The Gray Monk

What is Lent?

Lent is a period of fasting (we are supposed to give something up for Lent), and in times past it was strictly observed as a “fast” with only basic meals and water to drink. Sundays are not kept as “fasts”, because they are “Feast” days, thus we are allowed to relax our “fast” on Sundays. In effect this means that Lent lasts for more than 40 days, since there are six Sundays in Lent.

The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon, meaning “Spring” or “Refreshment”. It is still used in Dutch, Friesian, Danish, and German in different forms to mean Spring. For Christians it is a time of preparation for the commemoration of the Passion and Easter. It is comparable to the period of fasting observed by the Muslims in the Ramadan Fast which closes one year and heralds the new one.

Why forty days?

The fast of forty days commemorates Our Lord’s period of preparation for his ministry. After His baptism in the river Jordan, he went into the desert for a period of solitude and fasting lasting forty days. Forty is a significant number and is used in a number of different situations in the Bible, for example; forty years in the Sinai Desert. It symbolises purification and preparation.

Colours in Lent

It is usual for a church to use purple vestments, altar frontals, and dossal clothes. Alternatively they can use the Sarum colours which are sackcloth (Unbleached linen) adorned with black and red symbols. Flowers and banners are usually put away, as it is a “Penitential” season.

Worship in Lent

During Lent it is customary to leave out the Gloria during the Eucharist and to say the Creed and the Lords Prayer instead of singing them. This is because it is a season in which we think about the things we have done wrong over the past year and prepare for Easter.

How was Lent introduced?

The season came about as a preparation period for people who wished to become Christians as, in the early Church, it was the custom to baptise all new converts at Easter, on the Eve of Easter or Holy Saturday. The converts would spend as much time as possible studying the scriptures and preparing themselves for Baptism.

In those days, Baptism was also an act of “confirmation” so that the new Christian could receive their first communion at the Mass on Easter Day.

When does it start?

Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, which gets its name from the practice of imposing ashes on your forehead and wearing torn clothes as a sign of mourning. We still impose the mark of the ashes as a symbol that we are penitents seeking reconciliation with God.

How should we keep Lent?

We should keep Lent quietly, giving up something we like, but also taking up something we find hard. We should try to remember on each day why we are thankful to God and why we should prepare ourselves to celebrate Easter properly.

Read: 1 Corinthians 9. 24 to the end, and
Luke 18. 9 - 14