• Easter
• Second Sunday
  of Easter:
  Thomas Third Sunday
  of Easter: a
  God of Surprises
  
• Fourth Sunday
  of Easter:
  the Good Shepherd
• Fifth Sunday
  of Easter:
  “Love one another”
• Sixth Sunday
  of Easter:
  the Paraclete
• Seventh Sunday
  of Easter:
  Jesus prays for us!

• Five Sundays of Lent
• About the
  Sunday Gospels of Lent
• First Sunday:
  Temptation of Christ
• Second Sunday:
  the Transfiguration
• Third Sunday
  "A" and RCIA:
  The Samaritan Woman
• Third Sunday - "C":
  Facing God Again
• Fourth Sunday
  "A" and RCIA:
  The Man Born Blind
• Fourth Sunday - "C":
  The Prodigal Son
• Fifth Sunday
  "A" and RCIA:
  Raising Lazarus
• Fifth Sunday - "C":
  Walk Freely in Light
• Stations of the Cross
• About the Devotion:
  Stations of the Cross
• Pray the Stations
• Oraciòn del Vía Crucis
• Stations of the Cross
  with St Paul of the Cross
• Stations of the Cross
  for Children

Introduction: Easter and Lent

by Victor Hoagland, C.P.

Easter is Christianity’s most ancient and important yearly feast. By the 3rd century a preparatory season of forty days — Lent — was joined to this holy time.

What do these seasons celebrate?

Easter celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, “powerful in word and deed”, who was seized and crucified by his enemies during the Passover feast in Jerusalem. On Easter morning he rose from the dead, appearing to his followers and assuring them of God’s favor. Easter recalls these events yearly.

A New Passover

From the outset Christians recognized God’s hand in what happened. Early on Jesus’ followers, taught by the Risen Lord himself, interpreted his death and resurrection in the light of the Exodus story. “Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7)

The ancient Jewish Pasch was fulfilled in Christ. The lamb sacrificed by the Jews in Egypt was a sign from God of their redemption from slavery. Jesus’ sacrificed life now offered all people an escape from death and a way to freedom.

Jesus, a new Moses, would lead a new people, his church, through desert trials to a heavenly kingdom. On their journey he offered them the water of eternal life and bread from heaven. He would be with his church always.

Believe and be baptized

“Believe and be baptised” was the message his disciples announced to people throughout the world. Their stories of Jesus’ life and teaching, the “Good News” that was his gospel, brought people everywhere to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Redeemer. And they baptised those who believed in water and the Holy Spirit.

Today Lent and Easter are times for hearing the “Good News” once more and celebrating the sacraments that are signs of the power of Christ’s death and resurrection. They remind us of our great journey with Christ. Once more these seasons call us to believe and recall our baptismal life.

The Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Lenten season from Ash Wednesday to the Mass of Holy Thursday. The Easter feast is celebrated from Holy Thursday evening till Easter Sunday, then through the Easter season which lasts till the feast of Pentecost.

• • Introduction
• The Lenten Spirit:
  pray, give, fast
• Ash Wednesday Prayers
• The Sunday
  Gospels of Lent
• Palm Sunday:
  Entering Jerusalem
• The Easter Triduum
• Meditating on
  the Passion of Jesus
• The Last Supper
• The Agony
  in the Garden
• The Crucifixion
• The Resurrection
• The Coming
  of the Holy Spirit
• Also:
• The Passion
  of Jesus Christ
  by Donald Senior, C.P.
• All about the
  Stations of the Cross
• Foods of Lent
• Plants of Lent
• Especially for children:
• Heart Prayer
  for Children during Lent
• Stations of the Cross
  for Children
• Holy Week
  for Children
• Heart Prayer
  for Children during
  Holy Week and Easter
• The Easter Tree