Lent Explained

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The word Lent is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words "lencten", meaning Spring, furthermore "lenctentid", not only means "Springtide" but also was the word for March, the month in which the majority of Lent falls.

The more primitive ecclesiastical name was “quadragesima” in Latin, also “tessaracoste” in Greek, which translates to “forty days”. The season of Lent lasts 46 days from Ash Wednesday until the evening before Easter Sunday. If the six Sundays, exempt from lenten restrictions, are excluded from the count, Lent lasts forty days. In the Bible, the number forty is typically indicative of a time of testing, trial, penance, purification, and renewal. For example, forty days was the length of Jesus’ time of trial in the desert in preparation for his public ministry to proclaim the Gospel (Mk 1:12-15) culminating with his passion, death and resurrection.

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The Lenten season is a pensive time for the faithful to participate more meaningfully in the Suffering, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. 

Pope Clement XIII in 1759 said that “penance also demands that we satisfy divine justice with fasting, almsgiving and prayer and other works of the spiritual.”  Many Catholics therefore focus on three practices of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Each of the three touches upon an element of life that is important to us as human beings: our use of time, our focus on needs and our use of material resources. The disciplines of Lent help us to remember that all these have their origin in God’s gracious love, and all are given to us to serve others.  

The Church scene during Lent becomes sombre and more intense, and such terms as contrition, conversion, penance, almsgiving, fasting and abstinence dominate the liturgy. 

Church images, crosses and statutes are covered in purple to remove distractions and help focus our minds on God’s call to a deeper relationship with His Son. The colour purple recalls the robe that Pontius Pilate placed on Jesus before His crucifixion, serving as a reminder of Christ's suffering and sacrifice. Purple is also traditionally associated with royalty, signifying Jesus as our eternal King.

Fasting and Abstinence

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The purpose of fasting is to turn back to God. Lenten fasting helps to release us from our attachments to worldly pleasures and things, that all too often prevent us from becoming the best version of ourselves. 

Fasting also serves as a reminder of our own limitations. Go without food for several hours and you quickly realize how truly weak, fragile, and dependent we humans are. This knowledge strips away arrogance and fosters a loving acknowledgement of our utter dependence on God.

Pope St. Gregory the Great (circa 604 AD), writing to St. Augustine of Canterbury, issued the following rule: "We abstain from flesh, meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese and eggs." Initially, people fasted all 40 days of Lent. They ate one meal a day around 3 pm and only an amount of food that would sustain survival. Consumption of solid foods between meals was prohibited, but liquids were allowed at any time. 

In 1966, Blessed Pope Paul VI significantly amended the laws of fasting through his apostolic constitution Paenitemini. Fasting is required of adult Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59, with some common sense exceptions. The required days of fasting are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Jews had long fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, but Christians chose to fast on Wednesdays because that was the day of Christ’s betrayal by Judas Iscariot, and Fridays, the day he died on the cross.

Abstinence, which is refraining from the consumption of meat, is obliged for Catholics 14 and older. Catholics are obliged to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays of Lent, including Good Friday. 

In “giving up” something during Lent, whether food, drink, a form of entertainment or something else pleasurable to us, we turn away from worldly desires and recognize that God alone will ultimately satisfy our needs, wants and cravings.

The Church teaches, and people believe (then as now), that fasting is not about what we eat, it is about changing hearts, interior conversion, and reconciliation with God and others. 

Alms-giving

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Lent is about living in an austere way, giving from our abundance to the poor. 

St. John Chrysostom (347-409) explained it this way: “Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your work!… If you see a poor man, take pity on him! If you see an enemy, be reconciled to him! If you see a friend gaining honour, envy him not! If you see a handsome woman, pass her by!” (Homily on the Statutes, III.11).

In addition, the giving of alms is one way to share God's gifts — not only through the distribution of money but through stewardship which is the sharing of our time and talents. 

As St. John Chrysostom reminds us: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, CCC 2446).

Prayer

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Another avenue for self-growth during Lent that can lead to a closer relationship with God is prayer. 

We can strengthen our relationship with God through deeper and more frequent prayer activities, such as Scripture readings before beginning our daily morning routine, praying at mealtimes or commuting to work or school, or during nature walks and other such exercises, attending the Stations of the Cross, attending daily Mass, making a weekly holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, and most especially making a good confession and receiving sacramental absolution.

Sacrament of Contrition and Penance

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In every relationship, there comes a time when something goes wrong and one person or one group hurts or offends the other, and the relationship is damaged.

The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation (also Confession) is one of how our relationship with Jesus Christ and the Church is healed, restored, and ultimately strengthened.

There are four primary actions in the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, all of which contribute in some way to the healing that takes place: confession of sin; expression of contrition or sorrow for sin; doing penance ("satisfaction"), which expresses a desire to avoid sin; and absolution from sin.

• Confession entails admitting and naming one's sin. It is in this act that the penitent names his or her sins, acknowledging the judgment of God over his or her actions.
• Contrition is one's expression of sorrow for sin. The Council of Trent defined contrition as "heartfelt sorrow and aversion for the sin committed along to sin no more"  
• Doing penance is how the sinner shows his or her "firm purpose of amendment," which means that the sinner demonstrates by action the intention to heal the harm done by sin. 
• Absolution from sin is offered by the priest acting in persona Christi, "in the person of Christ." The priest's prayer of absolution states, "Through the ministry of the Church, may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." 

Stations of the Cross

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During Lent, many Catholics pray the Stations of the Cross that re-enact the fourteen stops on Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrow) where Christ was forced to carry the cross from the Praetorium (the place of condemnation) to Calvary or Golgotha (the place of crucifixion) mentioned in all four Gospels - Mt 26:15-27:66, Mk 14:12-15:47, Lk 22:7-23:56, and Jn 13:1-19:42.

The Stations of the Cross finds its roots in the Franciscans who helped rebuild the Christian sites of the Holy Land following the medieval Crusades. 

On his way to Calvary, Christ experienced the sufferings ordinary men and women experience every day throughout the world. He showed not only how to deal with them, but through the power of love how to transform suffering’s destructive power into something life-giving. 

In Christ’s passion and death, St. John Paul II wrote that Jesus “has taken upon himself the physical and moral sufferings of the people of all times, so that in love they may find the salvific meaning of their sorrow and valid answers to all of their questions” (Salvifici Doloris, No. 31).

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, weeks before he was elected Pope Benedict XVI following the death of Pope John Paul II, referenced this when he said that Jesus not only taught us how to pray the Stations of the Cross, but also their meaning. “The Way of the Cross is the path of losing ourselves,” he said, “the path of true love.” Suffering expresses love’s total self-emptying required of the disciple. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Lk 9:24).

Significance of Ash Wednesday

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The Church has long used ashes as an outward sign of grief, a mark of humility, mourning, penance and morality. 

In the early Church, confessed sinners were marked with ashes as part of the public penitential process. Newly baptized Christians soon began asking to receive ashes like early converts and penitents.

The use of ashes as a sign of penance, in readiness for Easter became a Church-wide practice during the papacy of St. Gregory the Great.

On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, Christians attend liturgical service and receive ashes on the foreheads in the form of a cross, signalling a sign of our faith and a reminder of remorse for our sins. 

We are told “Repent and believe in the Gospel,” when we receive the ashes.  With these ashes, we recall our origins from the earth, as well as how our bodies shall return one day to the same form (as indicated by the dictum “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return”). 

In true fashion of life coming full circle, the ashes are produced from the burning of palm fronds of the preceding year’s Palm Sunday, which comes the week before Easter Sunday and marks the welcome Jesus received from followers upon his return to Jerusalem before his crucifixion. 

Significance of Palm Sunday

The First Palm Sunday. Credit: Church Newsroom

Palms were symbols of life among the nomadic tribes, who, when crossing the desert, rejoiced at seeing the palm tree as it indicated an oasis with life-giving water was near. Palms have long been a sign of victory, success and glory.

Palm Sunday begins Holy Week, starting with jubilant crowds cheering Jesus with palm fronds as he makes a triumphant entry into Jerusalem not as a conquering hero on a war horse or chariot, but on a donkey, a sign of peace; and not just any donkey, but one on which no one had ever sat, the prerogative of a king. Fulfiling the 500-year-old prophesy by the Prophet Zechariah: “Exult greatly, O daughter Zion! / Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! / Behold: your king is coming to you; /a just saviour is he, / Humble, and riding on a donkey, / on a colt, the foal of a donkey. / He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim / and the horse from Jerusalem” (Zec 9:9-10).

But these are times of despair, perplexity and contradiction. The very people who applaud Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem that morning, shouting out “Hosanna” and words of adoration will, within a week, be crying for his blood, demanding, “Crucify Him.”

Significance of Holy Thursday

Leonardo Da Vinci's - Last Supper

Holy Thursday is the commemoration of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ on the Day of Passover, when he washed his disciple's feet, and established the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, before his betrayal, arrest and crucifixion.

He established a special priesthood for his disciples, which is distinct from the “priesthood of all believers.” Christ washed the feet of his Disciples, who would become the first priests.

The central observance of Holy Thursday is the ritual reenactment of the Last Supper at Mass. This event is celebrated at every Mass, as part of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, but it is specially commemorated on Holy Thursday. 

During the Passover meal, Jesus breaks bread and gives it to his Disciples, uttering the words, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you.” Subsequently, he passes a cup filled with wine. He then says, “Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood; the Blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” It is believed those who partake of the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist unite themselves to Christ’s flesh and blood, and by living a life of true discipleship shall have eternal life.

Anticipating his death, Jesus goes that very night with three of his most trusted disciples Peter, James and John to the garden of Gethsemane where he is betrayed by Judas, bound by a mob and handed over to the Chief Priests who took him to Pontius Pilate to be crucified.

During the Mass, Catholics rightly believe, as an article of faith, that the unleavened bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ through a process known as transubstantiation. 

Events of Good Friday

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The morning following Christ’s arrest, he was brought before Annas, a powerful Jewish cleric. Annas condemned Jesus for blasphemy for refusing to repudiate Annas’ words that He was the Son of God. From there, Jesus was sent to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the province.

Pontius Pilate questioned Jesus but found no reason to condemn Him. Instead, he suggested that Jewish leaders deal with Jesus according to their own law. But under Roman law, they could not execute Jesus, so they appealed to Pilate to issue the order to kill Jesus.

Pilate appealed to King Herod, who found no guilt in Jesus and sent Him back to Pilate once again. Pilate declared Jesus to be innocent and washed his hands to show that he wanted nothing to do with Jesus, but the crowds were enraged. To prevent a riot and to protect his station, Pilate reluctantly agreed to execute Jesus and sentenced him to crucifixion. Jesus was convicted of proclaiming himself to be the King of the Jews.

Before his execution, Jesus was flogged, which was a customary practice intended to weaken a victim before the crucifixion. Crucifixion was an especially painful method of execution and was perfected by the Romans as such. It was reserved for the worst criminals, and generally, Roman citizens, women, and soldiers were exempt in most cases.

During his flogging, the soldiers tormented Jesus, crowning Him with thorns and ridicule.

Following his flogging, Jesus was compelled to carry his cross to the place of His execution, at Calvary. During his walk to the site of His execution, Jesus fell three times and the Roman guards randomly selected Simon, a Cyrene, to help Jesus.

After arrival at Calvary, Jesus was nailed to the cross and crucified between two thieves. One of the thieves repented of his sins and accepted Christ while on the cross beside Him. A titulus, or sign, was posted above Christ to indicate His supposed crime. The titulus read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” It is commonly abbreviated in Latin as “INRI” for "Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum".

During Christ’s last few hours on the cross, darkness fell over the whole land. Jesus was given a sponge with sour wine mixed with gall, a weak, bitter painkiller often given to crucified victims.

Before death, Jesus spoke His last words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This line is the opening of Psalm 22, and it may have been common practice to recite lines of songs to deliver a greater message. Properly understood, the last words of Christ were triumphant. Guards then lanced Jesus’ side to ensure He was dead.

At the moment of Christ’s death, an earthquake occurred, powerful enough to open tombs. The long, thick curtain at the Temple was said to have torn from top to bottom.

Following the incredible events of the day, the body of Christ was removed from the cross and laid in a donated tomb, buried according to custom.

The events of Good Friday are commemorated in the Stations of the Cross, a 14-step devotion often performed by Catholics during Lent and especially on Good Friday.

Significance of Holy Saturday, aka Easter Vigil

Easter Vigil. Credit: Catholic Telegraph

Holy Saturday is a day of anticipation when Catholics remember Jesus’ entombment in quiet and prayerful reflection on the true import of the crucifixion and Jesus’ redemptive sacrifice. Throughout the world, Churches are emptied of the Blessed Sacrament, waiting in quiet anticipation of Easter’s triumph over darkness and evil, sin and death.

As we participate in the theological burst of liturgical expressions of Jesus’ resurrected glory, we can closely relate to the Apostles, to Mary and all the believers in Jerusalem on that first Easter morning. Sorrow turns to joy, darkness is transformed into new light and our joyous expectations of new and eternal life are renewed.

At Easter Vigil services in the evening Mother Church will initiate a new fire by lighting the Paschal Candle which then stands in front of the congregation providing radiant light and reminding us of Jesus’ Easter triumph. The faithful renew their Baptismal vows, profess faith in the Creed, and partake in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass, a triumphant reenactment of Calvary.

Significance of Easter Sunday

Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Credit: St Margaret Mary Alacoque

Easter Sunday is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Since Easter represents the fulfilment of God’s promises to the redemption of mankind, it is the most important holiday on the Christian calendar.

Jesus' resurrection marks the triumph of good over evil, sin and death. It is the singular event which proves that those who trust in God and accept Christ will be raised from the dead.

Easter marks the end of Holy Week, the end of Lent, the last day of the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday), and the beginning of the Easter season of the liturgical year.

For historical reasons linking the sacrifice of Jesus as the unblemished Pascal Lamb that freed us from the bondage of sin, to the ceremonial sacrifice of an unblemished lamb that freed the Jews out of bondage from Egypt, Easter Sunday always occurs on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon on or after March 21st, the spring equinox. 

Conclusion

To keep it simple this Lent, try the “1-1-1 Plan”: one sin, one add-in, one give-up. Concentrate or focus on one sin or fault that is getting in the way of your relationship with God and with others. Add one positive activity that will deepen your prayer and spiritual life. Deny yourself something world that you really like or are attached to.

One Sin: If you don't know which of the seven deadly sins (pride, lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, anger and envy) to focus on - work on reducing your pride or ego, which is an excessive love of self or the desire to be better or more important than others. 

One Add-In: Try something new that fits in with your schedule

• Go to Mass in the middle of the week
• Attend the Stations of the Cross
• Read and contemplate a Gospel passage
• Volunteer at a Church Ministry
• Get up early to pray

One Give-Up: Here are some ideas

• Fast from fault finding and nagging, from a sharp tongue or a closed mind.
• Give up an unhealthy habit, like smoking.
• Limit the time you watch television or surf the Web and use that time in prayer, self-realization or serving others
• Give up eating out and donate the money you save.

References

1. Charbonneau, M. (2021, February 21). Lent 101: What every Catholic should know. Ascension Press Media. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://media.ascensionpress.com/2020/02/21/lent-101-what-every-catholic-should-know/
2. Why is Lent 40 Days? (2019). USCCB. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://www.usccb.org/resources/why-lent-40-days
3. King, W. (2023, February 28). Giving something up? | Simply Catholic. Simply Catholic. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://www.simplycatholic.com/giving-something-up/
4. Heinlein, M. R. (2023, April 7). How can we make sense of suffering? Simply Catholic. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://www.simplycatholic.com/lessons-from-the-stations-of-the-cross/
5. Shafer, J. (2019, August 31). A simple plan for lent: KISS and the 1-1-1 Plan. Simply Catholic. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://www.simplycatholic.com/a-simple-plan-for-lent-kiss-and-the-1-1-1-plan/
6. A complete guide to Catholic Lent 2024. (n.d.). Dynamic Catholic. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/lent/about-lent.html
7. Emmons, D. (2024, February 8). Ash Wednesday’s significance. Simply Catholic. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://www.simplycatholic.com/from-ashes-to-ashes-what-is-the-importance-of-ash-wednesday/
8. Emmons, D. D. (2023, April 3). What Palm Sunday Means. Simply Catholic. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://www.simplycatholic.com/hosanna-what-is-the-meaning-of-palm-sunday/
9. Odean, J. (2021, March 23). Holy Thursday. St. Ignatius Catholic Church. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://st-ignatius.net/holy-thursda
10. Odean, J. (2021a, March 23). Good Friday. St. Ignatius Catholic Church. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://st-ignatius.net/good-friday
11. Odean, J. (2021b, March 23). Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil). St. Ignatius Catholic Church. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://st-ignatius.net/holy-saturday-easter-vigil/
12. Hilgartner, R. (2014). The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation: Forgiveness in four easy steps. USCCB. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catechesis/catechetical-sunday/sacramental-forgiveness/teaching-aid-hilgartner