Faith and prayer

41 Easter Journal Prompts

These Easter journal prompts are for Christians who like to pray with a pen in hand. You might keep a prayer journal all year, or you might only pull out a notebook during Holy Week. Either way, you are welcome here.

The prompts follow the week as it unfolds: palm branches, the last supper, the garden, the cross, the long quiet of Saturday and the empty tomb on Sunday morning. Some ask you to remember. Some ask you to sit with sorrow for a while. Others invite you to notice small signs of new life and hope in your own days.

Use them slowly and honestly. You do not need the right words or tidy feelings. A few plain sentences offered as prayer are enough.

All 41 prompts

Each prompt is marked quick (2 to 5 minutes), reflective (about 10 minutes) or deep (20 minutes or more).

  1. Write about an Easter morning you remember from childhood. What do you still see when you picture it? quick

  2. Which part of the Holy Week story are you drawn to this year, and why that part? quick

  3. Write a one-line prayer you could carry with you through Holy Week. quick

  4. What is one small way you could set this week apart from an ordinary week? quick

  5. What signs of new life have you noticed outside lately, in a garden, a tree or a crack in the sidewalk? quick

  6. Which Easter hymn or song stays with you, and which line keeps coming back to you? quick

  7. Who first helped you understand what Easter means? Write them a few lines of thanks. quick

  8. If you could sit quietly anywhere at sunrise on Easter morning, where would you choose to be, and what would you pray there? quick

  9. What would you like to bring to your Easter table this year, beyond the food? quick

  10. The crowd waved branches as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. When have you joined a celebration before you fully understood what it meant? quick

  11. Picture the women walking to the tomb at dawn, carrying spices. What do you imagine they said to each other on the way? quick

  12. Name one thing in your life that feels dormant right now. Write a short prayer about it. quick

  13. Write about a meal that felt holy to you, even if nothing about it was formal. Who was there, and what made it different? reflective

  14. Jesus washed his friends' feet. What quiet, unseen act of service could you offer someone this week? reflective

  15. At the last supper, Jesus shared bread with friends who would soon let him down. Who do you find it hard to sit at a table with right now? reflective

  16. In the garden, Jesus asked his friends to stay awake with him. Who has kept watch with you through a hard night, and how did they do it? reflective

  17. Peter said three times that he did not know Jesus. When have you stayed quiet about something you care about, and what held you back? reflective

  18. Pilate washed his hands of a hard decision. Is there a responsibility you have been avoiding that you want to bring into prayer? reflective

  19. Holy Saturday sits between grief and joy. What are you waiting for right now, and how are you living with not knowing yet? reflective

  20. Read John 20, verses 1 to 18, slowly. Which moment in Mary Magdalene's morning do you want to stay with, and why? reflective

  21. Mary first mistook the risen Jesus for the gardener. Where might you be missing something good because you expected it to look different? reflective

  22. Read Luke 24, verses 13 to 35. When have you realized only afterward that you were not alone on a hard road? reflective

  23. Thomas wanted to see for himself. What honest question about your faith would you like to bring to prayer this Easter? reflective

  24. Describe a recent moment when hope surprised you. Where were you, and what did you notice first? reflective

  25. Write about a time when something you thought was over turned out to have a second chapter. reflective

  26. What would it look like to live the coming week as an Easter person, not only on Sunday? Name two or three small, specific things. reflective

  27. If there are children in your life, what part of the Easter story do you most hope they understand, and how could you share it simply? reflective

  28. Write a prayer for people you know who are hurting this Easter. Name each one and what you hope for them. reflective

  29. Sit with the cross for a while. Write honestly about what you feel when you think of Jesus suffering, without tidying it up. deep

  30. Which of the people near the cross do you relate to most this year: the friends who ran, the women who stayed, the soldiers or the crowd? Write about why. deep

  31. Is there a loss you carry into Easter this year? Write to the person or thing you miss, and give both sorrow and hope room on the page. deep

  32. What have you been trying to carry alone that you want to lay down at the foot of the cross? Name it plainly, then write a prayer about letting it go. deep

  33. Write about a wrong you have done that still weighs on you. What do you want to say to God about it, and what step toward making it right could you take? deep

  34. Is there someone you are finding it hard to forgive? Write what happened, what it cost you and what you would like to pray, even if you are not ready yet. deep

  35. After the cross, the disciples hid behind locked doors. What fears keep your own doors locked, and what would you like to pray about them? deep

  36. Think of a part of your life that feels like a sealed tomb. Describe it honestly, then write what new life there might look like, even in a small way. deep

  37. What does the empty tomb mean to you, not as a lesson you were taught but as something you live with? Write it in your own words. deep

  38. Write your own psalm for Holy Week, moving from the darkness of Friday through the quiet of Saturday to the light of Sunday morning. deep

  39. Look back over this season. What did you notice about yourself and your prayers that you want to remember after Easter has passed? deep

  40. Write a letter to yourself to open next Easter. What do you hope will have grown or changed in you by then, and what do you want to pray for in the year ahead? deep

How to use these prompts

Pick one prompt each day of Holy Week, or choose the one that catches your attention when you open the page. The quick prompts take a few minutes over morning coffee; the deeper ones are better kept for a quiet evening when you have twenty minutes or more. If a prompt names a Bible passage, read it slowly before you write. When you feel stuck, write the prompt at the top of the page and answer it in a single sentence, or simply write what you notice in the room around you and let a prayer grow from there.

Questions

When should I start using Easter journal prompts?

Many people begin on Palm Sunday and write through Easter Sunday, but you can start whenever you like. The prompts also work well in the weeks after Easter, when the story of new life is still close.

What if Easter is a hard season for me this year?

You can bring grief, doubt or weariness to the page just as they are. Holy Week holds sorrow and waiting as well as joy, so there is room for whatever you are carrying.

Which Bible passages go well with these prompts?

The closing chapters of any of the four Gospels tell the story of Holy Week and Easter. A few prompts name a passage, such as John 20 or Luke 24, and you can read it in any translation you prefer.

Can I use these prompts with a small group or youth group?

Yes. You might choose two or three prompts, give everyone a few quiet minutes to write, and then invite anyone who wants to share. Make sharing optional so people can write freely.

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