St. Joseph/St Raphael Springfield at 225 E. High Street, Springfield, OH 45505-1052 US - Lent and Advent

LENT

Journeying through Lent as a Family Booklet
Journeying through Lent as a Family Booklet

The Season of Lent:
When Catholics Repent
The season of Lent is one of the most significant events of the year for the Catholic Church. Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and continues for forty days (excluding Sundays), ending on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday. A

Word About Lent
The word "Lent" comes from the Old English meaning, "spring." Like so many other holidays, Lent is a season-based holiday that, over the centuries, has become almost synonymous with spring. In other languages, the holiday is referred to as "Quadragesima," a term that means "the 40 days."

A Season That's 40 Days Long
The season of Lent lasts for forty days because this is the biblical number of days necessary for preparation. For instance, Moses stayed on Mt. Sinai for forty days and Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, praying and fasting.

For Catholics, Lent is a period of ongoing prayer, fasting and abstinence.

It's about commemorating Jesus Christ's death for our sins and His ultimate resurrection for our salvation. Traditionally, Lent has been a period in which Catholics "give up" something they enjoy. Surrendering a particular pleasure (such as a favorite food or drink or going to the movies) is done in the name of repentance. It also serves as a means of imposing a discipline on our wills—to prove (to ourselves) that we are not slaves to pleasure. It's important to note that this Lenten denial of pleasure is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an end.

What Lent Means Today
Today, Lent has evolved from its strict time of penance into a statement of solidarity for those about to be baptized. Those already baptized can use the Lenten period to reaffirm their baptismal promises as well. The point on all counts is to affirm—or reaffirm—one's connection and commitment to Jesus Christ. Accordingly, during Lent, believers must bring their questions, their sinfulness, their hunger and their thirst—through the Lenten sacrifice—to attest to their need to grow spiritually and their longing for God. As stated earlier, the season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. On Ash Wednesday (the Day of Ashes) the foreheads of Christians are marked with ash in the sign of the cross to symbolize their devotion to God. The ashes used on Ash Wednesday are the burned remains of the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday.

Other significant days that occur during the season of Lent are:

• PALM SUNDAY occurs on the Sunday before Easter and marks the beginning of Holy Week.
• HOLY THURSDAY (Maundy Thursday) is the day of the Last Supper (or the First Mass). In addition, this meal was a celebration of Passover.
• GOOD FRIDAY occurs the Friday before Easter and commemorates Christ's crucifixion.
• HOLY SATURDAY is the day Christ was laid in the tomb. It is the last day of Lent, the day before Easter.
• EASTER SUNDAY marks the day of Christ's Resurrection and is the first day after Lent.

ADVENT

According to present [1907] usage, Advent is a period beginning with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (30 November) and embracing four Sundays. The first Sunday may be as early as 27 November, and then Advent has twenty-eight days, or as late as 3 December, giving the season only twenty-one days.

With Advent the ecclesiastical year begins in the Western churches. During this time the faithful are admonished

• to prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord's coming into the world as the incarnate God of love,
• thus to make their souls fitting abodes for the Redeemer coming in Holy Communion and through grace, and
• thereby to make themselves ready for His final coming as judge, at death and at the end of the world.

What is Advent?
Advent, which comes from the Latin word for "arrival" or "coming," is a period of preparation for the birth of our Lord. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas and is the start of the Christmas season, which lasts through the Baptism of Our Lord. The first Sunday of Advent also marks the beginning of the liturgical year, the Church's "New Year's Day," at which time we change the cycle of readings we are using at Mass.

Advent is a time of joyous anticipation, but also of penance and preparation for the great Christmas feast. The liturgical color of the season is purple, a sign of penance, which is also used during Lent.

The Church discourages excessive ornamentation, boisterous music and even weddings during Advent, in order to foster a sense of quiet hope.

Who established Advent?
According to the Harper Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism, edited by Richard P. McBrien, Gregory the Great, who died in 604, was the real architect of the Roman Advent. Gregory fixed the season at four weeks and composed seasonal prayers and antiphons. Gaul (France) enriched the season with eschatological elements. And the fusion of the Roman and Gallican observances returned to Rome by the 12th century.

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