During the Season of Lent, we pray for new life to appear in us and for old negative attitudes to disappear. It is the period for us to prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Our prayer life should be centered on three dominant themes: Cross, Repentance, and Baptism.
The Cross recalls the supreme law of Christian life: death in order to live. It also brings with it a positive aspect of conquest and salvation. Through His Cross, Christ gave impetus to all the positive works of humankind. It is the Cross that enables us to build the world as God’s coworkers, while eschewing all forms of evil.
Repentance is ultimately total change of self, an intimate renewal of one’s person, a reappraisal of one’s understanding, one’s judging, and one’s living. It is a turning from self to God.
Our prayers should lead us to such things as working for social or individual justice, performing spiritual and corporal works of mercy, and a renewed interest in the Mysteries by which we are reborn as children of God.
We should also pray to deepen the sense of our condition as baptized people. We do this primarily by clinging to Christ, by choosing to follow Him more closely, by becoming in some sense “other Christs.” To do so, we must be open to instruction in the Faith through hearing, reading, study, and any type of positive communication (film, art, music, etc.). We must be people who listen – to others, to our consciences, to the world, and most of all to the living Word of God in the Bible.
We can also pray by doing. After truly listening, we must respond and put into practice what we have learned. In this way we will bring about the inner conversion to God that is the most fitting preparation for Easter.
| Part of the Church’s Lenten discipline is the practice of fasting and abstinence. Abstinence, in this case, is refraining from eating meat. We used to abstain from meat on every Friday, now it’s only binding on the Fridays of Lent. Any Catholic above the age of 14 is required to abstain during Lent. And since this is intended as a penitential practice, having a two-pound lobster instead kind of misses the point. |
Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ dwelling within them.
Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from worry; feast on trust.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility; feast on nonviolence.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from problems that overwhelm; Feast on prayer that undergirds you
"The annual observance of Lent is the special season for the ascent to the holy mountain of Easter. Through its twofold theme of repentance and baptism, the season of Lent disposes both the catechumens and the faithful to celebrate the paschal mystery. Catechumens are led to the sacraments of initiation by means of the rite of election, the scrutinies, and catechesis. The faithful, listening more intently to the word of God and devoting themselves to prayers, are prepared through a spirit of repentance to renew their baptismal promises" (Ceremonial of Bishops, 249).
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at the beginning of the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.
On Ash Wednesday, ashes are blessed and imposed after the homily. These ashes are of branches of the olive tree, or, according to custom, of the palm tree or other trees, which have been blessed the previous year. However, when circumstances require, the blessing and distribution of ashes may take place apart from Mass, during a celebration of the word of God (Book of Blessing, nos. 1656 - 1678). The ordinary minister for the blessing of ashes is a priest or deacon. Others (e.g. extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion) may assist with the imposition of ashes where there is genuine need, especially for the sick and shut-ins. Two formulas are provided in the Missal; either one may be used at the option of the minister:
Repent and believe in the Gospel.
Remember, you are dust, and to dust you will return.
Lenten weekdays are not commemorated on Solemnities and Feasts. Ash Wednesday and the days of Holy Week take precedence over all Solemnities and Feasts.
Volume II of the Liturgy of the Hours is used from Ash Wednesday through Pentecost Sunday, the close of the Easter Season. .
All Memorials of saints occurring during Lent are' observed as optional. Hence, they may be omitted or observed as commemorations (see Directives, no. 4, Commemorations of Memorials in Privileged Seasons).
Alleluia is not sung or said from the beginning of Lent until the Easter Vigil; nor is the Te Deum sung at Office of Readings on Sundays of Lent.
During Lent the altar should not be decorated with flowers, and musical instruments may be played only to give necessary support to the singing. Those preparing liturgical celebrations should attend to the purpose rather than the strict letter of this law as certain musical pieces, for example, may in the local situation indeed foster the spirit of the Lenten Season. On the Fourth Sunday of Lent ("Laetare") and on Solemnities and Feasts, musical instruments may be played and the altar decorated with flowers.
The presentations of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer normally take place after the first and third scrutinies. For pastoral reasons, they may be held during the period of the catechumenate rather than at the regular times (RCIA, 104-105).
If marriages are to take place during Lent, couples are to be reminded that wedding plans should respect the special nature of this liturgical season; they should refrain from too much pomp or display.
The readings for the Lenten Masses have been chosen in relation to the themes of baptismal renewal and penance. The gospels and readings from the Hebrew scriptures have been selected for their mutual relationship.
Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Prayers Over the People are provided in the Roman Missal. They are either obligatory or optional, depending on the day. When used, they augment the simple blessing given at the end of Mass.
In the dioceses of the United States, the practice of covering crosses, statues and images throughout the church on the Fifth Sunday of Lent may be observed. Crosses remain covered until the end of the celebration of the Lord's Passion on Good Friday, but statues and images remain covered until the beginning of the Easter Vigil.
It is fitting that the Lenten Season conclude, both for the individual Christian as well as for the whole Christian community, with a penitential celebration, so that all may be helped to prepare to celebrate more fully the paschal mystery. Such a celebration should take place before the Easter Triduum, and should not immediately precede the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. However, where there is genuine pastoral need, the sacrament of penance may be celebrated on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and in such situations opportunities for celebrations of reconciliation would be encouraged.
In the cycle of weekday readings (and in the Divine Office), Lent falls into two parts. The first part, including the "pre-Lent" of Ash Wednesday and the rest of that week, runs through to Saturday of Week 3. In these three and a half weeks, the Gospel texts are taken from the Synoptics and the Old Testament readings are chosen accordingly. The message running throughout is a call to a life of Gospel conversion. The pericopes speak of beginning anew, of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving; of conversion; of mutual forgiveness; of hardness of heart; of love of enemies; of absolute claims of iustice and love over ritual and cult; of the call to holiness, and so forth.(Occasionally, what appears to be salvation history narrative is interspersed among these moral texts - a story like the call of Naaman or the workers in the vineyard, for example - but, In this context they are meant to be read as call to conversion rather than as referring to Christ or to the Easter mysteries.)
The readings for the second half of Lent are taken from the Gospel of John, beginning on the Monday of the fourth week of Lent at John 4:43 and going through, omitting passages read on Sundays and during Easter, to chapter 13. It is clear that these reedings from John do not constitute a kind of "crash course" in the life of Jesus, so much as a presentation of the mystery of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, of whom John says that all who believe in him will have eternal life. Christ is presented as the healer and life-giver, as the one who gives life through his confrontation with death and gathers Into one the scattered children of God.
How do these two sections of the lectionary fit together and what can they tell us about the spirit of Lent? The shift from the "ethical" to the "christological" is no accident. The purpose of the first part of Lent is to bring us to compunction. "Compunction" is etymologically related to the verb "to puncture" and suggests the deflation of our inflated egos, a challenge to any self-deceit about the quality of our lives as disciples of Jesus. By hitting us again and again with demands which we not only fail to obey, but which we come to recognize as being quite beyond us, the Gospel passages are meant to trouble us, to confront our illusions about ourselves. "Remember, you are dust . . ." From this perspective, Lenten penance may be more effective if we fail in our resolutions than If we succeed, for its purpose is not to confirm us in our sense of virtue but to bring home to us our radical need of salvation.
It is in answer to this profound awareness of need that the lectionary shifts from the Synoptics to John, from the demands of discipleship to the person of Jesus. John presents Jesus as the Savior, but Jesus can only save those who know their need for salvation.
Confronted with our sickness and powerlessness, we pray for our salvation.
Taken from "The Spirit of Lent," Mark Searle, in Assembly, Volume 8:3. © Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, Notre Dame, IN