Lent Bible reading plan 2027: the Gospels in 40 days, and more
A Bible reading plan for Lent 2027: the four Gospels in 40 days from Ash Wednesday, February 10, about 8 minutes a day, and an Orthodox plan from March 15.
The short answer
Lent 2027 begins on Ash Wednesday, February 10, and Easter is March 28. Orthodox Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, March 15, and Pascha is May 2. The four Gospels fit the season well: 89 chapters, about two a day over the 40 days with Sundays free, about 8 minutes of reading a day. For more, the New Testament is 6.5 chapters a day; for less, the Psalms take about 4 minutes a day.
In this guide
- When is Lent in 2027?
- The four Gospels in 40 days: a Lent 2027 plan, day by day
- Orthodox Great Lent reading plan 2027
- Other Bible reading plans for Lent, compared
- A shorter Lent: Mark, Luke and Acts, or the Psalms
- Catholic Lent: the daily Mass readings
- If your Lent reading plan slips
- Questions people ask
- Sources
Lent is the forty days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving before Easter, and for many Christians it is also a season for reading Scripture. In 2027 there are two Lents: the Western one, kept by Catholics and many Protestant churches, and Orthodox Great Lent, whose Easter comes five weeks later. Each calendar gets its own dated plan through the four Gospels here, with the arithmetic for longer and shorter readings, so a Bible reading plan for Lent can fit the time you actually have.
- Feb 10Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent 2027
- Mar 15Clean Monday, the start of Orthodox Great Lent
- 89chapters in the four Gospels
- 8 mina day to read them over 40 days
When is Lent in 2027?
Western Lent 2027 begins on Ash Wednesday, February 10, and Easter Sunday is March 28. Orthodox Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, March 15, and Pascha, the Orthodox Easter, is May 2. The Orthodox reckon Easter by the Julian calendar, which is why the two dates differ, by five weeks in 2027.
| 2027 | Western churches | Orthodox churches |
|---|---|---|
| Lent begins | Ash Wednesday, February 10 | Clean Monday, March 15 |
| Palm Sunday | March 21 | April 25 |
| Holy Thursday | March 25 | April 29 |
| Good Friday | March 26 | April 30 |
| Easter | Sunday, March 28 | Pascha, Sunday, May 2 |
Where the season ends depends on whom you ask. The US Catholic bishops say Lent “begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday”, though in everyday speech Lent often means everything up to Easter. Great Lent’s forty days end on Friday, April 23. The next day is Lazarus Saturday, which celebrates the raising of Lazarus and leads into Palm Sunday and Holy Week. (An Eastern church that keeps the Western date of Easter starts Great Lent 48 days before it, on Monday, February 8.)
Why Lent is 40 days when the calendar shows 46
Both traditions keep forty days, but they count them differently. From Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday there are 46 days in 2027. The six Sundays among them (February 14, 21 and 28, March 7 and 14, and Palm Sunday, March 21) belong to the season but, in the bishops’ words, “are not prescribed days of fast and abstinence”. Leave them out and exactly 40 days remain.
The Orthodox count includes the Sundays. Great Lent runs forty days in a row, from Clean Monday to the Friday before Lazarus Saturday, and Holy Week stands outside the forty. Ash Wednesday is not observed in the East at all.
For a reading plan the difference is practical. A Western plan of 40 readings leaves the Sundays free, for rest, for catching up, or for that Sunday’s own Gospel. An Orthodox plan reads every day.
The four Gospels in 40 days: a Lent 2027 plan, day by day
This plan reads Matthew, Mark, Luke and John once each, two or three chapters on most days, from Ash Wednesday, February 10, to Holy Saturday, March 27, with the Sundays free. A day takes about 8 minutes on average, and none takes more than 15. On its second day it reaches Matthew 4, where Jesus fasts “forty days and forty nights” in the wilderness.
John comes last so that Holy Week reads the close of John’s Gospel: the raising of Lazarus (John 11) on Tuesday, the anointing at Bethany and the entry into Jerusalem (John 12) on Wednesday, and the Last Supper on Holy Thursday. All five of those chapters, John 13 to 17, take place on that one evening. The arrest and crucifixion (John 18–19) fall on Good Friday, and the empty tomb and the risen Jesus (John 20–21) on Holy Saturday, or on Easter morning if you would rather wait. Those two days also take in the Gospels that the Revised Common Lectionary sets for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday in 2027, John 13:1–17, 31b–35 and John 18:1–19:42.
| Day | Date | Read | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wed, Feb 10 (Ash Wednesday) | Matthew 1–2 | 5 |
| 2 | Thu, Feb 11 | Matthew 3–4 | 4 |
| 3 | Fri, Feb 12 | Matthew 5–7 | 10 |
| 4 | Sat, Feb 13 | Matthew 8–9 | 6 |
| 5 | Mon, Feb 15 | Matthew 10–12 | 11 |
| 6 | Tue, Feb 16 | Matthew 13–14 | 8 |
| 7 | Wed, Feb 17 | Matthew 15–16 | 6 |
| 8 | Thu, Feb 18 | Matthew 17–18 | 6 |
| 9 | Fri, Feb 19 | Matthew 19–20 | 6 |
| 10 | Sat, Feb 20 | Matthew 21–23 | 11 |
| 11 | Mon, Feb 22 | Matthew 24–25 | 8 |
| 12 | Tue, Feb 23 | Matthew 26–28 | 14 |
| 13 | Wed, Feb 24 | Mark 1–3 | 9 |
| 14 | Thu, Feb 25 | Mark 4–5 | 7 |
| 15 | Fri, Feb 26 | Mark 6–7 | 8 |
| 16 | Sat, Feb 27 | Mark 8–9 | 8 |
| 17 | Mon, Mar 1 | Mark 10–11 | 8 |
| 18 | Tue, Mar 2 | Mark 12–13 | 7 |
| 19 | Wed, Mar 3 | Mark 14–16 | 12 |
| 20 | Thu, Mar 4 | Luke 1–2 | 11 |
| 21 | Fri, Mar 5 | Luke 3–4 | 8 |
| 22 | Sat, Mar 6 | Luke 5–6 | 9 |
| 23 | Mon, Mar 8 | Luke 7–8 | 10 |
| 24 | Tue, Mar 9 | Luke 9–10 | 10 |
| 25 | Wed, Mar 10 | Luke 11–12 | 11 |
| 26 | Thu, Mar 11 | Luke 13–15 | 10 |
| 27 | Fri, Mar 12 | Luke 16–17 | 6 |
| 28 | Sat, Mar 13 | Luke 18–19 | 8 |
| 29 | Mon, Mar 15 | Luke 20–21 | 7 |
| 30 | Tue, Mar 16 | Luke 22–24 | 14 |
| 31 | Wed, Mar 17 | John 1–3 | 9 |
| 32 | Thu, Mar 18 | John 4–5 | 9 |
| 33 | Fri, Mar 19 | John 6–7 | 10 |
| 34 | Sat, Mar 20 | John 8–9 | 9 |
| 35 | Mon, Mar 22 | John 10 | 3 |
| 36 | Tue, Mar 23 | John 11 | 5 |
| 37 | Wed, Mar 24 | John 12 | 4 |
| 38 | Thu, Mar 25 (Holy Thursday) | John 13–17 | 15 |
| 39 | Fri, Mar 26 (Good Friday) | John 18–19 | 8 |
| 40 | Sat, Mar 27 (Holy Saturday) | John 20–21 | 6 |
Minutes are from our word count of the World English Bible at 238 words a minute, the average adult pace for silent reading found in a 2019 review of reading-speed studies. At a relaxed 200 words a minute, add about a fifth.
The Sundays carry no reading. On Palm Sunday, if you want one, the Passion that the Revised Common Lectionary sets for 2027 is Mark 14–15. Matthew comes first here because it comes first in the Bible; our guide on which Gospel to read first compares the four if you are choosing just one.
Orthodox Great Lent reading plan 2027
Great Lent counts its Sundays, so the Orthodox version reads every day: about two chapters a day for the forty days from Clean Monday, March 15, to Friday, April 23, then John’s account of the last week from Lazarus Saturday to Pascha. It averages about 7 minutes a day.
| When | 2027 | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 (Clean Week) | March 15–21 | Matthew 1–14 |
| Week 2 | March 22–28 | Matthew 15–28 |
| Week 3 | March 29 – April 4 | Mark 1–14 |
| Week 4 | April 5–11 | Mark 15–16, Luke 1–12 |
| Week 5 | April 12–18 | Luke 13–24, John 1–2 |
| Week 6 | April 19–23 | John 3–10 |
| Lazarus Saturday | April 24 | John 11 |
| Palm Sunday | April 25 | John 12 |
| Holy Week | April 26–30 | John 13, 14, 15–16 and 17, then John 18–19 on Holy Friday |
| Pascha | May 2 | John 20–21 |
Weeks 1 to 5 are fourteen chapters each, two a day; week 6 is eight chapters over five days, and Holy Saturday is left free. Lazarus Saturday reads John 11, the chapter it remembers, and Palm Sunday reads the entry into Jerusalem in John 12.
The services of Great Lent have a reading pattern of their own. Genesis, Proverbs and Isaiah are read almost in their entirety at the Sixth Hour and Vespers, and the Psalter is read through twice each week in the six weeks before Holy Week. To read those three books at home over the forty days is 147 chapters, about 3.7 a day and 9 minutes. Orthodox Bibles also carry books and a Psalm 151 that Protestant ones do not; our guide to the Orthodox Bible lists them. The Oriental Orthodox churches keep their own reckoning: in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the great fast (Abiy Tsom) runs 55 continuous days before Easter and takes in Holy Week, so the church’s own calendar gives its dates.
Other Bible reading plans for Lent, compared
The four Gospels take about 8 minutes a day over the 40 days of Lent, the Psalms about 4, the New Testament about 18 and the whole Bible about 80. The table gives the chapters and minutes a day for each, over 40 reading days with the Sundays free and over all 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday.
| Plan | Chapters | Over 40 days | Over 46 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luke and Acts | 52 | 1.3 a day, 5 min | 1.1 a day, 4 min |
| The four Gospels | 89 | 2.2 a day, 8 min | 1.9 a day, 7 min |
| The Gospels and Acts | 117 | 2.9 a day, 11 min | 2.5 a day, 9 min |
| Genesis, Proverbs and Isaiah | 147 | 3.7 a day, 9 min | 3.2 a day, 8 min |
| The Psalms | 150 | 3.8 a day, 4 min | 3.3 a day, 4 min |
| The New Testament | 260 | 6.5 a day, 18 min | 5.7 a day, 16 min |
| The whole Bible (66 books) | 1,189 | 29.7 a day, 79 min | 25.8 a day, 69 min |
The minutes come from word counts, as in the plan above, and chapters are a poor guide to time here. The Psalms have more chapters than the four Gospels but about half the words, because most psalms are short, while a Gospel chapter is longer than the average chapter of the Bible.
Reading the New Testament during Lent
The New Testament’s 260 chapters fit Lent at about six a day: 6.5 a day with the Sundays free (alternating six and seven), or 5.7 a day over all 46 days, which is 16 to 18 minutes. Read in order, the Gospels and Acts fill roughly the first three weeks and Revelation lands in Holy Week. Our guide to how long the New Testament takes has the times book by book.
Reading the whole Bible during Lent
The whole Bible fits in Lent only at about 30 chapters a day, roughly 80 minutes of silent reading, or 26 chapters and 69 minutes if you read on the Sundays too. The 73-book Catholic Bible, at 1,334 chapters, needs about 33 a day over 40 days and 29 over 46. It can be done, but it is closer to a reading project than a devotional pace. If it appeals, the reading plan calculator lays out any Bible from any start date to any finishing date.
A shorter Lent: Mark, Luke and Acts, or the Psalms
A lighter Lent can still have a shape. Each of these takes five minutes a day or less, or a single evening.
- Mark in one sitting. Mark is 16 chapters and about an hour of reading, short enough to take in as one story on a quiet evening, on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday for instance.
- Luke and Acts. Both are addressed to Theophilus (Luke 1:3, Acts 1:1), and together they run from the births of John the Baptist and Jesus to Paul in Rome. That is 52 chapters, 1.3 a day, about 5 minutes.
- The Psalms. All 150 in 40 days is four a day with ten days of three, about 4 minutes; Orthodox Bibles have 151, which adds one more day of four. Psalm 51, with its “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10), is the psalm of the Ash Wednesday Mass.
For choosing one Gospel, here are the four side by side:
| Book | Chapters | Words | Reading time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew | 28 | 22,831 | 1 hour 36 min |
| Mark | 16 | 14,275 | 1 hour |
| Luke | 24 | 24,411 | 1 hour 43 min |
| John | 21 | 18,696 | 1 hour 19 min |
Words are our own count of the World English Bible, a public-domain modern translation. Reading time is silent reading at 238 words a minute, the adult average.
Catholic Lent: the daily Mass readings
Catholics have another route: the daily Mass readings, which give every day of Lent its own passages. On Ash Wednesday, February 10, 2027, they are Joel 2:12–18, Psalm 51, 2 Corinthians 5:20–6:2 and Matthew 6:1–6, 16–18, and the US bishops’ website posts the readings for every date.
Tear 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.
Joel 2:13, World English Bible
The daily readings are a few passages rather than whole chapters, so they sit well beside one of the plans above, or stand on their own on a busy day. The Gospels plan works in a Catholic Bible exactly as printed, because Catholic and Protestant Bibles share the same 27-book New Testament. If Lent turns into a longer habit, the Catholic Bible reading plan covers all 73 books at any pace.
If your Lent reading plan slips
A Lent plan that slips is still a Lent of reading. If a few days go by, the simplest course is to pick up today’s row and let the missed chapters wait. The Gospels plan has six free Sundays that can absorb a day or two each, and whatever is left can be read after Easter at any pace. If the plan asks more than this season allows, move to a smaller one from the table: the Psalms and Luke and Acts each take five minutes a day or less. Our guide to catching up on a reading plan goes further.
Easter comes on its day either way, and the chapters you did read are still read.
Questions people ask
When does Lent start in 2027?
In the Catholic Church and other Western churches, Lent 2027 begins on Ash Wednesday, February 10. Palm Sunday is March 21, Holy Thursday March 25, Good Friday March 26 and Easter Sunday March 28. Counting every day from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday gives 46 days, and leaving out the six Sundays gives the forty.
When is Orthodox Lent in 2027?
Orthodox Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, March 15, 2027, and its forty days run to Friday, April 23, Sundays included. Lazarus Saturday follows on April 24 and Palm Sunday on April 25, then Holy Week. Pascha is on Sunday, May 2, five weeks after the Western Easter.
What can I read in the Bible during Lent?
The four Gospels are the most natural fit, since Lent leads to Easter and each Gospel ends with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Other good choices are the Psalms (Psalm 51 is the psalm of the Ash Wednesday Mass), Luke and Acts, the whole New Testament, or the daily Mass readings. Orthodox services in Lent read Genesis, Proverbs and Isaiah almost in full.
Can you read the whole Bible during Lent?
Yes, but it is a lot of reading. The 66-book Protestant Bible has 1,189 chapters, so it takes about 30 chapters a day over 40 days, roughly 80 minutes of silent reading a day. Over all 46 days it is about 26 chapters and 70 minutes. The 73-book Catholic Bible, at 1,334 chapters, needs about 33 a day over 40 days.
How long does it take to read the four Gospels?
About five and a half hours of silent reading at an average pace of 238 words a minute, or closer to seven at a relaxed 200. The four Gospels have 89 chapters and, by our count of the World English Bible, 80,213 words. Mark, the shortest, takes about an hour, so it can be read in one evening.
Are Sundays part of Lent?
Yes. The US Catholic bishops call the Sundays part of the season of Lent but not prescribed days of fast and abstinence. Leave the six Sundays out of the 46 days from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday and forty remain. The Orthodox count differently. Great Lent's forty days include its Sundays, and Holy Week is kept apart from them.
Sources
- Lent, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Ash Wednesday, February 10, 2027, daily readings, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Revised Common Lectionary calendar, 2026–27 (Year B), Vanderbilt Divinity Library
- Liturgy of the Passion, March 21, 2027 (Year B), Revised Common Lectionary, Vanderbilt Divinity Library
- Maundy Thursday, March 25, 2027 (Year B), Revised Common Lectionary, Vanderbilt Divinity Library
- Good Friday, March 26, 2027 (Year B), Revised Common Lectionary, Vanderbilt Divinity Library
- List of dates for Easter, Wikipedia
- Clean Monday, Wikipedia
- Great Lent, Wikipedia
- Lazarus Saturday, Wikipedia
- Fasting and abstinence in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Wikipedia
- Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109, 104047.
- World English Bible, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org
- King James Version, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org
