LENT PERIOD LEADING UP TO EASTER

The meaning of Lent and Ash Wednesday

Every year the church summons us to an event that transcends our spiritual lives, it is interesting that the majority of Catholic Christians, committed, whether they practice or not, know or have heard more than once about lent, about Ash Wednesday and about these strong times in our Catholic Church. What I think is terrible, is that they do not know in reality what is the specific significance or the function these times have in the life of the Church.

I would like to explain thru this simple article the true significance of these strong times within our Church. A while back, some people came to me and asked questions which I will answer next.

Questions that I thought, many of them knew the answers. Even though to me they seem basic, to many they are not. The questions they asked me most are: ¿What is Lent? ¿When does it starts? ¿When does it ends? ¿What is the Easter Triduum? among others. Let me explain to you in a simple way the meaning of this time that is so special and so full of Grace.

¿What is Lent? Lent is a liturgical time for conversion, a time of sacrifice for Jesus. . The church marks this time to prepare us for the great celebration of Easter. It is very important to understand that Lent does not prepare us to celebrate Good Friday, as many of us think. It is not a special time to prepare us for Holy Week either.

These days which are full of Grace, prepare us to live in Grace and spiritual peace the great celebration of Easter. Let me explain a little bit more about the meaning of Lent. It is the time for us to repent of all our sins, time to change something in us and be a better person, to live closer to Jesus. It is a special time where the Church challenges us to sacrifice some part of us and live it intensely.

To look for the right path, to find ourselves in a clear, concise and sincere way. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer, through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial for the commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Lent lasts forty days, it starts on Ash Wednesday and ends before the Mass of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday. I want this to be very clear, because there is confusion in regards to this point. It starts on Ash Wednesday, in which we all go to receive the ashes on our foreheads or on our heads, in a contrite and penitent manner.
A sign of mortification and repentance, sign of humility and desire to change our lives. On that day we are send out to do penance, with rigorous fasting and prayers, so in this way we can enter the exercise of Lent, and I say exercise because it is a great spiritual retreat in which we are call to enter in a personal way.

It is very important to meditate on these words that the priest or deacon say to us when he places the ashes on our foreheads, “Remember you came from ashes and to ashes you shall return” or “Repent and believe in the Gospel” both formulas are a clear reminder of what we really are, where we come from and where we will go back to, if we don’t change our lives to the life of Christ. “Remember” this word has a great meaning this day, remember who you are, remember you came from dust, remember you are mud, remember you are finite and without God you will return there.

Ash Wednesday calls us to a clear and frequent meditation of our interior and spiritual life. The Church advises us to make clear, strong, appropriate, willing and well lead reconciliation. The Mass readings are appropriate and allow us to find ourselves with God, to lead our life and work in prayer.

All along this time, especially in Sunday’s liturgy, we should make an effort to recover the rhythm and style of the true believer. We should live as children of God. It is appropriate to mention that this time is full of signs and symbols, inviting us to get into the heart of the times.

During these forty days, we don’t sing the “Glory” or the “Alleluia” during the celebrations of the liturgy. The only time we sing these two hymns is, if there is a special solemnity dedicated either to Jesus or the Virgin Mary. Example: The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, which is celebrated the 25th of March, this celebration usually falls during Lent.

Other signs that can be seeing in our church are the purple curtains, the altar without flowers, which symbolizes the penance and austerity we are living at the time in sacrifice. The liturgical color is purple, which signifies mourning and penance. The priest and deacon use the color purple during Lent. It is a time of reflection, penance, spiritual conversion, time to prepare for the Paschal Mystery.

During Lent, Christ invites us to change our lives. The church invites us to live Lent as a change towards Jesus, listening to the Word of God, praying, sharing with our neighbor and doing good deeds. It invites us to live a series of Christian attitudes that will help us look more like Christ, since by the action of our sins, we drift apart from God.

Therefore, Lent is a time for pardon and fraternal reconciliation. Each day, throughout our whole life, we have to rid our hearts of hate, resentments, envy and jealousy, which goes against our love for God and our brothers and sisters. During this time, we have to learn to know and appreciate the Cross of Christ, at the same time, we also learn to take our own cross with joy, to be able to reach the glory of the resurrection.

¿Why forty days? The duration of Lent is based on the symbol of the number forty in the Holy Scriptures. The Biblical references about the forty days God sent rain in the great flood, the forty days the Hebrew people wandered in the dessert, the forty days Moses and Elijah spent in the mountain, the forty days Jesus spent in the dessert before the beginning of his public ministry, the four hundred years that the Jewish people stayed in Egypt.

In the Holy Scriptures, the number forty signifies the material universe, followed by zeros, it means the time our life on earth is marked by trials, difficulties and tribulations.

The practice of Lent goes back to the fourth century, when they had the tendency to impose it as a time of penance and renovation for the whole church, with the very rigorous practice of fasting and abstinence.

Followed very strictly at the beginning in the orient church, the practice of penance during Lent have been considerably relaxed in the occident, but it must observe a spirit of penance and conversion.

I hope I have clarified the doubts you might have about this wonderful time, in the next article we will talk about the meaning of fasting, prayer and alms giving.

If you have questions, concerns or would lit to suggest a particular subject, please do not hesitate to write me to my email: padrealexdiaz@gmail.com and I will be happy to answer, clarify and comment on your questions.

In Jesus Christ,

Rev. Alexander Diaz