly. Picture yourself in the Divine One’s hands. Go to the stillness deep within yourself. Allow yourself to be attentive. Just “be” with God. Listen.
Scriptures
- Mon: Matthew 6:19-21
- Tue: Psalm 85:8-13
- Wed: Philippians 2:1-11
- Thu: Psalm 81
- Fri: Psalm 56
- Sat: Matthew 6:5-6
Journaling:
- Dear God, what do you want me to know about “be-ing?”
- What keeps me from listening to the voice of the Holy One?
- I have connected with my inner world recently when….
Prayer: O God, you constantly try to get my attention. You stir and call in the most unlikely places of my lite-people and situations that 1 dismiss as not being able to contain your presence. You beckon me to those corners of my inner being where I’ve yet to discover you. Open me so that I will not miss your presence today. Help me to learn how to “be” and to let go of my need to be swallowed in activity.
Today: For one hour today, I will be especially attentive to every piece of my life so that I will find God there.
The Chipped Cup
The dialogue with God that begins with the confession of our failures is not depressing; it is liberating. Perhaps for the first time we become honest with ourselves and honest before God. Where there is honesty, there is no deception. – Emilie Griffin
Breath Prayer: Breathing in: Held in your mercy… Breathing out:… held in your love
Reflection: Remember one of the failures of your life. Write a word for this failure on a small piece of paper. Place this paper in your cup, symbolic of your self. Hold the cup in your hands. Notice any emotions you have as you hold the failure. Speak to God about your thoughts and emotions. Ask to receive God’s understanding and mercy. Listen quietly to God’s response.
Then take out the piece of paper and tear it to shreds as a sign o f your letting go of this failure.
Scriptures
- Mon: Psalm 139
- Tue: Matthew 7:1-5
- Wed: Psalm 51
- Thu: Psalm 25
- Fri: Romans 9:19-26
- Sat: Psalm 16
Journaling: One failure I still need to forgive myself for is… What do you think and feel about your failures? Have you changed because of them? If so, how? God of mercy,…. speak to God.
Prayer: Wellspring of Mercy, you welcome me home. You understand my human failings. You embrace me in m y incompleteness. You help me move on from failures and defeat. How good and gracious is your kindness to me.
Today: I will greet myself mercifully at least once today.
The Broken Cup
Scripture: Psalm 31
Check back for daily practices!
The Cup of Compassion
Scripture: Matthew 10:40-42
Check back for daily practices!
The Blessing Cup
Scripture: 1 Peter 3:8-12
Check back for daily practices!
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