LENT

The 40 days of fasting, penance, and almsgiving beginning on Ash Wednesday. The name of the season comes from the Anglo Saxon Lenten, for lengthening of the days. For the Church, Lent has traditionally meant an approaching Baptism, of appreciation and understanding of Redemption, and a renewal of faith. For the faithful, there has often been a greater emphasis on sin and penance, especially fasting and sacrifice. Catholics still “give up things” for Lent – candy or alcohol or movies on television – but the Church encourages this sort of sacrifice only on the sense of constructive mortification; that is, as aids to remembering that we need nothing except God. The Church enthusiastically recommends positive Lenten practices such as daily Mass, and prayer, almsgiving, and the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

ASH WEDNESDAY

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, when Catholics are marked on their foreheads with the ashes of burnt palms saved from the previous Lent. In the early years of Christianity, this anointing with ashes was a public ceremony of temporary excommunication for those who had committed “capital” sins (pride, envy, sloth, lust, greed, intemperance and anger). By the 11the century, however, all the faithful were invited to participate and openly declare their personal unworthiness. Catholics of the ‘50s and ‘60s remember the priest’s admonition as the ashes were distributed “Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shall return.” An alternative formula used today is “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”

ABSTINENCE

Abstinence is the refraining from meat and all foods prepared with meat as required by the Church. While older Catholics remember Friday abstinence throughout the year, the bishops only recommend that penitential practice today. Abstinence is obligatory on the Fridays of Lent, on Good Friday and on Ash Wednesday. Even on these days, allowances are made for age – the very old and the young – health and emergencies. The point of abstinence, as of fasting, is not simply to go hungry, but to focus on the true source of our nourishment.

FASTING

Fasting is a general term that refers to any limiting of eating and drinking for a religious reason. To Catholics, fasting used to mean one meal per day, today two lesser meals are allowed if they don’t add up to more than the main meal.

Fasting, along with abstinence, is required on Ash Wednesday Good Friday, and the Fridays of Lent, and encouraged on all Fridays of the year.

References:

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catholic Digest 2001

The Season of Lent

By: Rev. Fr. Thomas Enzler, S.J.

Professor of Church History