Bishops Offer Web Resources for Lent
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Bishops have posted Web resources to help Catholics observe the season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, February 25.
Video resources include meditations on the crucified Christ and Michelangelo's Pietá and an excerpt from Come to the Water, an hour-long documentary about the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).
Sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the site www.usccb.org/lent is organized around the four pillars of the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults (USCCA). They highlight:
What we believe
What we celebrate
How we live
How we pray.
The Website also includes sample chapters from the U.S. Catechism on prayer, the sacraments and the passion and resurrection of Christ.
It also features a question-and-answer section on the RCIA and the Paschal Triduum, from Holy Thursday through the Easter vigil on the evening of Holy Saturday.
Resources for prayer include a tutorial on the rosary, text and audio versions of the Stations of the Cross, and a chapter on Lenten prayer from the 2007 USCCB publication, Catholic Household Blessings & Prayers. The "celebrate" section focuses on the two sacraments emphasized during Lent — Reconciliation and Baptism.
The Lent Web site was created by the USCCB Communications Department under the leadership of the Digital Media Office. Funding for the audio-visual resources was provided by the U.S. bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign at www.usccb.org/ccc.