We are entering the Lent time and each liturgical season requires a different interior attitude on the part of the believer, a disposition of faith and heart that changes according to the feasts celebrated during that period and the moment in the life of Jesus or the Saints being commemorated.
There is a time for waiting and a time for fulfillment, and this statement is truer than ever in the cycles and recurrences of the liturgical year, which have been repeated for centuries and involve all Christians.
First of all, we can say that the liturgical year celebrates and renews the life of Jesus throughout the course of an entire year. The heart of the liturgical year is the Paschal Triduum, because it commemorates the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus.
The liturgical year begins with Advent and ends with the Solemnity of Christ the King, at the end of November.
For every Christian, the liturgical year represents a journey of salvation, during which each believer is invited to make Jesus’ earthly and spiritual experience his or her own, in order to transform personal life and make it more worthy and holy according to His example.
The Season of Lent can be compared to a true journey, a baptismal itinerary, in the sense that it helps keep alive the awareness that being Christian is always realized as a continual becoming Christian: it is never a finished story that lies behind us, but a journey that always demands a renewed effort. – Pope Benedict XVI
Lent lasts forty days and precedes the celebration of Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday.
This liturgical season recalls the forty days Jesus spent in the desert. It is therefore a period of penance, prayer, and preparation for Easter, during which believers fight against sin in order to be worthy of Jesus and His sacrifice.
Holy Week is the week preceding Easter and is the most important week of the year. During it, we follow Jesus from His entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) to His arrest, Passion, death, and burial.
Holy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper and opens the solemn Paschal Triduum, the central time of the liturgical year, because during these three days Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood and proclaimed the commandment of fraternal love.
Good Friday commemorates His death on the Cross.
On Holy Saturday, all liturgical celebrations are suspended to remember Jesus’ death, while preparing for the Easter Vigil (the night between Saturday and Sunday).
The liturgical color of Lent is violet.
The Good Practices of Lent
Prayer:
It enables us to live in communion and familiarity with God. There is no Christian life without communion with God, which is reflected in attentive and constant listening to the Word of God, in personal and communal prayer, and in the experience of a “friendship with God.”
Fasting:
It includes all forms of penance, the choices, renunciations, and sacrifices necessary to respond to God’s invitation. The practice of fasting should be a help to our conversion to God.
Almsgiving:
Or rather, fraternal charity. This sacred time should open our hearts to our brothers and sisters: almsgiving, the ability to help, visiting the sick, learning to listen to others, reconciling with someone from whom we have become distant—these are some of the things that can be done in this context!
Reading the Word of God:
This is a time to listen more closely to the Word: man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We recommend reading the Gospel of Saint Mark during this period, which the Church is reading every Sunday of this liturgical year.
