So Lent is a 40 period prior to Easter Day. Easter Day actually begins on Saturday evening with the Easter Vigil. The celebration of the Vigil is in keeping with the Jewish tradition of celebrating the day from sundown to sundown. Easter is also a season that lasts 50 days and ends on Pentecost Sunday, which is an observance based on the second chapter of the Book of Acts where the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostles.
This day is considered the birthday of the Church. Ashes are applied to our forehead in the sign of the cross as the words, "Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return" are spoken to us. The other formula which is used, "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel" emphasizes our call to continual conversion and holiness of life.
This act symbolizes our mortality as well as our need for ongoing repentance. It is a reminder that this life is short and merely a foreshadowing of what we shall become through the redemption of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The work of our redemption will not be complete until we are raised from the dead, in resurrected bodies like His own and called to the eternal communion of heaven. The ashes for Ash Wednesday normally are made from blessed palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday. The ashes are sprinkled with Holy Water and incensed before distribution. There is no specific instruction on how long ashes are to be worn. You can, in fact, wash them off immediately after the service if you want.
Many people choose to wear their ashes for the remainder of the day both as a reminder of their own mortality and as a witness before those around that they are a follower of Christ and are entering into a season of examination and abstinence.
Rich foods are consumed as the faithful prepare for time of fasting, abstinence, confession and penance. Customs and practices arose for Fat Tuesday where people would empty their pantries of many items restricted during Lent. One of the terms often used with Mardi Gras is "carnival. Anyone who visits one of the big carnivals held on this day usually bring back stories of self-indulgence and hedonism that make most people blush. Ironically, carnival comes from the Latin "carne vale" which means "farewell to meat" or "farewell to flesh" indicating the end to certain pleasures has come.
In some parts of the Christian world the commonly used term for the day is "Shrove Tuesday. In some early practice, Lent was preceded by Shrovetide the week before Lent. The faithful were called to go to confession during that time in preparation for the Lenten observance. Pentecost is a feast day based on the account in the second chapter of the Book of Acts where the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles as they were gathered together in the Upper Room.
This is considered the birthday of the Church and the mission to evangelize the whole world. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes it as follows: "On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord, pours out the Spirit in abundance.
Since that day, the Kingdom announced by Christ has been open to those who believe in him: in the humility of the flesh and in faith, they already share in the communion of the Holy Trinity.
By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the "last days," the time of the Church, the Kingdom already inherited though not yet consummated. The 40 days of Lent, which precedes Easter is based on two Biblical accounts: the 40 years of wilderness wandering by the Israelites and our Lord's 40 days in the wilderness at which point He was tempted by Satan. Each year the Church observes Lent where we, like Israel and our Lord, are tested.
We participate in abstinence, times of fasting, confession and acts of mercy to strengthen our faith and devotional disciplines. The goal of every Christian is to leave Lent a stronger and more vital person of faith than when we entered. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies and pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing charitable and missionary works.
In the Protestant world, particularly among many evangelical denominations and independent churches, the Church Calendar is not observed. The seasons were omitted along with most of the sacraments and the use of liturgy in their approach to faith. These Christians do observe Christmas and Easter and some might even celebrate Pentecost. Lent officially ends on Holy Thursday. Easter is not only a day but an Octave eight day celebration leading to a Season of the Church, Easter Season, which ends on Pentecost.
Lent is 40 Days long because Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days with the Lord Exodus , Elijah traveled forty days to Horeb to encounter the Lord Kings and Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness praying and fasting Matt.
Although the number of days from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday add up to 46 days, we observe the season as the 40 days of Lent. Some may feel it would be more accurate to refer to it as the "forty day fast within Lent.
The difference between Lenten abstinence refers to abstaining from eating meat and Lenten fasting mean limiting all food on a particular day.
No, because every Sunday is a little Resurrection since Jesus rose on the first day of the Week. However, this does not necessarily mean we get to indulge in our additional penitential practices on Sundays.
A lot of people choose something to give up on their own during Lent. These practices are disciplinary and often more effective if they are continuous, including Sundays. These practices are not regulated by the Church, though, and left to an individual's conscience. Ash Wednesday liturgies are some of the best attended in the entire year. Some people suggest that is just because the Church is giving out something free, but I suspect there are deeper reasons!
Ashes are an ancient symbol of repentance sackcloth and ashes. They also remind us of our mortality "remember that you are dust" and thus of the day when we will stand before God and be judged. This can be linked easily to the death and resurrection motif of Baptism.
To prepare well for the day we die, we must die now to sin and rise to new life in Christ. Being marked with ashes at the beginning of Lent indicates our recognition of the need for deeper conversion of our lives during this season of renewal. For most older Catholics, the first thought that Lent brings to mind is giving something up. In my childhood, the standard was to give up candy, a discipline that found suitable reward in the baskets of sugary treats we received on Easter.
Some of us even added to the Easter surplus by saving candy all through Lent, stockpiling what we would have eaten had we not promised to give it up. Some years ago a friend of mine told me that he had urged his children to move beyond giving up candy to giving up some habit of sin that marked their lives. About halfway through Lent he asked the children how they were doing with their Lenten promise.
One of his young sons had promised to give up fighting with his brothers and sisters during Lent. When his father asked him how it was going, the boy replied, "I'm doing pretty good, Dad--but boy, I can't wait until Easter! That response indicates that this boy had only partly understood the purpose of Lenten "giving up. That always involves giving up sin in some form.
The goal is not just to abstain from sin for the duration of Lent but to root sin out of our lives forever. Conversion means leaving behind an old way of living and acting in order to embrace new life in Christ. For catechumens, Lent is a period intended to bring their initial conversion to completion. The primary way that the Church assists the catechumens called the elect after the celebration of the Rite of Election on the First Sunday of Lent in this conversion process during Lent is through the celebration of the rites called Scrutinies.
These ritual celebrations on the Third, Fourth and Fifth Sundays of Lent are communal prayers celebrated around the elect to strengthen them to overcome the power of sin in their lives and to grow in virtue. To scrutinize something means to examine it closely. The community does not scrutinize the catechumens; the catechumens scrutinize their own lives and allow God to scrutinize them and to heal them.
There is a danger in celebrating the Scrutinies if the community thinks of the elect as the only sinners in our midst who need conversion. All of us are called to continuing conversion throughout our lives, so we join with the elect in scrutinizing our own lives and praying to God for the grace to overcome the power of sin that still infects our hearts.
Many parishes today seek to surface the concrete issues that the elect need to confront; these issues then become the focus of the intercessions during the Scrutinies. Some parishes extend this discernment process to the wider community so that all are called to name the ways that evil continues to prevent them from living the gospel fully. Even if the parish does not do this in an organized way, every Catholic should spend some time reflecting on what obstacles to gospel living exist in his or her own life.
Then when the Scrutinies are celebrated, we will all know that the prayers are for us as well as for the elect. Taking seriously this dynamic of scrutiny and conversion gives us a richer perspective on Lenten "giving up. Along with the elect we all need to approach the season of Lent asking ourselves what needs to change in our lives if we are to live the gospel values that Jesus taught us. Our journey through these forty days should be a movement ever closer to Christ and to the way of life he has exemplified for us.
The elect deal with sin through the Scrutinies and through the waters of the font; the already baptized deal with sin through the Sacrament of Penance. Yet, if done correctly, it can be a powerful time of renewing your relationship with God. Fasting can be found in both the Old Testament and the New, with Moses Exodus ; Deuteronomy ,18 , Elijah 1 Kings , and our Lord Matthew all participating in day fasts. Fasting is a way of denying ourselves the excesses of life so that we might be more attuned to the Lord's voice.
It is also a way of disciplining yourself, strengthening your "spiritual muscles" so to speak, so that when temptations arise in life, you are already used to saying "no" to your desires.
And finally, fasting is also a way of participating, in a small way, in the sufferings of Christ and can be particularly powerful when accompanied by prayer and confession. A word of caution: although fasting can be a wonderful spiritual exercise, it is also an easy one to abuse. Make sure that when you fast, you do not deprive yourself so much that you do harm to your body.
Fasting should only be practiced by adults and mature teens. On the spiritual front, Jesus warns us to guard against pride while fasting Matthew , Matthew There is nothing in Scripture that requires a day fast before you can celebrate the resurrection on Easter Sunday. The Bible is clear that the resurrection and the promise of salvation are to be celebrated every day not just on Easter Sunday.
Celebrating Lent is a preference not a biblical principle; therefore, use your best judgment based on Scripture for how you want to prepare your heart for the celebration of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
If giving something up for Lent causes you to focus too much on your own sacrifice vs. My commitment to Jesus should involve the following:. Motivation is everything. He also spoke of daily fulfilling his vows to the Lord Psalm Another psalmist wrote that he thirsted for God like a deer thirsts for water Psalm After all, how many times a day does a deer seek water? Lent can be helpful for individuals but also for families. In the same way that Advent helps parents guide their children toward Christmas, Lent can provide a path of preparation for families to partake in together.
So that on that joyous Easter Sunday, the celebration is all the more sweet and meaningful. I have to purge distractions and force awareness of what is important. Life gets crazy. All of us have family responsibilities, work duties, and everyday life tasks that make the cross more distant than it should be. Putting the cross back into our line of vision grounds us in His love. We become so wrapped up in the right now , that we need to be reminded of what made us whole and able to breathe the air of freedom in the first place.
Lent is not about our sacrifice after all; it is about focusing on the one sacrifice we would never have been able to make.
Yet, all the same, it was made for us by God the Son, who is Jesus the Messiah. As undeserving sinners, Jesus offers us a clean record, which he paid for with his life. We can only accept this offer through faith, which has also been gifted to us. Home Maintenance. Country Living Shop. Shopping Guides. United States. Type keyword s to search.
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