Lent 2020 begins next week! For me, thoughts of Lent start to creep up as the Christmas season ends on the Baptism of the Lord, but I don’t really realize how close it is until it’s almost here. Invitations to Mardi Gras celebrations. King Cakes / Rosca de Reyes for sale. Planning where my husband and I will go out to eat for our annual nice, Fat Tuesday dinner. And thinking about what my Lenten foci and sacrifices will be.
For eight years now, Catholic Sistas has lead the Lenten and Advent Photo Challenges. They are a great way to journey through the liturgical season; they are a way to examine our daily lives and visually share how the Holy Spirit manifests God’s presence daily to us. Sometimes it’s easy, and other times not so much as we contemplate how God manifests himself through the word of the day in our lives. Yet that (for me) is the best part of the Photo challenge. It’s what makes the photo challenge a fruitful journey. And why I love participating in them and seeing what other people share during their own Photo Challenge journey.
JOIN US!
I invite you all to join a team of Catholic Sistas Photo Challenge leaders, friends, Alison, Anna, Celeste, Kristin, Laura, Lynette, Mandi, Martina, Rita, and Rosemary, in the 2020 Lent Photo Challenge Journey.
Because it’s fun to share your photos and reflections with others, and see what others share, it’s nice to be a part of at least one of our main social media platforms- Facebook or Instagram- but you don’t have to be. As long as the Lent Photo Challenge Journey provides you with an opportunity to reflect during the season of Lent and prepare for Easter, that’s what matters.
To help you in your challenge, below you’ll find the whats, hows and hashtag info for joining the 2020 Lent Photo Challenge. Lent starts next Wednesday, February 26 on Ash Wednesday! I’m excited to see how the Holy Spirit moves us during Lent as we prepare for Easter. Happy photo snapping!
What’s NEW and how the 2020 Lent Photo Challenge works
• Each day has two words associated with it. A word from the Gospel of the Day (the first word, in brown) and a simpler, classic Lent word (the second word, in teal blue). Snap a photo or find an old photo related to that word. The photo does not have to be faith-themed, as the goal of our photo challenges is for us to see God in our everyday lives and reflect on Him.
• With TWO words to choose from, our classic prompts as well as keywords pulled from the daily Gospel readings give you an opportunity to pick how you’d like to delve into the challenge for the day. Pick one word, the other, or if you’re feeling EXTRA, see if you can find a creative way to incorporate both words into your photo. Can’t do it? NO worries, friend. This is meant to be fun and easy, so do what you feel God is calling you to each day and be blessed by the journey itself.
• Use the hashtag #CSLentIPJ and any other appropriate hashtags (#sacrifice, #beloved, #joy, etc) when you post your Photo Challenge photos. This allows us all to search Instagram and other social media platforms for other participants (CSLentIPJ = Catholic Sistas Lent Instagram Photo Journey). You can even follow the hashtag on Instagram so you’ll see all the photos posted from everyone participating. We will be sharing participant photos throughout the Photo Challenge, and the way we find them is through the #CSLentIPJ hashtag.
• While our main platforms for the 2020 Lent Photo Challenge are Instagram, and Facebook, we are present on many other platforms. Tag us with @CatholicSistas on INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST and FACEBOOK. And if you’re blogging about your Lenten Photo Challenge, link back to us or comment below with a link to your post.
• You can also tag us @CatholicSistas on Instagram to be featured on our stories!
• Click the graphic below to download the 2020 CS Lent Graphic for quick reference. Note that the dates of the weekends are a different color to help visually break up the days.
• Be sure to share the graphic with others and invite them to join the challenge too! You can even use this graphic to let others know you are participating in the CS Lent Instagram Photo Journey.
• Lastly, consider joining us on Facebook in our group CATHOLIC SISTAS – THE COFFEE HOUSE. Here we can share pictures of the challenge and we get to know each other in a private setting. Please request to be added and answer the group questions, and you will be approved as soon a moderator is able to add you.
• BEFORE we get to the prompt graphic, let’s introduce you to the team as well as give you the breakdown of the prompts by the week.
