The
Lenten Season begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Thursday
of Holy Week up to Easter.
Lent is the time of preparation for Easter, the greatest
feast of the Church. It is a season for reflection and
taking stock. Lent originated in the very earliest days
of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when Christians
rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed
in the faith and prepared for baptism. By observing the
forty days of Lent, the individual Christian can be mindful
of Jesus' withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days.
Lent has been observed in the church since apostolic times.
During Lent, Christians often focus on Jesus' teaching
ministry as well as His suffering during the
last week of His life, His crucifixion
and death on Good Friday. Lent is sometimes used by Christians
as a time of stripping down to essentials, focusing on
her or his individual relationship with God. It
can be a time when Christians remember their
baptisms, the symbolism of cleansing or forgiveness of
sins and the reception of newness of life to celebrate
in the triumph of the glory of Easter.
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, also
called Sunday of the Passion, and continues through Holy
Thursday (when holy communion was
instituted at the Last Supper) and Good Friday, when Jesus
was tried, crucified, and buried.
Because the Last Supper was celebrated during the Feast
of the Passover, which is calculated on the phases of the
moon, Easter is called a movable feast. Lent is scheduled
backwards from Easter.
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