Essay: This Lent, take up some practices that counter the worst of our politics
MICHAEL WEAR, president of the Center for Christianity and Public Life in the US and author of ‘The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life’, says Lent is a good time to be thinking about resisting what the US election season is “demanding we become”…
Sight-Seeing: Fasting from carbon for Lent
US Catholic commentator THOMAS REESE, in an article first published on Religion News Service, says carbon fasting is an act of penance for what we in the rich world have done – and provides some tips on how to go about it…
Health Insight: Is intermittent fasting actually good for weight loss? Here’s what the evidence says
DAVID CLAYTON, a senior lecturer in nutrition and exercise physiology at Nottingham Trent University, looks – in an article first published on The Conversation, at what research reveals about the practice of intermittent fasting…
Origins: A history of Easter feasts and why the English breakfast might be medieval
GILES GASPER, a professor in high medieval history at Durham University, looks at the origins of the Easter feast…
Fasting protesters defy military rule in massive Sudan marches
Khartoum, Sudan Reuters Despite high temperatures, tear gas, and a Ramadan fast, tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters marched in the capital Khartoum and more in towns across the country on Wednesday, marking the third anniversary of the fall of former President Omar al-Bashir and rejecting the recent power grab by the generals that ousted […]
Books: New Lenten cookbook gives Catholics tasty choices for ‘meatless Fridays’
CLEMENTE LISI, a writer for Religion Unplugged, samples a new cookbook made specifically to liven up Lenten fare…
Origins: Lent
In an article first published on The Conversation, JOANNE M PIERCE, professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross, looks at the Christian tradition of Lent…
SIGHT-SEEING: FASTING FROM FOOD, FEEDING FROM THE BIBLE DURING LENT
US Catholic commentator THOMAS REESE, in an article first published by Religion News Service, looks at different ways to observe Lent this year…
Australian Catholic bishops call for four days of “fasting and reparation” in sorrow for child sexual abuse
Australian Catholic bishops have called upon Catholics to fast and pray during the first four days of Lent “in sorrow for child sexual abuse and the healing of victims”. In a message to the Catholic community for the beginning of Lent, the bishops said that with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse […]
Pope Francis calls for worldwide day of prayer and fasting for peace
Pope Francis has called for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for peace on 23rd February. Speaking to crowds in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, the Pope said that faced with the “tragic protracted situations of conflict in different parts of the world”, he invited “all the faithful to take part in a special Day […]