Kindness 2021 Lenten - Episcopal Diocese of Iowa

IOWA CONNECTIONS SPRING 2021

2021 Lenten

 KindnessCalendar

Scripture: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
17 – Ash Wednesday – Pray for yourself – “God hears us when we pray. God knows our hearts
better than we do” Annie F. Downs, Let’s All Be Brave.
18 – Give something away – "In the human world, abundance does not happen automatically. It
is created when we have the sense to choose community, to come together to celebrate and
share our common store." - Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak
19 – Forgive someone – “God knows we won’t do everything picture-perfect either. If we’re
being honest, our mess-ups outnumber our successes, probably by a wide margin.” Bob Goff,
Everybody Always
20 – Bake for someone – “I think God sends out His messengers to tell everybody there’s plenty
of room and there’s free food and conversation and adventure and a wonderful and generous
host who has invited us by name.” Bob Goff, Love Does

Scripture: Mark 1:9-15
21 – Worship with Trinity, Iowa City – “Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the
Spirit to be tempted by Satan; Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many
temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you
mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” The Book of Common
Prayer
22 – Make a playlist for a friend – “Tune my heart, my mind, my life, to voice your melodies, O
God.” Every Moment Holy
23 – Be patient w/ someone who is hard to be patient with – “O God our Rock, hold us in this
chaos. O Christ our King, calm us in this storm. O Holy Spirit, intercede for us. Be merciful, most
merciful God!” Every Moment Holy
24 – Pick up litter – “Creator God, we thank and praise you for giving us the opportunity to be
co-creators with you and to ensure the sustainability of “Mother Earth,” our meeting place with
God. God as a community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit teach us as the Anglican community to
work together for mutual respect with one another and your creation. We repent for our
negligence leading the earth to be in peril from loss of habitats and species. Help us to be
caretakers of your gifts, protecting the land from abuse, and ready to share with all in need.
Amen.” Bishop Ellinah Wamukoya
25 – Do a chore w/o being asked – “Secretly incredible people keep what they do one of God’s
best-kept secrets because the only one who needs to know, the God of the universe, already
knows. Secretly incredible people just do things. Be Awesome!” Bob Goff, Love Does
26 – Listen to someone, really listen – “ A skilled listener can help people tap into their own
wisdom.” Fr. Richard Rohr
27 – Let someone else pick what you watch on TV – “May the stories I partake of, and the ways
in which I engage with them, make me in the end a more empathetic Christ-bearer, more
compassionate, more aware of my own brokenness and need for grace, better able to
understand the hopes and fears and failings of my fellow humans, so that I might more
authentically live and learn and love among them unto the end that all of our many stories
might be more beautifully woven into your own greater story.” Every Moment Holy

Scripture: Mark 8:31-38
28 – Worship with St. Timothy’s, West Des Moines – “O God, whose glory it is always to
have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them
again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the
unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy
Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” The Book of Common Prayer
1 – Give a compliment to someone in person or on social media – “We are to be a light
wherever we go, even online.” Annie F. Downs, 100 Days to Brave
2 – Smile at someone who looks sad – “The goal is not just to create joy for ourselves but to be
a reservoir of joy, an oasis of peace, a pool of serenity that can ripple out to all those around
you.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Book of Joy
3 – Ask for help – “Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give
you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.” Isaiah 41:10
4 – Donate to a local charity - “I'm going to bed tonight grateful for warmth, an advantage so
expected it barely registers. I won't defile my blessings by imagining that I deserve them. Until
every human receives the dignity I casually enjoy, I pray my heart aches with tension and my
belly rumbles for injustice.” Jen Hatmaker, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess
5 – Write a Thank You note to a teacher – “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul
and healing to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24
6 – Plug someone’s meter or tape money to a vending machine – “That was amazing to me:
that we had an entire brain circuit, one of four devoted to generosity. It is no wonder that our
brains feel so good when we help others or are helped by others, or even witness others being
helped…There was strong compelling research that we come factory equipped for cooperation,
compassion and generosity.” Douglas Abrams, The Book of Joy

Scripture: John 2:13-22
7 – Worship with St. Alban’s, Spirit Lake – “Almighty God, you know that we have no power in
ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls,
that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil
thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen” The Book of Common
Prayer
8 – Leave pennies heads up – “…small, invisible, humble, tiny seeds, mostly hidden. Faithfulness
is not easy, but it is simple. You are already able, already positioned, already valuable in your
normal life on your normal street next to your normal neighbors in your normal work.” Jen
Hatmaker, For the Love
9 – Write a card to someone you haven’t seen in a while – “Your words matter. The statements
you make to others….They matter.” Annie F. Downs, Let’s All Be Brave

10 – Check in or talk to a neighbor – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second
is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two
commandments. (Matthew 22:37-40) Love. Its that simple and that profound. Its that easy and
that hard.” Rachel Held Evans Faith Unraveled
11 – Say Thank You to a local business – “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” His
Holiness the Dalai Lama
12 – Pray for someone who has made you angry – “ Loving people we don’t understand or
agree with is just the kind of beautiful, counterintuitive, risky stuff people who are becoming
love do.” Bob Goff, Everybody Always
13 – Tell someone how much they mean to you – “Say it. Speak love, and watch as beautiful
things come to life.” Annie F. Downs, Let’s All Be Brave

Scripture: John 2:13-22
14 – Worship with Trinity, Muscatine – “Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came
down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this
bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen” The Book of Common Prayer
15 – Feed the birds or other animals – “You draw praise from the frailest of things. So also draw
praise from me.” Every Moment Holy
16 – Tell a teacher/deacon/priest how much they mean to you – “You are so loved, so
important. Your work impacts kids for the rest of their lives….You don’t get the credit you
deserve, so I am standing up today, applauding you, cherishing your investment in the next
generation…Your life matters so much and your legacy will go on long after you’re done
teaching.” Jen Hatmaker article “Thank you, teachers, for the work nobody sees”
17 – Leave a Kindness Rock or token outside – “The love of God and people is the whole
substance of life.” Jen Hatmaker, For the Love
18 – Take a book to a Little Free Library – “Let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in
truth.” John 3:18
19 – Make a homemade gift for someone – “..the holy things we need for healing and
sustenance are almost always the same as the ordinary things right in front of us.” Nadia Bolz-
Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People
20 – Pray for someone hurting – “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the
darkness.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Scripture: John 2:13-22

21 – Worship with St. John’s, Mason City – “Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the
unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and
desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts
may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” The Book of
Common Prayer

22 – Donate something - “Jesus, may there be less of me and my junk and more of You and
Your kingdom.” I will reduce, so He can increase.” Jen Hatmaker, 7: An Experimental Mutiny
Against Excess
23 – Bake something for someone – “Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little
bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu
24 – Call a family member – “Sometimes prayers are spoken, and other times they are said in
our actions.” Bob Goff, Everybody Always
25 – Pay it forward (do something nice for someone) – “Too much self-centered thinking is the
source of suffering. A compassionate concern for others’ well-being is the source of happiness.”
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Book of Joy
26 – Tell someone Thank You – “Our job as humans is to make admiration of others and
adoration of God fully conscious and deliberate.” Richard Rohr
27 – Write to someone you admire at church – “God wants you to use your words to encourage
and speak life. Ask God for the grace to do so, and look for opportunities to be brave, speaking
truth and love into a broken world.” Annie F. Downs, 100 Days to Brave

March 28 – April 3 – Holy Week

March 28 – Worship with your home church today, or with one of the churches you worshiped
with the past few weeks – “Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the
human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to
suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that
we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ
our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
The Book of Common Prayer
March 29-April 3 - Repeat some of the activities that were hardest for you.

April 4 – Easter Sunday!
April 4 - Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and
opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the
Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for
ever. Amen.