Lent begins on the 18th of February this year, and although Lent has not yet begun, we are already being quietly gathered toward it. This is the part that often goes unnoticed: the season is already doing its work. The light lingers just a little longer in the afternoons. Snowdrops bravely push through the cold earth. Something within us knows that a turning is coming.
Lent rarely begins with a fanfare, instead, it begins with our attention.
Many of us come to Lent carrying mixed feelings. The desire to participate seriously, paired with a weariness born out of our previous attempts. We have tried the rigid plans, the daily tasks, the well-meaning devotionals that quietly assume our unlimited energy and uninterrupted time. And when we fail to keep up, the season can feel like something we’ve failed at.
But Lent was never meant to be a performance of human perfection. Historically, Lent is much closer to pilgrimage than a plan. A walking season, if you like. A slow movement away from the noise and excess, and toward truth; about God, about ourselves, about what actually gives life.
Pilgrimage does not ask us to be dutiful, or perfect participants, it asks us to be present. And this is why I chose to write The Pilgrimage Journal – A Companion for the Sacred Path of Lent . Certainly not from a desire to create another thing for you and I to keep up with, but from the perspective that we can honour Lent as it really is: a season of holy realism. Of dust and God’s mercy. Of walking alongside Christ rather than rushing ahead of Him.
The journal is intentionally not a daily checklist. Life is already full! Instead, it offers a weekly rhythm that leaves space to breathe. Each Sunday acts as a kind of resting place on the road, a moment to pause, reflect, and reorient before we continue the journey, weaving together Scripture, reflection, gentle nature-based practices, and journaling invitations, not to try to force insight, but to make room for it. There are simple candle prayers, quiet questions, and attention paid to the natural world as it moves through late winter into spring. Because Lent does not happen in abstraction. It happens while the land itself is waiting, stirring, and preparing to rise.
We also observe Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, and Holy Week. We walk slowly and deliberately. We listen. We the season of Lent transform us. This journal is not about becoming better Christians. It is about becoming more truthful ones, allowing God to meet us where we actually are, rather than where we think we should be by now.
It is especially for those who feel drawn to Lent but hesitant of anything that feels harsh or performative. For those who pray best while walking. For those who notice God most clearly in small, living things. For those who want their faith to be rooted not only in words, but in embodied attention. With just over a week until Lent begins, this is a gentle invitation to choose how you want to walk the season. To prepare the ground rather than to rush. To have a companion for the road ahead.
The Pilgrimage Journal – A Companion for the Sacred Path of Lent is offered as a quiet companion for your journey. Lent will unfold in its own time, as it always does, and we are free to meet it honestly, just as we are.
From my home to yours,
