Lent / Easter News
Ash Wednesday Calls us to Turn Away from Sin and Be Faithful to the Gospel
By • Catholic Online • 2/22/2012
Who needs Lent? We do. If we enter into Lent with our entire person, it can draw us into a deeper embrace of the power of the Resurrection, beginning right now.Liturgy is the "work" (that is what the word means) of the faithful. Lent is a powerful liturgical season. ...
Ash Wednesday: Pope Says 'Seek To Experience God's Presence Within'
By • Catholic Online • 2/22/2012
"You may ask me: 'But, does God exist? And if he exists does he really concern himself with us? Can we reach him?' It is, indeed, true that we cannot place God on the table, we cannot touch him or pick him up like an ordinary object. We must rediscover our capacity to perceive God, a capacity that ...
The Happy Priest on Ash Wednesday 2012: Time For a Spiritual Colonoscopy?
By • Catholic Online • 2/22/2012
Lent is a time of self-examination. We need to look at ourselves very carefully. The ashes on our forehead remind us of the human condition: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.However, sometimes, you will have to go real deep and discover inner attitudes that may be ...
Bread on the Trail: Making Room for God
By • Catholic Online • 2/20/2012
Cleaning out garages is a metaphor for so much more. Cleaning out the house within is an even greater challenge. CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you ...
The Happy Priest on Getting Ready for Lent
By • Catholic Online • 2/18/2012
A serious Lent will be like a spring cleaning which will purify the clutter that has accumulated in our souls. A serious commitment to penance will also help us to conquer addictions, obsessions and compulsive behavior. A serious Lent will purify our soul and allow us to experience a ...
Catholic Online Interviews Fr Dwight Longenecker on His Lenten Book: The Gargoyle Code
By • Catholic Online • 2/16/2012
Following C.S.Lewis' idea of letters from a senior demon to his trainee, Fr. Longenecker has added a few twists. The Gargoyle Code is updated and written for Catholics. With one letter for every day in Lent from Shrove Tuesday to Easter Monday, this is a must read for the Lenten season. As a ...
Lent Calls Out - What Are You Made Of?
By • Catholic Online • 2/16/2012
During Lent, the Church gives us an opportunity each year to experience hardship, as minimal as it might be, in order to exercise our will and choose discomfort as a means to deepen devotion to our Lord. WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Several years ago my son, David, and I were talking about ...
Lent with the Fathers: 'Grace and Truth Came through Jesus'
By • Catholic Online • 2/14/2012
No one should be ashamed of the cross of Christ, through which the world has been redeemed. CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - One of only two to be called "the Great" this deacon of the Church had opposed the herest of Pelagius who almost infected the whole Church in the fifth century with his ...
Preparing for Lent: Learning to Pray, Love, and Live Our Lives in Communion with God
By • Catholic Online • 2/11/2012
"The so-called "practical people" are not really the most useful in the service of Christ's Church, nor are those who merely expound theories. Rather it is the true contemplatives who best serve her; those with the steady, generous and passionate desire of transfiguring and divinizing all creation ...
Moriah, Tabor, Calvary: Darkness Can Be Radiant
By • Zenit News Agency • 2/7/2012
We must experience both mountains -- Tabor and Golgotha -- in order to see the glory of God. TORONTO (Zenit) - Moriah. Sinai. Nebo. Carmel. Horeb. Gilboa. Gerizim. Mount of Beatitudes. Tabor. Hermon. Zion. Mount of Olives. Calvary. Golgotha. Mountains are often used in the Bible as the stages 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 »
