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March 11th – March 15th:
In many congregations, the ashes are prepared by burning palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday, churches bless and hand out palm branches to attendees, a reference to the Gospels’ account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when onlookers lay palm branches on his path. The ashes of this holiday symbolize two main things: death and repentance. “Ashes are equivalent to dust, and human flesh is composed of dust or clay (Genesis 2:7), and when a human corpse decomposes, it returns to dust or ash.” When we come forward to receive ashes on Ash Wednesday, we are saying that we are sorry for our sins, and that we want to use the season of Lent to correct our faults, purify our hearts, control our desires and grow in holiness so we will be prepared to celebrate Easter with great joy.
Originally, Lent or the “Easter Penitential Period” was an eight–week fast that individuals took only a single daily meal in the evening, which immediately following the Feast of the Epiphany. Moreover, Lent was typically a period of baptismal preparation for those people, “catechumens” who were going to be baptized on Easter Sunday, the traditional and only day for baptisms, Pentecost in some areas during the first four centuries of Christianity. The Lenten season developed as part of the historical Christian calendar and is typically celebrated by Catholics and some mainline Protestant churches that follow a liturgical calendar. Although its format has varied throughout the centuries and throughout different cultures, the basic concept remains the same: to open our hearts to God's refining grace through prayer, confession, fasting, and almsgiving as we anticipate Holy Week. Lent traditionally lasts forty days, modeled after Christ's forty day fast in the desert, and ends on Good Friday. In the Western Church, Lent officially begins with a reminder of our mortality on Ash Wednesday (this year, falling on March 1st). Especially since Lent is one of the oldest observations on the Christian calendar. Like all Christian holy days and holidays, it has changed over the years, but its purpose has always been the same: self–examination and penitence, demonstrated by self–denial, in preparation for Easter. Early church father Irenaus of Lyons (c.130-c.200) wrote of such a season in the earliest days of the church, but back then it lasted only two or three days, not the 40 observed today.
Lent, in the Christian church, a period of penitential preparation for Easter. In Western churches it begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter, and provides for a 40-day fast (Sundays are excluded), in imitation of Jesus Christ's fasting in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. Lent is a time of preparation for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The season of Lent has two essential elements that are especially characteristic of the Lenten journey. The word “Lent” comes from the old English, “lencten,” which means “spring.” In Middle English is derived the words, lenten, lente, lent; related to the Dutch, lente, the German, Lenz, also rendered “spring.” In Old German are found the related words: lenzin, lengizin, and lenzo, which probably comes from the same root as "long" and referring to “the lengthening days,” as the earth moves from the winter solstice toward the spring equinox.
In the Christian Church, Lent refers to the period of abstinence preparatory to the Feast of Easter. The Latin name for the fast is Quadragesima derived from the Sunday which was the fortieth day before Easter. First, is the recalling and recommitment of our baptismal vows and/or the actual preparing for the Sacrament of Baptism to be celebrated at the Great Easter Vigil Mass. Second, is the penitential nature of the season should be overwhelmingly highlighted with greater emphasis on prayer, Scripture studying, fasting, celebrating various forms of worship, and growing in spirituality and holiness. All of these rituals will create a deeper focus on our true priorities during this poignant penitential period.
Lent is not merely about “giving something up,” but about deepening our commitment and personal relationship with God. Although Lenten themes embrace self-denial and avoidance of sin, the greater emphasis is on metanoia: “A radical change of mind and heart and a total turning away from sin and the world to embrace God” (Canales, “The Nicodemus Narrative,” The Living Light, 2002; p. 25). And this of course is through living Christian discipleship. Several Christian traditions maintain that Christians should go without certain luxuries during Lent in order to highlight the sacrificial aspect of Lent. In the early Church, Christians were expected to go without meat and wine, milk and eggs as a form of fasting, and without sexual intercourse among married persons as a form of abstinence. Then, and today, Christians view fasting as a way of preparing for the reception of the Holy Spirit, and as a powerful weapon in the fight against evil spirits. Lent should drive us to become a better people, individually and communally. Many believers or Christians find the Lenten fasting practice helps to keep their focus on Christ and what he has done for us; others may find the focus on fasting to be distracting and may feel that for them it puts too much focus on what they’re doing. It’s more important to spend daily time with the Lord than to try to keep the Lenten fast; however, if you’re trying to start faithful practices like regular Bible reading and prayer time a Lenten fast may help you make sacrifices that free up time for the Lord. Lent is a time set aside that offers us an opportunity to come to terms with the human condition we may spend the rest of the year running from and it brings our need for a Savior to the forefront. Like Advent, Lent is a time to open the doors of our hearts a little wider and understand our Lord a little deeper, so that when Good Friday and eventually Easter comes, it is not just another day at church but an opportunity to receive the overflowing of graces God has to offer.