The name for this season of the Church’s year originally meant ‘spring’, deriving from the German root for ‘long’:

Lent is the time of the year when the days become noticeably longer.

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Lent lasts for forty days, which is a significant period in Scripture.

This is the length of the flood in Genesis and of Moses’s fast before he was given the Ten Commandments.

More importantly, it is also the length of Jesus’s stay in the desert before beginning his active ministry.

 

Lent is a time of awakening; an opportunity to ‘start again’; a chance for renewal and re-commitment.

Above all, it is a call to love in the way that Jesus loved the Father and each of us: continually, and through self-giving.

It is good to remember that Lent is a ‘sober’ but not a ‘sombre’ time.

Indeed, Lent can be a time of gladness when we focus on drawing nearer to God.

 

Traditional Lenten practices can assist us with this, and our Works of Love can take many forms.

Prayer, repentance and forgiveness, sometimes through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, lie at the heart of our faith.

Fasting can help us develop internal freedom.

Almsgiving may prompt us not just to give money, but also time, support and friendship –

and perhaps a listening ear to someone who needs it.

All of these are well-tried ways in which we can co-operate with God. 

 

The season of Lent is also a special time to let God come close to us and let his Holy Spirit work within us:

• To help us examine the way in which we love;

• To touch our minds and hearts, and so help us live according to the values of Jesus himself;

• To reflect on Jesus’s boundless love for us, shown particularly in his Passion, Death and Resurrection;

• To strengthen our resolve to change our focus, putting the interests of others rather than our own self first.