Lent - Part 1

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Knowing about LENT- Part 1
WHAT IS LENT?
Lent is a forty-day liturgical season that initiates the most sacred part of the Christian year.  Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on the Great Vigil of Easter.  Sundays are not included in the forty-day count because every Sunday is a joyful celebration of our Lord's resurrection.  During Lent, Christians meditate on the great paschal mystery -- the salvation God won for us sinners by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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WHAT DOES THE WORD "LENT" MEAN?
The word Lent is apparently derived from the Old English lencten, which means "lengthen."  It refers to the lengthening of the daylight hours that occurs in the northern hemisphere as spring approaches.  It is in this period of transition from late winter to early spring that the season of Lent falls.

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WHAT IS ASH WEDNESDAY?

Ash Wednesday (from the Latin Dies Cinerum, meaning "Day of Ashes") is the first day of Lent.  On this day, Christians focus intensely on their utter and complete sinfulness and the necessity of Christ's suffering and death to earn their salvation.  Ashes are referred to many times in the Old Testament as a sign of sorrow, mourning, repentance, and mortality (2 Samuel 13:19;Esther 4:1-3; Job 42:6; and Jeremiah 6:26).  Many churches use ashes during Ash Wednesday worship as part of a rite called the Imposition of Ashes.  According to this custom, ashes (traditionally made by burning palm fronds used on Palm Sunday of the previous year) are mixed with a small amount of olive oil and applied to the forehead of each worshipper.  The smudge mark made by the dirty ashes is a powerful reminder that we are going to die because death is the penalty for our depraved natures and sins of thought, word, and deed.  The fact that the ashes are placed on our foreheads in the sign of the cross directs us to Jesus Christ as the only way to forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life in heaven.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Ps.51:10