Yet Lent presents the opportunity to root ourselves ever more deeply in discipleship to the nonviolent Jesus, to demonstrate the unbreakable bond that exists between an authentic spirituality and our commitment to social justice, between the proclamation of the gospel and the call to practice peacemaking, fortifying us to address injustice, violence, and oppression. To this end, as we do each Lent, we've set up a Lenten webpage on the Pax Christi USA site to gather various resources for prayer, study and action together. You'll find there reflections for holy days and Sundays throughout the season, opportunities to gather in prayer (register here for weekly virtual prayer services each Monday evening), study pieces (not too late to still order print or digital copies of this year's Lent booklet), and invitations to action (we're calling Pax Christi USA local groups and partners to vigil every Wednesday throughout Lent for peace, taking the pope's Ash Wednesday call for fasting and prayer for peace in Ukraine one step further, and we're launching a major campaign for 2022 to transform the military budget to serve the needs of our people and the planet).

We hope you'll find these resources, including weekly PSAs (Pray-Study-Act alerts) like this one, helpful as we journey into Lent. Through prayer, study and action, let us more deeply root ourselves in the spirituality of nonviolence that can empower us to resist and break the cycle of war, injustice and violence.

Starting in this Lenten season and continuing throughout the year up to the mid-term elections in 2022, we’re reimagining a campaign that we launched back in 1999, Bread Not Stones, a campaign aimed at redirecting the obscene amount of money the U.S. invests in military spending to the challenges presented by the pandemic, the climate crisis, racial oppression, and economic injustice. Despite the end of the Cold War in the nineties, the U.S. has continued to operate out of the mentality that peace is assured through military might, the manufacturing of weapons, and investment in preparation for war. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary as a movement this year, we are drawing on the lessons of the past to address the issues of the present in order to create a better future. We draw inspiration from the original Bread Not Stones campaign of 1999-2000 in launching this one, Bread Not Stones 2022 with a new statement of our intentions. You can click the link below to read the statement. Please consider filling out the form after the statement to receive more information and to help in the promotion and execution of this campaign through November 2022.

>> Read this article from the Pax Christi Anti-Racism Team on how racism is exacerbating the war in Ukraine as refugees flee the invasion..

On Ash Wednesday, members of the Pax Christi USA community (including the Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus leading a liturgy of peace at the Russian Embassy in DC, photo right) joined together in the day of prayer and fasting for peace in Ukraine called for by Pope Francis. We are encouraging our community to take this one step further and to publicly vigil for peace in Ukraine, Yemen, Palestine and elsewhere around the world EVERY WEDNESDAY throughout Lent. We encourage you to send us photos of your vigil and post them on social media tagging us (@PaxChristiUSA) using the hashtags #PaxChristi50, #PeaceInUkraine, and #Vigil4Peace.

Find more resources for prayer, study and action on the Ukraine crisis at this link.