The Bishops' Conference of Scotland

✝️Justice & Peace 6-Week Lenten Action Challenge

During this season of Lent we can grow closer to God through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. While charitable giving is an essential expression of our faith, Pope Francis reminds us in Fratelli Tutti, and Pope Leo echoes in Dilexi Te, that true love also calls us to transform the injustices and structures that make charity necessary in the first place.

We are challenging supporters to be agents of transformative justice and peace this Lent in a world scarred by conflict, poverty, and the denial of rights.

🕊️Will you commit to taking one action for justice and peace over the next six weeks by joining the Justice & Peace Lenten Action Challenge?

Here are some example actions to inspire you. We will share tips for each one over the coming weeks:

🔹Week 1 (Poverty): Write to your MP or councillor calling for structural action on poverty and the housing crisis.
🔹Week 2 (Refugees): Volunteer at a conversation café or refugee support group and encounter those whose stories are often ignored.
🔹Week 3 (Care for Creation): Care for our common home by planting a tree, reducing waste, or supporting an environmental justice cause.
🔹Week 4 (Peace): Learn about an ongoing conflict and support organisations working for nonviolence, peace, and disarmament.
🔹Week 5 (Dignity of Work): Practice ethical consumerism - choose Fair Trade or local goods to support workers' rights.
🔹Week 6 (Solidarity): Write a message or letter to a prisoner or to someone in immigration detention, offering compassion and hope.

💜Small actions, taken faithfully, can renew both our own relationship with God this Lent and help to renew the world around us.

💡Do you have other ideas or actions people can take part in each week? Share these in the comments below!

Looking for something to focus on this Lent? A way to deepen your prayer life and grow closer to Christ?

This online retreat offers you the opportunity to journey through Lent with the Gospel of St Matthew, in harmony with the Lectionary readings. You can pray each day at your own pace, in your own time, wherever you are.

When Jesus called Matthew from his tax booth with the simple words, “Follow me,” everything changed. This Lent, you are invited to hear that same call personally.

Rooted in the Spiritual Exercises, the retreat encourages intentional time with Jesus so that you may see what he sees, love as he loves, and act from that love. Through prayerful contemplation of the Gospel, you can grow in a deeper and more personal relationship with Christ.

If you are seeking renewal, focus and a richer prayer life this Lent, consider taking part.

Begin today: https://shorturl.at/y2xLh

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the holy season of Lent.

Although it is not a Holy Day of Obligation, Catholics are encouraged to attend Mass today and receive the imposition of ashes as a visible sign of repentance and our desire to turn back to the Lord.

Ash Wednesday is also a day of fast and abstinence. We are required to abstain from meat, and those aged 18–59 who are in good health are obliged to fast, taking one main meal and two snacks.

As we begin these forty days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, may this season be a time of renewal for us all.

This Lent, the Commission for Marriage, Family and Life invites families to enter the desert with Christ.

Across Scotland, families and couples are coming together to pray a nightly decade of the Rosary, supporting one another as we walk with Jesus throughout these forty days of prayer, fasting and renewal.

When you sign up, you will receive simple resources to help you create a dedicated place of prayer in your home, along with access to a digital community where Catholics can share intentions and encourage one another in daily prayer.

Those who take part will also be invited to a special Lenten retreat day featuring family adoration, inspiring talks and time for quiet contemplation.

Begin this Lenten journey together as a family.
Sign up here: https://forms.office.com/e/vwQ1ha28N7


This lent the commission for marriage family and life invite your families to enter the desert with Christ. Come and join families and couples across the country in praying a nightly decade of the rosary. We will support one another in our effort to walk with Jesus these 40 days.

When you sign up you will receive materials guiding you in setting up a designated place for prayer in your homes. You will also receive a link to join a digital community of Catholics sharing prayer intentions and supporting one another in the daily prayers.

Those who have joined the initiative will be invited to a Lent retreat day with family adoration, inspiring talks and time for contemplation.

Sign up here: https://forms.office.com/e/vwQ1ha28N7

Gospel
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
‘Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
‘Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
‘And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
‘And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’