Purple Season: Suffering, Mourning and Reigning

Purple Season: Suffering, Mourning and Reigning

Lent briefly explained

People are often intrigued with the origin of things and events. The beginning of Lent may be known to only a few. Here are eight facts relating to the season of Lent.

1. Baptism

The key to understanding the meaning of Lent.A special time of prayer, penance, sacrifice and good works in preparation of the celebration of Easter. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of Vatican Council II stated, "The two elements which are especially characteristic of Lent — the recalling of baptism or the preparation for it, and penance — should be given greater emphasis in the liturgy and in liturgical catechesis.

2. Spring

The word Lent itself is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words lencten, meaning "Spring," and lenctentid, which literally means not only "Springtide" but also was the word for "March," the month in which the majority of Lent falls.

3. Council of Nicea

The earliest mention of Lent in the history of the Church comes from the council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The council of Nicaea is best known for the profession of faith – the ‘Nicene Creed’ – which is still recited in most parishes every Sunday immediately after the sermon. However, the council also issued twenty canons of a practical nature, dealing with various aspects of church life, and the fifth of these canons speaks of Lent.

4. Ash Wednesday

This marks the beginning of Lent. This emphasizes our mortality and our need for ongoing repentance. Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person's forehead, he speaks the words: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

5. 40 Days

Being mentioned in the Scriptures for 146 times, 40 days [and 40 nights]  has always had special spiritual significance regarding preparation. It was also a symbol of the  period of testing, probation and trial. Also coming from the fifth canon of Nicea is the length of time that was adopted in imitation of the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert at the beginning of his public ministry.

6.  Fasting 

This requires a Catholic to reduce the amount of food eaten from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. The rules of fasting varied. First, some areas of the Church abstained from all forms of meat and animal products, while others made exceptions for food like fish. Second, the general rule was for a person to have one meal a day, in the evening or at 3 p.m.

7. Abstinence

Abstinence requires a Catholic 14 years of age until death to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday, every Friday during Lent and good Friday.

8.  Pillars of Lent

Prayer
Fasting
Alms giving

An info graphic about Lenten Season

Sources: catholiceducation.org

                christianitytoday.com

                thinkingfaith.org