Category: Lent

“The 2019 Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday, March 6, for Latin-rite Catholics with Easter Sunday on April 21. During Lent, we are asked to devote ourselves to seeking the Lord in prayer and reading Scripture, to service by giving alms, and to sacrifice self-control through fasting. Many know of the tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent,

“… you will recall reading or hearing about the three ways of doing penance: fasting, prayer, alms-giving. … These holy practices are important and salutary, as Our Lord Jesus Himself instructs us (St. Matthew 6:1-18). In making use of these practices, it is essential that we have a plan for Lent, some sort of program for ourselves, for without that,

“… We are invited to effect a real conversion and renewal of life during the period of Lent by fasting, penance, and reconciliation. …”

“… Jesus stayed in the desert for 40 days. When he left the desert, he began calling his disciples and apostles, as the mission that led to his crucifixion had begun. The Church says that Lent is a 40-day period of unity with “the mystery of Jesus in the desert.” By sacrificing small things, as well as fasting, praying, and

“Days of Penance Can. 1249 The divine law binds all the Christian faithful to do penance each in his or her own way. In order for all to be united among themselves by some common observance of penance, however, penitential days are prescribed on which the Christian faithful devote themselves in a special way to prayer, perform works of piety

“In the early Church and, to a lesser extent still today, there were two fasts. There was the “total fast” that preceded all major feasts or sacramental events. The ancient name for this fast was “statio” from the verb “sto, stare” to stand watch, on guard or in vigil. The second fast was a fast of abstinence from certain foods,