Lent 2025

For schools, chaplaincies and parishes, a good place to go for pastoral notes on the seasons of the Church is the Liturgy Office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. You’ll find notes on Lent at: https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/Seasons/Lent.pdf

Lent runs from Ash Wednesday, which thus year falls on 5 March, until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday 17 April. During Lent, the Alleluia is not used until the Easter Vigil, when its power can be felt all the more keenly in the celebration of the Risen Lord.

In Catholic schools, Lent is a busy time and a lot of creativity goes into engaging our young people in this season of renewal and repentance in the life of the Church. We sometimes hear nostalgic voices wishing we could turn the clock back to the time when the Catholic school parish and family were such powerful influences on the formation of our young people.

I’m not so sure the ‘golden age’ was all that it’s sometimes imagined to be. When I was at a Catholic primary school in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I’d say that much was taken for granted. I don’t remember much that was different during Lent. Today, schools and multi academy trusts put a lot of imagination into liturgies and campaigns for social justice.

In this Jubilee Year, schools will have the additional opportunity to take part in a Jubilee Pledge. Ideally in partnership with the local parish, the school community can discern the needs they see around them - locally, nationally and globally - and decide what they can best do to make a difference. For more information on Jubilee for Schools and the Jubilee Pledge, visit: https://cafod.org.uk/jubilee-schools

Lent is a season of renewal, a time to lean on the three pillars of prayer, fasting and almsgiving to deepen our relationship with God (prayer), our neighbours (almsgiving) and creation (fasting). These relationships have been distorted by sin, but God always offers us a way back, prompted by his Holy Spirit and the teaching of his Son.