How Well Do You Know Lent?
It comes every year, and every year you give something up because of it, but how much do you really know about Lent?
It comes every year, and every year you give something up because of it, but how much do you really know about Lent?
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.’” —Jeremiah 6:16 Deciding how to approach Lent can sometimes prove almost as onerous as actually enduring your resolutions of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.…
Usually, I don’t look forward to Lent, and I think it’s fair to hope that I’m not alone in that. Ash Wednesday feels like the longest day of the year for me. Washing the ashes off my forehead is the most satisfying feeling of the day, next to going to sleep knowing I can eat breakfast in the morning.
What Lent is really about, the Church reminds us, is a solemn forty day summons to experience Christ anew, to enter into the humanity of his life so as to be drawn ever more deeply into the mystery of his divinity, his unending intimacy with the Father.
Lent is a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Jesus, the fount of mercy. These 40 days are an opportunity to deepen the meaning and value of our Christian lives through the Lenten pillars of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.