Episcopal Relief & Development’s 2025 LENTEN Meditation Journey . . . A COMMONPLACE Lent

My life and my death are not purely and simply my own business. I live by and for others, and my death involves them. — Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a World of Action

When my youngest sister, Judea, was three years old, she refused to hold anyone’s hand when crossing the street or walking on a busy sidewalk. Instead, she would stubbornly declare in her tiny voice, “I hold my own hand!”

There is a temptation to begin the season of Lent as a solitary journey, to hear the words “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” as an individual invitation instead of a communal one. Yet, the prayer that proceeds the marking of ashes on our foreheads begins, “Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth.” It offers a poignant reminder of our common bonds of birth, breath and death.

Despite this era of great divisions and an epidemic of loneliness, the Holy Spirit is here among us. I wonder how the Spirit might move during this season of Lent if we approach the spiritual practices of self-examination and repentance as a common endeavor instead of a solitary one. What if we sought to make a right beginning, traveling the Lenten wilderness together for the express purpose of being re-bound to each other and all of creation through Christ? What if we spent this season together in prayer, fasting, self-denial and reading and meditating on God’s holy Word, boldly considering how we can right the wrongs and sins of the past and strive to repent of those sins and any we have continued to commit?

We never let Judea cross the busy street or wander the crowded sidewalk alone. We walked alongside her, behind her and with her, gently guiding her by the elbow when needed (she was holding her own hand, after all) and reminding her that her journey was also our journey and that we would all get where we were going—together.

For REFLECTION:

This Lent, what spiritual practice could your community adopt as a communal endeavor? How could we travel the wilderness together with intentionality?

Click here to read the introduction to the 2025 Lenten Meditation “A Commonplace Lent.”

The Lenten Meditations prepared by Episcopal Relief & Development invite readers to deepen their spiritual practice during the season of Lent, the time of preparation leading to Easter. Our 2025 meditations explore the idea of “A Commonplace Lent.” This concept reflects Episcopal Relief & Development’s tagline: “Working Together for Lasting Change.” We share in common the work of advancing lasting change in communities impacted by injustice, poverty, disaster and climate change.

We also share in common spiritual practices that strengthen our faith—prayer, worship, love, grace, service and so much more. The author explores another meaning of common in the  meditations: finding God in the common and ordinary as well as in the extraordinary mountain-top moments. Each day begins with wisdom from desert mothers and fathers, monastics and other spiritual leaders who offer insight into our common path of faithful discipleship and service. Each meditation concludes with a question for deeper reflection.

Episcopal Relief & Development is the compassionate response of The Episcopal Church to human suffering in the world. Hearing God’s call to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of every human being, Episcopal Relief & Development serves to bring together the generosity of Episcopalians and others with the needs of the world.

This Lenten Meditation Journey is provided courtesy of Episcopal Relief & Development and was authored by Jerusalem Jackson Greer, co-executive director and agrarian minister for the Procter Center, an Episcopal farm, camp and retreat center in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. As former manager of evangelism and discipleship for The Episcopal Church under Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, she co-founded the Good News Garden movement and oversaw Way of Love and Evangelism initiatives for the wider church.