Preparing for Lent
by Julie Zimmerman

(If you don't have time to read this now, please take note of the buttons on the right. They are free for the taking, for you to use on your Web site. Click on a button to pick up the html code.)

Dear Catholic Webmasters:

Q U I C K S C A N

Parish Site of the Month
Worth a Click

It's certainly not too early to begin planning what your Web site or ministry will offer hungry Catholics during Lent. As a first step, you may want to consider your audience and what they're likely to be looking for. Here are a few ideas to help in your planning.

• For general audiences: "Why do we give things up for Lent?" "Are chicken and fish considered meat?" These are among the most popular questions we receive at AmericanCatholic.org during Lent. Sure, we'd all like people to spend their time contemplating the gift of Baptism, but sometimes folks just want to know the rules. To brush up on common Lenten questions, check out the FAQs at our Lent-Easter-Pentecost feature.
• For families: The monthly column "Faith-Filled Family" in St. Anthony Messenger has ideas from 2003 and 2002 for families who wish to observe Lent together. And with Advent wreaths so popular with many families, consider urging people to create Lenten wreaths in their homes or at the parish.
• For kids and teens: "Faith-Filled Family" also has Lenten-observance ideas for kids and teens. Click here and here to see activities geared toward teens, or here and here to see ideas appropriate for children. The newsletter Youth Update also offers day-by-day reflections aimed especially at teens.
• For RCIA candidates: The catechists who write our e-newsletter Faith Formation Update take a look at Lent and the RCIA, with an emphasis on resources to help candidates. There is also an excellent Catholic Update that explains why the whole parish should be involved in the RCIA journey.
• For inactive Catholics: Even those who are alienated from the Church often feel a tug during Lent and Easter. If your parish has a "Welcome Home" or similar program, this is a crucial time to publicize it on your Web site, in your bulletin and perhaps in a mailing. You may also want to refer inactive Catholics to the Web site OnceCatholic. Its trained companions answer questions about annulments, homosexuality, birth control and other hot topics. If you have a "Welcome Home" program or similar program, we will list it there. Tell us about it.

We hope these resources help you in your planning. If there's anything else you'd like to see, just let us know.

Julie Zimmerman
Managing editor, AmericanCatholic.org and sister sites

Parish Site of the Month

Blessed Sacrament Parish, Archdiocese of Ottawa
This site is clean and easy to navigate, with important parish and Catholic information at hand. But perhaps its most compelling feature is its weblogs from parishioners volunteering overseas. Reading the messages from a woman volunteering in an orphanage in Thailand is enough to convince someone to head there as well. Same with the accounts of two parishioners making the month-long walking pilgrimage known as the Way of St. James in Spain. Both journeys received support from Blessed Sacrament, making the accounts even more appealing to parish members.

Worth a Click

REACHING THE GEN-X CATHOLIC
Busted Halo
Should Father Mychal Judge be a saint? Where is the nearest retreat center or pilgrimage site? Which parishes have outreach programs for young adults? This Web site, run by Paulist Young Adult Ministries and Paulist Media Works, targets people in their 20s and 30s, a time when many Catholics have drifted from the Church or are dabbling in other faiths. Busted Halo explains Catholicism to this audience in a friendly way with an emphasis on the moments when faith and daily life intersect.

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