PRAYING LENTAn Online Ministry of Creighton University: resources here to assist our entry into this wonderful season, from our preparing to begin Lent to our preparing to celebrate the holy three days following Lent.
THE DEATH OF DEATHEaster isn’t celebrating a one-time miracle as if it only happened in the body of Jesus and we’re all here to cheer for Jesus.
FINDING GOD IN THE MESSJoin in a special Lenten read-along with Loyola Press. We’ll be reading Finding God in the Mess: Meditations for Mindful Living at a relaxed pace that will give us time to savor what we read during the weeks of Lent.
MAKE LENT 2020 YOUR BEST EVERA Lot Can Happen in 40 Days... A totally free and totally awesome daily Lenten video program sent straight to your email!
THE SEASON OF LENTFrom Ken Collins: Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a season for reflection and taking stock.
RADICAL HOPE - LENT 2020Join the Ignatian family each day during Lent 2020 at the hope-filled intersection of faith and justice.
5 PRAYERS FOR THE LENT SEASONThe Lent season is all about focusing our heart on the true source of joy - Jesus Christ. Use these Lenten Prayers to remember what Easter is all about.
RESOURCES FOR LENTIgnatian contemplation and reflective prayer encourage us in the season of Lent. Below we highlight Ignatian resources for Lent.
LENT & EASTER - FRANCISCAN MEDIALent is upon us, a time of prayer, reflection, and unity with God. But sometimes we miss important aspects of this holy season while we are in the midst of it.
FIVE APPS FOR LENTAs well as using the app for prayer requests, you can also use it as a prayer journal that records your own spiritual journey through Lent...
SEVEN KEY WORDS FOR LENTSeven key terms from the Catechism of the Catholic Church that help us to revisit and delve more deeply into the gift of Lent.
THE HOPE OF LENTWhile the Lenten season is indeed preparation for our Easter celebration, the hope of this season is that we will find our lives transformed by the many ways we encounter God’s Word...
8 WAYS TO PRAY DURING LENTThere are as many ways to pray as there are pray-ers in this world, but a few prayer methods can help us in particular to spiritually prepare ourselves during Lent.
40 WAYS TO GET MORE OUT OF LENTLent is supposed to be a season of a successful journey through the desert of penance to a new land and a new, deeper intimacy with God. But often, we find ourselves falling back on the same old pathways.
LENT, UNPLUGGEDIn a time of digital consumption, here’s how the church can lead the way on healthy media fasting.
LETTING THIS LENT BE GOD’S What if this Lent we didn’t approach the practices of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting with an eye to what we can do to transform ourselves, but rather with an eye to what God wants to do in order to transform us?
40 LENTEN LESSONS ON THE MASSReceive a Lenten Lesson in your email inbox each day. Deepen your faith this Lent with these lessons on the Eucharist and the Holy Mass— the source and summit of our faith.
LENT WITH THE SAINTSDaily inspiration during this season of repentance, forgiveness, and hope. Connect and pray with the Church's most beloved saints and holy people
LENT: WHY THE CHRISTIAN MUST DENY HIMSELFBy fasting a person turns to God more intently. This is reflected in God’s words spoken through the Prophet Joel: “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
EXODUS AND THE PASCHAL JOURNEY OF LENTLent is about the people of God being on the march, out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. And this journey we make together is a matter of life and death
NO NEED TO BE CROSS ABOUT LENTCatholics are trying to move from Lent as a penitential season to Lent as a baptismal season — that is, a season that focuses on a refreshment of the Christian commitment which is rooted in baptism.
ARTS & FAITH: LENTThe visual prayer experience of Arts & Faith: Lent continues through Holy Week with videos for Palm Sunday and the Triduum.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE CROSSJoseph A. Tetlow, SJ, explores the idea that Jesus’ Passion brings us to embrace the world as it really is.
LENT RESOURCESLent is a season of repentance and renewal. We turn away from our sinfulness and recommit ourselves to following Jesus. Ignatian contemplation and reflective prayer encourage us in the season of Lent. Here you will find Ignatian resources for Lent.
WALKING THROUGH LENT WITH ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISIThe season of Lent was one of sacrifice and introspection for St. Francis. As our guide through this holy season, he is inviting us to do the same. To receive daily Lenten meditations inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, sign up here.
SOUL SEEING FOR LENT Each column is a spiritual reflection on the beauty that hides behind appearances and the peace that is beyond all understanding.
LENTEN VULNERABILITYSome of us are in desperate need of receiving mercy and justice, some of us are in desperate need of experiencing want. Jesus was ministered by the angels in the desert - our Lenten journey needs both.
SLOW LENTIn the Sunday Gospels throughout Lent, we find Jesus in a number of environments: deserts, mountaintops, temples and towns. Each place plays an important part in Jesus’ journey. These reflections invite people to spend contemplative time with Jesus in each of these places, not just on Sunday but for an entire week.
THE SACRED SILENCE OF LENTEverything depends on our own dependence on God. And we cannot learn anything about that dependence by thinking and plotting and planning — by huffing and puffing. We need to open our hearts. We need to be quiet.
WHO IS SACRIFICED, AND WHO BENEFITS?The reality of health and economic disparity COVID has exposed “is worth pondering as Holy Week approaches...as Christians seek redemption in the short lifespan of a first-century man who lacked social or economic privilege.”
THE POLITICS OF THE PASSIONIt may be that the actions and words of Jesus in Holy Week in fact tell us something about the necessary—and salutary—tension between political life and religious identity.
CELEBRATE LENT WITH PADRE PIOJoin others this Lent with meditations, prayers, and words of comfort from Padre Pio himself, delivered right to your inbox. Begins on Ash Wednesday, March 2.
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR LENT 2022Lent invites us to conversion, to a change in mindset, so that life’s truth and beauty may be found not so much in possessing as in giving, not so much in accumulating as in sowing and sharing goodness.
PERPETUAL LENTIf Church leaders and institutions wish to lead us in our Lenten spiritual journey, it is imperative that they unequivocally acknowledge the seriousness of the times and the horrors the pandemic has wrought.
WELCOME, LENTFor Catholics, Lent is a sure part of the rhythm of life. The sacred season comes around every year, like an old friend who visits, without fail. We are challenged to live each Lent with a true readiness to change, to embrace each Lent as precious and potentially exceptional.
YOUNG JESUITS OFFER ADVICE FOR LENT"What are you giving up for Lent this year?" It's a standard question, but maybe not the best one. We hope their insight will help you think deeply about your Lenten practices this year.
LENTEN CONVERSIONS“Turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel.” These words remind the baptized that Christian conversion involves both an ongoing rejection of a sinful life and also a fuller embrace of the Gospel.
MEDITATE ON ‘UBI CARITAS’ THIS LENTAs we approach Holy Week and look forward to the promise of Easter joy, we may look back on the last month or so and reflect on how the Lord has been present to us this Lent.
HOW TO DO HOLY WEEKHow can we maintain some realm of holy quiet? How to “do” Holy Week, especially if we will not be participating in all the special church liturgies at this time? Here are just a few suggestions.
A GUIDE TO A TRANSFORMATIVE HOLY WEEK The prayers and rituals of Holy Week are particularly formative and transformative if we allow them to be.Let the rituals of Holy Week guide your heart toward God.
A HOLY WEEK MEDITATION WITH LEAL’S PIETÀFace-to-face with the historical life and death of Jesus, who died a common criminal, whose life terminated in a crumpled heap indistinguishable from so many broken bodies before and after his.
FINDING GOD IN THE CHAOSDaily email reflections throughout the Lenten season dealing with the story of hope, of justice, of God’s presence in a chaotic, broken world.
Why Catholics need Ash WednesdayLent is not about "doing something positive," We need to practice the self-emptying that Jesus modeled. We Catholic Christians love Lent because we need it.
LET'S MAKE THE BEATITUDES OUR GUIDE FOR LENTAmerican Catholics all deeply hunger for unifying, sacramental, even mystical experiences that can reveal the sweetness of the Gospel, the Word that makes a difference in our lives.
VIRTUAL SIT MEDITATIONS FOR LENTClear away the old to make room for new growth. This Lent, join us every Sunday morning beginning March 9 for our FREE Lent Virtual Sit Meditations, led by CAC faculty and staff. Experience contemplative practices grounded in the themes of Richard Rohr’s new book “The Tears of Things.”
STAY HERE WITH MERebecca Ruiz places herself in the Scripture passage the night Jesus prayed in Gethsemane.
LENT AT THE VATICAN MUSEUMSEvery Friday during Lent, the Pope's Museums offer a unique, thematic itinerary, ranging from sarcophagi to the art of Caravaggio and Michelangelo, to meditate...
VIA CRUCISThe Way of the Cross is full of lessons for the life of any disciple. The question of why suffering exists finds its answer in Christ’s transformation of suffering through love. Christ’s cross makes sense of our own.
“GOD BENT DOWN OVER US”A collaboration between the Vatican Museums and Vatican News presenting various masterpieces from the Pontifical collection accompanied by the words of the Popes.
YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE TRIDUUMTaking you step-by-step through the three-day celebration of the Church. This guide will help you walk and pray through the liturgies of the Triduum.
HOW DO YOU GET TO GETHSEMANE?How do you pray in Gethsemane? We should pray as the Lord did. Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.
MARY AT THE CROSS – WAS SHE THERE?There is no mention of the mother of Jesus being present at the Crucifixion in the synoptic gospels. Or have we been misreading the texts...
ENRICHING LENT BY ENTERING INTO THE GOSPELThe most difficult task of a Christian involves that of being a living exemplar of the virtues present in Jesus. The Lenten season can be a gift in continuing this process of personal transformation.
LIVING LENT DAILY Sign up to receive daily messages via e-mail from Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024, through Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024, inspired by God’s Voice Within by Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ.
FASTING AS AN ACT OF LOVEWell thought-out, healthy ascetic practices remind us as a community of faith that the thing that we give up is not the be all and end all. God is. Lent is a chance to get in a little practice at getting closer to that realization.
THIS LENT, LET YOURSELF BE BORED As Lent draws nearer, we can begin to reflect: Do we open our hearts to God as we go about our days? Or are we disrupting every spiritual inclination with notifications and news feeds?
FULLY ENTERING INTO THE TRIDUUMDuring the Sacred Triduum — the days of Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday — the strangest thing will occur. Millions of Christians throughout the world will gather to honor the humiliation, torture and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
LENT REFLECTIONS – ‘FATHER, FORGIVE THEM’In the first of a series, Patrick van der Vorst reflects on seven images that help to deepen our understanding of the last words Jesus spoke when hanging on the Cross.
IT’S LENT: ARE YOU LAUGHING? With the absurdity of human foolishness and folly in mind, the absurdity of sin, let us take our Lenten pilgrimage toward where laughter is ever after.
A BUSY PERSON’S GUIDE TO LENT Lent is a wonderful time to slow down and take stock, a special time for fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. But adding just one additional activity into our busy, over-scheduled lives can feel like a huge challenge.
LENT PROPELS US TO EASTEREaster is still a few weeks away. We find ourselves muddling through the doldrums of Lent. But I want to make a bold claim: Now is the time to begin our Easter story.
LENT WITH BILBO BAGGINSAs with those fictional stories that Christ tells us in the Gospel, 'The Hobbit' is a parable that teaches priceless lessons about the spiritual life.
AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO HOLY WEEK Easter is not only about the resurrection of one individual, but it is also about the whole of creation and salvation history, which are inextricably united.
WORRIED ABOUT GETTING LENT RIGHT? HERE’S A BETTER WAYInstead of seeing Lent as a path to perfection, what if we viewed our Lenten commitments as an invitation to receive what Jesus truly desires to do in us? Ultimately, Lent isn’t about what we do, but about how God works in us.
LENTEN REFLECTIONS 2025: TAKE HEARTThis Lent, writers from the Catholic network, including Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., Jeannie Gaffigan, Fr. James Martin, S.J., and Sr. Norma Pimentel, M.J., will guide us as we allow our hearts to be made tender to bring more mercy into our broken world.
THE HARD WORK OF LENTYou cannot be alive in this century without knowing anger and fear in equal measure. As a nation, we are divided by politics. As a global community, we are still navigating a virus that has redefined “normal.” Even the Church is not immune to scandal and backbiting. I think I’m right in that we are, collectively, tired.
POPE FRANCIS’S MESSAGE FOR ‘OUR LENTEN JOURNEY’Focusing on the idea of being a pilgrim Church on a constant journey of conversion, the message for Lent 2025 is entitled “Let us journey together in hope” and is divided into three parts.
REMAINING IN THE UPPER ROOMTo enter the upper room is to re-root ourselves in what God ultimately wants of us and then trust that God will save all those people that we can’t.
WHAT IS LENT?Lent is a process of stripping away distractions to find greater authenticity. To return to the heart means to go back to our true self and to present it just as it is, naked and defenseless, in the sight of God.
A LENTEN FAST ACCEPTABLE TO THE LORDIf we honestly examine our conscience – a healthy Lenten exercise – many of us will come to the conclusion that we can do more – probably much more – to share our bread with the hungry, shelter the homeless and set the oppressed free.
REIMAGINE LENT AS A SEASON OF HOPE—JESUS DIDLent isn’t just a time of penitence: At the end is a door inviting us into deeper life. Lent isn’t a season we travel in hope of surviving our resolutions and of reaching the grateful end of them. At the end of this season is a door inviting us to more and deeper life.
THE MERCY THAT REBUILDS: THE SEVEN LAST WORDS OF CHRISTJesus on the cross, before his last breath, made his own the beginning of the psalm that gives the most complete expression of the human soul, that mysterious depth for which man gives himself, unites himself to God, because he is his creature: “Into your hands I commend myself; you redeem me, Lord, God of truth” (Ps. 31:6).
A MEDITATION ON CHRIST’S AGONY, PART IIThere are no similes to describe such an experience. If the mere clash of atmosphere between a cold air current and a hot air current can convulse the sky with terrifying thunderclaps, flashes of lightning, and thunderbolts, what must Jesus’s state of soul have been when the supreme holiness of God came in conflict with the supreme malice of sin?”
HOLY THURSDAY’S HIDDEN GRACESAs we journey through this Lenten season, we would do well to spend some time reflecting on the lessons those occasions of Christ’s apparent absence in our spiritual lives may be attempting to teach us.
A MEDITATION ON CHRIST’S AGONY, PART IToo great an emphasis, for example, on the physical sufferings of the Passion can lead us astray. Victimization by torture and brutality is not unique to our Lord (although even his bodily nature was supremely sensitive). It is Christ’s interior disposition, and with it, his totally personal spiritual agony, which we must set before us.
IS LENT ENOUGH?Lent is the season for truth-telling and repentance. Vinita Hampton Wright leads a video reflection asking, "Is Lent Enough"?
LENT THROUGH THE LENS OF GRACEThis year's Lent can be different. Let's even imagine that God is going to help transform our lives, with greater freedom, greater joy, and deeper desires for love and service.
GETHSEMANE – THE PLACE TO GIVE UP RESENTMENTThe challenge of being an adult, one who helps carry life for others, is to give ourselves over in love, duty, and service without resentment. Those last words are key: Real love is not simply a matter of giving ourselves over in service and duty - it’s a question of giving ourselves over without being resentful.
LISTENING IN THE DARKNESS There will always be a place where darkness prevails. There will always be a place where we touch God and realize our dependency. God will continue to ask us to take another leap into renewed faith and deepened faithfulness.
THE EMPTINESS OF HOLY SATURDAYThe importance of Holy Saturday lies in its power to bring us to the kind of faith the spiritual masters call “mature.” Holy Saturday faith is not about counting our blessings; it is about dealing with darkness and growing in hope. Without the Holy Saturdays of life, none of us may ever really grow up spiritually.
WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOINGThere could be no other way to show us what God is truly like. God is not revealed in killing and conquest … in violence and hate. God is revealed in this crucified man—giving of himself to the very last breath, giving and forgiving.
JOHN PAUL II'S SCRIPTURAL VIA CRUCISIn 1991, St. John Paul II introduced an alternative set of stations, not meant to replace the traditional stations, but to be another way of following Jesus last steps to Calvary.
SIN DOES NOT HAVE THE FINAL WORDWe know that by carrying the cross with Jesus and our suffering brothers and sisters we are being instruments of God’s saving grace; we are helping advance the Kingdom of God which leads to the final word –the Resurrection and the destruction of sin and death
THE CROSS AS REVEALING THE TRUE COST OF LOVETo love beyond romantic daydreams means to “sweat blood” and “to be obedient unto death”. The cross invites us to look at the choices we made in love, see how they narrow our options, and, in that pain, say: “Not my will, but yours, be done.”
FROM ORIGINAL SIN TO ORIGINAL LOVEChristians worldwide observe Lent as a season of fasting, prayer, and spiritual return to God. These six weeks create space for self-reflection, good works, and renewed appreciation of God’s grace.
THE MEANING OF JESUS’ DEATHThe Gospel accounts are not journalistic reports of what happened on Good Friday but more theological interpretations of what happened then. They’re paintings of Jesus’ death more so than news reports about it and, like good art, they take liberties to highlight certain forms so as to bring out essence. Each Gospel writer has his own interpretation of what happened on Calvary.
THE ONE REMEDY WE NEED: SILENCEWe’d rather be pleased now than be satisfied later. This has been true for men of all time, so the challenge is the same as it ever was.