Lenten Resources
Lenten Activities — Lenten Recipes — Lenten Q&A
Mass Times — Confession — Adoration — Fasting Guidelines
Daily Readings — Reflections — Prayer Book of Intentions — Bishop's Column
Our Father beckons: "Return to me with your whole heart." Each Lent the Church offers us a 40-day retreat designed to help us respond to this call. Lent is the primary penitential season of the entire liturgical year. We partake in Lent with prayer, fasting and almsgiving. See Lenten Q&A to learn more
It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends with the Easter Triduum — Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The Triduum is a liturgical celebration to help us embrace the ultimate act of love: Jesus' passion, death and resurrection, the foundation of the Christian faith.
Read Pope Benedict XVI's 2010 Lent Message or vist the Vatican Channel on Youtube to follow him regularly.
This year, Ash Wednesday falls on Feb. 17. It is a day of fast and abstinence. Each Friday of Lent is a day of abstinence. On Good Friday, we abstain and fast. See Fasting and Abstinence Guidelines to learn more
The following offers several ways to help you return to the Lord during the season of Lent. If you have questions or comments, please Contact Us.
Participate in your parish, community
- Arkansas parishes are planning Stations of the Cross, missions, penitential services, retreats and holy hours during Lent. See the list of activities from Arkansas Catholic or go to Diocesan Calendar of Events.
- Reconcile with God and the Church by taking advantage of the sacrament of reconciliation in your parish. Several also offer adoration of the Blessed Sacrament to help you grow in your relationship with Christ.
- Confession Times by parish
- Adoration Schedule by parish
- Many convents and monasteries offer events that are open to the public. Read "Joy along the journey: Religious orders take on many penances during Lent, but they try to do it with a happy heart" from the Feb. 13 issue of Arkansas Catholic. This article contains a list of Lenten events open to the public. Subscribe online
Fast, give alms
- Catholic Relief Services’ Operation Rice Bowl incorporates prayer, fasting and almsgiving in its fundraising program to reduce poverty and hunger around the world.
To learn more, contact Rebecca Spencer at Catholic Charities of Arkansas.
- Visit Operation Rice Bowl
- Participate through your parish or school
- Learn about fasting and the spiritual benefits that can come from this penitential act. See "Fasting out of love: God doesn't want a fulfilled obligation; he wants our hearts" from Arkansas Catholic.
- In addition to giving to your parish and other charities, consider adding Catholic Arkansas Sharing Appeal to your tithe. In Bishop Anthony B. Taylor's CASA homily, he explains how giving faithfully teaches others to trust in the Lord's providence.
Listen to the homily in English or Spanish
Download the text in English or Spanish
Learn about the Catholic faith
- If you have been Catholic all your life and wish to understand the Church's teachings more, or if you are not Catholic and would like more information, there are several online resources to help you.
- Go to Catholic Resources to find a wide range of information from the seven sacraments to prayers, practices and devotions
- Little Rock Scripture Study's "What the Bible Says About ..." explains “The Rapture”, “Six Days to Create the World" and "Being Born Again" from a Catholic perspective
- Attend Why Catholic? in your parish. This program, created by RENEW International, is based on the four pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Lenten session began the week of Feb. 14 or 21, depending on the participating parish. Why Catholic? is available in English and Spanish and is now in it’s fourth and final year in the diocese. Participants are studying, “Deepening My Experience of God,” which is a reflection on different prayer forms, how prayer fosters our relationship with God and studies the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught us. Sign up through your parish. To learn more, go to Why Catholic?
- View the list of books and newsletters recommended by the Office of Religious Education and Christian Initiation
Check out the USCCB's Lent section which offers links to explain “What We Believe,” “What We Celebrate,” “How We Live” and show “How We Pray.”
Volunteer your time, talent and treasure
- Service is a great way to see Christ in the faces of those in need. Rather than give up something this Lent, consider doing something new, like one of the following:
- Send cards or visit patients in the hospital
- Send cookies to inmates at a county jail or prison
- Send cards or visit the elderly at a retirement center
- Volunteer at a local social service agency
- Give to the Msgr. James O'Connell Seminarian Fund
- Give to the Special Collections during Lent
- Volunteer at the diocese
Take a Bible study
- Embark on a personal study of all four gospels. Little Rock Scripture Study’s newest offering is a tool that every adult can use as a resource for years to come. The Four Gospels, Catholic Personal Study Edition places helpful information alongside on almost every page of the Gospels. In addition to a comprehensive essay that provides the background for understanding how to read the Gospels in a Catholic context, there are photos, maps and charts, as well as brief inserts defining terms and ideas, revealing archaeological insights, connections to the Church’s social teachings and liturgical practices and sketches of gospel characters. Finally, the book contains a listing of all Sunday readings in the Church’s three-year cycle.
- Estudio Bíblico de Little Rock invites you to study Los Relatos de la Pasión y Resurrección de Jesús during the weeks of Lent and Easter. These are the core stories of our faith and the reason for our hope.
- Visit the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to listen to the daily readings and watch the corresponding video reflection, or check out the Thought for the Day to reflect on each day during Lent.
Do some spiritual reading
- Pope Benedict XVI’s 2010 Lenten message, “The Justice of God has been Manifested through Faith in Jesus Christ” challenges us to understand the concept of justice through the eyes of Jesus.
- Bishop Anthony B. Taylor gives us a similar challenge in his pastoral letter: "I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me: A Pastoral Letter on the Human Rights of Immigrants," which seeks to open our minds and hearts to Christ's teachings on immigration
- Support the USCCB's Justice for Immigrants postcard campaign
- Follow Bishop Taylor on Facebook or read his homilies in Arkansas Catholic
- For several years Arkansas Catholic has published a special section on Lent. The Feb. 13 issue includes this year's offering called "Faith Journey 2010: LENT". To read previous Lent sections go to the following:
- Abbot Jerome Kodell, OSB, of Subiaco Abbey, focuses on the role Lent plays in preparing us to renew our baptismal promises at Easter in a 2009 post on the abbey's blog. He wrote, "our Lenten penitential practices serve to prepare us for that big moment in the year and in our life." Go to the abbey's blog to read more
Watch a video
- The diocese’s Resource Library offers several Lenten videos for children and adults in both English and Spanish. Go to the video list or contact Teresa Hayden to check out a video.
Watch "What Are Catholics Doing for Lent?” or the Vatican Channel on Youtube.
Pray, pray, pray
- Submit your prayer needs or visit the Prayer Book of Intentions Online and join the bishop in praying for all the intentions added daily.
- Join the MOMMS (Mothers of Major and Minor Seminarians) Prayer Watch and lift up our seminarians in prayer each week.
- Several Catholic Web sites offer resources for prayer. The following is just a sampling of what is available online: