Almost half of adult Catholics, 45 percent, typically receive ashes — made from the burned and blessed palms of the previous year’s Palm Sunday — at Ash Wednesday services, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
Q: Every year as Lent approaches I think about what I should be doing during this holy season, maybe something new. Do you have any suggestions? […]
For second consecutive year, designated churches will
host 12 hours of confession
“Lent, as a penitential season, has been a teacher for thousands of years of the fruitfulness of self-discipline,” Sister Esther Mary Nickel, associate director of the Sioux City Diocese’s Office of Worship, said. “It is a fruitfulness that flourishes in a deeper love of God, which pours out also into love of neighbor.”
Without making room for God’s word in their heart, people will never be able to welcome and love all human life, Pope Francis said.
You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. That’s how prayer works. Nothing says Lent more than the ancient practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. […]
