She might have prayed for everyone in her house, and never once for herself.
Hadar is forty days for a woman who wants to be nearer to God, to her own heart, to her people and to her calling. Each morning is one passage of the King James Bible, prayed in your own words. Each day has one practice for the body, and each night ends with two lines laid down.
He spoke to women by name.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
Ten of the forty carry the words of Christ, set apart on a gold face of their own, and most of them were spoken to a woman or about one: Martha, the woman at the well, the woman who touched his garment, the woman who loved much, Mary at the tomb.
Ten days for each.
The forty move from God, to your own heart, to the people given to you, to the help you were made for. Each day has a name; these are all forty.
God
Sought before anything else.
One thing. Drawn. Thou God seest me. New every morning. Into the wilderness. With singing. By thy name. Poured out. Night and day. Living water.
Heart
The woman beneath the doing.
Wonderfully made. Not ashamed. Daughter. Made straight. Her clothing. She loved much. Beauty for ashes. She shall not be moved. As a weaned child. It is finished.
People
The ones given to you.
Whither thou goest. Buildeth her house. As his mother comforteth. Lois and Eunice. Two are better than one. Blessed be thy advice. No fear in love. Sweep the house. In his arms. The law of kindness.
Calling
The help you were made for.
An help meet. Full of good works. For such a time. Until that I arose. Strengtheneth her arms. A succourer of many. The work of our hands. Mary. She hath done what she could. Blessed is she.
Italic gold marks a day that carries the words of Christ.
Pray the Word
Read the passage once, out loud if you can. Then talk to God in your own words, and be still for one minute. There are no written prayers. On a morning with no words, borrow his: a Psalm, the Lord’s Prayer, the passage itself, or silence.
The practice
One practice for the body, from nine that are older than the phone: breath, silence, walking prayer, the examen, slow reading, the morning watch, the closet, the table and the blessing. The screen goes gold and stays awake, with a summer morning, beach waves or a quiet calm under it if you want one.
Lay it down
Two lines before sleep, in your own words, and the day is set down. Nobody reads them but you. On five nights, three plain questions ask how you are carrying it.
A threefold cord is not quickly broken.Ecclesiastes 4:12
Name a friend and Hadar goes to her in a text from your own phone, in a thread you already have. She gets the app for herself and begins her own forty on the day she chooses. Every seventh day you are given one question to ask her, by call or across a table, never in the app. You will not see how her forty is going unless she tells you.
What you keep.
Keep any passage and it waits for you in the order of the Bible, beside every night you laid down. After the tenth night, the look back sets your own lines out in order and asks what has changed in you.
Set a passage on one of the paintings for your Lock Screen, or send it to a friend. The paintings turn with the seasons; the Word does not.
What it will not do.
It will not put words in your mouth. It will not count your days: there is no streak, no score and no badge, and a missed day leaves nothing and says nothing. It will not ask you for an account, and nothing you write comes to us; it stays on your phone, with a copy in your own iCloud that you can turn off. It will not ring unless you set a morning bell.
And it is not a church, not a counselor, and not a substitute for a real friend in a real room.
Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.Proverbs 31:25
Hadar is the Hebrew word for honour in that line: splendor, majesty, the thing a person is clothed in. The Psalms use the same word for what God himself wears. It is worn, not earned, and its five letters are the five women at the top of this page.
It was made in the fall of 2026 by a photographer, for the women who asked where theirs was.
Coming to the App Store.
When it opens, Hadar will be an app for iPhone, iOS 16 or later, $4.99 once, with nothing to renew.