WordBytes & Videos for Lent
We enter into Jerusalem on Ash Wednesday. What sacrifice for Lent are you making to enhance your journey to Easter? Just as Jesus knew what sacrifice He would have to make, we should discern what God is calling us to do. The videos and articles on this page are valuable as you make a sacrifice of time during Lent to grow closer to Jesus and to become more like him.
More video reflections for Lent >>> Good News Media Center
WordBytes Table of Contents
- The Stations of the Cross (by Good News Ministries Artists)
Various artists who read GNM’s Good News Reflections contributed their talents for the Stations of the Cross. They represent the globalness and diversity of the Catholic Church while honoring Christ. Come visit right now in a Virtual Reality experience (no special equipment necessary). You can pray the Stations of the Cross in our virtual prayer room.
- The Way of the Cross
Pray our Stations of the Cross to find relief for your own sufferings. Embrace your trials as union with Jesus on the journey to glory. You are entering into an interactive prayer experience. Our sufferings have eternal value if we unite them to the Passion of Christ.
- The Trail of Roses
Take a 40-day journey to the Passionate Heart of Jesus in this little, downloadable ebook of meditations (PDF). The gift Jesus gave you when he suffered and died on Good Friday was his very Self, his entire Self. With this little book you can go on a Lenten Journey with Jesus by giving him a gift of yourself every day – a different gift on each of the 40 days of Lent. Or use it any time of year to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ.Your daily gifts will be like roses you’re strewing upon the path of his journey to Calvary.
- Holy Week in the Holy Land
See where it happened! “The disciples … brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
- The Healing Wounds of Jesus
Mystical and Scientific Insights into Christ’s Actual Passion. This meditation is a series of descriptions of how Jesus suffered for you, as revealed by saints and mystics through the centuries and by scientists today. The quotes here have been compiled to help you find healing through Jesus, to give you a deeper experience of His love, and to inspire you to return that love more fully.
- FORGIVEN: A Meditation on the Passion of Christ Through the Eyes of Peter and Judas
Written with a powerfully life-changing twist, this is not the usual Passion story. “Forgiven” shows the passion of Christ as seen through the eyes of Peter and Judas. Each react in different ways to the final days and crucifixion of Jesus. One chooses forgiveness and the other ends his life in terrible guilt.
- Christ’s Passion for you: A Virtual Retreat
This retreat can provide healing from your sufferings. Take time to meditate and reflect on each segment. Use the photos to help you imagine what the experience of Christ’s sufferings was like for him. As you do this, remember that he did it for you. This is how much he cares about you. You are about to enter into the timelessness of what Christ did for you, when the experiences of Jesus during the first Holy Week are also the now moment of your life.
- Passion Spirituality: Intimacy with Jesus
Passion Spirituality is the joining of our sufferings to the Passion of Christ. When we meditate on this, we enter into a much deeper intimacy with Jesus and we even discover great joy! This section of Good News Ministries WordBytes is a Virtual Retreat tailored to your own needs. Jesus is here with you, ready to provide you with healing and recovery from the hurts and sufferings of your life.
- Daily Good News Reflections based on the readings at Mass
Subscribe free to the thought-provoking reflections of Terry Modica on the daily readings from Catholic Mass. Get them by email or by text message. As a bonus for subscribing by email, we will send you a free download of Terry Modica’s mini-ebook “10 Prayers That Changed My Life“.
- Examination of Conscience based on the 10 Commandments
You can live a holy life! “What God commands He makes possible by grace,” says paragraph 2083 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Jesus gives us His Holy Spirit to help us understand and obey the Father’s commands. God’s laws were made for our benefit! Our obedience opens us to receive more of God: more of His love, His help, His comfort, His healing, etc. “The gift of the Commandments is the gift of God Himself” (para. 2059).
- What Lenten Sacrifice Are You Making?
What sacrifice for Lent are you making to enhance your journey to Easter? Just as Jesus knew what sacrifice He would have to make, we should discern what God is calling us to do. Sacrifices are supposed to make a difference. What’s the point of giving up candy for Lent if it doesn’t bring us spiritually closer to Christ?
- What’s the Value of Sacrifices? (video)
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “Lent is a time when we relive the Passion of Christ. Let it not be just a time when our feelings are roused, but let it be a change that comes through cooperation with God’s grace in real sacrifices of self.” In this video reflection, Terry Modica examines how our sacrifices can make a difference beyond our own lives when we have true solidarity with the Passion of Christ.
- Why must we abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent?
During biblical times, meat was considered a food of rejoicing, because it was not always available and because its protein was an important food for good health and strength. During Lent, the Church asks us to abstain from eating meat — the food of rejoicing — in mourning for Jesus because of the pain and death he had to endure for our sake.
Meditations for those who suffer
+ See also the parish Lenten materials published by Catholic Digital Resources.
It was our infirmities that He bore, our sufferings that He endured… He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, upon Him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by His stripes we were healed. (Isaiah 53:4,5)
St. Bridget of Sweden believed that Jesus said this to her:
“Be it known that the number of armed soldiers were 150; those who trailed Me while I was bound were 23. The executioners of justice were 83; the blows received on My head were 150; those on My stomach, 108; kicks on My shoulders, 80. I was led, bound with cords and by the hair, 24 times; spits in the face were 180; I was beaten on the body 6666 times; beaten on the head, 110 times. I was roughly pushed, and at 12 o’clock was lifted up by the hair; pricked with thorns and pulled by the beard 23 times; received 20 wounds on the head; thorns of marine junks [thorns on ropes], 72; pricks of thorns in the head, 110; mortal thorns in the forehead, 3. I was afterwards flogged and dressed as a mocked king; wounds in the Body, 1000. The soldiers who led Me to Calvary were 608; those who watched Me were 3, and those who mocked Me were 1008; the drops of Blood which I lost were 28,430.”
(Excerpted from The Healing Wounds of Jesus.)