Lent 2009 — Feb 25 - Apr 11
Easter - April 12th

Today - November 21, 2009

READINGS: Text | Audio
REFLECTIONS: Video

Thought for the day
Mary is a woman who loves. How could it be otherwise? As a believer who in faith thinks with God’s thoughts and wills with God’s will, she cannot fail to be a woman who loves. We sense this in her quiet gestures, as recounted by the infancy narratives in the Gospel. We see it in the delicacy with which she recognizes the need of the spouses at Cana and makes it known to Jesus. We see it in the humility with which she recedes into the background during Jesus’ public life, knowing that the Son must establish a new family and that the Mother’s hour will come only with the Cross, which will be Jesus’ true hour (cf. Jn 2:4; 13:1). When the disciples flee, Mary will remain beneath the Cross (cf. Jn 19:25-27); later, at the hour of Pentecost, it will be they who gather around her as they wait for the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).
Encyclical letter God Is Love (Deus Caritas Est), no. 41, December 25, 2005

View a video meditation
on the suffering Christ as depicted in the art of Matthias Grünewald from the Emmy® Award-winning The Face: Jesus in Art.

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Come to the Water
follows a year in the lives of men and women participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults in the culturally diverse Archdiocese of Seattle. Click here to view an excerpt from this program.

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A Pietá is an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the broken body of the crucified Christ. It is considered the “highest expression of the Via Matris” and has been a source of inspiration for Christian art since the middles ages. View a video meditation on the world’s best-known depiction of the Pietá – Michelangelo's – from Picturing Mary.

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On March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, we celebrate Mary’s “Yes!” to God’s invitation to be the Mother of God. Artists through the ages were inspired by this event as this segment from Picturing Mary shows.

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During this Lenten season, we encourage you to put aside your cares and worries and take a weekly “Audio Retreat” online with host Elia Castillo. Every week, a different bishop serves as retreat guide and homilist. You can listen to the retreats on your computer using any MP3 player or download them to your audio library or portable MP3 player. Make each week’s retreat your time to focus clearly on what God is saying to you this Lent.

Listen to Retreat for the Sixth Week of Lent
with Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington

Sixth Week En Español
with Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio

Listen to Retreat for the Fifth Week of Lent
with Bishop Joseph Galante of Camden, New Jersey

Fifth Week En Español
with Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, California

Listen to Retreat for the Fourth Week of Lent
with Cardinal William Keeler, Retired Archbishop of Baltimore

Fourth Week En Español
with Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala of Los Angeles

Listen to Retreat for the Third Week of Lent
with Bishop Gerald Barnes of San Bernardino, California

Third Week En Español
with Bishop Gerald Barnes of San Bernardino, California

Listen to Retreat for the Second Week of Lent
with Bishop Blase Cupich of Rapid City, South Dakota

Second Week En Español
with Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces, New Mexico

Listen to Retreat for the First Week of Lent
with Archbishop Daniel Pilarcyzk of Cincinnati

First Week En Español
with Auxiliary Bishop Felipe de Jesus Estevez of Miami

 

Listen to a podcast of the Stations of the Cross based on those celebrated by Pope John Paul II on Good Friday 1991. They are presented here as an alternative to the traditional stations and as a way of reflecting more deeply on the Scriptural accounts of Christ's passion.

 

 

These audiovisual resources were made possible by the Catholic Communication Campaign.