Lent 2027 Bible Reading Plan, 40 Days to Easter

Lent 2027 begins on Ash Wednesday, February 10, and leads to Easter Sunday, March 28. This plan gives you one short Bible passage for each of the forty days, a Gospel for each Sunday, and a reading for every day of Holy Week, from the call to return in Joel to the empty tomb in John.

Most readings are under twenty verses and take five to ten minutes.

What is Lent?

Lent is the season of preparation before Easter, kept by Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and many other Western churches. It is a time of repentance and return, modeled on the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that by the forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert (CCC 540). The season rests on three practices that Jesus names side by side in the Sermon on the Mount: giving to those in need, prayer and fasting (Matthew 6:1-18).

Lent is not meant to be grim. Its direction is toward Easter, and every week of it is walked in that light.

¹²“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” ¹³Tear your heart and not your garments,
and turn to Yahweh, your God;
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness,
and relents from sending calamity.

When is Lent in 2027?

After Easter, the Ascension falls on May 6 and Pentecost on May 16, 2027.

Why forty days, and why are Sundays not counted?

Count the days from Ash Wednesday, February 10, to Holy Saturday, March 27, and you get 46. Six of those days are Sundays: February 14, 21 and 28, and March 7, 14 and 21.

Sunday is the day of the resurrection, every week of the year. For that reason Sundays were traditionally not treated as fast days, even in Lent. Take the six Sundays out of the 46 and forty days remain.

The churches reckon the season in slightly different ways. The Catholic calendar says that the forty days of Lent run from Ash Wednesday up to the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday evening, and treats the three days that follow as their own celebration, the Paschal Triduum. Many Protestant churches simply speak of forty days plus Sundays, ending on Holy Saturday. Either way the days in the table below are the same.

In this plan the forty counted days are numbered. Sundays have a Gospel reading of their own and no number.

What do the six weeks of Lent focus on?

The plan follows a single line through the season.

1. The opening days (February 10–13): Return. The prophets' call to come back, and Jesus' teaching on prayer, fasting and giving.
2. Week 1: The wilderness. Temptation, hunger and trust, with Israel and with Jesus.
3. Week 2: The covenant. Abraham, Moses, and the voice on the mountain.
4. Week 3: Thirst. Water from the rock, the woman at the well, and the patience of God.
5. Week 4: Light and mercy. The man born blind, and grace that is a gift.
6. Week 5: Toward the cross. Dry bones, a new covenant, a grain of wheat.
7. Holy Week (March 21–28). Day by day from the entry into Jerusalem to Easter morning.

The Sunday Gospels here are chosen to fit this line. They are not the official Sunday lectionary of any church, so what you hear in worship may differ. Let your church's readings come first.

The Lent 2027 reading plan, day by day

Read the passage once to follow it, then once more slowly. Lectio Divina is a good method for these readings, and the evening Examen pairs naturally with a season of honest self-examination.

The opening days: Return (February 10 – 13)

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a right spirit within me. ¹¹Don’t throw me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. ¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation.
Uphold me with a willing spirit.

Week 1: The wilderness (February 14 – 20)

Week 2: The covenant (February 21 – 27)

Week 3: Thirst (February 28 – March 6)

Week 4: Light and mercy (March 7 – 13)

Week 5: Toward the cross (March 14 – 20)

What do you read each day of Holy Week?

Holy Week is the last week before Easter. In 2027 it runs from Palm Sunday, March 21, to Easter Sunday, March 28. The readings slow down and follow the Gospels almost hour by hour.

⁴Surely he has borne our sickness
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed. ⁶All we like sheep have gone astray.
Everyone has turned to his own way;
and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

On Good Friday there are two readings. If you have time for only one, read John. On Holy Saturday the reading is short on purpose. It is a day for waiting.

⁵The angel answered the women, “Don’t be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who has been crucified. ⁶He is not here, for he has risen, just like he said. Come, see the place where the Lord was lying.

If you would like one more reading, Easter Monday is a good day for the walk to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). There is a longer reflection on that story in what the road to Emmaus means.

When is Orthodox Great Lent in 2027?

The Orthodox Church keeps Great Lent, and in 2027 its dates fall five weeks later than the Western ones. The Orthodox churches calculate the date of Pascha differently, so some years the two Easters coincide and some years, like this one, they are far apart.

The counting is different too. Great Lent begins on a Monday, not a Wednesday, and its forty days run continuously, Sundays included, until the Friday before Lazarus Saturday. Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday then stand as a pair of feast days between Lent and Holy Week. Orthodox Pentecost in 2027 is June 20.

The Orthodox Church in America describes the season as a time of renewed prayer, fasting and almsgiving, and insists that it is not a season of gloom: the first hymns of Lent speak of beginning the fast with delight.

If you are Orthodox, your parish's services and appointed readings are the heart of the season, and this plan can only sit beside them. Two readings from it belong naturally to your calendar: the raising of Lazarus on Lazarus Saturday (John 11:1-45) and the entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (John 12:1-18).

How do you keep a Lent reading plan going?

Forty days is long enough to lose the thread. A few choices at the start make it easier to keep.

1. Attach the reading to something you already do. The first coffee, the commute, the last quiet minutes of the evening.
2. Use the day numbers. If today is March 3, you are on day 19. You always know where you are.
3. Keep one line from each reading. Write it down, or carry it through the day as a short prayer.
4. Start again without catching up. If you miss three days, read today's passage. Nothing in the plan depends on the day before.
5. Let Sundays be lighter. One Gospel, read slowly, and rest.

Emmaus has guided journeys for the seasons, Advent and Lent, as part of Emmaus+, with a reading and a prayer for each day. The whole Bible in the app is free and offline, so you can follow the table above there without a subscription.

If you are reading this before Christmas, the Advent 2026 reading plan comes first. Lent will still be here on February 10, beginning with ashes and a single sentence from Joel about returning with all your heart.