Beginning in the cold belly of winter from which spring is born, Lent is a forty-day season that starts with Ash Wednesday (February 22, 2023) and culminates in Easter (April 9, 2023). This season has traditionally been marked by fasting and prayer, modeled after Jesus’ 40 days of fasting and prayer in the wilderness and his journey towards the cross. During the season of Lent, we lament the brokenness of the world and repent for the ways in which we have contributed to our own suffering as well as the suffering of others. Lent culminates in Holy Week, in which we remember Jesus’ suffering and death–and celebrate the miracle of his resurrection.
Lent often begins with a call to lament and moves toward a call to repent. Lament, put simply, is naming things that are not right. Lament can be personal and of the body, and can also be broadly communal and highly systemic. There is much that is not right within ourselves, our communities, and our world including the tragedies of human violence, illness, famine, war, and abuse. Both personally and collectively, we have much to grieve and much to lament. Sometimes meditation and repentance during the season of Lent can take the form of fasting and withholding certain things from our own lives. Other times it looks like an intentional reorienting towards re-engagement, generosity, or giving to those around us. Regardless of how we engage it, Lent is a season that beckons and calls us deeper into the hope of a transformed world.
As we journey together into the season of Lent, the Office of Students & Alumni and Sacred Space Student Leadership team offer the resources and invitations below.
Lent Booklet Download
This booklet holds a collection of prayers and confessions that Sacred Space has collected for meditation in this season of Lent. Sacred Space is a realm of student leadership that helps to facilitate spiritual rhythms and faith practices at the Seattle School. We invite you to notice where God is present with you, to invite the Spirit’s presence more fully and, as we say, be kind and tend to yourself in this liturgical season, even in moments when you are drawn to lament and confession. We invite you to use the content of this booklet to enrich your prayer practices throughout this season.
Practices: Lent 2023
Below are a few highlights of what the Sacred Space realm has put together to guide us through this season.
Ash Wednesday
Kenna Hight and Torie Pilkington will be offering a drop-in space for receiving ashes in the Commons on Wednesday 2/22 between 3:00 and 6:00 pm. All students, employees, and families are welcome.
Daily Prayer (online)
For many years there were bells that rang in our Seattle campus every three hours around the clock; these bells were a holy interruption in our days, an invitation for us to pause and remember God’s presence. In keeping with this daily rhythm, The Office of Students & Alumni team invites all students, staff, and faculty to pause at 12:00 pm PT Tuesday through Friday for 15 minutes of prayer together by Zoom. We engage in a variety of spiritual texts, listening, and prayer practices.
Weekly Communion (online)
Every Monday 3:00 – 3:30 pm PT on Zoom, the Life Together class leads students, faculty, and staff in communion. During the season of Lent, we invite you to remember and receive the body and blood of Christ together.
Physical Spaces During Lent (on campus)
The Chapel
Prayer stations, candles, and icons are available throughout the year and during this season of Lent for staff and students to use. We welcome you to touch and meditate with the ashes, which are composed of written laments from members of The Seattle School community that Sacred Space has burned, or light a candle as you pray.
The Art Space
The chalkboard and art shelf outside the Chapel are stocked with supplies to provide additional ways of connecting with God. We invite you to add your own prayers throughout this Lenten season.
2nd Floor Gallery
Now through the seasons of Lent and Eastertide, Sacred Space is delighted and grateful to feature an Underrepresented Voices group show that has been co-sponsored by LIT and the BIPOC student group. See their introduction to the show below. Submissions to the show are welcome now through the Spring term; contact Philip Hayes. Read more about the Underrepresented Voices show.
Be Blessed
Be blessed through this season. May you and the world around you be transformed by our collective prayers, laments, and repentance.
[Credit and gratitude to Sacred Space Leadership including the 2023 and 2015 teams.]