Welcome to the opening matchup of Lent Madness XV! If you’re a veteran Lent Madness participant, welcome back! If you're joining us for the first time, we’re delighted you’re along for this wild, saintly ride! And if you're just penitential-curious, check out the About Lent Madness tab on the website to find out what all the fuss is about.

To experience the fullness of Lent Madness, the Supreme Executive Committee (the somewhat benevolent dictatorship that runs this whole enterprise) encourages you
to do a couple things. First, like Lent Madness on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter. Second, subscribe to the Lent Madness e-mails so you never miss a vote — you’ll get each matchup hand-delivered to your inbox on the weekdays of Lent. You can do this by going to the home page of our website and entering your e-mail address. We highly recommend doing this. Finally, you can fill out a bracket online and daily see how you stack up against those who take their Lenten bracketology seriously (keep scrolling and you'll encounter the 2024 Matchup Calendar to determine when your favorite saint will be doing battle). Oh, and if you've ordered a bracket poster, and your handwriting's lousy, you can download these nifty Lent Madness Bracket Stickers and impress your friends with your beautiful penmanship.

But mostly, we encourage you to read about the 32 saints participating in this year’s edition of Lent Madness (download the FREE Digital Saintly Scorecard), faithfully cast your (single!) vote on the weekdays of Lent, and add your comments to the great cloud of participating witnesses that gathers as the online Lent Madness community each year.

To celebrate the 15th year of Lent Madness, all 16 first round matchups are themed battles. Some will be obvious, some less so. For instance, today it's the Thomas Throwdown as Thomas Cranmer faces Thomas the Apostle.

But enough of this idle chatter. It's time to cast your very first vote of Lent Madness 2024! We’re glad you’re all here. Now get to it!

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Dear friends in Christ,

On this one day a year, even Lent Madness pauses to reflect on our life, our blessings, and our mortality. The entire season of Lent is an invitation to recommit to following Jesus. This day, Ash Wednesday, is a poignant reminder that life is short. We are meant to savor our earthly life and to live it well.

At the end of life, few people regret not having worked more, nor do they wish they had spent more money on stuff. In fact, end of life regrets usually revolve around love. “I wish I had spent more time with my family. I wish I had forgiven the person who wronged me. I wish I had been a more faithful Christian.”

When we kneel before the altar and hear the words, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” we are reminded that we are mortal. We should not delay our decision to repent, to live more fully, to follow Jesus more faithfully.

Aside from the ridiculous competition and constant silliness of Lent Madness, we hope everyone who takes part will notice something about each of the saints. Every single one of the saints was a flawed human. You might be used to seeing them in stained glass or in marble, but they were living, breathing, messed up people not so different from us. And yet, each one of these saints managed to allow God’s grace to work in them such that Christ’s light shone brightly in their lives. They were witnesses to the world of the transforming love of Jesus Christ.

Over the course of this year’s Lent Madness, you will meet 32 new saintly companions. Perhaps they will inspire you to follow Jesus in new ways, so that you can be a witness of the Good News of God in Christ. Perhaps you will invite the saints to pray for you, for they are also companions with us in our earthly pilgrimage. You see, beneath the silliness of the saintly smackdown, there lies a brighter, deeper truth in God’s grace at work in the world.

This Lenten season, we invite you to draw closer to our Lord Jesus. Give up those things which keep you away from Jesus. Take on those things that bring you closer to Jesus. We hope Lent Madness is helpful on your journey.

We wish you every blessing in this Lenten season.

Tim+         Scott+

The Supreme Executive Committee

This post is a reprise of our Ash Wednesday post from 2015. In honor of the Fifteenth Anniversary of Lent Madness, we'll be bringing you some classic content throughout this commemorative season. Hey, it was either this or sell you #LentMadnessXV trinkets. You're welcome.

Photo by Annika Gordon on Unsplash.

It's the last pre-season episode of Monday Madness before the kickoff of Lent Madness XV. Tim and Scott preview the first contest of the coming tourney, which kicks off at 8:00 a.m. on February 15, 2024. That's this Thursday! ASH THURSDAY!

As you prepare for Lent Madness, you are encouraged to download the FREE Digital Saintly Scorecard. You can still buy Giant Bracket Posters, but they won't arrive in time for Ash Thursday. However, as Tim rightly says, you can still buy a bracket poster and enjoy it for the bulk of Lent. Especially if you buy them in bulk.

Need even more info about Lent Madness? Check out this news release from Episcopal News Service. Then put it in your church newsletter. Or make copies and drop them by helicopter around your neighborhood. Or encourage some monks to create an illuminated manuscript.

Tell your friends and neighbors it's almost time for the Biggest Roman Numeral Lenten Devotion in the world!

It's the penultimate pre-season episode of Monday Madness! Tim and Scott are here to help you get ready for Lent Madness XV.

Today's episode has the breaking news the entire Lent Madness Global Viewing Public has been waiting for: the Digital Saintly Scorecard is ready. If you want to download the Digital Saintly Scorecard, you can get your copy right now for free. That's right, FREE!

With just a few days until Lent, today is the last day you can order Giant Bracket Posters from Forward Movement with arrival before Ash Thursday. The full-color posters are just $15, and they're a steal at $10 each if you buy five or more. While you're stocking up on posters, you might like colorable Join the Journey through Lent posters, which are sold in packs of 25. If you're super on top of things, you could also order your Easter colorable poster calendar, too. But we realize that's a bit of a stretch. Even for us.

But seriously, you don't need to spend money to enjoy Lent Madness. You can print out your own bracket at home. It costs nothing to vote. So study up and be ready for the start of Lent Madness 2024 on February 15.

Tim and Scott are back with another action-packed, fun-filled episode of Monday Madness. This week, they review several resources that are available to help you prepare for Lent Madness (and Lent).

Watch the video to learn more, but you can get your very own giant bracket poster (in full color!) for just a few dollars. Order yours today. Put one up at home and at work. They look great on the wall in your parish hall or Sunday school classroom. No one's stopping you from putting one on your car. Or turning two of them into a sandwich board and walking around your neighborhood yelling "Lent Madness is Near!" at the top of your lungs.

And you might also like to get a colorable poster to support the whole family through the season of Lent. These colorable posters are sold in packs of 25, so they're perfect to give to your whole church. Buy the Join the Journey through Lent calendar poster or get way ahead of the game and order your Alleluia! 50 Days and 50 Ways to Celebrate Easter calendar poster.

Oh, and we would be remiss if we did not include links to the two books that Tim mentioned in the video. These are books inviting you to a humorous and joyful approach to Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter, written by Tim and illustrated by Jay Sidebotham. Check out Dog in the Manger: Finding God in Christmas Chaos and Dust Bunnies in the Basket: Finding God in Lent & Easter.

The digital Saintly Scorecard is coming soon, probably the next few days. Stay tuned!

The time you've been waiting for is here! Tim and Scott are back with the first pre-season episode of Monday Madness leading up to Lent Madness XV. This week they talk about the bracket for this year's competition, including a never-before-announced special feature new and exclusive to this year!

If you are looking for the Saintly Scorecard, they have some bad news. Due to...reasons, the Saintly Scorecard is not available in printed form this year. However, in their gracious generosity, Scott and Tim are going to provide a digital scorecard soon. It will be FREE of charge. Stay tuned for details. The good news is that the giant bracket poster is still available! You can buy your own bracket poster to follow along in style. And you probably want to get one for your church, your neighbors, and those nice people who sit across the aisle from you in church but you forgot their names. Since they're cheap, buy several!

And speaking of stuff to buy, Forward Movement, the proud sponsor of Lent Madness, are once again selling "Join the Journey through Lent," a colorable Lenten calendar poster. This fun calendar takes you through the season of Lent with suggestions for reflections and activities each day of Lent. You can color in your own calendar, so it's fun for all ages. (And there's an Easter one, too!) Buy yours right away, because they're likely to sell out.

With only thirty shopping days until Lent, you're going to want to get busy with suitably penitential gift items. And keep watch for the digital scorecard so you can study up on the saints. Meanwhile, we suggest a couple of excellent sources of information on the saints (first one and second one).

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