Our beautiful Lenten prayers and reflections offer you the opportunity to reflect on your own or in your parish.
Husband and wife, Shorai and Hamunyare, work together in their garden in Zimbabwe
And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places… and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
The Bible is full of gardens—from the first garden in Genesis to the healing Tree of Life at the end of the book of Revelation, images of growth and nature abound in Scripture.
In today’s first reading, the prophet Isaiah, speaking to a people in exile of the renewal that will come when they follow God’s ways, says they shall be “like a watered garden”.
Isaiah’s beautiful image would certainly resonate with husband and wife Shorai and Hamunyare, who live in northern Zimbabwe. Lack of rain left them and their children hungry, as their crops withered in the ground. But with input from our local partners and a lot of hard work, the couple have grown an eco-garden, using drought-resistant crops and a solar-powered water pump that draws water from a nearby dam. The dry ground has become a well-watered garden.
Today we mark the birthday of the Doctor of the Church, St John Henry Newman, who took as a motto: “Growth is the only evidence of life.” In this time of Lent, may we hear the call to turn to God as our source of life, to grow in love for all our global family.
Prayer
Green-fingered God,
may we allow your life to grow in us,
as we seek to learn to live our lives in love.
Amen.
Act
Take some quiet time to pray with our Lent 2026 prayer, Growth and grace.