A Catholic’s Guide to Lent
My favorite season is finally upon us! It’s my favorite time of year as we experience a season of cleansing and we deepen our relationship with our creator. Lent is a great way to feel closer to God even for those of us who aren’t Catholics! Before we continue with this guide to Lent, we must first ask ourselves, what is Lent?
Lent is a 40 day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It is a preparation for the Lord's resurrection at Easter.
It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday
Well, that’s great and all, but what is the purpose of Lent?
Its purpose is to focus on Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross and the miracle of his resurrection! It’s a way to connect closer to God and remind ourselves of the sacrifice made for us.
Now that we know what Lent is and why we even pay attention to it, here’s my guide to Lent!
Daily Prayer
If you’re like me, praying can feel like a difficult task. Not because praying is something unlikeable or a burden, but sometimes we find ourselves busy and find little time to sit down and pray a full rosary.
I find the best way to overcome this obstacle is by praying during times of leisure. We always manage to take time for ourselves to eat or to watch TV, maybe we find time to go for a walk outside. Consider the amount of time you spend driving from one place to another. I live 30 minutes away from my work, on my drive I find it easier to follow a long a guide to a Rosary prayer using Hallow, a guided prayer app.
Fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
Eat one meal a day, and two smaller meals that do not equal a whole meal. Fasting is required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, those from the ages of 18-60 are required to fast with the exception of the sick and disabled.
Fasting is a cleansing process, in many ways, holistically, fasting is suggested when sick because the body needs a reboot. In this case fasting is a spiritual reboot, preparing ourselves for the upcoming season of Lent.
Some people choose to fast for the entire season of Lent, others prefer to fast only on the days required. In truth, fasting is a self-sacrifice.
Abstinence
Most of the time abstinence is brought up, it’s during a high school health class recommending students to keep it in their pants. Not in this case, that’s a conversation for another day.
In this case, abstinence is refraining from eating meat. Meat is considered the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl (fish are not considered meat in this case).
The days of abstinence are on Ash Wednesday, all Fridays of Lent, and Good Friday. Everyone 14 and older is required to abstain from meat on these days.
Almsgiving
Almsgiving is the practice of giving to those in need as an act of compassion.
A way to give alms is by volunteering your time, giving at a food bank, and making bags of toiletry items to give to the homeless.
By giving your time to others and helping those in need, you’re showing almsgiving, one way I like to think of it is “what would Jesus do for others?” and I go by that guide. In a way it’s the easiest thing to do during Lent!
I know this is very short, but my heart jumped when I realized Ash Wednesday was tomorrow and I desperately wanted to share my guide to Lent with you! There will be more Lent related content coming soon!
xoxo,
Sarita
