LENT
What is Lent?
Lent is the annual preparation for Easter calling us to reform our lives and to open our hearts to the spiritual blessings God has promised to bestow on us. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday.
What must I do?
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of universal fast and abstinence. Fasting is obligatory for all who have completed their 18th year and have not yet reached their 60th year. Fasting allows a person to eat one full meal. Two smaller meals may be taken, not to equal one full meal. Abstinence (from meat) is obligatory for all who have reached their 14th year.
If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the "paschal fast" to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection.
Fridays in Lent are obligatory days of complete abstinence (from meat) for all who have completed their 14th year.
Why prayer, fasting and alms during Lent?
Lent calls us back to the basics of our faith. During Lent we should practice the three main disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These are the key personal responsibilities of our faith, the minimum expected of us to show our appreciation for God's gift of divine life, which we want to grow in us. From Scripture, there is never a question that Christ's followers are to pray, fast and give alms - only how and in what spirit they are to do them.
Why does Lent seem so negative, so focused on sin?
The purpose of Lenten discipline isn't negative. Self-denial helps us empty ourselves to that we can be filled with God. It helps us hunger and thirst for the food and drink our souls need. We freely give up good for the promise of something better. The purpose of Lenten discipline is to open our hearts so that the Holy Spirit can work in us.
From: Lent: The Basics
by James E. Adams and Paul Pennick
written for Creative Communications for the Parish
LENT
What is Lent?
Lent is the annual preparation for Easter calling us to reform our lives and to open our hearts to the spiritual blessings God has promised to bestow on us. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday.
What must I do?
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of universal fast and abstinence. Fasting is obligatory for all who have completed their 18th year and have not yet reached their 60th year. Fasting allows a person to eat one full meal. Two smaller meals may be taken, not to equal one full meal. Abstinence (from meat) is obligatory for all who have reached their 14th year.
If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the "paschal fast" to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection.
Fridays in Lent are obligatory days of complete abstinence (from meat) for all who have completed their 14th year.
Why prayer, fasting and alms during Lent?
Lent calls us back to the basics of our faith. During Lent we should practice the three main disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These are the key personal responsibilities of our faith, the minimum expected of us to show our appreciation for God's gift of divine life, which we want to grow in us. From Scripture, there is never a question that Christ's followers are to pray, fast and give alms - only how and in what spirit they are to do them.
Why does Lent seem so negative, so focused on sin?
The purpose of Lenten discipline isn't negative. Self-denial helps us empty ourselves to that we can be filled with God. It helps us hunger and thirst for the food and drink our souls need. We freely give up good for the promise of something better. The purpose of Lenten discipline is to open our hearts so that the Holy Spirit can work in us.
From: Lent: The Basics
by James E. Adams and Paul Pennick
written for Creative Communications for the Parish