Until Palm Sunday, the people of Warsaw will be gathering for their Lenten prayers in one of the 40 resident churches of the city. The initiative, promoted for the second year in a row, “aims at helping the congregations to get ready for Easter better, by making conversion an integral part of every Christian’s daily life”, explains monsignor Henryk Hoser, archbishop of the diocese of Warsaw-Prague (Poland’s capital is geographically split into two archdioceses, on the two banks of the Vistula). The prelate, speaking of the first year of the initiative, points out that in Lent 2015 “the congregations’ vibrant response” made lots of people “get close to the Sacrament of Penance without waiting until the last minute”. “Given that in 2016 Lent is experienced as part of the Year of Mercy, praying in the resident churches will make the congregations get a better understanding of the mystery of God’s forgiveness”, monsignor Tadeusz Sowa, director of the pastoral service for the diocesan curia, points out.