Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. –Psalm 51:11

In 2009, Episcopal Relief & Development published our first Lenten Meditations. Over these 14 years, we have been blessed by the opportunity to join readers on their spiritual journeys with thought-provoking meditations.

Our 2024 meditations follow the schedule of readings from the lectionarypage.net, which includes both the Revised Common Lectionary for Sundays and feast days and the daily eucharistic readings. During Lent, we pray, “Create and make in us new and contrite hearts.” The meditations focus on embracing this new heart, this new life in Christ, and looking deep within ourselves and acting in ways that seek and serve Christ in others.

Miguel Escobar authored this year’s meditations. Miguel is an Episcopal Relief & Development Board member and the Director of Strategy & Operations at the Episcopal Divinity School in New York City. Throughout his studies and professional life, he has helped many discern and strengthen their call to ministry. He is a thoughtful person who cares that the most vulnerable among us are treated justly. You will get a taste of Miguel’s life experiences and personal convictions in this year’s meditations.

We are grateful you have chosen to walk your Lenten journey with Episcopal Relief & Development. As you engage with the meditations, please also visit our website, episcopalrelief.org/Lent, to access additional Lenten resources.

We are praying for you, and we ask that you pray for Episcopal Relief & Development as well. Please pray for our board and staff, and our partners and program participants. Prayer is powerful, and when we pray for each other, we truly are working together for lasting change.

May you have a blessed and holy Lent.

Sean McConnell Senior Director, Faith & Community Engagement

Miguel Escobar is Director of Strategy and Operations at Episcopal Divinity School. Previously, Escobar served as managing program director for leadership, communications and external affairs at the Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF). He earned a master of divinity from Union Theological Seminary in 2007 and served as the communications assistant to then-Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori from 2007 to 2010.

Miguel serves as secretary of the board of directors of Episcopal Relief & Development and the former chair of the board of directors of Forward Movement. He grew up in the Texas Hill Country and attended Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, where he studied the Roman Catholic social justice tradition and Latin American liberation theologies and minored in Spanish. He is the author of The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Today.

Miguel divides his time between two partnered parishes in Brooklyn, New York: All Saints, Park Slope, and San Andres in Sunset Park. He lives with his husband, Ben, and dog, Duke, in Brooklyn and is spending this year working and studying in Barcelona, Spain.

Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and used by permission.

Psalm passages are from the Psalter in the Book of Common Prayer.

© 2024 Episcopal Relief & Development