Celebrating Lent: A Season of Sobriety

While Lent is a season of preparation for Easter, right now, for catechetical ministers, is a season of preparation for Lent. With Ash Wednesday looming right around the corner, this is the “acceptable time” for catechetical ministers to be solidifying plans for celebrating the season of Lent with those you teach. That’s right, I said “celebrating!” Lent is not a somber time but a sober time, and achieving sobriety is something to celebrate!

We human beings have an addiction to sin and, like anyone seeking sobriety, we need to “work the program,” as they say in twelve-step groups. Our Lenten program is simple: we need to pray, fast, and give alms. These three disciplines open us up to the grace we need to live free from the addiction to sin.

• Prayer—Through prayer, we remain in constant contact with the source of healing and mercy that we all need.
• Fasting—Through fasting from a variety of behaviors, we open ourselves up to the grace we need to remember that God alone fulfills and sustains us.
• Almsgiving—Through almsgiving, we open ourselves up to the grace we need to remember that “it’s not about us.”

As always, we here at Catechist’s Journey and Loyola Press have a variety of resources available to assist you in your own Lenten practices and to equip and empower you to help others celebrate the season of Lent. Start by visiting the Loyola Press Lent page, which will point you to resources for your Lenten journey, including:

• Ash Wednesday
• Living Lent Daily
• Arts and Faith: Lent
• Holy Week
• Activities
• Perspectives on Lent
• Prayers and Retreats
• Seven Last Words
• Stations of the Cross
• Books

And check out the Lenten Resources for Catechists we’ve collected here on Catechist’s Journey.

As always, I invite you to share your own creative Lenten activities with readers of Catechist’s Journey. Send ideas along via the comment box below, or drop me an e-mail using this form.

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