Let the Journey Begin!
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
It seems like the Christmas season just finished and it’s already time to gear up for Lent. The Lenten season is one moment in the year when even our family and friends who are away from the Church seem to sense that something is different. 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 both 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?!
Create & Curate Your Own Content
There has never been more good 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. Here are 5 links you can share.
Dynamic Catholic's Best Lent Ever
Stations of the Cross by S. Alphonsus Liguori (video)
Catholic Icing's Lenten Activities for Children
Canva + Quote
Canva is a wonderful tool that should be part of every parishes arsenal. (Even the free version is pretty robust.)
If you are not using Canva or are not sure where to start check out these blog posts:
Who does not love a good quote?! Between Scripture and the Saints you have thousands of possibilities. Below is an easy step by step process for finding quotes and turning them into beautiful posts ready for you Facebook page and Instagram.
Step 1
One of the great things about Canva is its extensive library of templates, including free templates.
Go to the Canva library and search Quotes for Facebook or Quotes for Instagram. (If you want to narrow the number of designs add the word "Lent" to the search box.) Up will pop all kinds of ideas. Choose the one you like - but don't get bogged down trying to find the perfect one.
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. Pick one or more quotes.
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 and post it to your social media.
Step 6
Don't forget to include a 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
Use the same template, but different quotes to create 5 or 6 posts in one sitting. On the right just above your design you can click on the icon to duplicate the page as many times as you like. 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.
Lenten Videos
YouTube is definitely your friend when it comes to videos for Lent. In the YouTube search bar type in Catholic Lent. Many options will come up. Add to your search descriptors such as For Kids, Stations of the Cross, Meaning of, etc. I usually choose videos that are less than 5 minutes or less 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.
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 can share the link to the article directly to Facebook or copy and paste it. You'll automatically have the photo and the headline from the article.
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.
Free Lenten Bundle Download
The absolute easiest way to "create" content for Lent is to download our FREE bundle of Lenten Quotes that we have created especially for you. The bundle includes:
Easy Peasy
So there you have it, 5 easy ways to "create" and share content this Lenten season that will evangelize and inspire!
See ya soon! 👋
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