Lent, the spiritual season of prayer and sacrifice, has an extra pull to it this year because once again — and now for the third time — it will be under the cloud of the coronavirus pandemic.
And even though the third Lent in a pandemic can feel like a lot like a Jesus’ third fall on the road to Calvary, people who spoke with Catholic News Service focused more on the season’s path to Easter and how this year’s Lent also coincides with an optimism around COVID-19 cases dropping in the U.S.
“It’s a perfect storm: lower (coronavirus) numbers just as Lent approaches,” said Mary DeTurris Poust, former communications director for the Diocese of Albany, New York.