Let the Journey Begin!

"Lent is a journey towards the cross, a time to walk with Jesus through his final days, reflecting on his suffering and sacrifice."  - Unknown

Ash Wednesday is just a few days away, beginning our 40 days of Lent and moving toward the great feast of Easter. Lent is a time when even our family and friends who are away from the Church seem to know that there is something different about this season. They may go to receive ashes or give something up for Lent. For this reason Lent is a particularly good time to evangelize and inspire your parishioners and the public.

One of the easiest ways to tackle these two goals is to post and share content about this important liturgical season. It could be as simple as a few short snippets for the parish bulletin, longer content for your website or visuals to share on your social media. But where to find material and ideas?!

Free Lenten Bundle Download

The absolute easiest way to "create" content for Lent is to download a FREE bundle that we have

created especially for you. The bundle includes:

• The Basics of Lent Poster

• 6 Social Media Posts (for Facebook and Instagram) + Captions

• A Digital Family Newsletter

• 11 FAQs about Lent

• A Dozen Online Lenten Resources

Create & Curate Your Own Content

Over the last number of years, I have noticed the increase in great online Catholic content! So rather than reinventing the wheel, why not share the content created by these talented Catholics. Understand I am not suggesting "stealing" the content. Rather you want to invite your parishioners and people who follow you to discover this content. Below are a few ideas for how to do that.

Canva & Quotes

I've talked about Canva in my 3 previous Blog posts:

• Designing with Word - Never Again!

• New to Canva? Where to Start? Why the Library of Course!

• Creating Your First Canva Design

One of the great things about Canva is its extensive library of templates, including free templates.

Step 1

Go to the Canva library and search Quotes for Facebook or Quotes for Instagram. Up will pop all kinds of suggestions. Choose the one you like.

Step 2

Go to Google and search for Lenten Quotes or Catholic Lenten Quotes or Lenten Quotes of Saints.

Once again you will have plenty to choose from.

Step 3

Copy and Paste your chosen quote to the Canva Template you picked out. The way I often choose which quote to use is based on length. I try to find one that will fit relatively well into the text box of my Canva Template. Having said that you can always choose to make the font size bigger or smaller to accommodate the text box.

Step 4

If you chose a template that is not "Lent looking" you can simply make a few changes. You might want to change the color to some shade of purple. Maybe you want to change the photo or graphic to something more Lent relevant.

Step 5

Download your design as a PNG, though a JPEG also works, and post it to your social media.

Step 6

Don't forget the caption. I usually include the quote itself - because lots of people are scrolling on their phone with a small screen. And I also give some sort of Call to Action, e.g. ask people to comment about the quote, or ask them to talk about how their Lent is going, or invite them to one of your parish's Lenten activities.

TIME SAVING TIP

Keep the same template and create 5 or 6 posts in one sitting. On the right just above your design you can click to the icon to duplicate the page as many times as you like. Then simply change up the quote and in less than 10 minutes (you need a few of those minutes to go down the inevitable rabbit hole 😁) you have a great post for each week of Lent.

Great YouTube Videos

YouTube is definitely your friend when it comes to videos for Lent. In the YouTube search bar just type in Catholic Lent and all kinds of options come up. Add to your search things like For Kids, Stations of the Cross, Meaning of, etc. I usually try to pick something not longer than 5 minutes simply because everyone's attention span is so short these days.

Either share the video directly to your social media or copy and paste the link to your social media. Be sure to add some sort of a caption - perhaps a sentence or two about why you chose this particular video. And don't forget a Call to Action.

Aleteia.org

I love Aleteia (aleteia.org) for so many reasons. (1) Everyday they have plenty of new and interesting stories. (2) There are editions in 7 different languages! Which is great for parishes with a large Spanish speaking population, or French speaking where I live. (3) If there is nothing relevant in the daily news, you can search their vast library of articles for something that catches your fancy.

As with YouTube, you share the link directly to Facebook or copy and paste it. You'll automatically have the photo and the headline! Not to sound like a broken record, but don't forget your caption and Call to Action. It takes an extra few minutes tops but is so important to try and create engagement with your audience.

Last Words

So there you have it, 3 easy ways to "create" and share content this Lenten season that will evangelize and inspire!

And if you have not already done so, and want an even easier way to have Lenten materials download our Free Lenten Bundle straight to your inbox 📥 (though more likely to your spam folder - so be sure to check that folder.) Click here to download your Free Lenten Bundle.

See ya soon! 👋