Prayer booklets for Lent are provided each Sunday in the foyer during Lent. The 2012 booklets are also here in PDF format:

Week 1 beginning Ash Wednesday: 40days2012.1
Week 2 beginning February 26: 40days2012.2
Week 3 beginning March 4: 40days2012.3
Week 4 beginning March 11: 40days2012.4
Week 5 beginning March 18: 40days2012.5
Week 6 beginning March 25: 40days2012.6
Week 7 beginning April 1: 40days2012.7

The observance of Lent as a 40-day period of prayer and fasting leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday, has a long history in the Christian Church. It is part of the traditional church calendar that includes Advent (culminating in Christmas), Epiphany (the appearance of Christ to the Gentiles), Circumcision (the beginning of our Lord’s consecration), Lent (Jesus’ wilderness temptation of forty days, culminating in Good Friday), Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. This church calendar developed over the years as a way to plant spiritual signposts in the Christian life.

Many churches in the Protestant tradition do not follow the church calendar, and point to things like problems of superstitious, rote, and legalistic observance that have troubled many churches. We do have freedom in Christ, and we are certainly not bound in our consciences to follow these human traditions.

On the other hand, many have found value in giving annual attention to the events in the life of Christ and deepening their devotional habits. And so the elders of Zion church call you to join us this year in a Lenten observance that includes reading, service, fasting, and prayer.