>> Click here to read a special Easter message for the Pax Christi USA community from Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv, Bishop-President of Pax Christi USA.

We enter Lent this year faced with multiple tragedies on several fronts — from the new war in Ukraine and the years-old bombing in Yemen to the ongoing loss and grief caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, from the continued threats of white nationalism and racial injustice to the intractable issues of poverty and unequal access to healthcare. These realities are the context for our Lenten campaign of prayer, study and action this year.

This season of Lent presents the opportunity to root ourselves ever more deeply in discipleship to the nonviolent Jesus, to demonstrate the unbreakable bond that exists between an authentic spirituality and our commitment to social justice, between the proclamation of the gospel and the call to practice peacemaking, fortifying us to address injustice, violence, and oppression. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year, we are also mining our history for the tools to engage the challenges we face today. Starting in this Lenten season and continuing throughout the year up to the mid-term elections in 2022, we’re reimagining a campaign that we launched back in 1999, Bread Not Stones, a campaign aimed at redirecting the obscene amount of money the U.S. invests in military spending to the challenges presented by the pandemic, the climate crisis, racial oppression, and economic injustice. Despite the end of the Cold War in the nineties, the U.S. has continued to operate out of the mentality that peace is assured through military might, the manufacturing of weapons, and investment in preparation for war. This Lent, through prayer, study and action, we will more deeply root ourselves in the spirituality of nonviolence that can empower us to resist and break the cycle of war, injustice and violence.

We hope the resources below for prayer, study and action will be helpful to you as we journey through Lent together, walking the way of discipleship with Jesus toward the Cross by challenging systems which dominate and oppress in our world today.

REFLECTIONS FOR SUNDAYS AND HOLY DAYS

On this page throughout the season, we’ll be featuring reflections from this year’s Pax Christi USA Lenten reflection booklet and other excerpts from past booklets. We’ll also be sending our weekly Lenten emails directly to your inbox if you’re subscribed to our free email service. (Click here to sign up if you are not already subscribed to our free email service.) 

PRAY-STUDY-ACT EACH WEEK OF LENT

Each week, we’ll be crafting a special Pray-Study-Act e-bulletin (PSA) with resources for us all to use and to act on in common. Each PSA will be sent out a few days prior to the week to which it refers.

OTHER LENTEN RESOURCES

SPECIAL EVENTS AND DAYS OF OBSERVANCE

>> Lenten retreat with Bro. Mickey McGrath, OSFS on April 6th over Zoom: “Disarming our Hearts: A Virtual Way of the Cross with Pax Christi USA”. Click here for more information.

In these turbulent times of war, violence, racism, and anxiety, we invite you to rediscover the healing power of beauty with artist and story-teller Brother Mickey McGrath as he shares his own paintings and stories to lead you on a contemporary Way of the Cross. 

>> Lenten Days of Prayer, Fasting & Action Every Wednesday

PC-Metro NY Way of the Cross

We implore members of the Pax Christi USA community, U.S. Catholics, and people of faith everywhere to join together in the day of prayer and fasting for peace in Ukraine called for by Pope Francis on March 2, Ash Wednesday. We encourage our community to publicly vigil in support of peace on this day. We are asking Pax Christi USA members to take this one step further and to publicly vigil for peace in Ukraine, Yemen, Palestine and elsewhere around the world EVERY WEDNESDAY throughout Lent.

Other events and opportunities:

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Good Friday Observances

Traditionally, many Pax Christi USA local groups plan and stage a “Way of the Cross” event on Good Friday, connecting the sufferings of Christ during his passion with the suffering of our brothers and sisters at the hands of violence, greed, poverty, sickness and war. This year, we invite Pax Christi USA local groups, Catholic Worker communities, partners and friends to organize Good Friday witness actions that address the intersectionality of war, racism, economic injustice, the climate crisis & more by reflecting on Jesus’s steps to Calvary.

Below are resources for groups interested in undertaking a Way of the Cross in their community on Good Friday. Also please let us know if you have a Way of the Cross planned in your community by filling out this form.

>> We will list the names of groups, with contact information, which will be staging a Way of the Cross this year on this page.

2022 LENTEN REFLECTION BOOKLET

Purchase and download this year’s Lenten reflection booklet, The Beauty We Must Hold Fast To: Reflections for Lent 2022, which includes all-new reflections based on the daily liturgical readings for the entire season of Lent, from Ash Wednesday through Easter. Each reflection (as well as the photographs) was written by a former Pax Christi USA General Secretary, National Coordinator or Executive Director (the title changed over time!). Some—like Joe Fahey, Sr. Mary Lou Kownacki and Sr. Mary Evelyn Jegen—were there at the very birth of our movement. And their work was built on by Sr. Anne McCarthy, Jo Clarke, Nancy Small, Dave Robinson, Ron Cruz, Sr. Patty Chappell, and Sr. Anne-Louise Nadeau. Each of them brings a different facet of the commitment to peace and justice which lies at the heart of our faith. Taken together, they “weave threads of peace” into a tapestry that captures insights and challenges for people who would walk the way of Jesus, especially during Lent.