The Liturgical Season of lent:
History of Lent
The word Lent comes from the Latin word meaning “springtime” – the time of “lengthening of days” (BBC, 2014). The liturgical season of Lent lasts for forty weekdays in remembrance of the forty days and nights that Jesus spent fasting and temptation in the desert. The Lenten season extends from Ash Wednesday to the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on the Holy Thursday (BBC, 1985). The season of Lent is a catholic tradition: a time of prayer, forgiveness, fasting and self-examination in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord at Easter (Gomes, 1985).
Lent is a time of penance, so that the believers may share in the celebration of Easter Sunday with a pureness of heart (BBC, 2014). The three traditional forms of penance: fasting, prayer and almsgiving, “express conversion in relation to oneself, to God and to others,” (Gromes, 1985). We seek a greater openness to the word of God, a more complete participation in the liturgy and a stronger commitment to the works of charity. Our practice of fasting and abstinence is designed to turn our hearts and seek closer to God during the Lenten season (Gromes, 1985).