Lent

What it is

Lent is the Church's great penitential season: from Ash Wednesday to the Paschal Triduum, roughly forty days recalling Christ's fast in the desert. The liturgy strips down—violet, suppressed Alleluia, tracts in place of festal joy—so that EasterGlossaryThe feast of the Resurrection and its fifty-day season—Christ risen, through the octave to Pentecost. is not cheap. The traditional works are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

What it is not

Lent is not a self-improvement challenge with Catholic branding. It is not optional for the serious Catholic who can keep it. It is not already PassiontideGlossaryThe final stretch of Lent focused on the Passion—traditionally the two weeks before Easter, culminating in Holy Week.; the season deepens as Holy Week approaches. It is not a diet—fasting without prayer and mercy is only hunger.

How a Catholic encounters it

Receive ashes. Keep the fasts and abstinences the Church binds (and more if counselled). Go to Confession. Choose one clear mortification and keep it. Pray the Stations. Sing Attende Domine and the Lenten tracts. Arrive at the Triduum emptied enough to be filled.