In the Ancient Church, this was the time when catechumens (adults preparing for Baptism) entered into the final phase of their formation for the Christian life by dedicating themselves to a more intense study of the faith and to the exercises of prayer and penance. Little by little, the entire Christian community also began to participate in this Lenten journey, uniting themselves with the catechumens as well as renewing themselves in the grace of their own Baptism and the fervor of Christian life. Thus they prepared themselves for the holy feast of Easter. Lent came to be recognized at that time in which Christians, through penance, prayer and fasting, renew their conversion, culminating in the renewal of their Baptismal promises during the solemnity of the great Easter vigil and the joyful celebration of Easter Sunday.
Good Lenten Practices
Prayer makes us live in communion with God. There is no Christian life without this relationship with God. It is reflected in attentive and constant listening to the Word of God, in personal and communal prayer and in the experience of “friendship with God”.
Fasting includes all forms of penance, those choices and necessary renunciations and sacrifices that help us to embrace God's ways. The exercise of fasting is a great help in our conversion to God.
Almsgiving and fraternal charity calls us to open our hearts to our brothers and sisters in a special way during Lent. Almsgiving is witnessed by our willingness to help, to visit the sick, to listen to others, and to be reconciled with someone from whom we are estranged. It is this care, this charity toward others, especially the needy, that will truly reveal the sincerity of our search for God and the authenticity of our penance!
Reading the Word of God and listening more closely to it reminds us of the fact that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God. During this Lenten time, we recommend spending time with the Gospel of Saint Mark which we hear on Sundays this year.
Conversion Guests
“This is the time for conversion!,” St. Paul tells us. During this Lenten time may we be able to identify those tendencies which keep us away from Christ and try to fight them this Lent!
The Church's Tradition calls these actions “spiritual combat” and “the fight against our shadows”. Our shadows are our excesses, our sinful tendencies, which need to be overcome. In Lent, it’s necessary to identify those things which wage war within us and to fight them!
The Lenten liturgy
This sacred time is marked by various special signs in our Church’s liturgical celebrations. The color of the season is purple - a sign of sobriety, penance and conversion. The “Gloria” is not sung during the Mass, the great sign of joy, the “Alleluia”, is not sung during Lent, but will only be sung again at Easter. Flowers are not permitted on the altar as a sign of simplicity and penance.
The importance in all these practices is that they assist us in a serious and dedicated preparation for the great feast of Easter! Lenten observances are not empty acts in themselves; rather, they are instruments to help us to grow in that conversion process which leads us to a greater spiritual knowledge and love of Christ. Let us keep in mind that the high points of the Lenten journey are the renewal of our Baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil and the celebration of the Eucharist on that same Holy Night, leading into our celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
May we all have a spiritually powerful Lenten experience in order to be able to joyfully celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection!
Source: Adaptation of text by Dom Henrique Soares
