Book of Hours: Lent

Lenten cover page & a botanical coloring calendar

“Do you wish your prayer to fly toward God? Give it two wings – fasting and almsgiving.”

St. Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos (Expositions on the Psalms) (4th/5th c. AD)

Welcome! Whether you’re a longtime friend or a new kindred spirit here (I recommend visiting the Village Green to get your bearings), I’m delighted to be a companion to you through the liturgical year.

For more resources & reflections drawn from Lent, visit my archive…

…and, if you’d like to continue thinking about ways to build your Book of Hours, I have a few helpful posts for you.

Pax+bonum, Kristin.

Between the nightly frog chorus we’ve been hearing, the return of birdsong in the daytime, and all the bulbs that have been pushing up through the soil, signs of spring are breaking through these still-gray, still-chilly days.

At first glance, it may feel a bit dissonant to have our celebration of spring’s arrival met with the penitential season of Lent (from the Anglo-Saxon lencten, ‘lengthen’…a reference to the lengthening daylight): the forty-day period¹ of preparation for Easter.

There is, though, a deep wisdom in this union of natural and liturgical seasons. In the agricultural rhythms that rely on growth patterns in the natural seasons, this is a time of pruning. In these late winter/early spring weeks, most plants (as well as insects) are dormant, making the pruning process less damaging.

Though pruning is inherently stressful to plants, it’s also a discipline that helps them flourish: by removing diseased or over-crowded branches, growth in the core parts of the plant is stimulated. Instead of pouring energy into its damaged or shaded branches, the plant’s energy flows into abundant spring growth and overall health.

And here’s where we recognize that springtime, Lenten familiarity in our own journeys. Where is my flourishing life in God overcrowded by my own skewed habits? What parts of that life are being shaded by misuse or neglect? Into what damaged or diseased parts am I pouring too much energy?

Pruning taps into springtime’s inherent growth energy, and Lent helps to reveal that process in our own lives. In anticipation of the central mystery of our faith - the Resurrection of Christ celebrated in Eastertide - we’re offered pruning tools…fasting, prayer, almsgiving…to help us cut back our languishing parts and spur new growth.

Really, it’s just an opportunity for us to receive the gift already laid before us…but I know that I’m a creature always, always in need of the reminder.

So, as we all enter Lent alongside each other, here are a few printable resources that draw from this intersection of the liturgical and natural aspects of this preparatory season…

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Printable resources for your Lent:

» BOOK OF HOURS: COVER PAGE

Inspired by Medieval books of hours, these cover pages feature pollinators and plant life emblematic of the liturgical seasons. (They also complement the printables for all of the feast days that you may have already collected!) The design itself is an homage to gothic stained glass windows, their arch reminding us of the journey toward God.

Alongside the Lent cover page is a quick guide to the symbolism embedded in all of the natural elements featured in this arch…a starting-off point for your own reflection and research, if your curiosity gets piqued!

I hope that these pollinators and their plants will remind us of our work as co-creators with Christ.

» 2026 LENT BOTANICAL COLORING CALENDAR

I created this Lenten botanical coloring calendar to help us better see the contours within Lent – looking at traditions that are kept by a variety of denominations today, as well as exploring some historic elements that have mostly fallen by the wayside but nonetheless offer so much beauty.

Though flowers aren’t traditionally used in churches throughout Lent, they’re nonetheless nature’s way of telling the Lenten story. I’ve chosen flowers for their connections with liturgical tradition, color, bloom time, and other important associations in Scripture.

I like to explore different shades of blue and purple, different hues of green, and different media (colored pencils, crayon, pastels, etc!) as I color may way through the season. By the time Easter comes, I have a Lenten bouquet!

These Lent printables - as well as more resources for the holidays historically within Lent - are available in the Scriptorium:

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How are you feeling as Lent peeks around the corner? The Church used to encourage a time of focus in a pre-Lent period (called Septuagesima and beginning three weeks before Ash Wednesday) - and honestly, in each of my annual journeys through Lent, I better see the incredible wisdom in carving out that time of preparation.

Shrovetide, of course, encompasses another (shorter) tradition of propelling us into our Lenten desert journey…and, if you’ve saved the Christmastide holly that you took down on Plough Monday, this is our week to use it (as we heat our Shrove Tuesday pancake griddle with a fire from that Christmastide holly…ya’ll, the continuity in the calendar is a beautiful thing).

As always, feel free to hop over into the Substack Chat room to find some encouragement and solidarity as you step into Lent!

Pax et bonum,
Kristin

1. Excluding Sundays, since they’re feasts!