Looking Ahead to Lent
by John Bookser Feister

(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:

It's not too early to start thinking about how you will serve your Web visitors during Lent, a peak season for religious Web surfing. Ash Wednesday is March 5 this year. One thing to consider in your planning: Lent only makes sense in the context of the Easter cycle, which begins Ash Wednesday and concludes on the Feast of Pentecost, the end of Eastertide. The climax of this Easter cycle is the Holy Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter itself.

Q U I C K S C A N

Parish Site of the Month
Worth a Click

Strong Catholic Web sites ideally help visitors understand what Lent is all about and help them build towards the Easter celebration. Then, taking a cue from the liturgy, these sites celebrate Easter for the entire of Eastertide, all the way to Pentecost.

If you want to understand the season more fully, I can recommend several of our Catholic Update articles that you can read for free at AmericanCatholic.org. One of my favorites is, "Lenten Customs: Baptism Is the Key," by Fr. Lawrence Mick. A short article on how Lent fits into the bigger picture is "Understanding the Easter Cycle," adapted from an Update by Sandra DeGidio.

Placing one of our Lent graphics on your site (see right column) is a good way to start. By some renaming of files, we at AmericanCatholic.org will change the graphic to an Easter graphic at Easter. A few weeks later we'll change it to "From Easter to Pentecost." Our Lent-Easter-Pentecost feature changes through the cycle and provides rich content to help your visitors understand and celebrate the season.

Some Practical Tips

You may want to consider some of the following additional strategies to enhance your site:

1. Talk to the director of your RCIA program and consider posting a prayer on your site for your catechumens and candidates. Lent is an especially important time of preparation for them. Knowing the whole parish is praying along with them will encourage their faith.

2. Publicize the dates and times of penance services at area parishes.

3. Help people pray by providing daily prayer ideas. Our popular "Day by Day Through Lent" Catholic Update will be the content for our Minute Meditations during Lent. Link to it if you wish.

4. Help people use the Internet to pray for each other by receiving prayer requests on your site. You can either print these prayers or copy them onto disk and incorporate them into Sunday or weekday liturgies, working with your pastor and liturgy committee. Consider posting them on your Web site, but with one caution. I recommend screening anything before it goes onto your site, to prevent inappropriate postings.

John Bookser Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org and sister sites

Next month: Welcoming New Catholics (by Julie Zimmerman)

Parish Site of the Month

St. Elizabeth Parish, Diocese of Rockville Centre
This is a robust site with just about everything a parish could offer to its members online: discussion boards, event and presider calendars, recordings of homilies, daily readings, and an extensive section on ministries and services. The site is also easy to navigate and attractive. A model for parish Web sites.

Worth a Click

A LAYMAN'S LOOK AT THE JOURNEY OF FAITH
eCatholicism.org
This site is chock-full of great resources on just about any Catholic topic, all aimed at the person in the pews. Unlike many Catholic sites, which identify closely with a specific segment within the Church, eCatholicism's treatment of its varied subjects is broad and even-handed. Its offerings include articles, links to list discussions, online directories a saints' calender and other useful items, compiled by Joe Cece, a layman from New Jersey.

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