Wow! Doesn’t it seem as if Christmas is barely over, yet Ash Wednesday and Lent are upon us? That’s because Easter, based on the cycles of the moon since ancient times, falls on a different date each year. This year is the earliest possible Easter; hence the early beginning of Lent. It happens every so often, but well-prepared parish Web sites can handle it!
Ash Wednesday is February 6 this year, just two weeks away. Perhaps we’ll see among our parishioners and beyond a heightened awareness of Christian practice, and certainly a lot of questions about the Catholic faith (like, “Why is Lent so early?”).
That questioning becomes an opening to talk about what Lent should mean and be for all of us. As you no doubt know, Lent is a six-week period for all of us to reflect more deeply upon the saving presence of Jesus in our lives and to weed out everything that stands between us and Jesus. It is the time of preparation for newcomers to enter the Church and has roots in the training of catechumens for initiation. You can read some nice, easy-to-understand Catholic teaching about that in our newly updated Lent feature. I would encourage you to study some of the articles and to place our free graphic links to the with solid Catholic catechesis from our ministry set at the heart of the Church with all of those articles as well as a calendar of suggested Lenten practices to help your visitors stay focused.
This year, we are offering again our Franciscan Radio program, Lenten Radio Retreat, a project of the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Communication Campaign. Each half-hour webcast (available free for local radio broadcast) features one of 12 bishops (six English-speaking, six Spanish-speaking) reflecting on the Sunday gospels. Our American Catholic Radio also has a fresh show each week during Lent with solid inspiration and information. For example, our Ash Wednesday show includes an interview from St. Peter’s in the Loop Parish in Chicago, which has a huge distribution of ashes. All of it (except the ashes!) can be downloaded for mp3 players. Links for both Lenten Radio Retreat and American Catholic Radio are available to enrich your site during the entire season of Lent.
By the middle of next week (a week before Ash Wednesday) we'll be offering a video introduction to Lent by our own Franciscan Father Greg Friedman. (You can see our Advent/Christmas clips there at this writing.) These new Lenten clips will be added to our growing ministry at YouTube. We’ll be linking directly over to it—you can, will make your site more lively and inspiring with solid, trustworthy Lenten features—just in time for Ash Wednesday!
Ash Wednesday is February 6 this year, just two weeks away. Perhaps we’ll see among our parishioners and beyond a heightened awareness of Christian practice, and certainly a lot of questions about the Catholic faith (like, “Why is Lent so early?”).
That questioning becomes an opening to talk about what Lent should mean and be for all of us. As you no doubt know, Lent is a six-week period for all of us to reflect more deeply upon the saving presence of Jesus in our lives and to weed out everything that stands between us and Jesus. It is the time of preparation for newcomers to enter the Church and has roots in the training of catechumens for initiation. You can read some nice, easy-to-understand Catholic teaching about that in our newly updated Lent feature. I would encourage you to study some of the articles and to place our free graphic links to the with solid Catholic catechesis from our ministry set at the heart of the Church with all of those articles as well as a calendar of suggested Lenten practices to help your visitors stay focused.
This year, we are offering again our Franciscan Radio program, Lenten Radio Retreat, a project of the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Communication Campaign. Each half-hour webcast (available free for local radio broadcast) features one of 12 bishops (six English-speaking, six Spanish-speaking) reflecting on the Sunday gospels. Our American Catholic Radio also has a fresh show each week during Lent with solid inspiration and information. For example, our Ash Wednesday show includes an interview from St. Peter’s in the Loop Parish in Chicago, which has a huge distribution of ashes. All of it (except the ashes!) can be downloaded for mp3 players. Links for both Lenten Radio Retreat and American Catholic Radio are available to enrich your site during the entire season of Lent.
By the middle of next week (a week before Ash Wednesday) we'll be offering a video introduction to Lent by our own Franciscan Father Greg Friedman. (You can see our Advent/Christmas clips there at this writing.) These new Lenten clips will be added to our growing ministry at YouTube. We’ll be linking directly over to it—you can, will make your site more lively and inspiring with solid, trustworthy Lenten features—just in time for Ash Wednesday!
Will you have daily reflections/readings for Lent this year? Thank you. Hope you have a happy, holy Lent!
Posted by: Mary Pudner | February 03, 2008 at 08:49 PM