Greener Lent Returns

As Lent approaches, many of us start asking the same questions: What should I give up? What should I take on? How can I make this season really matter?

If you’re looking for a Lenten practice that connects faith, everyday choices, and care for others, Greener Lent might be just what you’re looking for.

Greener Lent is a simple but meaningful way to live out the heart of Lent — prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — while also caring for our common home and standing in solidarity with people most affected by climate change. Greener Lent invites participants to reduce meat consumption during the 40 days of Lent, pray intentionally, and donate the money saved to support communities around the world facing the effects of climate change.

Inspired by Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’, Greener Lent reminds us that caring for creation and caring for people go hand in hand. Our food choices, our habits, and our generosity all have ripple effects — and Lent is a perfect time to pay attention to those connections.

This isn’t about perfection or guilt. It’s about awareness, intention, and taking small, faithful steps together. Because Lent is about more than giving something up — it’s about opening our hearts.

By choosing to eat less meat, even a little, participants reduce their carbon footprint and stand with communities who experience climate change most directly, often with the fewest resources to respond. By praying, we stay grounded in hope and compassion. And by giving alms, we turn personal sacrifice into real, life-giving support — like access to clean water in sub-Saharan Africa.

It’s a way to let our Lenten practices reach beyond ourselves.

One of the most beautiful parts of Greener Lent is knowing you’re not doing this alone. People across communities and congregations participate each year, creating a shared witness of care, simplicity, and generosity.

Lent invites us to slow down, to notice, and to choose love more intentionally. Greener Lent offers a way to live that invitation — at the table, in prayer, and through acts of generosity that reach far beyond our own lives.