Lent is here

Purple Catholic Saturday Post

Mar 08, 2025

Looking for a destination for a jubilee year pilgrimage? How about the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Wisconsin? Book your trip through this Expedia link and support the Purple Catholic.

Good morning and happy Saturday.

Lent is upon us and even though it began a bit later this year, it still feels like it has snuck up upon us.

Already every Catholic media site has published some sort of list of suggestions of what you could give up if you’re struggling to come up with what you could sacrifice. I want to share a few resources today and propose that we should take time to learn about our faith this Lent.

Firstly, I want to share a thought on giving something up. A good general rule of thumb is this: if it is something regular in your life that is not entirely necessary and giving it up can help you be a better follower of Christ, then it is probably a worthwhile sacrifice for Lent.

Secondly, I want to encourage you that as you give something up you remember to increase your prayer life. When we converse with Jesus, the Father, or the Holy Spirit, we can bring peace to our anxieties, strength for our troubles, and wisdom for our minds.

I am a big proponent of the Liturgy of the Hours because I love its structure and it doesn’t require me to come up with the formula. Additionally, it is steeped in Scripture (you’re praying the Psalms multiple times per day).

I’ve shared both Universalis.com and DivineOffice.org before as resources and I want to present them to you again.

Many of us participate in the Stations of the Cross at our local parishes as well and this is a reflection that is particularly appropriate for this season.

Some years ago, a friend of mine and I put together a reflection on the Stations with the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. It is now available on Amazon and any proceeds I receive from the book during Lent will be donated to Aid to the Church In Need which supports our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.

You can get a copy of Stations of the Cross with St. Thomas Aquinas by clicking here or the button below. It is also available for Kindle.

Click here to order the Stations

Finally, I want to encourage you to listen to edifying programming. I am a big proponent of Catholic radio because it is solid in its mission and faithful to the magisterium.

There are thousands of podcasts out there and many of them are good, but some of them are bad. Catholic radio, because of its mission, is faithful to the Church and does not stray into directions it shouldn’t.

I, of course, have a relationship with Ave Maria Radio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and they have lots of great content. Click the button below to stream their station or look for a Catholic radio station near you.

My friend, Dr. Marcus Peter, hosts Ave Maria in the Afternoon on weekdays from 4p-6p eastern and had this great conversation with Fr. Mathais Thelen about Lent:

If you’re interested in more of Marcus’ work, you can check out his Substack:

There are lots of other links on the Resource page at PurpleCatholic.com and I hope you will check them out during this liturgical season.

I wish you all a blessed and holy Lent.

NEW DEAL! Quit saving passwords in your browser and encrypt them instead.

First Sunday of Lent

Tomorrow is the First Sunday of Lent. At Mass we will hear from Deuteronomy 26:4-10, Psalm 91, Romans 10:8-13, and Luke 4:1-13.

This week is a bit odd in it that there are no memorials this week in the calendar in the United States. As a friendly reminder though, all memorials are optional in Lent (even obligatory ones in particular churches). If you want to celebrate a commemoration on a memorial in the Liturgy of the Hourse you can follow this formula:

For Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer

End the concluding prayer prior to the doxology (this is the “Through our Lord Jesus Christ, etc…). Chant or read the antiphon from the Benedictus or the Magnificat. Then pray the concluding prayer from the proper of the saint followed by the usual conclusion.

Here is an example from yesterday, the memorial of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity:

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

-----
... but deliver us from evil.
---
Give us the grace, Lord, to continue the works of penitence we have begun; so that the Lenten observance we have taken upon ourselves may be accomplished in sincerity of heart.
---
Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
---
With overwhelming love for you, Lord God, your martyrs Perpetua and Felicity defied the persecutor and overcame the pain of death.  Listen to their prayers and grant that we may love you daily more and more.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
---
The Lord bless us, and keep us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.  Amen.
-----

For the Office of Readings, the scriptural reading and the hagiographical reading are from the current day with their responsories.  Following the hagiographical reading and its responsory, you can read and pray the proper reading from the saint of the day, its responsory, and the concluding prayer from the proper.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:4

In the news:

Have a good weekend,

Matthew

Lent is here

Purple Catholic Saturday Post

First Sunday of Lent

In the news:

The United States

The Vatican

The World

Discussion about this post