Lent is an opportunity to make space for God, both through our own times of prayer and reflection and through times shared with others. Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days to pray. So beginning on Ash Wednesday and going through to Easter Day we seek to find and follow God as we journey in faith.

Here are some suggestions that you may want to consider. They include things to read or listen to; they embrace the practical and the prayerful. There are things we can do on our own or with others.

Whatever we choose, I hope we enjoy Lent and find ourselves drawing closer to God, so that come Easter we’re ready to rejoice in the risen Lord.

• Dust and Glory: A Lent journey of faith, failure and forgiveness is the Church of England’s Lent theme. It invites us to take a fresh look at the frustrations and failings that every day brings, seeking to learn from them and grow closer to God through them. Dust and Glory links with a Lent book, 'Failure' (see below), material from which we’ll be using in our Lent Course. Also a small booklet, Dust and Glory, that has a daily Bible reading, short reflection and practical challenge, and a prayer for the week. For details of the wide range of free digital resources available follow https://www.churchofengland.org/our-faith/what-we-believe/lent-holy-week-and-easter/dust-and-glory-resources-lent-2023

• Quiet Days offer a chance to take time out from daily life and experience the peace of God’s presence. Quiet Days are held in Retreat Centres and other settings. A Deanery Quiet Day was held on Saturday 25th February at St Lawrence Church, Gnosall. The day included short reflections, prayer and times of quiet and creativity. 

• Join Christians of all denominations in the work of caring for creation and helping to address climate change. Eco Church, A Rocha UK’s award scheme for churches, has suggestions for connecting with God’s creation as a church, as a family or asan individual. Download the Lenten Resource from https://arocha.org.uk/connect-with-gods-creation-over-lent/

• Reflections for Lent is a compact book offering a short order for Morning Prayer from Common Worship, references for the daily lectionary Bible readings and a short reflection by contributors including Bishop Graham James and Paula Gooder. The book begins with short essays on prayer and Lent and ends with an order for Compline.

• New Daylight published by Bible Reading Fellowship offers Daily Bible readings throughout the year. Journeying through Lent provides short daily reading with reflections by well-loved contributors, at an affordable price.

• Failure: What Jesus said about sin, mistakes and messing stuff up is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book. The author, Emma Ineson, asks what failure is, as human beings and as a Church. She explores what Jesus said about failure, how he trained his disciples for it, how he spent time with failures, and how all this might relate to us today.Emma Ineson has co-written the daily reflections booklet linked with the Church of England’s Lent theme (see above).

• Images of Grace: A journey from darkness to light at Easter published by the Bible Reading Fellowship. The author, Amy Scott Robinson, takes a word Christians rely on – sin, forgiveness, grace, and so on – and looks at what it means through apattern of scripture, a contemporary parallel, and prayer.

• 40 days with Labyrinths, a modern take on a time-honoured spiritual practice. Fay Rowland offers forty short, biblical meditations on the challenges and blessings of daily life, each accompanied by a diagram of a labyrinth to 'walk', colour or decorate as you reflect on the reading.

• A Passion for Hospitality: Lent resources complementing BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Worship and Daily Service https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5bGxRHdTsFwpJhTpjQR5g4y/a-passion- for-hospitality

• Lent talks on BBC Radio 4: Six people well known in their fields reflect on the story of Jesus' ministry and Passion from their personal and professional experience. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006xp1x

• Lent Podcasts offered by Retreat Centres and Cathedrals and organisations such as Christian Aid and All We Can provide a wider perspective on faith issues.