Read the Holy ather's Message for Lent 2021 here.

The Sunday gospel readings during Lent are arranged as follows:

The first and second Sundays retain the accounts of the Lord’s temptations and transfiguration, with readings from all three Synoptics.

On the next three Sundays, the gospels about the Samaritan woman, the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus, have been restored in Year A. Because these gospels are of major importance in regard to Christian initiation, they may also be read in Year B and Year C, especially in places where there are catechumens. Learn more from Fr Paddy Duffy SX

How can we better experience Lent in a time of pandemic? Or how can the Lenten season help us get through the actual coronavirus pandemic? Well, by opening wide our hearts and letting Jesus breathe new spirit within us. This is what Scriptures exhorts to do right from the beginning of Lent, on Ash Wednesday. "Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God." (Joel 2,12-13). And the prophetic call is echoed by a prayer from Psalm 51(50): "A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me" (v. 12). Thus, for forty days, through fasting, prayer and almsgiving, the Church guides into conversion, resetting our minds, hearts and lives on Christ. This is necessary and urgent since the pandemic has affected humanity at its core.  Scroll down to the English translation and read more from Pascal Atumissi Bekububo SX.

Each year Mission Together produces new resources to help children journey though the season of Lent. Its Lent liturgies, activities, and popular classroom calendar highlight each Sunday’s Gospel reading and invite children to reflect on Jesus’s words and actions. Download these free resources here.

Access the USCCB Lenten Calendar here.

Ignatian solidarity Network suggests fasting from food waste.

Sign up for the challenge to receive weekly updates with pointers for living a food-waste-free life as well as opportunities to pray and advocate on the issue of food waste.

Fr. Emmet Farrell, of the Diocese of San Diego’s creation care ministry, suggests a "Climate-Conscious Lent."

Cafod's Lent 2021 resources help young people to pray, learn and fundraise in Lent.

Walk for Water: Your sponsored walks and other fundraising will help people like Abdella in Ethiopia who walks ten hours a day for water.

Frs. Mbula Gilbert SX and Turco Faustino SX, who put together the texts of this Stations of the Cross, give thanks to all those have helped them to find these beautiful pages of the theology of the cross in the Xaverian mission in this Jubilee year of 100 years since the Letter Testament of the Founder, Guido Maria Conforti and 125 years since the Foundation of the Institute. Download it here.

Gregorius Purba Nagara SX

What makes me blessed and joyful to be a Xaverian? It is love, love for the mission of God to spread the Gospel to people especially those who have not known Christ yet. This love came down to me because of Christ, and the Holy Spirit who inspired our founder, St. Guido Maria Conforti. It is clear, and inspiring that he proposed to us to be men of the Word, men who abide in the Gospel, in the life and the love of Christ. Learn more.

The 7th episode of the video on the Testament Letter talks about Christ’s Centralism. Jesus Christ was the great passion of the Founder’s life: “I looked at him and he looked at me, and it seemed that he said many things…” It is a dialogue of glimpses of love, which reached the heart of young Conforti, generating in him a thirst for eternal life, not so much as an after and a beyond, but as a present: proclamation to non-Christians, family, universality, donation, total offering, fruitfulness, openness and brotherhood.

Badaliya is an Arabic word that means to take the place of or substitute for another. It is a spiritual term that lies at the heart of the Christian faith experience and refers to the mystery of the image of God as Jesus sacrificing his life for all of humanity. To be a follower of Christ is to offer oneself out of love for the well-being of others.Learn more.

Click on the image to register.

Read more about the latest efforts in Interfaith Dialogue on the US Xaverian Missionaries' website, featuring two Xaverian Missionaries, Frs. Rocco and Paulin.

A Cross Borders is "migrating" to Instagram

The Xaverian Missionaries will soon be updating A Cross Borders to the social media platform most used by young people.

Data Protection: We are careful with your details and follow the European regulations. We believe that everyone on this database has given their permission to receive our monthly updates. However, if you don't want further emails from us, please unsubscribe below. See our updated Privacy Policy here.