CNA: While the Stations of the Cross are a worldwide Lenten devotion for Catholics, the faithful in Vietnam have an additional practice that blends ancient traditional chants with Catholic prayer and meditation on the Crucifixion. Read more here.
Tag Archives: Lent
The Drama of Holy Week
Contrary to custom, I’m reposting/resending this piece I wrote for Holy Week four years ago. A blessed Holy Week, Triduum, and Easter to all our readers! If the Church’s liturgical calendar were a temple of time consecrated to God, what we are … Continue reading
Should the Good Times Roll?
The season of Septuagesima in which we find ourselves has a number of popular names: “Carnival” from carne vale – farewell to meat, in token of the approach of Lent. Another is Mardi Gras – “Fat Tuesday,” the last day … Continue reading
Guilt Transformed, Some Lenten Thoughts
The solemn fast of Lent is intended to convert us, to renew us, and to conform us more and more to Jesus Christ. This happens through the three means of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — which are most powerful when … Continue reading
Suggested Lenten Penances
The best penances are those that God sends us. These penances are immediately consequent upon His “will signified,” that is, the natural moral law and any positive law to which we are bound in conscience, e.g., the Church’s laws on … Continue reading
Pope Calls Faithful to a More Austere and Penetential Lent
Catholic Culture reports: Christian life during Lent should be characterized by “more intense prayer, by an austere and penitential style of life,” Pope Benedict XVI said during an Ash Wednesday service at the Roman basilica of St. Sabina. “It should … Continue reading
Shrove Tuesday
The day before Ash Wednesday, in all English speaking countries except the United States, is called Shrove Tuesday. “To shrive” (active voice), or to “be shrove” (passive) in Old English meant not only to confess one’s sins and be absolved, … Continue reading
Pope Expounds Upon the Value of Fasting During Lent
I was encouraged to see that the Holy Father expressed the need for more fasting during this penitential season. With only two days of total fasting and abstinence being obligatory, it is easy to pass through another Lent without really … Continue reading
