Lent 2023

From his farm in Port Royal, Kentucky Wendell Berry has written more than thirty books of poetry, essays, and novels. His unique and embodied life perspective has helped millions connect to the place they are as well as who they are. Our souls need connection. Connection to place, to people, and even to self.

Berry is one of my favorite writers and creators. Much of his work has helped me to find rest when all around me seems broken.

Lent is a time of rest and reflection beginning on Ash Wednesday, February 22nd and ending on Easter Sunday. This year we are going through a Lenten devotional together with Wendell Berry.

The Sabbath Poetry of Lent

In this Lenten devotional, biblical texts and simple, accessible practices walk hand-in-hand with Wendell Berry’s poetic vision of sabbath and the natural world. Week by week, we’ll walk through the woods together toward Easter morning, keeping sabbath as we go — with Wendell Berry as our guide.

What You Will Need

The devotional. You can download it here, or pick one up at church before Lent.

The poems. You can read some of the poems below, though I highly recommend you order the book, This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems.

Additionally, you may want to download our free app so you can get all the content and reminders to look each week. All of this is in the app when you click the “LENT” button.

The Poems

Ash Wednesday – I Would Not have Been a Poet

Week 1 – I Go Among the Trees and Sit Still

Week 2 – Again I Resume the Long

Week 3 – How Long Does it Take to Make the Woods

Week 4 – Remembering That it Happened

week 5 – What Hard Travail God Does in Death

Week 6 (Palm Sunday) – Slowly, Slowly They Return

Maundy Thursday – Since, Despite the Stern Demands

Good Friday – It is the Destruction of the World

Easter Sunday

Early in the Year by My Friend’s Gift