Select a date to change this page’s Meditation, Activity and Thought for the Week through the season: Ash Wednesday through Holy Week and Good Friday.

Lent activities start on Ash Wednesday and end on Wednesday of Holy Week.

Lenten Catholic Treasures with Father Greg Friedman, O.F.M.

– “What Are Catholics Doing for Lent?”

– “Lent Is a Catholic Thing”

Experience a Franciscan Radio Retreat this Lent, led each week by a Catholic bishop. Listen to inspiring words and songs for Sunday Lenten reflection either online or offline with your iPod. Take this opportunity to focus clearly on your spiritual journey to the Resurrection each week—beginning Ash Wednesday.

First Sunday of Lent—Good or Evil

Second Sunday of Lent—Say Yes to God

Third Sunday of Lent—Living Water

Fourth Sunday of Lent—Seeing the Light

Fifth Sunday of Lent—Our Final Moments

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion—An End to Hatred

The AmericanCatholic.org Lent news feature focuses on coverage of the ongoing events of the lenten season from the Vatican and throughout the world that runs from Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, until the Easter triduum, marking the days of Jesus’ passion and Resurrection, and through Easter Sunday, April 12.

Why do Catholics fast and give things up during Lent? Why are there ashes on Ash Wednesday and palms on Palm Sunday? When does Lent end? Find the answers to these and other frequently asked questions here.

Reflect on clearing clutter from your life this season of Lent. This Catholic Update offers ways to fast from our personal habits, the clutter in our homes, our spiritual clutter and the confusion of our culture as we prepare for Easter.

The Stations of the Cross are a Catholic custom of Lent that commemorates the passion of Jesus on Good Friday.

Mardi Gras: Catholic Roots, Carnival and Ordinary Time

Lent: More Than Penance, by Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk

Triduum Rituals: Washing of the Feet, Veneration of the Cross and Baptism

Explore the holy places of Jesus’ life, death and Resurrection. The Holy Land represents the birthplace of Christianity. This guide offers a city by city, site by site “armchair pilgrimage” through the land of the Bible. Listen to a clip from the DVD here.

Lent is a time of self-reflection, of holding up a spiritual mirror in which to view ourselves and our world. In this excerpt from introductory volume of the St. Anthony Messenger Press eight-book “Called to Holiness: Spirituality for Catholic Women” series, Making Sense of God, Elizabeth Dreyer guides us to look inward, to confront the illusions in our lives and see where change is needed.