Preparing for Lent 2026 🙏 📚

2026 Preparing for Lent header banner.

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” - Ephesians 2: 8-9

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Thoughtful considerations for Lent

Happy New Year everyone! You might be thinking, “How can we already be talking about Lent??? It’s only the end of January!”, but in reality, Lent begins on February 18th this year. That’s less than 3 weeks away now!

So we wanted to take time to provide some wise past words from Emily and additional resources that will hopefully help you in thoughtfully making your plans this year.

Emily’s scriptural reading for Good Friday in 2023.

Lent Resources from Emily

Emily’s book, Catholics 101 does an excellent job explaining the Three Pillars of Lent. It’s available for purchase on Gumroad and she also has a blog series for free as well.

We also want to share a collection of the 6 Lenten Practices posts Emily wrote 10 years ago back in 2016 that are still relevant today:

Lenten Practice 1 : Fasting and Abstinence

Lenten Practice 2: Confession

Lenten Practice 3: Prayer

Lenten Practice 4: Stations of the Cross

Lenten Practice 5: Almsgiving

Lenten Practice 6: The Liturgy of the Hours

A wooden cross hanging over a church stage with a spotlight on it.

Other Great Lenten Preparation Resources

Maybe it’s your first time participating in Lent or it’s been a long time and you feel overwhelmed about where to start. There are excellent resources from Hallow about the rules for Lent and different want to commit to the Three Pillars of Lent through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Hopefully, this brings clarity on the purposes and helps you with deciding on how to move forward in your expression of Lent.

Past readings Emily mentioned she recommended for Lent were “A Time for Renewal”, by Mother Mary Francis, PCC; “Death on a Friday Afternoon”, by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, and “On the Passion of the Christ” by Thomas a Kempis. She also mentioned her watch list included “Jesus of Nazareth” and “The Passion of the Christ”. 

Make a New Lenten Tradition

And finally, we just want to give a reminder that Emily’s book, Living Memento Mori, makes a great companion to this Lenten season and we hope you’ll pick up your copy to gain a new perspective as you walk through the Lent in 2026. Emily’s book also includes the Stations of the Cross and a study guide. If you already have a copy, thank you for your support, and we hope you will revisit Living Memento Mori this year!

Easter 2025: Special Reading and Pilate's Wife

From the movie, “The Passion of the Christ”. A representation of Jesus carrying the cross with Simon of Cyrene.

Who Would Believe?

Who would believe a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem would be worshipped by wise kings from afar, and later, so many throughout the generations that followed?

Who would believe this man who had no home of his own and traveled with fishermen, harlots, and tax collectors would become the most spoken name in history?

Who would believe this man was not just a man, but the only Son of God, whose mission all along was to take on all the punishment we deserved to save you and I?

Emily reading from the book of Isaiah in 2023.

Emily loved the time surrounding the sacred remembrance of Good Friday and Easter. April 9th would have been her 43rd birthday and she was even fortunate enough that her birthday would fall on Easter day on occasion.

A few years ago, Emily wrote this beautiful fictional piece called “Pilate’s Wife” about the ministry and trial of Jesus through the eyes of Claudia, Pontius Pilate’s wife (Matthew 27:19). Please takes some time to read it and consider this fresh perspective she’d woven.

Also, here is Emily’s special reading from Isaiah in 2023. If you scroll to the 6:10 minute marker then you can hear her 4 minute, striking interpretation of the Living Word.

Image depicting three crosses standing on a hill as rays of light pour into an empty tomb.

We hope that Lent this year was full of meaning, reflection, and times of serving one another. Our prayer is that you don’t lose the meaning of the season just because the official observation is almost complete!

Good Friday is upon us, with all the heartache the thought of this day brings. The thought of Jesus’ anguish in the garden over the reality of what was to come, the betrayal of everyone who had walked with Him, the mock trials full of lies to charge Him, the beatings, tearing of flesh, spitting in his face, being stripped naked, a crown of thorns pushed into His skull, and finally, being given his own cross to carry, where He was nailed to and lifted up to bare all our sins and iniquities. The Father turned His face from Him as he breathed His last and the temple veil tore in two so that we would know no more separation from Him.

But we all know the story didn’t end there.

Good Friday is here, but there’s hope emanating from an empty tomb. Easter is coming.

“He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.”

Matthew 28:6 (NLT)