Lent / Easter News
Scripture Reflection: Living Water in the Lenten Desert
By • Catholic Online • 3/8/2010
As your Lent becomes dry and weary, draw from this well of Living Water flowing from the stricken Rock. Receive the Holy Spirit. NASHVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - If approached honestly, with a real effort at asceticism, Lent is strenuous, and it is usually at this point that I begin to get a ...
Lenten Series: The Seven Deadly Sins
By • Catholic Online • 3/7/2010
We admit that shadows lurk within our hearts. "I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want." (Romans 7:18) WITCHITA, Kansas (Catholic Online) - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nobel prize winner and long-term prisoner of the Russian Gulag, said that "the battle line between good and ...
Lenten Reflection on Human Suffering: What It Means To Be a Child of God
By • Catholic Online • 2/28/2010
God will wipe away every tear, and there will be no more suffering and death (Rev 21:4). KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - Why do we suffer? On the first page of his Apostolic Letter, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, Pope John Paul II writes, "Suffering is particularly essential to the ...
Lent is an Invitation and a Means to Transfiguration
By • Catholic Online • 2/26/2010
Through our Lenten observance we are empowered to begin living our lives differently now. CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) – "Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling ...
Aide: The Pope Is a Model for Living Lent
Zenit News Agency • 2/22/2010
'In secularized society there are many who do not really know what Lent means and how it must be lived... If we want a clear and concrete answer we only need to look at what Pope Benedict does.' VATICAN CITY, (Zenit.org) - Many people do not know what Lent is all about or how to live it well, but ...
First Sunday of Lent: Entering into the Desert in Jesus
By • Catholic Online • 2/21/2010
Let us welcome Lent. In so doing, we will receive the much needed grace it offers and be made ready to celebrate the Resurrection. CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) – "Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to ...
Lenten Recipes and the Whys of ´Fish Eaters´
By • Catholic Online • 2/20/2010
The fish was one of the most important Christian symbols of the early Church. In a political and religious climate often fatal to them, the fish was a secret symbol used to identify Christians. BETHPAGE, TN (Catholic Online) - As a Catholic I am often asked by non-Catholics why we eat fish on ...
Pope: Crossing the Desert, Abandoning Ourselves to God
Catholic Online • 2/19/2010
Going into the desert meant voluntarily exposing himself to the enemy's attacks, to temptation... and entering into battle with him on the open field. VATICAN CITY (VIS) - On Ash Wednesday, Benedict XVI presided over the traditional penitential procession from the church of St. Anselm on the ...
Pope: Lenten Path Leads Us to the Joy of Easter
Vatican Information Service • 2/18/2010
'Through conversion we tend to the highest measure of Christian life, we trust in the living and personal Gospel who is Jesus Christ.' VATICAN CITY (VIS) - "Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin the Lenten path that lasts forty days and which leads us to the joy of the Lord's Easter", the Pope said at the ...
From a letter to the Corinthians: Repent
By • Catholic Online • 2/17/2010
If we review the various ages of history, we will see that in every generation the Lord has offered the opportunity of repentance to any who were willing to turn to him. WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - A reading from a Letter to the Corinthians by Saint Clement, Pope.Let us fix our ...
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 »
