Lent
Despair and hope in Holy Week
By Thomas Reese — March 31, 2021
(RNS) — Our world, like Holy Week, is full of bad news. We need to remember to also look for goodness.
What are the origins of Lent?
By Joanne M. Pierce — February 22, 2021
(The Conversation) — The word “Lent” has Germanic roots referring to springtime. But not much is known about its origins as the religious observance.
Chanequa Walker-Barnes resurrects self-care as a Lenten practice
By Emily McFarlan Miller — February 17, 2021
(RNS) — After a year in which everyone has already given up an awful lot, this Lent the theologian is inviting others to join her for the Resurrecting Self-Care Challenge.
On Ash Wednesday, Pope Francis says Lent is an ‘exodus from slavery to freedom’
By Claire Giangravé — February 17, 2021
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — 'Lent is a journey of return to God,' the pope said during his homily on Feb. 17, to the socially distanced faithful attending the Mass.
Have a digital Lent to get through the pandemic
By Thomas Reese — February 16, 2021
(RNS) — How Alexa might help us celebrate Lent better.
An American Lent: It’s time for evangelicalism to embrace the act of confession
By Skye Jethani — February 10, 2021
(RNS) — Without disciplines like corporate confession and Lent, there is little within popular evangelicalism to restrain the triumphalism of white American culture from overshadowing the cross of Christ.
This Lent, give up mixing faith with political terrorism
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite — February 9, 2021
(RNS) — We must be exceptionally clear that terrorism is an affront to Christian faith. That will be my Lenten practice.
No touching! Churches get ready for Ash Wednesday in a pandemic
By Emily McFarlan Miller — February 9, 2021
(RNS) — An ecumenical group of clergy, theologians, liturgical scholars and public health experts recently released guidelines for safely observing Ash Wednesday.
When church hymns don’t grieve with us
By David Taylor — March 11, 2020
(RNS) — It’s hard to find solace in church when the hymns are mostly in major keys. In times of grieving, the Psalms can comfort us in the losses we all experience.
Does giving up social media for Lent deny the flesh? It’s complicated
By Tara Isabella Burton — March 10, 2020
(RNS) — If abstention from Instagram or Twitter is going to be more than a 'digital detox,' we need a new and better vocabulary to discuss the characteristic sins of 2020.
Fleeing coronavirus and finding our mortality
By Tara Isabella Burton — March 3, 2020
(RNS) — Our reaction to the coronavirus threat is also a statement about our need for control: our bodies, our world.
‘Lent-ish’ gives up traditional practices for Lent
By Emily McFarlan Miller — March 2, 2020
(RNS) — 'Some years,' Megan Westra tweeted, 'wandering through the desert needs to look different.'
I am giving up Trump for Lent
By Thomas Reese — February 26, 2020
(RNS) — For me, Trump is an occasion of sin that I should avoid. I need to cast him from my mind like a dirty thought.
Paczki Day brings Chicagoans together for one last indulgence before Lent
By Emily McFarlan Miller — February 25, 2020
CHICAGO (RNS) — By 7 a.m. Tuesday (Feb. 25), 17 people stood in line at Kolatek’s Bakery, wrapping around the produce section of the store, ready to buy the fried dough stuffed with a myriad of jams and custards. A signal that Lent is a day away — and today is one last chance to feast.
Once the excess before a Lenten fast, today’s Carnevale is rite for many traditions
By Tara Isabella Burton — February 25, 2020
(RNS) — In an age of spiritual uncertainty, more and more of us are finding our spiritual 'tribes' within existing religious traditions, be they pagan nature worship or medieval Catholicism.
