What is Lent?

A Time of Preparation for the Paschal Mystery. The Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus.

A Period of 40 Days. Begins with Ash Wednesday. Ends on Holy Thursday, at the beginning of

the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Not counting Sundays.

What is Lent?

The Word Lent. Old English lencten, lengten  spring, Lent,

literally, lengthening (of daylight hours).

The Preparation.

Traditionally. A time to prepare for the Great Feast of

Easter. Looking at the Resurrection and the Passion.

An Inward look at Our Lives. A sorrowful reparation for our sins.

3 Pillars of Lent. Prayer. Fasting. Alms Giving.

The Preparation. Today.

A Positive Look Inward.

Yet even now , says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.

Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishment.

Joel 2:12-13.

To Keep a True Lent

To Keep a True Lent.

Is this a fast to keep

The larder lean?

And clean

From fat of veals and sheep?

Is it to quit the dish

Of flesh, yet still

To fill

The platter high with fish?

To Keep a True Lent

Is it to fast an hour,

Or ragg’d to go,

Or show

A down-cast look and sour?

No: ‘tis a Fast to dole

Thy sheaf of wheat

And meat

Unto the hungry soul.

To Keep a True Lent

It is to fast from strife

And old debate,

And hate;

To circumcise thy life.

To show a heart grief-rent;

To starve thy sin,

Not bin;

And that’s to keep thy Lent.

Robert Herrick.

The Journey.

Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near you.”

Mt 4:17

The Journey

A 40 day retreat. Joining with:

Israel. Jesus.

Looking at Our Relationship with God.

Renewing the Covenant.

Our Relationship with Others. Love One Another.

The Journey

The Journey of Change. Repentance (Greek Metanoia).

The heralds of the truth and ministers of divine grace who have explained to us from the beginning right down to our own time each in his own day the saving will of God, say that nothing is so dear and loved by him as when men turn to him with true repentance. St. Maximus.

A Walking Towards God.

The Journey

Signs of Our Repentance. 3 Pillars of Lent.

Prayer. Fasting. Alms Giving.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation.