Return to me with all your heart: Reflections for Lent 2025 - This year’s Lent booklet features reflections for every day of Lent from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday written by Ralph McCloud. Ralph, who was recently named the recipient of the Pax Christi USA Eileen Egan Peacemaker award, served for 16 years as the director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), an anti-poverty program of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Currently he is the board chair of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, serves on the Leadership Group for the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, and is a Senior Fellow at NETWORK Lobby in Washington DC. He has received multiple accolades and awards for his work as an advocate for those living in poverty and on the margins.
Join Ralph through a Lenten journey with the scriptures, as we watch Jesus move from his time in the desert to the heady days in Jerusalem leading up to his execution. How are we to respond as followers of Christ today, in the 21st century? What is the message God is sending us in this Jubilee year of hope and forgiveness?
NOTE: The price of the booklet is $5.00 a copy (with further discounts of 10 percent on orders of 10-99 or 30 percent for 100+). Order your copies now for yourself, your parish, religious community, ministry, school, and family to assure reception in time for the start of Lent, Ash Wednesday, March 5.
Excellent for individual reflection and prayer or in small groups, this booklet is available for order now in the hard-copy print version. An electronic version will be available by early March.
EXCERPT:
From Ash Wednesday, Ralph writes:
Even now, and especially now, despite the condition of the world, from the Middle East to Eastern Europe to East St. Louis, our God invites us closer. This Lent, let’s fast with a purpose. As we deny ourselves of our luxuries, meals, or confections, let’s be deliberate in connecting the relationship of the suffering Christ with those who struggle from famine, war and violence.
In our Lenten prayers this year, let’s consider those outside our usual comfort zones: those across town, those across the globe. May we share that from which we have denied ourselves to help relieve the pain of those who feel no hope. The Lord says, “even now.”
Fasting with a purpose, even now, especially now!