Ideas for Lent: 10 Businesses for Your Lenten Journey
Lent is 40 days of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These 10 Catholic businesses can help you live all three.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Church's most demanding season. For 40 days, we are called to strip away comfort, confront weakness, and draw closer to God through three ancient disciplines: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
Most Lenten guides tell you what to give up. This one tells you where to spend — intentionally, on businesses that exist to support exactly the kind of life Lent asks you to live.
Here are 10 Catholic businesses organized around the three pillars of Lent, each one a way to make your Lenten practice tangible.
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Prayer
1. The Word Among Us
If you do not already have a daily prayer habit, Lent is the time to start — and The Word Among Us is the simplest on-ramp.
This daily devotional publication pairs the day's Mass readings with a short meditation. It takes 10 minutes. It requires no theological background. And it has quietly become one of the most widely read Catholic publications in America, reaching millions of subscribers.
Order the Lenten edition now, and you will have a guided meditation waiting for you every morning from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday.
Find The Word Among Us on DCB →
2. ICS Publications
For those ready to go deeper, ICS Publications is the publishing arm of the Institute of Carmelite Studies. Their catalog is the definitive source for the works of St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Therese of Lisieux — three Doctors of the Church whose writings on prayer remain unsurpassed.
Lent is the season for spiritual reading that challenges. Pick up The Interior Castle or Dark Night of the Soul and let the Carmelite mystics guide your 40 days.
Find ICS Publications on DCB →
3. Magnificat
Magnificat is a monthly pocket-sized companion that contains Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the daily Mass readings, and curated spiritual reflections — all in a format designed to fit in your coat pocket or purse.
For Catholics who want to pray the Liturgy of the Hours but find the full breviary intimidating, Magnificat is the bridge. Their Lenten Companion edition adds daily Lenten reflections, meditations on the Stations of the Cross, and a guide to the penitential psalms.
4. Moonlight Monastery Rosaries
The Rosary is the simplest and most powerful Lenten prayer tool — and it helps to have one that means something.
Moonlight Monastery Rosaries handcrafts rosaries with attention to both beauty and durability. A new rosary for Lent is an ancient tradition — a physical reminder of your Lenten commitment that you carry with you every day. When the 40 days are over, you have a rosary that carries the memory of the season.
Find Moonlight Monastery Rosaries on DCB →
Know someone preparing for Lent? Forward this guide to them — it's the most practical Lenten prep they'll get this year.
Fasting
5. Mystic Monk Coffee
Giving up alcohol for Lent? You will need a replacement ritual — something warm in your hands at the end of a long day that is not a glass of wine.
Mystic Monk Coffee, roasted by Carmelite monks in the mountains of Wyoming, is the answer. Every bag supports a monastic community dedicated to prayer. The Cowboy Blend is strong enough to make you forget about the bourbon, and the knowledge that monks roasted it between hours of chanting the Divine Office adds a dimension that Starbucks cannot match.
Find Mystic Monk Coffee on DCB →
6. Gethsemani Farms
The Trappist monks of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky — the monastery where Thomas Merton lived — produce bourbon fudge, fruitcakes, and other goods that make excellent Lenten replacements for whatever you have given up.
Fasting does not mean deprivation of all pleasure. It means intentionality. Replacing mindless snacking with a small piece of monk-made fudge, savored slowly with a prayer, transforms a Lenten sacrifice into a Lenten practice.
Find Gethsemani Farms on DCB →
7. Trappistine Quality Candy
The Trappistine nuns carry on the same monastic tradition of handmade goods. Their chocolates and caramels are made in small batches at the monastery — each one a minor work of craft.
For families with children, Trappistine candy can reframe Lenten fasting. Instead of "we can't have candy," it becomes "we have special candy, made by nuns, and we eat it together on Sundays when the fast is lifted." That is formation, not deprivation.
Find Trappistine Quality Candy on DCB →
Almsgiving
8. 206 Tours — Catholic Pilgrimages
Almsgiving is not limited to dropping cash in a basket. It can also mean investing in experiences that deepen your faith and the faith of others.
206 Tours is one of the most established Catholic pilgrimage companies in the country, offering journeys to the Holy Land, Rome, Fatima, Lourdes, and dozens of other sacred sites. Booking a post-Easter pilgrimage during Lent gives your 40 days a destination — literally. And pilgrimage companies like 206 Tours employ local Catholic guides, support local parishes at pilgrimage sites, and circulate dollars through Catholic economies around the world.
9. Sisters of Carmel
The cloistered Carmelite nuns offer traditional religious goods — rosaries, brown scapulars, crucifixes, medals, and other sacramentals — through their online store. Every purchase directly supports their contemplative community.
Lenten almsgiving to a cloistered community is one of the oldest forms of Catholic charity. These sisters pray for the world full-time. When you buy from them, you are not just getting a product — you are participating in their mission.
Find Sisters of Carmel on DCB →
10. Monastery Greetings
If you want to support monastic communities but are not sure where to start, Monastery Greetings is the gateway. They are the only printed catalog and website in the USA that sells exclusively products made by abbeys, convents, monasteries, and hermitages.
Soaps, candles, food, art, clothing — all made by religious communities across the country. Buying through Monastery Greetings lets you support multiple monastic communities with a single order, spreading your Lenten almsgiving across the network of religious life in America.
Find Monastery Greetings on DCB →
Making It Last Beyond Easter
The best Lenten practices are the ones that stick. If you discover a daily prayer resource, a monastic coffee, or a religious goods supplier during these 40 days, keep them in your life after the Alleluia returns.
Lent is not punishment. It is training. And the businesses on this list are not just vendors — they are partners in the kind of intentional Catholic life that Lent is designed to cultivate.
Start with one. See where it leads.
Browse all 18,000+ Catholic businesses at discovercatholicbusiness.com →
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What's your Lenten plan this year? Hit reply and tell us — we may feature your approach in a future post.
Sources: Discover Catholic Business, The Word Among Us, ICS Publications, Magnificat, Mystic Monk Coffee, Gethsemani Farms, 206 Tours, Sisters of Carmel, Monastery Greetings