Lent and Easter

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Lent and Easter Reflections

Want to hear our Lenten reflections? Click here to listen to downloadable mp3s.

Sacred Triduum and Holy Week messages and reflections.

BBC One's The Passion.

Visit the Catholic Enquiry Office's webpage about The Passion, for seekers.

Visit resource page for those who want to evangelise.

What is Lent?

The season of Lent lasts for the six and a half weeks before Easter when Christians prepare to remember Jesus Christ’s suffering and death; and to celebrate his Resurrection, his raising to life from the dead. There is a proverb which says ‘no matter how far you have gone down the wrong road, turn back’. With Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, we can seek to ‘turn back’ to Christ, to God who loves us more than we can imagine. By various stages of Christian initiation, people who are going to be baptised at Easter are prepared during Lent, and those already baptised remember their Baptism, and the call to holiness that is implicit in it. All are invited to convert their hearts more completely to Christ and his Gospel message, through prayer, self-denial and charitable works. Lent is a time in the year to pause and think about how our words and actions affect our relationship with God and with others. The 40 days of Lent echo Christ’s 40 days of fasting and prayer in the desert.

Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil are the special events of Holy Week. Through the sacred liturgy, through the prayers, readings and worship in church, the Easter story is brought alive for us and we can choose what our response to Christ’s sacrifice will be. We couldn’t actually be there during Christ’s suffering, but we can choose now how to live, how to pray, how to change our lives. Because we are human, body and soul, we need signs that we can see and hear and touch, to connect us with the events. If we just read the Easter story alone we would be missing out on something. We need to gather together and actually 'be there alongside' the Lord. When we approach the anniversary of a death of a loved one, it’s often the little details that bring back the memories – the smell of a hospital ward, the jumper we were wearing that day, the weather that time of year. During Holy Week, the events of Christ’s suffering and Resurrection are brought alive for us in a very human way through the details of the sacred liturgy. Together, as the Church: we hold palms, we see feet being washed, we touch a cross, we pray in a ‘garden’, we see a fire and the light of the Resurrection. We are reminded of the immense redeeming sacrifice Christ made for us when he bore our sins and died on the cross. The fast of Lent ends with the joy of the Easter Vigil Mass when Christ's Resurrection is celebrated and people are Baptised in some parishes.

Contemplating Christ’s suffering through our penance and through the sacred liturgy can move us to become more aware of other’s sufferings, of those who may be going through their own ‘Holy Week’. Perhaps someone in our workplace is terribly alone, racked with fear in their own private Gethsemane. Someone in our home might have been wrongly judged, as Christ was wrongly judged. Maybe one of our friends is only just managing to cope with getting through the day, is carrying great burdens and is about to fall, as Christ fell under the weight of the cross. Who knows what the Lord could do through us if we have the sensitivity to notice, and the generosity of heart to respond. We can be like Peter in Gethsemane, and act primarily out of fear or our own needs alone; or we can be like Christ’s Mother Mary who stayed with her son, who showed ‘Com-passion’, which means ‘to suffer with’. She stood alongside him at the cross, not needing to say much, but a sign of burning love and faith in the middle of unbearable suffering. This Lent, we can choose once again, to turn back and renew our Baptismal commitment, with God’s grace and help.

Read Pope Benedict XVI's message for Lent 2008

Lent Resources

God’s loving mercy

Our efforts at personal conversion during Lent only really make sense in the context of God’s mercy – God’s loving forgiveness in response to our sorrow for sin and penance. If we truly believe that we are beloved children of God, we will want to be followers of Christ, to do his will and be his witnesses. It is this relationship and love of God which give us the motivation for all we do during Lent, and which move us towards change and conversion of heart. But how do we know what God’s mercy is like? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has shown us himself. Through stories of his life we learn that he forgave, spoke the truth, healed, and loved the people around him. He taught about the love of his Father and his Holy Spirit and showed God’s love and mercy for us supremely through his suffering and death. He gave an example of what God’s mercy was like when he told the story of the ’prodigal son’ (the Bible, Luke 15:11-32).

In this story, a son has squandered his inheritance from his father and lived a bad life. He returns to his father out of desperation, admitting his sins, expecting only to be hired as an employee. The parable says “But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him”. His father forgives him and puts on a feast to celebrate his return. When the son’s brother complains to his father, the father says “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” Through this parable we see that God’s forgiveness is not like our often imperfect forgiveness; when we forgive, it can be lacking something. We might forgive resentfully, knowing that we have a chance to humiliate the other, or we’ll remember the mistake and bring it up in the next argument as 'ammunition'. God's forgiveness is different from this. In response to true sorrow, God’s forgiveness heals and restores the dignity of the other. It is life-giving mercy and love, the kind of generous forgiveness the father shows in the story of 'the prodigal son'.

Pope John Paul II wrote: “The parable of the prodigal son expresses in a simple but profound way the reality of conversion. Conversion is the most concrete expression of the working of love and of the presence of mercy in the human world… mercy is manifested in its true and proper aspect when it restores to value, promotes and draws good from all the forms of evil existing in the world and in man…(Christ’s) disciples and followers understood and practiced mercy in the same way. Mercy never ceased to reveal itself, in their hearts and in their actions, as an especially creative proof of the love which does not allow itself to be ‘conquered by evil,’ but overcomes ‘evil with good’ “ (encyclical letter ‘Dives in Misericordia’, Rich in Mercy). It is this mercy and love of God that we respond to in Lent, when we pray and do penance, when we go to the sacrament of Reconciliation (‘confession’). We show this mercy when we forgive like God, and when we love others as God loves them, with dignity and compassion. Lent is a chance to look clearly at the areas of our lives where we have done wrong, where we need to change, and to bring all this into the light of God’s healing mercy.

Read the Bible story of 'the prodigal son' in full

What was Jesus’s purpose on earth?

Read Pope John Paul II's encyclical 'Dives in Misericordia', Rich in Mercy

Prayer, Fasting & Almsgiving

During Lent we can make time to renew our relationship with Christ. The traditional Lenten practices which can help us in this are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. St. Thérèse of Lisieux said that prayer is "a surge of the heart, it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy". Through prayer we give praise to God, say sorry for our mistakes, give thanks, and ask for God’s help. In prayer we open ourselves up to God’s gentle guidance. We are helped to see more clearly what we are called to be and to do for God, and to see the areas of our lives which may need changing. During Lent we can spend more time in personal prayer, read the Bible, and pray in Church with Christ truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. We can also become closer to Christ through the sacrament of Reconciliation (confession) and through the Mass.

Fasting is a Lenten practice, and is when we considerably reduce the amount of food that we eat. It has long been part of the Christian tradition that fasting, combined with prayer, can be spiritually helpful. How much we fast should be undertaken with discernment, and we should make sure that it does not intefere with our daily duties. When we go against our natural inclinations through fasting it can help us to become a bit more detached from our material needs and we become more aware of our dependence on God and of the needs of others. We read in the Bible that Jesus fasted for forty days and nights before he started his public ministry (Matthew 4:1). Fasting is one form of penance, which can include other forms of self-denial. Through penance we express our sorrow for sin. Why should we want or need to do penance? One way of understanding it is to think about human relationships. If we really hurt someone we love, and they forgive us, there might be a feeling that things aren’t quite right until we have shown that we are really sorry by some sign - not because the other person demands it, but because the one who has done wrong wants to show love and sorrow. After apologies have been exchanged between a husband and wife, one might need to hold the other for a while, or make more effort to listen without interrupting. The action becomes a sign of the sorrow inside, a making up for the hurt caused. That is one aspect of the meaning of penance. We know that God forgives us when we are sorry, but we might do something extra as a sign of what’s going on inside our hearts. For example, we might give up something pleasurable during Lent. If this penance is united with Christ’s suffering and offered to God the Father it has an even deeper meaning, and we share in the redemptive work of Christ. We can offer our penance for special intentions such as to help those in need. Other forms of penance could be accepting an unavoidable difficulty, like offering up a little heartache, or it could be an act of charity like being kind when we might normally be irritable. As part of our penance during Lent, it is also helpful to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation (‘confession’), through which we experience God’s loving mercy and forgiveness.

In a statement by the Bishops of England and Wales (1985) we learn about the value of penance: “During his life on earth, not least at the beginning of his public ministry, Our Lord undertook voluntary penance. He invited his followers to do the same. The penance he invited would be a participation in his own suffering, an expression of interior conversion and a form of reparation for sin. It would be a personal sacrifice made out of love for God and our neighbour. It follows that if we are to be true, as Christians, to the spirit of Christ, we must practise some form of penance”. The Church sets aside certain penitential days and invites us to observe Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as days of fast and abstinence. ”Fasting means that the amount of food we eat is considerably reduced. Abstinence means that we give up a particular kind of food or drink or form of amusement”. Fridays throughout Lent, and during the rest of the year are also days when we are encouraged to do some form of penance.

Almsgiving is an important Lenten practise and it means first of all giving money and support to those in need. It can include performing works of charity, this means helping people in various ways, especially caring for the poor, the sick or the lonely. Through almsgiving we imitate Christ, and try to live out the ‘Golden Rule’ which is “in everything do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12).

View ‘Sacred Space’, daily prayer online

Bible and Prayer Resources for Lent

Actions, Louder Than Words

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent. On this day ashes are placed on parishioners’ foreheads in the sign of the cross with the words “remember, you are dust, and to dust you will return” or “turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel”. This day is a time to make a fresh start, a time to take stock of our lives. The ashes and accompanying words remind us that life is short, and that it's best to respond to the call to conversion while we can. One of the Antiphons from the Ash Wednesday liturgy beautifully summarises this message:

“Come back to the Lord with all your heart; leave the past in ashes, and turn to God with tears and fasting, for he is slow to anger and ready to forgive.”

The ashes that are distributed have been blessed and are made from palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday. The outward sign of the ashes is a sign of the person’s inward sorrow for sin and striving for conversion of heart. This tradition of the imposition of ashes comes from an ancient Biblical practice in which those who had committed serious sins performed public penance and fasted. Part of this penance involved wearing sackcloth and ashes as a sign of penitence. In the Middle Ages there began to be more of an emphasis on personal rather than public sin, and this meant that all adult parishioners undertook some form of penance. Along with Good Friday, Ash Wednesday is a day of fast and abstinence. Fasting means that the amount of food we eat is considerably reduced. Abstinence means that we give up a particular kind of food or drink or form of amusement. The day before Ash Wednesday is known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day in the UK. This is traditionally the last chance to feast before the Lenten fast, and to use up the foods that might be given up for Lent.

Holy Thursday

During Holy Week we remember the main events of the week preceding Christ’s death and Resurrection, beginning with Palm Sunday. Then the sacred Triduum (‘three days’) begins with Holy Thursday, which this year falls on 20th March. On the evening of Holy Thursday the Church recalls the events of ‘the Last Supper’, the Passover meal Christ shared with his disciples the night before he died. If a man knew he was going to die he might make arrangements so that his loved ones would be taken care of, tenderly letting them know what was important to him. On Holy Thursday Christ made arrangements so that his disciples would have what they needed once he had returned to his Father in Heaven. He made these arrangements not only for them, but for all who would follow him until the end of time.

In the ‘Mass of the Lord's Supper’, we remember that at the Last Supper Christ established the Holy Eucharist (the Mass) and the sacred priesthood. Through the Mass, Christ gave his followers a living memorial of his death and Resurrection. We offer worthy praise and thanksgiving to God the Father in the Mass, we are united with the heavenly liturgy, and are close to Christ who is made truly present. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of men: ‘This is my body which is given for you.’ ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins"….Jesus includes the apostles in his own offering and bids them perpetuate it. By doing so, the Lord institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant” (paras. 610, 611). During this Holy Thursday Mass we also remember Christ’s model of self-giving service when he washed the disciples' feet at the Last Supper. He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:12-14). After the Holy Thursday Mass it is traditional to remain a while and pray with Christ, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament in church, as if we are in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus’s last meal, what does it mean?

Click here to read the Bible story about the Last Supper

Good Friday

This year Good Friday falls on 21st March. On this day the Church recalls Christ’s suffering and death. After being betrayed, he was captured in the Garden of Gethsemane, judged, tortured, and killed by an agonising death on the cross. These sufferings are also known as ‘the Passion’ of Christ. Christ came to the world as 'God-made-man', to teach us about holiness and love, and to reveal the truth about himself, his Father, and the Holy Spirit. He offered the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of his Holy Spirit in Baptism. He called everyone to repent and believe the good news, but his preaching and miracles led to persecution from those in authority. He freely offered his whole life, including his suffering and death, as a sacrifice to his Father in Heaven. A sacrifice is a gift offered with love, and Christ’s sacrifice of his life was offered in atonement, as penance, for all our sins. When, on ‘Easter Sunday’ he was raised from the dead he proved that what he had taught about himself was true, that he was the Son of God. He makes us children of God when we are united to him by Baptism, and he has promised that there is the possibility of blissful life after death. We recall what Christ has done for us in the service on Good Friday, when we hear the story of Christ’s suffering, we pray for the Church and the world, we venerate a cross which represents Christ’s cross, and receive Christ present in Holy Communion. To help us to enter into Christ’s suffering, Good Friday is a day of fast and abstinence. Though it is a sad day, it is also full of hope because of what it means for us.

The events of Good Friday also mean that Christ the Son of God understands our human sufferings. He has known the awful silence of a moment just before something horrific is about to happen, and felt the impersonal torture performed by someone ’just doing their job’. He went through every aspect of suffering: abandonment by friends, pain, humiliation, cruelty. Although the slightest suffering on his part would have been enough of an offering to save us from our sins, he chose to undergo the worst of sufferings. There is something special about a friend who has suffered what we have suffered, that’s why mothers can sometimes bond quickly, having shared the pain of childbirth. When we pray it is a tremendous gift to know that the one who hears our prayers knows our sufferings, understands our weakness and heartaches, because he has been through it himself. In British Sign Language, the signs for certain words about people and their roles often come from an aspect of that role which is central to it. The sign for ‘a judge’ involves a movement signifying the movement of scales, representing the scales of justice. The sign for ‘a king’ is a crown on the head. The sign for ‘God’ is a point up towards Heaven. When it comes to the sign for ‘Jesus’, the sign is to touch a finger of one hand on to the palm of the opposite hand, then to do the same on the other hand, signifying the holes in Jesus’ hands. Rather than a sign about power, this is what he is primarily known and recognised by: his wounds and his suffering. After his Resurrection, these are what would have particularly marked him out, the two marks on his hands. Anyone else who received those wounds would not be alive, but he was walking around, talking. This sign for ‘Jesus’ reminds us that it is his sacrifice which is a central part of his identity and mission, and that this is a proof of his great personal love for each one of us.

What is ‘The Passion’?

Why do people needlessly suffer?

Click here to read the Bible story of Christ’s suffering and death.

The Stations of the Cross

The Stations of Cross refer to a series of pictures which show particular scenes of the ‘Passion’ (‘the suffering’) of Christ. Most Catholic churches have Stations of the Cross on display, and these are sometimes paintings, carvings or can be simple crosses to mark the number of each Station. Each of the Stations has prayers and readings associated with it which vary, and this is a way of making a kind of spiritual pilgrimage to the main places of Christ’s suffering and death. From early times, Christ’s followers visited the holy places in Jerusalem where he had suffered. Pilgrimages became very popular, especially during the Middle Ages, and Christians wanted a way of remembering the events of Christ’s sufferings when they were unable to visit the Holy Land. Some more modern versions of the Stations of the Cross add ‘the Resurrection’ as the 15th Station. The film ‘The Passion of the Christ’ (2004) depicted the scenes from the Stations of the Cross.

The 14 Stations are listed below:

1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus receives the cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets His Mother
5. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross
6. Veronica wipes Jesus' face with her veil
7. Jesus falls the second time
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of His garments
11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus' body is removed from the cross
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb

More pictures, and prayers click here

The Catholic Faith - information for enquirers

If you are someone seeking to find out more about the Catholic Faith, see the website of the Catholic Enquiry Office:

http://www.life4seekers.co.uk

For resources to help reach out to lapsed Catholics, see

http://www.caseresources.org

Easter, the Resurrection

Easter is the celebration of the Resurrection, the raising to life from death, of Jesus Christ. This year Easter Sunday is on 23rd March. The Easter Season lasts for 50 days, until the feast of Pentecost. Easter is the high point of the Church’s celebrations, and the main service to celebrate it is the ‘Easter Vigil’ which is held on the evening before Easter Sunday. During this sacred liturgy there is a service of light, with the lighting of the Easter fire and the Easter candle which is a symbol of Christ. Bible readings are heard which tell of the long preparation for Christ’s coming, and these end with the story of the Resurrection. After this some people may receive the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. A sacrament is an ‘outward sign of an inward grace’, it is a sign of something holy and hidden, which can help to make us more Christ-like. When people are Baptised their sins are forgiven and they become children of God, joined to Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit who dwells in them; and they become members of the Church. At the Easter Vigil others may be received into full communion with the Catholic Church. Those who are already baptised renew their baptismal vows. The liturgy of the Eucharist follows, in which the newly baptised might receive Holy Communion for the first time. The whole Easter season is a time of feasting and celebration, which balances the time of fasting during Lent.

The Bible accounts of the Resurrection tell us that some women who were followers of Jesus went at dawn to the tomb where his body had been placed after his death. They found the stone which had covered the tomb rolled away, and were told by an angel “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.” (Matthew 28:5-6). Before hearing about this, the apostles must have been in a terrible state. They knew the exhaustion of unexpected grief, and were terrified for their own lives. Their mission seemed to have totally fallen apart. Into all this mess burst the women who had seen the empty tomb and the angel on Easter morning. At first the women were not believed, but afterwards Jesus visited his apostles, then appeared to many other people. Later on, after he had finished teaching his followers, he ascended to his Father in Heaven. On seeing him after the Resurrection, they would have realised that everything that Christ promised about himself and his mission was true, and that they were caught up in the most amazing events. By his Resurrection, Jesus proved that he was truly the Son of God, that there can now be the hope of life after death for all who believe in him. Pope Benedict XVI writes about this life: “The term “eternal life” is intended to give a name to this known “unknown”. ….It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy" (encyclical letter 'Spe Salvi', Saved by Hope, 12). As Christ’s followers, we are called to be ambassadors for Christ. We are called to holiness and are helped in this by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, who inspires all our good efforts. We do this within a community, the Church, which Christ founded to give us his life and teaching, and to carry on his radical mission throughout the ages. Though we may often fail and make mistakes, this Lent we can seek with renewed vigour to change our lives, to turn back to Christ and to witness to his love and truth in our everyday circumstances.

Easter: is there more to it than chocolate and bank holidays?

What happens after we die?

Click here to read the Bible story about the Resurrection

Copyright Acknowledgments

Icon of the Resurrection copyright © Aidan Hart 2008, All rights reserved, www.aidanharticons.com. ‘Christ is our bridge to Heaven’, ‘Jesus’s love is personal, tender, and unchanging’, ‘Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, died to save us’, ‘Through him, with him, in him’ by Elizabeth Wang, copyright (c) Radiant Light 2008, www.radiantlight.org.uk. Other photographs copyright © 2008 iStock International Inc. All images used by permission.

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Lent and Easter