Our liturgical year’s first slice of Ordinary Time has given way to the great season of Lent. We have barely put away the last of our Christmas decorations, and the Church has us turning our minds and hearts toward the Cross. Or so it might seem.
Our Lenten journey through the Gospel ends in Jerusalem with the Last Supper, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord. But Lent takes us through much of Jesus’ ministry, teachings, and miracles along the way. Though Lent means “springtime” in the Old English word it is derived from, in many parts of the world winter continues to hold on tightly. As days lengthen and that tight hold loosens, we will journey through the Gospel to the events of Holy Week.
2026 follows Lectionary Year A. In the Gospel readings for the five Sundays of Lent leading to Palm Sunday, Jesus teaches us through His temptation, a life-changing encounter with Him, and through wildly varying miraculous occurrences. These Sundays before we face the Cross can form a mental and spiritual framework for our observance of Lent. We can enter each week focusing in an intentional way on what God is revealing to us through the ever-new words of the Gospel.
The First Sunday of Lent—The Temptation of Jesus: Let Go
The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.
On February 22nd the Gospel reading focuses on Jesus’ temptation in the desert at the hands of the devil. In this first week, Jesus teaches us how to detach from the world and go deeper. He models for us the struggle against sin and calls us to resist temptation. By doing so we can focus on the three pillars of Lent: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving, which offer new life apart from the pull of a merely materialistic existence. We are made for more than just what we can see, feel, touch, taste, and hoard. We are made for union with God and each other. By engaging the three Lenten disciplines, we place our focus on higher goods and eternal life.
The Second Sunday of Lent—The Transfiguration: See Jesus
This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.
On March 1st the Gospel describes the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. We are invited to see Jesus for who He really is, the second person of the Holy Trinity, fully man and fully God. As we see Jesus and listen to Him as the Father instructs us from the cloud, we receive our call to discipleship. This call gives us a deeper, more abundant existence than anything we let go of to receive it.
The Third Sunday of Lent—The Samaritan Woman: Drink Living Water
…the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
On March 8th the Gospel story centers on the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. This holy encounter brings about her conversion and invites us into our own. With the Living Water of God’s mercy and grace we are healed of the wounds incurred by seeking water from broken cisterns and poison wells.
The Fourth Sunday of Lent—The Blind Man: See and Believe
Do you believe in the Son of Man?
On March 15th this long Gospel passage describes the religious saga surrounding Jesus’ healing of a man blind since birth. The spiritual blindness of the Pharisees is exposed as they try to use this miraculous work of Jesus to trap Him and to persecute anyone who follows Him. This week is an excellent opportunity to examine where our own faith lies. Is it in the Person of Jesus or in our own performance of religious works? Are we walking in the freedom of Christ or merely living a moral code of laws and discipline?
This fourth Sunday is also known as Laetare Sunday, from the Latin, Rejoice! Having made it this far through our Lenten pilgrimage, we are in a unique position to see Jesus truly for who He is and live the abundant life He gives. We rejoice in the freedom of being children of a God who loves us, as we leave behind the empty performance of religion that falls back on old covenant legalism.
The Fifth Sunday of Lent—The Resurrection of Lazarus: Lazarus, Come Out!
Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?
On March 22nd the Gospel story tells of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. We follow Jesus as He continues to do the Father’s will, arriving in Bethany to grieve with Martha and Mary. In this most tender moment, Jesus calls them both to a deeper belief in who He really is. Teaching us true compassion—suffering with others, He goes on to perform one of the greatest miracles of the Gospels. In our darkest moments, our deepest pain, Jesus leads us to the truest faith. This faith believes that even death yields to Jesus’ divinity.
Carrying this framework through the weeks of Lent may help us to hear what the Lord is revealing to our hearts:
Week 1—Let Go
We leave sin and attachments behind and embark on the life we were created for in Jesus. We utilize prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to aid us on this pilgrimage towards all that is lasting and eternal.
Week 2—See Jesus
Having let go of worldly distractions and sin, we gain clarity to see Jesus and listen to Him as He guides us into life everlasting. Detachment gives us the necessary freedom to choose to live as Jesus’ disciples and be His lights in the world.
Week 3—Drink Living Water
Conversion is a lifelong process. This Lent and this week we can choose the Living Water that wells up to eternal life. Drinking deeply from a life of prayer, we will become Jesus’ fonts for others who are dying of thirst in a world of broken cisterns and poison wells.
Week 4—See and Believe
We are called to live the faith that Jesus came to give us, not a recycled version of the old covenant. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, not legalism. This week offers us a chance to check our vision for blinders that impair true faith.
Week 5—Lazarus, Come Out!
Through suffering and grief, our faith can grow deeper. Death itself is not stronger than the glory of God. We take this truth into Holy Week, trusting that we will be empowered to share Jesus’ Easter glory as His disciples and friends.
Perhaps your framework will be different, but prayerfully remaining in the words of the Gospels throughout the week will give focus and depth to your Lent. May we receive God’s grace to focus, with freedom of spirit. May we see what He wants to reveal to us. Finally, may we drink from His Living Waters so deeply that we become a font of them, living as resurrected disciples to Jesus’ world.
Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash
