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Mindfulness Activities for Lent

James Cathcart February 24, 2026 0 0
Mindfulness Activities for Lent

Check out our new series of Mindful Moments for Lent. These seven simple mindfulness activities can be done on your own or with friends, in a Connect Group, or adapted and used in any local community or church group.

Mindful Moment 1: Come follow me, cairn by cairn

Find a stone or a small pebble. Think of where you have been with God in your life up to this point. Put your stone somewhere you will see it every day. Over time build up this little cairn with little stones as you think about how Jesus marks the way ahead of you and how you can leave signs for others pointing the way. You could also say the following prayer:

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

Mindful Moment 2 Come follow me, a way through the wilderness 

Open up the compass app on your phone and turn to face North. Say a short prayer for all the places near and far that are North of where you are. Then turn East, South and West, each time saying a short prayer for all those in your local community and around the world that live in that direction.

If doing as part of a group one of you could lead the others with the following 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.

Mindful Moment 3: Come follow me, on the road with Jesus Week

Find a Bible verse that gives you comfort and encouragement. Write it down on a piece of paper and put it somewhere that will travel with you on all your journeys this week: like in car, your backpack, bicycle bag, jacket pocket etc. 

If doing this activity as part of a group you could invite each person to note down a verse that someone else brought and put it somewhere they will see it on their own journeys this week.

Mindful Moment 4: Come follow me to the watering place

Get a small bowl of water and dip your finger into it and then trace a sign of the cross on your forehead. Use this time to remember your own baptism or to reflect on what baptism could mean for you.

Mindful Moment 5: Come follow me, through the place of confrontation

Go to your table and lay a simple table setting with some bread and oil. Then read Psalm 23 and reflect especially on verse 5: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”. How could God use food to help you bring peace this week? 

If doing this activity as part of a group someone could read Psalm 23 while 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.

Mindful Moment 6: Come follow me, from a field of bones to the place of transformation

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.

Mindful Moment 7: Come follow me, through the place of confrontation (Holy Week)

Get some flowers, these could be freshly picked wildflowers or a bouquet from the shop and put them somewhere special to mark Holy Week. May the colours remind you of the vibrancy Jesus brings to our lives and may their scent remind us of the spices of Jesus’s burial, when Jesus made the most incredible way for us — through death, for our eternal reconciliation.

(If doing this activity in a group setting in the same physical space bear in mind that some people have allergies or are sensitive to pollen.) 

Then you could 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.

 

Find out more about our Lent theme 'Come Follow Me' in Connect now.