On the Second Sunday of Lent, the church places together the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah with the story of Jesus and three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. Together, these stories teach us the meaning of Lenten sacrifice....
This post on the Lord's Prayer comes from one of the earliest treatises on the Our Father, written around AD 240 by Cyprian of Carthage. It discusses one of the three pillars of Lenten penance, namely, the importance and power of prayer....
The spiritual circumcision of the heart through repentance and the sacrament of baptism -- Lenten meditation by Aphraates, a Syriac Father of the early Church.. All the biblical covenants are covered: the pact with Adam, Noah, and Moses. Just as Joshua led the people of...
An excerpt from the account of the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna on the West Coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey). He was apprehended by the Romans in his eighties, on February 23 around the year 155 AD....
Why Lent has forty days, the meaning of the number 40 in the Old and New Testaments, and the meaning of the the fasting and three temptations of Jesus Christ in the Desert....
This excellent reflection on one of the three pillars of Lenten penance, almsgiving or generosity, is an excerpt from a sermon on the love of poverty by Saint Gregory of Nazianzen. It is also a very clear statement on stewardship -- that we are stewards,...
In this 14 minute episode from the Sonrise Morning Show, host Anna Mitchell interviews Dr. Italy about how fasting fits into the Christian life in general and into Lenten penance in particular."What are you giving up for Lent?" Lenten Fasting Fasting is what most people first think...
This 5 minute podcast from the Sonrise Morning Show discusses Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio’s book, 40 Days, 40 Ways: A New Look on Lent. The conversation between the author and Matt Swaim explores how this resource can give us a fresh perspective and new practical suggestions...
Leo the Great on the famous passage from Matthew 16 in which Jesus gives Cephas the new name of Peter, meaning rock, along with the keys to the kingdom of heaven. It is read each year on the Feast of the Chair of...
Saint Asterius of Amasea, a bishop and Early Church Father, on the gospel parable of the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 to go in search of the one lost sheep....