This jubilee year, Pope Francis has explicitly emphasised the importance of formation on two fronts: the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Mindful of this, the Archdiocese of Melbourne is delighted to announce its 2025 Lenten resource: Light in the Desert.
Modelled after our popular RCIA Exploring the Word series, this weekly small-group resource is designed to bring people together in prayer and conversation around key passages from the Second Vatican Council, both to show its deep spiritual relevance and accompany them through the graced, though sometimes difficult, season of Lent. This is not an academic or historical study of the Council: covering topics from the universal call to holiness to the liturgy, the purpose of Light in the Desert is to kindle a fire in people’s hearts and help them fall in love anew with Jesus Christ and his Church.
How to use
This resource is perfect for any level of formation. Those unfamiliar with Vatican II will discover a gentle ‘taster’, while those more familiar will have an opportunity to see with fresh eyes these important documents, especially how they connect with the Gospel readings and the path of Christian discipleship.
Each week includes an excerpt from the Sunday Gospel, a short reflection introducing key themes, an excerpt from a Vatican II document, and questions to prompt deeper thought the topic and how it might nourish our Lenten journey.
There are two ways you might want to use this resource in a small group setting, one more informal and the other more formal.
Informal setting
For small groups wanting to meet, or continue doing so, in households, it may be a good idea to encourage participants to read the week’s pages ahead of time. That way, when coming together everyone will be prepared and ready to engage.
- Begin in prayer, offering your time to the Lord.
- Choose people to read aloud for the group the different parts of the resource (the Gospel, the ‘Did you know?’, Exploring the Faith, and the Vatican II excerpt).
- With the leader facilitating, enter a time of discussion. Answer the questions, but feel free to go where the conversation takes you. Pose questions, clarify anything confusing; let people share what is on their heart. If the conversation is going far off course, gently bring it back to the readings.
- Conclude your time with prayer. As preparation to receive the Jubilee Plenary Indulgence, consider offering a prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father with a simple Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.
Formal setting
A good idea may be to have weekly ‘mini retreats’ in the evening at your parish. Setting aside two to three hours every week, participants can come together for time that is equally devoted to quiet prayer and conversation.
- Once everyone has come together in the Church, begin the night by reading the Gospel together.
- Allow everyone to take time to pray, read, write, and reflect on what resonates for them. People may want to disperse to different prayerful locations, depending on the suitability of the facilities, or you could expose the Blessed Sacrament for 45 minutes or so.
- Following the conclusion of prayer, bring people together in one or more small groups (with a facilitator who has volunteered ahead of time) and enter a time of discussion. For this, you may want to facilitate a Spiritual Conversation or a freer flowing discussion, so long as it is well facilitated. Take care to ensure everybody in the group is heard and listened to respectfully.
- Conclude your time with prayer. As preparation to receive the Jubilee Plenary Indulgence, consider offering a prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father with a simple Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.
- If the facilities allow it, have some brief time of fellowship and food.
A note on the Jubilee Plenary Indulgence
For Jubilee 2025, the opportunities to receive the great mercy of a plenary indulgence have been increased. Among the many works one might do to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence, the Holy See has decreed that ‘the faithful will be able to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if, with a devout spirit, they participate in popular missions, spiritual exercises, or formation activities on the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, held in a church or other suitable place, according to the mind of the Holy Father’.
The usual conditions for receiving the Jubilee Plenary Indulgence remain in place. They include:
- Detachment from sin
- Visiting the sacrament of Reconciliation within a week or so of performing the work
- Receiving Holy Communion, preferably on the day the work is performed
- Praying for the intentions of the Holy Father, preferably on the day the work is performed
You can read more about how people can receive one here.
The journey towards Easter
Lent is, above all, a time of intense preparation for Easter. It is an opportunity to go back to basics, to rediscover who we are and who Jesus is. We pray Light in the Desert will be a fruitful resource in this regard.
In order to accompany our people through the Easter season as well, a similar resource to Light in the Desert will be released, this time looking at what the Second Vatican Council has to say about the mission of the Church in the world.