Lent 101

Of all of the liturgical seasons in the Catholic Church, Lent is the one that is the most obvious, both to Catholics and to our non-Catholic friends. While the Easter season is longer, most people no longer observe it in any meaningful way once the Octave of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) has passed. Advent has been subsumed into the "holiday shopping season"; Christmas is over almost before it has begun. Only the 40 days of Lent remain today as a sign of contradiction, a period of prayer and penance that the world cannot help but notice.

• The 40 Days of Lent
• How Are the 40 Days of Lent Calculated?

From the earliest days of Christianity, the faithful have desired to prepare for Easter with an increasingly longer season of penance. The original fast for Easter ran from Good Friday until Easter Sunday; eventually, in one form or another, it extended to 70 days before Easter! In the West, this period of ramping up for Lent was known as Septuagesima; in the East, it encompassed the four Sundays before Clean Monday, the first day of Lent in the Eastern Churches. During this time, the faithful would ease into the Lenten fast. In the final days before Lent began, the faithful would allow themselves one last feast, which is how the tradition of Carnivale—"goodbye, meat!"—or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) began.

• Shrove Tuesday
• Fat Tuesday Recipes

Because Lent begins in the West 46 days before Easter (and, in the East, two days earlier), and Easter is a moveable feast (see How Is the Date of Easter Calculated? for more details), the period covered by Lent changes every year. Roughly speaking, Lent begins sometime in February or March, and ends sometime in March or April. And it encompasses two important feasts (Saint Patrick's Day and Saint Joseph's Day) and usually a third—the Annunciation of the Lord.

• What Are the Ember Days?
• What Is Laetare Sunday?

​One of the reasons why Lent is such an obvious season is, of course, the practice of beginning it, in the West, by distributing ashes to the faithful on Ash Wednesday, as a sign of our sinfulness and mortality. While Ash Wednesday is not a Holy Day of Obligation, it is a time when many Catholics who have slowly slipped away from the Church over the past year find themselves back in the pews, vowing to make their faith more central to their lives in preparation for Easter. 

• When Is Ash Wednesday?
• Is Ash Wednesday a Holy Day of Obligation?
• Can Catholics Eat Meat on Ash Wednesday?
• Should Catholics Keep Their Ashes on All Day on Ash Wednesday?

In the past, Lent was observed with much greater rigor than it is today, especially through the practice of fasting and abstinence. Indeed, the traditional 40 days of Lent refers to the number of days on which fasting was required—all of the days from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, inclusive, minus the Sundays, which are never days of fasting. Since Pope Paul VI changed the requirements for fasting and abstinence in 1966, fasting is required only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstinence only on Ash Wednesday and all of the Fridays of Lent (including Good Friday). But many of the faithful continue to observe the spirit of the older discipline, by such actions as voluntarily restricting their consumption of meat throughout Lent, or giving up something they enjoy for the full 40 days. And all restrictions—whether voluntary or imposed by the Church—are waived on great feasts of the Church, such as Saint Joseph's Day and the Annunciation of the Lord, which are treated like the Sundays in Lent.

• Meatless Recipes for Lent
• Reader Question: Should I Give Up My Diet for Lent?

Fasting and abstinence, whether required or voluntary, are only tools and not ends in themselves. They prepare us physically for the greater spiritual work of prayer and penance, which should take place throughout Lent. The practices of the Church reflect this: Roman Catholics do not sing the Alleluia during Lent as a form of penance and a preparation for the great joy of the Easter Vigil, when the Alleluia will be sung once more. The Church requires us to receive Communion during the Easter season—our Easter Duty—and so She strongly encourages us to make a full, complete, and contrite Confession sometime during Lent in preparation. We should make a diligent effort to pray more often in Lent, and if we aren't sure how to start, we can look to the Eastern Churches, which recite the Prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian many times each day during Lent. (Another good option: The Church offers a plenary indulgence every Friday during Lent to those who recite the Prayer Before a Crucifix). Eastern Christians also use Lent as a time to pray for the dead more frequently, thus offering up their Lenten sacrifices and struggles for their departed friends and family and reaffirming the Communion of the Saints.

• Seven Steps to Making a Better Confession
• Reader Question: What Should Replace the Alleluia During Lent?
• Weekly Prayers for the Faithful Departed

While prayer and penance advance our spiritual life, many Catholics desire to add other practices during Lent that they regard as more "positive." Attending daily Mass when you can is a very good way to do so (as is weekly Confession); another is to take part in the Church's daily prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours (or Divine Office). While attempting to dive into the Liturgy of the Hours as a whole can be a bit intimidating, praying Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer is a good way to get used to it, as is doing the daily scripture readings from the Office of the Readings (part of the Liturgy of the Hours). You don't need to buy any books; I've provided the readings, and a brief commentary for each day, in the links below. My family and I do each day's reading every night after dinner. Don't worry if you have young children—they will find the readings enthralling, especially if you follow these tips.

• Scripture Readings for the Second Week of Lent
• Scripture Readings for the Third Week of Lent
• Scripture Readings for the Fourth Week of Lent
• Scripture Readings for the Fifth Week of Lent
• Scripture Readings for Holy Week

The most frustrating part of Lent may be how short it seems. Just as we finally hit our stride—just as we manage to become diligent in our Lenten sacrifices and our prayer life, and finally feel like we're making progress in the spiritual works we've added—Holy Week is suddenly upon us, and Easter is just a week away. The liturgical season of Lent (though not the fast!) draws to a close with the start of the Easter Triduum, giving us one last chance to prepare ourselves for Christ's Resurrection.

• Passiontide - Definition of Passiontide
• When Is Holy Week?
• Palm Sunday
• When Is Palm Sunday?
• Why Is the Wednesday of Holy Week Called Spy Wednesday?
• Triduum - Definition of Triduum

The Easter (or Paschal) Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, when we commemorate the institution of the Eucharist, the priesthood, and the Mass. At the end of the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the Body of Christ is removed from the tabernacle in the church and, at the end of a procession, is placed on a special altar for reverence, while the main altar is stripped bare. All of this calls to mind the beginning of the events of Christ's Passion—going with His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, praying to His Father that the cup of sacrifice might pass Him by, and then being delivered over to the Sanhedrin through the betrayal of Judas, with a kiss.

• Is Holy Thursday a Holy Day of Obligation?
• When Is Holy Thursday?
• Why Is Holy Thursday Called Maundy Thursday?

Good Friday dawns with Christ in the hands of His enemies, and this day is the only day of the year on which the Church does not celebrate a Mass with a consecration. The Eucharist represents not only the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross but His Resurrection; and so Communion on Good Friday is distributed using hosts that were consecrated at the Mass of the Lord's Supper the night before. At the end of the Good Friday liturgy, the main tabernacle remains open to signify Christ's departure from this world.

• When Is Good Friday This Year?
• Is Good Friday a Holy Day of Obligation?
• Can Catholics Eat Meat on Good Friday?
• The Revised Good Friday Prayer for the Jews

And then, on Holy Saturday, we wait. As the Lenten fast draws to a close, no Mass is celebrated during the day; the Easter Vigil Mass, held after sundown, marks the beginning of Easter Sunday and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

• When Is Holy Saturday?