Lent 2020

Vincentians offer daily videos for Lent

The Eastern Province of the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers has put together a series of short videos with a lay person, religious or priest offering their reflection on each of the days of Lent.

Silence is Lenten antidote to week’s turmoil

Effie Caldarola observes the roil of news both profound and sublime in just the first week of Lent. The season calls us to seek God in quiet, in Scripture, and in the encounters with others each day.

The desert of Lent reveals God’s footprints

Eric Tamney, a seminarian from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, shares with Inside CatholicPhilly.com how the temptation of Christ calls us to focus us on our relationship with the Father.

Take time for silent prayer in a noisy world

As Jesus did, so we need to get away -- pop into a dimly lit church, walk in a quiet park, sit silently with a cup of coffee in a corner of the house. Sister Nancy Usselmann says Lent is the perfect time to recommit to daily prayer.

A spectacular Lenten failure

Connie Poulos had a plan to spend an extra 30 minutes a day with Jesus in prayer until her busy schedule squeezed out that time. So she met Jesus in the cross and made him part of her everyday life.

Ashes we cannot see should start a revolution this Lent

The point of Ash Wednesday is that others can see our ashes, but we cannot, writes Father Eric Banecker, who calls for "Copernican Revolution" of the church and ourselves, to prayer and action.

Archbishop Perez’s pastoral message on the season of Lent

As they begin the journey to Easter, Archbishop Nelson J. Perez encourages the faithful to keep their eyes "fixed on the outstretched arms of Christ crucified and Christ the merciful."

There’s ‘something about the ashes,’ says Archbishop Perez

Addressing some 2,000 Ash Wednesday Mass attendees at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, Archbishop Nelson Perez described Lent as "an incredible season of grace and blessing."

Ash Wednesday, my best birthday ever

When your special day coincides with the start of Lent, dessert is off the table -- but some much-needed perspective is on the menu, writes Gina Christian.

Lent isn’t what you think, and you’re not in it alone

Many Catholics deny themselves a "Lent well spent" by forgetting that "we’re weak together, and we can become stronger together," said Father Dennis Gill, director of the archdiocesan Office for Divine Worship.