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The season of Lent has not been well
observed in much of evangelical Christianity, largely because it was associated
with "high church" liturgical worship that some churches were eager to reject.
However, much of the background of evangelical Christianity, for example the
heritage of John Wesley, was very "high church." Many of the churches that had
originally rejected more formal and deliberate liturgy are now recovering aspects
of a larger Christian tradition as a means to refocus on spirituality in a culture
that is increasingly secular. Originating in the fourth century of the church,
the season of Lent spans 40 weekdays beginning on Ash Wednesday and climaxing
during Holy Week with Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), Good Friday, and concluding
Saturday before Easter. Originally, Lent was the time of preparation for those
who were to be baptized, a time of concentrated study and prayer before their
baptism at the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord
early on Easter Sunday. But since these new members were to be received into
a living community of Faith, the entire community was called to preparation.
Also, this was the time when those who had been separated from the Church would
prepare to rejoin the community. |
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Today, Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter.
Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the six Sundays that occur
during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent, and are referred
to as the Sundays in Lent. The number 40 is connected with many biblical events,
but especially with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for
His ministry by facing the temptations that could lead him to abandon his mission
and calling. Christians today use this period of time for introspection, self
examination, and repentance. This season of the year is equal only to the Season
of Advent in importance in the Christian year, and is part of the second major
grouping of Christian festivals and sacred time that includes Holy Week, Easter,
and Pentecost. Lent has traditionally been marked by penitential prayer, fasting,
and almsgiving. Some churches today still observe a rigid schedule of fasting
on certain days during Lent, especially the giving up of meat, alcohol, sweets,
and other types of food. Other traditions do not place as great an emphasis
on fasting, but focus on charitable deeds, especially helping those in physical
need with food and clothing, or simply the giving of money to charities. Most
Christian churches that observe Lent at all focus on it as a time of prayer,
especially penance, repenting for failures and sin as a way to focus on the
need for God‘s grace. It is really a preparation to celebrate God‘s marvelous
redemption at Easter, and the resurrected life that we live, and hope for, as
Christians. |
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Carnival, which comes from a Latin phrase meaning "removal of meat," is the
three day period preceding the beginning of Lent, the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday
immediately before Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of the Lenten Season
(some traditions count Carnival as the entire period of time between Epiphany
and Ash Wednesday). The three days before Ash Wednesday are also known as Shrovetide
("shrove" is an Old English word meaning "to repent"). The Tuesday just before
Ash Wednesday is called Shrove Tuesday, or is more popularly known by the French
term Mardi Gras, meaning "Fat Tuesday," contrasting to the fasting during Lent.
The entire three day period has now come to be known in many areas as Mardi
Gras. Carnival or Mardi Gras is usually a period of celebration, originally
a festival before the fasting during the season of Lent. Now it is celebrated
in many places with parades, costumes, dancing, and music. Many Christians‘
discomfort with Lent originates with a distaste for Mardi Gras, which in some
cultures, especially the Portuguese culture of Brazil and the French culture
of Louisiana, has tended to take on the excesses of wild and drunken revelry.
There has been some attempt in recent years to change this aspect of the season,
such as using Brazilian Carnival parades to focus on national and cultural history.
Many churches now observe Mardi Gras with a church pancake breakfast or other
church meal, eating together as a community before the symbolic fasting of Lent
begins. |
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Ash Wednesday, the seventh Wednesday before Easter Sunday, is the first day
of the season of Lent. Its name comes from the ancient practice of placing ashes
on worshippers‘ heads or foreheads as a sign of humility before God, a symbol
of mourning and sorrow at the death that sin brings into the world. It not only
prefigures the mourning at the death of Jesus, but also places the worshipper
in a position to realize the consequences of sin. The liturgical season of Lent
coincides with spring, calling to mind the new life and growth, the hope and
change that should characterize this time of prayer, penance and conversion.
This is the season of initiation into the grace-life of the Church. For 40 days,
the Church invites us to start afresh.
…Just as Nature renews herself
every spring, so during the Church’s spring we are encouraged to begin
anew with the catechumens. We prepare for the renewal of our baptism, we suffer
with Christ for our sins, we are buried with Him so that we may also arise with
Him to a new life of grace and glory. ~ Therese Mueller ("Our Children’s Year of Grace") |
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The word Lent is derived from an Anglo-Saxon
word lengthen or lencten meaning "spring." We are "to spring"
into action, to do the tasks of the season, to prepare for the new growth and
graces that overflow from Easter. Spring is the most important season for a
farmer, for it determines what crops he will plant. Once decided, he prepares
the soil thoroughly and plants the seed carefully, hoping that the seed buried
deep in the soil will produce an abundant crop. On Palm Sunday, the very threshold
of his death and Resurrection, Our Lord assured his followers that “unless
the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.
But if it dies, it produces much fruit. The man who loves his life loses it,
while the man who hates his life in this world preserves it to life eternal.
If anyone would serve me, let him follow me; where I am, there will my servant
be.” (Jn 12: 24-26) Let us renew our Baptism during this Lenten spring,
joyfully dying to self in order to become that fruitful grain of wheat. |
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The color used in the sanctuary for
most of Lent is purple or dark violet. These colors symbolize both the pain
and suffering leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus as well as the suffering
of humanity and the world under sin. But purple is also the color of royalty,
and so anticipates through the suffering and death of Jesus the coming resurrection
and hope of newness that will be celebrated in the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Some church traditions change the sanctuary colors to red for Maundy Thursday,
a symbol of the disciples and through them the community of the church. Since
Eucharist or communion is often observed on Maundy Thursday in the context of
Passover, the emphasis is on the gathered community in the presence of Jesus
the Christ. Traditionally, the sanctuary colors of Good Friday are black, symbolizing
the darkness brought into the world by sin. It also symbolizes death, not only
the death of Jesus but the death of the whole world under the burden of sin.
In this sense, it also represents the hopelessness and the endings that come
as human beings try to make their own way in the world without God. (See The
Days of Holy Week). Black is used through Holy Saturday, although it is always
replaced by white before sunrise of Easter Sunday.
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