Connect

Mindful Moments Lent 26

James Cathcart February 15, 2026 0 0

 

Mindful Moments

 

A series of optional mindful Lent activities for Connect groups.

 

Week 1: Come follow me, cairn by cairn Week beginning Sunday 15 February.

Invite everyone in your Connect group to bring a small stone. Hold your stones together while reading the following prayer and then put your stone somewhere you will see it every day this week.

Dear God, just as a cairn is formed stone by stone, traveller by traveller, step by step; we bring our wee stones, these little testaments of where we have been with God. May this shared community cairn be a sign to ourselves and to others of Jesus’s unmistakable love. Amen.

Week 2: Come follow me, a way through the wilderness Week beginning Sunday 22 February

As you draw your session to a close ask everyone in your group to open the compass app on their phone (or to use a physical compass). One person leads the group in this prayer:

Dear God, using our compasses we turn to face North. We take a moment of quiet now to think of the people and places North of where we are. (SILENCE) Now using our compasses we turn East and think of all the people and places near and far that are East of us. (SILENCE) We now turn to face the south and think of the rest of your world stretching South of where we are. (SILENCE) Finally we turn West and think of all the people who live to the West of us. (SILENCE) North, East, South, West, we follow you. Amen.

Week 3: Come follow me, on the road with Jesus Week beginning Sunday 1 March.

Invite everyone in your Connect group to bring a Bible verse to this session that is encouraging to them. Each person then notes down a verse that someone else brought and puts it somewhere they will see it on their journeys this week (the car, the bike bag, a backpack, ticket pass holder, jacket pocket etc).

Week 4: Come follow me to the watering place Week beginning Sunday 8 March.

Ask everyone to bring a small bowl of water.  As you draw to a close invite anyone who wishes to, to dip their finger in their water bowl and trace a sign of the cross on their forehead to either remember their baptism or to reflect on what baptism could mean to them.

Week 5: Come follow me, through the place of confrontation Week beginning Sunday 15 March.

This week, inspired by Psalm 23: 5 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” we invite one another to God’s peace table. While someone from the group reads Psalm 23 everyone else lays a simple place setting and reflects on the power of breaking bread in the shadow of confrontation. You could bring and eat bread and oil too.

Week 6: Come follow me, from a field of bones to the place of transformation Week beginning Sunday 22 March.

This activity could be led by one person or carried out by each individual. Light two candles. Then blow one of them out. Watch the smoke rise from the extinguished candle and the burnt wick. Think in silence about the places in your life and in our world where the light has gone out, where there is ash and dark instead of warmth and light. Pray for peace and transformation in our world. Then use the lit candle to relight the extinguished one.

Week 7: Come follow me, through the place of confrontation Week beginning Sunday 29 March.

Invite everyone in your Connect group to bring flowers to your Holy Week session. These could be anything; freshly picked wildflowers or a shop bouquet. (If meeting in the same physical space bear in mind that some people have allergies or are sensitive to pollen.) Then at the end of your session ask someone to read this prayer:

Dear God, with these flowers we remember the flowers thrown on the street to welcome returning heroes, or to express grief and sorrow. May the colour of these flowers speak of the vibrancy that you bring out of us as we welcome you. In the scent of these flowers we remember Jesus how you were bound for burial as you fell silent and made the most incredible way for us — through death, for the eternal reconciliation. May these flowers speak to this incredible gesture of love and returning life. Amen.