By Ann Leaman
Ohio Conference
Resource Advocate

This year Lent begins on Feb. 17, which means now is a great time to look for worship and devotional resources related to Lent. If you are looking for new Lenten resources, check out the website for CommonWord, a collaboration of Mennonite Church Canada and Canadian Mennonite University.

In preparation for Lent, CommonWord has curated a collection of resources for this season of the church year. Included in the collection are books, songs, brief videos for children, and worship resources such as sermon starters, poems, prayers and calls to worship.

Some of the items are available as free downloads, while others must be purchased from other websites. In those cases, links to the other websites are included. To browse this collection, visit http://bit.ly/2021LentenResources.

Lenten guided prayer

CommonWord is also highlighting a Lenten devotional resource. “Deep Calls to Deep” is the theme of a Lenten guided prayer resource for 2021. This resource is offered by the Mennonite Spiritual Directors of Eastern Canada.

“Deep Calls to Deep” is a contemplative prayer resource which can be used by individuals, small groups, or congregations. It includes weekly prayer sheets, an invitation to share with others (in person or online), and opening and closing liturgies for the Lenten season.

Jane Kuepfer, Lenten guided prayer coordinator, notes that this resource is well suited to this time of pandemic: “Prayer sheets are easily distributed by email to the whole congregation on a weekly basis for individual use….When people are unable to meet together in person, small groups work well on platforms like Zoom.”

The cost of this resource is $20 for individuals, $10 for students, and $40 for groups/congregations.

To see a sample weekly prayer sheet, go to http://bit.ly/2021GuidedPrayerSample. To register online for this resource, please go to http://bit.ly/2021LentenGuidedPrayer.