L1, Lent • What Is Lent?
We take time to prepare for things that are important to us.
I
f we value earning good grades in school,
we will take time to prepare for
major tests. If our goal is to make
the soccer team, we will prepare for
tryouts by earnestly practicing our ball
skills and attending camps and clinics.
If we have an important role in the
school play and wish for the play’s
success, we will put hours into
rehearsals and practice to ensure
a good performance. On an even
more important level, we will prepare for future careers by working
hard in school and maybe attending colleges or technical
schools that will give us
the best possible training
and education. Should we
someday choose to marry,
we will prepare for a lifelong commitment by spending adequate time with
our spouse-to-be and sincerely participating in marriage preparation.
During Lent,
we prepare for the
greatest celebration of the Church
year—Easter. We
follow the path of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
who journeyed
through his death
to his Resurrection. We consciously die to ourselves in small ways to
remind us that we, like Jesus, will
rise again.
In the mind
of the Church,
Lent should be
a positive time—
a time for new
life to appear—
within us as well as around us.
Lent is a season when springtime’s
rebirth of nature should reflect the
growth taking place within us. New
attitudes and fresh ways of looking
at things are born. Old attitudes
and unhealthy habits disappear.
The dying and rebirth of nature, the
dying and rebirth that takes place
within our hearts—both reflect the
great mystery of the death and Resurrection of our Lord.
For you, and for other candidates
and catechumens, Lent is a time of
purification and enlightenment, a
time when you are called to respond
to God with greater reflection and
commitment. The handouts for
Lent will focus on helping you
follow Christ more deeply in your
daily life.
Why Forty Days?
The word Lent comes from an
early English word that refers to
the lengthening of daylight hours
during spring. The season of Lent
has long been the Church’s preparation for Easter, a liturgical season of
forty days. The number forty has a
symbolic meaning in sacred Scripture and occurs in several passages
in both the Hebrew Scriptures and
the New Testament. Generally, forty
days means a long time.
How is forty used in the following
passages?
Genesis 7:17
Exodus 34:28
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
and Luke all tell us that Jesus spent
forty days in the desert after his baptism in the Jordan River. “Jesus…
was led by the Spirit in the wilderness where for forty days, he was
tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1-2).
These gospel passages are read on
the first Sunday of Lent.
Jesus’ experience in the desert reminds us of the Israelites who were
freed from Egyptian slavery only
to wander in the desert for forty
years on their way to the Promised
Land. During that time, they were
tempted and they sinned. But Jesus
did not sin when tempted by the
devil. Because of his faithfulness
to God, Jesus overcame the same
temptations faced by the Israelites
in the desert.
In a sense, Lent should be a kind
of desert experience for each of us.
It is a time when we rid ourselves
of some of life’s distractions and
noise by finding a quiet place to
pray and reflect. Without quiet, we
cannot look within ourselves and
honestly determine the areas that
need change or growth. Without
quiet, it is most difficult to hear the
voice of God, which is often heard
in the most unexpected places.
The need for constant activity
and noise is one of the unfortunate
products of our technology-driven
times. It sometimes takes great effort on our part to detach, to find
quiet, to enter our desert place.
Where can you go to find undisturbed quiet?
Prayer for the good of the soul
Fasting for the good of the body
Almsgiving for the good of our neighbor
GERTRUDE MUELLER NELSON
For Catholics, Lent begins with
Ash Wednesday and ends before
the eucharistic liturgy on Holy
Thursday evening. Holy Thursday
evening, Good Friday, and Holy
Saturday—the sacred Triduum,
meaning three days—are the high
point of the Church’s liturgical year.
(See handout L7, “Holy Week.”)
Forgive Us
Our Trespasses
More than any other season of
the liturgical year, Lent focuses our
attention on the reality of being
human with all our weaknesses and
failings but also our great potential.
Historically, Lent was not only a
time of final preparation for those
who would be baptized at Easter
but also a time when people did
public penance (prayers or actions
that express sorrow for sin) to be
reconciled with the Church. At
the beginning of Lent, the bishop
would place ashes on those seeking
forgiveness and give them a public
penance to perform. Then at Easter
they could receive the Eucharist as
fully reconciled members of the
Church. Thus, Lent has traditionally been connected with the sacrament of penance or reconciliation.
During Lent, most parishes provide extra opportunities for their
members to receive the sacrament
of reconciliation. Lent is a call to
conversion—a call to change our
disbelief into belief, our doubt
into faith, our reliance on self into
complete trust in God. The external
sign of God’s loving forgiveness that
we receive during the sacrament of
reconciliation is one way of deepening our faith.
Why Is Fasting
Part of Lent?
Fasting is a time-honored religious practice. (See 1 Samuel 7:5-16,
1 Kings 21:25-29, Joel 2:12-13,
Acts 13:2-3, Acts 14:23.) It was
used over the centuries as an aid to
concentration in prayer. Like other
religious practices, however, fasting
can sometimes be abused. It can be
a sham, an external sign without
inner conversion of heart. In Israel,
where people frequently fasted, the
prophet Isaiah (chapter 58) spoke of
God’s displeasure when the people
fasted and still continued their sinful ways.
Jesus, too, warned against fasting
that is done only to impress others. (See Matthew 6:16.) Modern
Church teaching tells us that fasting
(eating just one full meal per day)
and abstinence (doing without certain foods) must be combined with
prayer and works of charity for
genuine Christian living.
All Catholics between the ages of
14 and 59 who are in good health
are obliged to fast and abstain. In
the United States, all Fridays of Lent
are days of abstinence from meat.
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
are days of both fast and abstinence.
What does it mean
to give something
up for Lent?
Jesus often required his disciples
to give things up so that they could
come and follow him. The teachings and practices of Jesus were
continued by his disciples. Members
of the early Christian community
at Jerusalem gave up ownership of
their goods for the support of the
community (Acts 2:44; 4:32). The
early Church leaders wrote that the
purpose of penance was the desire
to answer the Lord’s invitation to
imitate him as we carry our own
crosses.
When we give something up, our
goal is not to bring suffering into
our lives. Rather, it is important that
our attention and focus are placed
on bringing the Lord into the center
of our daily lives. Anything that
turns us back to God as our center
is appropriate
penance.
This might
mean turning
off the television for a
while or postponing a shopping spree so that we
have time to spend with the Lord.
(Remember the importance of
making time for our “desert experience.”) An increased commitment
to prayer might be a real penance
for us. Perhaps we can do penance
by using our time, talent, or treasure
to serve others who are in need.
The point is not necessarily to
give up something for Lent, but
to loosen our tendency to cling to
things or destructive habits. When
we become too attached to things,
it becomes more difficult to become
attached to God. Lent is a good
time to ask:
• What must I have to feel happy?
• What possessions occupy a lot
(perhaps too much) of my time
and energy?
• What unhealthy habits do I cling
to? (For example, do I always
need to be in control? Do I eat
when I am not hungry, even to
the point of hurting my body? Do
I worry so much that I can rarely
enjoy the present moment?)
Relying more on God and less on
things is a healthy and positive way
of giving something up for Lent.
Other Lenten
Practices
Some other things Catholics often
do during Lent are
• the Way of the Cross (see L5, The
Way of the Cross), sometimes
called the “Stations of the Cross”
• meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary
• attending daily Mass
• reflecting on daily readings from
Scripture
• participating in prayer or study
groups
Lenten Symbols
The season of Lent, like all the liturgical seasons, speaks to the
whole person by reaching not only the mind but also the senses.
Liturgical colors and symbols appeal to our senses, bringing greater
beauty and richer meaning to the season.
Ashes: The ashes we receive on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday
are an annual reminder of the passage of time and
our constant need of repentance or turning away
from wrongdoing. Ashes are an ancient symbol
of repentance. Carrying ashes on our foreheads
indicates our willingness to do penance for our
wrongdoing.
Color: The colors of the priest’s vestments and
the decorations in the church are meant to set a tone. Like ashes,
Lenten purple is a sign of reflection and conversion.
Palms: On the Sunday before Easter, the beginning of
Holy Week, we hold palms
in our hands in imitation of the
people of Jerusalem who honored
Jesus by tearing palm branches off the
trees to throw in his path as he rode into
the city. At Mass, Lenten purple is gone. The
celebrant’s vestments and church decorations are
a royal red. Holding our palm branches gets us more
involved in this week, which retells the story of Jesus’ passion and
death through prayer, music, symbol, and word.
Lent prepares us to sing the great Alleluia to our risen Lord at
Easter.
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from it?
The Good
Words
purification and
enlightenment
Triduum
penance
conversion
fasting
abstinence
repentance
Adapted from the original Journey of Faith. New material written by Debbie Repp. Art and design by Wendy Barnes and Christine Kraus. © 2000 Liguori Publications, Liguori, MO
63057-9999. Published with ecclesiastical approval. Compliant with The Roman Missal, third edition. Printed in U.S.A. All rights reserved. It is a violation of copyright law to reproduce
all or part of this material without the permission of Liguori Publications. Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, © 1989 by the Division of
Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used with permission. All rights reserved.