Lent / Easter News
4th Sorrowful Mystery: Carrying the Cross
By • Catholic Online • 4/22/2011
I wonder if perhaps it was tempting for Jesus to just lie down on the dirt road and die right there. Completely sapped of strength and in agonizing pain, I wonder if He was tempted by the thought, "I can't take another step." In faithful obedience to the Father's will, Jesus persevered. ...
Good Friday: Behold the Wood of the Cross
By • Catholic Online • 4/22/2011
Crosses come in all sizes, shapes and material. Some are jeweled, others are intricately carved. Good Friday brings us back to the reality that it is about a wooden cross and, more importantly, about the One who died upon it. WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) – When Catholics and Protestants have ...
Love is Stronger than Death. Why We Call it Good Friday
By • Catholic Online • 4/22/2011
Every Good Friday is an encounter with Love Incarnate, Jesus Christ, who stretched out his arms to embrace each one of us.We are reminded that death is no longer the final word. For those filled with hope of the Resurrection, it is no longer an enemy but a friend, the passageway to ...
The Easter Triduum: A Journey into The Paschal Mystery of Christ
By • Catholic Online • 4/21/2011
'Let us journey along in and through the Paschal Mystery of Christ, and enter into the joy of Easter'Pope Benedict calls Christians, as we relive the Holy Triduum, to "make ourselves available to welcome God's will into our lives, aware that our true good, the path of our lives, is found in His ...
Congregation for the Clergy on Palm/Passion Sunday, the Great Door of Holy Week
By • Catholic Online • 4/18/2011
This is the Sunday in which the great door of Holy Week unfolds before the lives of every Christian. Now, time really passes quickly and the disciple is called to follow our Lord Jesus in every step as He enters Jerusalem.The identification with Christ's disciples can certainly help us to ...
With Faith Let Us Enter into the Great and Holy Week
By • Catholic Online • 4/18/2011
Holy Week invites us to let go of self and embrace the Lord anew. To begin again! How desperately the current age needs to hear this Good news that we can all begin again! The real question is not whether we will mark time but how we will do so? CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - In the 1977 film ...
3d Sunday of Lent: A Whole World Thirsting for Living Water
By • Catholic Online • 3/27/2011
Each day we pass many who, like the woman of Samaria, decorate time. Their lives may look adorned and abundant, but this is merely a disguise, hiding an interior emptiness. They are the hollow army of humanity so parched but unaware that liquid life is so close them - in us.We don't have to go far ...
Feast Day: Congregation for the Clergy, Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
By • Catholic Online • 3/25/2011
With this greeting and with this happy annunciation, in its truest sense, the Gospel is initiated. The angel's first word is 'joy': the new joy that comes from God, from his irrecoverable gift for us and through us and amongst us. Or better yet, this joy comes from 'Emanuel - God is ...
Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord: Mary's Yes Invites Our Response
By • Catholic Online • 3/25/2011
"What came about in bodily form in Mary, the fullness of the godhead shining through Christ in the Blessed Virgin, takes place in a similar way in every soul that has been made pure. The Lord does not come in bodily form, for ´we no longer know Christ according to the flesh´, but He dwells in us ...
Congregation for the Clergy on the Second Sunday of Lent
By • Catholic Online • 3/21/2011
In time, following the Lord faithfully and humbly we will also be allowed to see, in our own lives, that progressive and profound event, that transfiguration which is called holiness.He has inserted us into His Church, the human company that, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, prolongs the presence of ...
More Easter / Lent
'So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead' - Luke 24:46
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption. continue reading
Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four canonical Gospels. (Mark 11:1.11, Matthew 21:1.11, Luke 19:28.44, and John 12:12.19) ... continue reading
On Palm Sunday, we celebrate the first joy of the season, as we celebrate Our Lord's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem where he was welcomed by crowds worshiping him and laying down palm leaves before him. It also marks the beginning of Holy Week... continue reading
HOLY THURSDAY is the most complex and profound of all religious observances. It celebrates his last supper with the disciples, a celebration of Passover ... continue reading
On Good Friday, each member of the Church tries to understand at what cost Christ has won our redemption. In the solemn ceremonies of Holy Week we unite ourselves to our Savior, and we contemplate our own death to sin in the Death of our Lord ... continue reading
Easter is the principal feast of the ecclesiastical year. Leo I (Sermo xlvii in Exodum) calls it the greatest feast (festum festorum), and says that Christmas is celebrated only in preparation for Easter. It is the centre of the greater part of the ecclesiastical year ... continue reading
Explore Easter, Lent & Pentecost Season
For most people the easiest practice to consistently fulfill will be the traditional one, to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year. During Lent abstinence from meat on Fridays is obligatory in the United States as elsewhere. Christ Himself said that His disciples would fast once He had departed (Lk. 5:35). continue reading
Everything answered from when does lent end, ashes, giving something up, stations of the cross and blessed palms. The key to understanding the meaning of Lent is simple: Baptism... continue reading
Stations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours (or Passion) of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. First Station: Jesus is condemned to death... pray the stations now
What did you give up for Lent?
From the humorous to the bizarre, people have had interesting Lenten experiences. Tell us about what you are going to give up for this Lenten Year.
What others gave up »
Lent / Easter News
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The Power of the Resurrection in our Lives: Christ Is Risen; Indeed, He Is Risen!
F. K. Bartels - Catholic Online, 4/6/2013There is great cause for belief in the Resurrection. One of the most wonderful tenets of Catholicism and the true Christian religion the Church transmits, is that the Resurrection is a historical ...Continue Reading
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What a Day! What a Way, the Easter Way, Alleluia!
Deacon Keith Fournier - Catholic Online, 4/1/2013Have you have heard the old adage, used often in a disparaging way, He´s so heavenly he is no earthly good. I suggest again that it misses the mark completely. We are Easter people. We are called to ...Continue Reading
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The Surprise of Easter
Fr. Randy Sly - Catholic Online, 3/31/2013To make sure that all mankind knows that it is not over but actually just beginning, God has an Easter bombshell. While we may have been able to anticipate the wondrous joy of a day of resurrection, ...Continue Reading
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Easter Vigil Homily of Pope Francis: Let the Risen Jesus Enter Your Life
Pope Francis - Catholic Online, 3/31/2013Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness... and that is where death is. That is not the place to look for the One who is alive! Let the risen Jesus enter ...Continue Reading
Good Friday
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On Good Friday, the entire Church fixes her gaze on the Cross at Calvary. Each member of the Church tries to understand at what cost Christ has won our redemption.
The Cross
In the symbol of the Cross we can see the magnitude of the human tragedy, the ravages of original sin, and the infinite love of God. Learn More
Ash Wednesday
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Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption.
The Ashes
The ashes are made from the blessed palms used in the Palm Sunday celebration of the previous year. The ashes are christened with Holy Water and are scented by exposure to incense. Learn More
Stations of the Cross
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Stations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours (or Passion) of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion.
Opening Prayer
ACT OF CONTRITION. O my God, my Redeemer, behold me here at Thy feet. From the bottom of my heart... Pray the Stations
Fasting & Abstinence
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'Christ Himself said that His disciples would fast once He had departed' Lk. 5:35
Abstinence. The law of abstinence requires a Catholic 14 years of age until death to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in honor of the Passion of Jesus on Good Friday. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted.
Fasting. The law of fasting requires a Catholic from the 18th Birthday (Canon 97) to the 59th Birthday (i.e. the beginning of the 60th year, a year which will be completed on the 60th birthday) to reduce the amount of food eaten from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal.
Learn More »
