Lent

The 40-day season of fasting, prayer, and repentance leading to Easter, Lent is Christianity’s most significant penitential period. Mirroring Jesus’s 40 days of temptation in the wilderness, Lent calls believers to self-examination, spiritual discipline, and preparation for the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.

Origins and Development

Biblical Foundation

Jesus’s 40 Days: After baptism, Jesus led by Spirit into wilderness

• Fasted 40 days and nights
• Tempted by Satan
• Responded with Scripture
• Angels ministered to Him

Other Biblical 40s:

• Noah’s flood: 40 days of rain
• Moses on Sinai: 40 days
• Israelites in wilderness: 40 years
• Elijah’s journey: 40 days
• Nineveh’s warning: 40 days

Symbolism: Period of testing, purification, preparation

Historical Development

Early Church (1st-2nd centuries):

• Pre-Easter fast of 1-2 days
• Baptismal candidates prepared intensively
• Entire community supported them with fasting

Formalization (3rd-4th centuries):

• Extended to 40 days (Council of Nicea, 325 CE)
• Penitents reconciled during this time
• Public penance for serious sins
• 6 weeks of 6 days = 36 days + 4 = 40 (Sundays excluded from fast)

Medieval Period:

• Elaborate practices and restrictions
• Ash Wednesday beginning established
• Stations of the Cross developed
• Passion devotions emphasized

Post-Reformation:

• Protestants varied in Lent observance
• Catholics maintained traditional practices
• Anglican via media (middle way)
• Eastern Orthodox developed parallel tradition (Great Lent)

Ash Wednesday

Beginning of Lent

Services and Rituals:

• Ashes imposed on foreheads in sign of cross
• “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19)
• Or: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15)
• Scripture readings on repentance
• Joel 2:12-13: “Return to me with all your heart”
• Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21: Proper fasting and almsgiving

The Ashes:

• Made from burning previous year’s Palm Sunday palms
• Symbol of mortality and repentance
• Public sign of penitence
• Ancient biblical practice (sackcloth and ashes)

Fasting Requirements

Catholic Tradition:

• Ash Wednesday and Good Friday: Fasting (one full meal, two smaller)
• All Fridays in Lent: Abstinence from meat
• Ages 14+ abstain from meat
• Ages 18-59 fast
• Exceptions for health, pregnancy, etc.

Orthodox Tradition:

• Strictest fast—no meat, dairy, fish, oil, wine
• Exceptions on weekends and feast days
• Great Lent is longer (begins 7 weeks before Easter)

Protestant Variations:

• Self-chosen fasts
• Giving up luxuries
• Adding spiritual disciplines
• No universal requirements

Lenten Practices

The Three Pillars

Prayer:

• Increased devotional time
• Daily scripture reading
• Liturgy of the Hours
• Contemplative prayer
• Church services

Fasting:

• From food (traditional)
• From pleasures, entertainment
• From negative habits
• “Fast from judging, feast on kindness”
• Self-discipline and dependence on God

Almsgiving:

• Increased charity
• Serving the poor
• Donating money saved from fasting
• Acts of mercy and justice
• Preferential option for poor

What People Give Up

Traditional:

• Meat
• Sweets and desserts
• Alcohol
• Rich foods
• Entertainment

Modern:

• Social media
• Television
• Shopping (non-essentials)
• Complaining
• Gossip

Taking On (positive disciplines):

• Daily Bible reading
• Prayer practice
• Volunteering
• Reconciliation
• Acts of kindness

Stations of the Cross

14 Stations (traditionally):

1. Jesus condemned to death
2. Jesus carries His cross
3. Jesus falls first time
4. Jesus meets His mother
5. Simon helps carry cross
6. Veronica wipes Jesus’s face
7. Jesus falls second time
8. Jesus meets women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls third time
10. Jesus stripped of garments
11. Jesus nailed to cross
12. Jesus dies on cross
13. Jesus taken down from cross
14. Jesus laid in tomb

Practice: Walking meditation on Christ’s passion Fridays in Lent: Many churches offer Stations

Liturgical Changes

Altar and Decoration:

• Purple vestments (penitence)
• Simplified decorations
• No flowers
• Crucifixes may be veiled (before Vatican II)

Worship:

• No “Alleluia” (Lent through Easter Vigil)
• No “Gloria in Excelsis”
• Penitential prayers emphasized
• Psalm 51 featured

Music:

• Solemn hymns
• Passion chorales
• “Were You There?”
• “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”

Theological Themes

Repentance

Metanoia (Greek): Change of mind and heart

• Not mere regret but transformation
• Turning from sin to God
• Confession and amendment
• Renewal of baptismal commitment

Self-Denial

Following Christ:

• “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24)
• Dying to self
• Crucifying flesh
• Spiritual discipline
• Training in godliness

Mortality

Ash Wednesday Reminder:

• Life is brief
• Death is certain
• Eternity awaits
• “Dust to dust”
• Memento mori (remember death)

Solidarity with Christ

Sharing His Suffering:

• United with Christ in His passion
• “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20)
• Bearing cross
• Fellowship of His sufferings
• Preparing to share His resurrection

Spiritual Warfare

Temptation Theme:

• Jesus tempted in wilderness
• Christians face temptation
• “Put on the full armor of God” (Eph. 6:11)
• Resisting devil
• Overcoming through Christ

Lent in Different Traditions

Roman Catholic

Obligatory Observance:

• Ash Wednesday ashes
• Fasting regulations
• Abstinence from meat on Fridays
• Lenten devotions (Stations, etc.)
• Confession encouraged

Vatican II Renewal:

• Emphasis on inner conversion vs. mere external observance
• Focus on scripture
• Communal nature emphasized
• Liturgical reforms

Eastern Orthodox

Great Lent:

• Longer (7 weeks before Easter)
• Stricter fasting
• Lenten Triodion (special prayer book)
• Prostrations and increased prayer
• Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts (Wednesdays and Fridays)

Clean Monday:

• Begins with outdoor celebrations (Greece)
• Kite flying
• Fasting begins immediately
• Community gatherings

Anglican/Episcopal

Book of Common Prayer:

• Ash Wednesday service
• Daily offices emphasized
• Self-imposed disciplines
• “Holy Lent” language

Middle Way:

• Between Catholic and Protestant extremes
• Liturgical observance maintained
• Individual freedom in practices
• Community support

Protestant (Evangelical, Reformed)

Varied Observance:

• Many historically ignored Lent
• Growing interest in liturgical seasons
• Self-chosen disciplines
• No required fasting
• Emphasis on personal devotion

Some Avoid:

• View as “works righteousness”
• Not biblically mandated
• Prefer grace over law
• Individual conviction

Lent Today

Cultural Impact

Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras:

• Day before Ash Wednesday
• “Fat Tuesday”—feasting before fast
• Pancakes (using up rich foods)
• Carnival celebrations
• New Orleans, Rio, Venice traditions

Fish Fridays:

• McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish invented for Lent
• Restaurants offer fish specials
• Cultural accommodation to Catholic practice

Modern Challenges

Secularization:

• Declining observance
• Cultural Christianity waning
• “Giving up” chocolate vs. deep repentance

Consumerism:

• Difficulty fasting in abundance
• Constant entertainment available
• Discipline countercultural

Superficiality:

• Social media “what I’m giving up”
• Missing deeper spiritual meaning
• External vs. internal

Renewal Movements

Returning to Roots:

• Young adults rediscovering Lent
• Liturgical renewal across denominations
• Small groups doing Lent together
• Books and resources proliferating

Creative Practices:

• Social media fasts
• Carbon fasts (environmental)
• Adding positives vs. just giving up
• Family Lent practices
• Themed devotionals

The Message of Lent

Lent asks: What controls you? Whatever you can’t give up for 40 days likely has too much power over you. Fasting reveals our dependencies and idols.

The 40 days mirror Jesus’s wilderness testing. He entered as Spirit-filled, emerged as Spirit-empowered. Lent offers the same journey: entering honestly, emerging transformed.

Ash Wednesday’s stark reminder—“You are dust”—is liberating. Strip away pretense. Acknowledge mortality. Face the reality that apart from God, we have nothing and are nothing.

But Lent isn’t mere morbidity. It’s preparation. Athletes train for competition. Musicians practice for concerts. Christians prepare for Easter. The discipline of Lent makes Easter joy deeper, sweeter, more profound.

Lent teaches: Spiritual strength comes through spiritual struggle. Fasting weakens body but strengthens spirit. Simplicity clears clutter, making space for God. Giving away reveals we have enough.

And Lent is communal. The whole church fasts together, prays together, journeys together toward Easter. We’re not lone ascetics but a community of disciples following Jesus to the cross—and beyond it to resurrection.

The purple vestments, the solemn hymns, the bare altars—all create space for honesty. Lent gives permission to acknowledge brokenness, sin, mortality, failure. And in that honesty, grace floods in.

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” — Joel 2:12

Forty days to strip away what hinders. Forty days to pursue what matters. Forty days to practice resurrection living before resurrection comes.

And when Easter arrives, after the darkness and discipline of Lent, the cry “He is risen!” explodes with joy that those who skip Lent never fully know.

Journey through wilderness. Embrace the cross. Die to self. And prepare for resurrection.

Lent is the path to Easter. And Easter is worth it.