What is LENT?

What is Lent? Lent is the penitential season of the Church year. Begins Ash Wednesday and ends with the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday Six Sundays, the sixth being Palm or Passion Sunday

Why Lent? From time to time we need to step back from our ordinary daily routine. When we are doing something different, it makes us pause and think before we act. By doing this we are able to remember not only what we are doing, but why we are doing it. During Lent, it is not the fasting that makes us better, it is remembering WHY we are fasting that makes us better.

We, as the Church, need to set aside a period of penance We need to intensify our traditional practices through –Prayer –Fasting –Almsgiving (Charitable giving)

Prayer Daily prayer – individual or group Community prayer – in school, church, other groups Daily Mass – in the chapel every morning Eucharist – in Mass or Communion Services Adoration – first Fridays in the chapel Rosary and Stations of the Cross

Fasting or Abstaining? Fasting means that you limit yourself to a single full meal on the prescribed days, and the other two meals on those days are to be light. No between meal snacks or drinks, except water. Abstaining means that you do not eat any meat (mammals or birds) on the prescribed days. Fish, shellfish, reptiles and amphibians are allowed.

Fasting The Bishops of the United States prescribe as a minimal obligation: –All persons 14 years and older, are bound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and ALL Fridays of Lent. –All persons 18 years and older, up to and including the 59 th birthday, are bound to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Almsgiving Charitable Giving – giving money, time, and/or talent to those less fortunate –Operation Rice Bowl – Catholic Relief Services program to donate the money saved because of fasting and things given up for Lent. –Lenten Sacrifice envelope – school wide program to collect money to fund research for children’s cancers –Ash Wednesday collection – to feed the poor at St. John’s Hospice –Dress Down Day – donations to Catholic Charities

Lenten Sacrifice “Giving something up” for Lent has been a tradition for several centuries. The purpose of the sacrifice is to do something physical that will remind us that this is a special time of year. The act must be a sacrifice of some sort. It is not a sacrifice to give up candy and replace it with pretzels. If you give up candy, give the money you would have spent on it to charity.

Sacrifices can be actions or attitudes –“Give up” fighting with parents or siblings –Work on repairing a broken relationship –Work on changing a bad habit –Do a random act of kindness each day, with no expectation of reward or acknowledgement. –“Pay forward” the good things that you are grateful for

This is YOUR Lent Spend time today thinking about what your Lenten sacrifice will be. Write it down. Make a commitment to prayer, fasting, AND almsgiving. They are the pillars of Lent. Keep a Lenten journal to keep yourself on track and to reflect your thoughts and prayers during this penitential season.