Single Catholics don’t walk Lent alone

ATLANTA, GA (March 1, 2012) – More than just preparation for Holy Week and Easter Sunday, the 40 days of Lent also recall the period Jesus spent in the desert – alone and tempted by Satan – before He suffered, died and rose from the dead. For various reasons, Catholics of all ages find themselves now making their own Lenten journey alone. They are widows/widowers, or divorced, or maybe they never married. The popular website CatholicMatch.com has published a Lenten guide that will enrich the season for anyone. The Catholic Playbook: Lenten Reflections for Singles is available now from Amazon.com and from Catholic Word. It includes 40 reflections for Lent written by single Catholics, and each concludes with a prayer written by Fr. Gary Caster, a college chaplain who contributes to EWTN and Magnificat. In one of those prayers, Fr. Caster writes, “Teach me your desert wisdom so that I can move through these 40 days more closely united to You and Your Father’s will.” All of the prayers provide meaningful insights into the reflections they accompany. “This Lent, I encourage you who are single to focus on the stunning fact that the yearning you feel in your heart to find a human spouse is precisely the yearning which the Lord feels for you,” writes Most Rev. Kevin Rhoades, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Fort-Wayne-South Bend in Indiana. “Lent is an ideal time for single Catholics to focus on growing closer to Christ,” said author/speaker Mary Beth Bonacci, “and this collection of meditations focused on our single state of life is an ideal way to do that.” The Catholic Playbook is edited by CatholicMatch.com Editorial Director Christina Ries. In addition to Bishop Rhoades’ foreword, the reflections by single Catholics and Fr. Caster’s prayers, it also includes an epilogue by Theresa Notare of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for the Laity, Marriage, Family Life & Youth. “We used the concept of a ‘playbook’ because we wanted this book to be quick, practical and relevant to your life,” said Ries. “This book is a road map for Catholic singles to use in experiencing the most powerful Lenten journey ever.” She added that this is the inaugural edition of a series of Catholic Playbooks. “Our next one will focus on healing from divorce,” she explained. “We are making it super practical. It will deal with problems Catholic face, and offer solutions to those problems. Our goal is to finely tune all of the Catholic Playbooks to address issues that single Catholics wrestle with.” After the playbook on healing from divorce, Ries says other volumes in the series will focus on online dating for Catholics; discerning a vocation; dating and relationships; and being a single parent.