The season of Lent, a 40 day period in the Catholic liturgical calendar, is a time of almsgiving, fasting, abstinence, and preparation for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Learn more about the beliefs of the Catholic faith here). The 40 day length of Lent mirrors the 40 days and nights that Jesus fasted in the desert before his crucifixion, and Catholics practice turning away from their own worldly temptations during Lent the way that Jesus turned down the Devil’s temptations.
“Lent is so important to Catholics because it’s our opportunity to recommit our lives to Christ, and refocus our spiritual life on him,” Father Chris Eckrich, Priest Secretary to Bishop James D. Conley, said. “It can be easy to get distracted throughout the year, and forget the eternal things. But this season reminds us of what our Lord has done for us, to become humbly aware of our weakness and sinfulness, and reminds us of our need for a Saviour.”
While Lent does exist in Protestant denominations, there is a more intentional observation for Catholics. However, people outside the Catholic Church, and even some inside, don’t understand the full scope of the Lenten season.
Lent officially starts on Ash Wednesday, which took place this year on March 5. On Ash Wednesday, Catholics receive blessed ashes on their forehead in the shape of a cross. The ashes are those of the palm leaves from the previous Lent’s Palm Sunday Mass (read more about Palm Sunday later in the article).
Ash Wednesday is a day of penance. The ashes symbolize mortality. When receiving ashes on the head, the priest says the words, “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The ashes are a physical reminder that while bodies will decay, souls will live on in eternal life.
Ash Wednesday is also the first day of fasting and abstinence in the Lenten season. For Catholics, fasting means that followers are only allowed to consume two full meals on the required days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday). This fasting is not only for them to deny cravings, but also to be more intentional in thinking about God, instead of their stomachs.
According to a Catholic.com article titled, How to Fast During Lent, and Why, “in the act of fasting, we tell God that we are going to sacrifice a good [food] for a greater good [prayer]. Thus, fasting by itself is not what God requires, but fasting coupled with prayer.”
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are specifically chosen for fasting due to their importance in the Lent season as well as their significance in the life of Jesus.
“It is good to be a bit uncomfortable on those two days,” Fr Eckrich said. “Ash Wednesday because we remember that we are nothing without him–and Good Friday because it’s our opportunity to suffer with him on the day he poured out his life for us.”
In addition to these two days of fasting, abstinence is a prominent practice during lent. The church requires that members of the Catholic Church aged fourteen and older participate in abstaining from meat on Fridays.
According to an article by The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis titled, Why don’t Catholics eat meat on Fridays?, “Abstinence is one of the oldest Christian traditions. ‘From the first century, the day of the crucifixion has been traditionally observed as a day of abstaining from flesh meat (“black fast”) to honor Christ who sacrificed his flesh on a Friday’ (Klein, P., Catholic Source Book, 93).”
Because Catholics believe that Jesus sacrificed his flesh and body for the forgiveness of their sins, Catholics refrain from eating flesh meat in his honor on Fridays during Lent. This abstinence is a form of penance, expressing a deep sorrow for their sins, and indicating an intentional turning away from those sins and towards God. Abstinence also allows Catholics to deny earthly cravings, and turn to the Lord when those cravings arise.
The Archdiocese’s article continues, “Abstinence is a form of asceticism, the practice of self-denial to grow in holiness. Jesus asks his disciples to deny themselves and take up their cross (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23).”
Catholics don’t only turn away from their earthly desires in terms of meat, they are also encouraged to give up something in their life that they feel pulls them away from God. This could be social media, sweets, unnecessary spending, etc.
“I gave up fast food for Lent because if Jesus can die for me on the cross, it’s the least I could do for him,” Brynn Ulrich, junior at Lincoln Pius X High School, said. “I feel like giving this up made me closer to God because I realized that if this is really hard for me to do, it is nothing compared to what God did for us by dying on the cross. So giving up something means I can grow in my relationship with him which is so important to me.”
For Catholics, giving things up is not just about breaking bad habits, it is about devoting more time and energy towards a relationship with God. It is remembering that the things they have in this world are nothing compared to what is set aside for them in heaven.
“The good things of this life are gifts from our Lord, but they can distract us from the Eternal things,” Fr. Eckrich said. “By offering them up, we are ordering our hearts correctly to seek Jesus above all things, to find our comfort, and fulfillment in him. The things of this world will never satisfy our hearts. St. Augustine wrote that ‘You have made us for your own O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.’ So by offering up these things, we are reminding ourselves of that reality. Plus, he suffered so much for us, that we can suffer a bit for him.”
Another way that Catholics disconnect from their earthly possessions and connect with others during Lent is through charity. This charity is called almsgiving, and is one of the three main aspects of Lent.
According to a USCCB page on Almsgiving, “The foundational call of Christians to charity is a frequent theme of the Gospels. During Lent, we are asked to focus more intently on “almsgiving,” which means donating money or goods to the poor and performing other acts of charity. As one of the three pillars of Lenten practice, almsgiving is “a witness to fraternal charity” and “a work of justice pleasing to God.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2462).
Almsgiving incorporates the spiritual practices of prayer and fasting into the care and love for others. Catholics’ goal is to deepen their prayer by helping those in poverty and understanding what it means to not have many belongings. This reminds them that they are blessed with their earthly possessions and that those belongings are not as important as their connection with the Lord.
“Alms giving and charity are very important because it helps us recognize the needs of others, and to see Jesus latent in each person we have,” Fr. Eckrich said. “We do not have riches for our own sake. Any material blessings we may have are entrusted to us to help us serve others. ‘To whom much is given, much is expected.’ Almsgiving and charity are important because it helps us understand that reality, and gets us to care about others rather than only about ourselves.”
For Catholics, the goal of almsgiving, abstinence, and fasting is to gain a deeper connection to God in preparation for his death and resurrection.
According to a USCCB page on 10 Things to Remember For Lent, “Lent is essentially an act of prayer spread out over 40 days. As we pray, we go on a journey, one that hopefully brings us closer to Christ and leaves us changed by the encounter with him.”
During the 40 days of Lent, Catholics are called to engage in deeper prayer, in addition to their normal prayer commitments. Catholics are required to attend Mass (church service) every Sunday, and during Lent, many Catholics will make a commitment to daily Mass in order to gain a deeper understanding of scripture. Another common method of additional prayer is adoration, or spending time in the presence of the blessed sacrament.
For Catholics, the goal of Lent is to grow closer to God and prepare for his crucifixion. His death and resurrection are played out in four main holidays towards the close of the Lenten season. The first of these holidays is Palm Sunday, which occurs exactly one week before Easter.
According to a Simply Catholic article by D.D. Hemons titled, What Palm Sunday Means, “It is a time of despair, perplexity and contradiction. The very people who applaud Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem that morning, shouting out ‘Hosanna’ and words of adoration will, within a week, be crying, ‘Crucify Him.’ They will go from acclaiming Him as the new King of Israel to urging His life be traded in favor of a convicted criminal; they will first praise Him and then mock Him. Even friends entering Jerusalem at His side will desert Jesus. All this discord will take place during one week beginning on what we call Palm Sunday.”
Palms have long been a symbol of success, victory, and glory. Armies returning from the battlefield were welcomed by the people with joyful waving of palm leaves. The Jews welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem the same way they would treat a successful leader, showing that they believed he was worthy of glory.
Today, Catholics continue this act of waving palms for the Lord on Palm Sunday. However they believe that Christ has not yet been victorious, and that his true victory comes through his death.
D.D. Hemons continues, “Soon our joy turns to somberness as, clutching our palm, we hear the narrative of Christ’s passion. We realize, once again, that His triumph, His true victory, will come through the cross. We know, as Jesus did, how Holy Week will end. We know that joy will turn to sorrow and back to joy. We know that through the horror of His suffering, followed by the glory of His resurrection, good will trump evil and life will trump death.”
For Catholics, this victory occurs on Good Friday, the day that Jesus dies on the cross for the sins of the World. Although this day is named Good Friday, it is a day of mourning the loss of their savior. Although in a deep state of sorrow, Catholics call the day Good Friday because the supreme goodness and extraordinary love of God and God’s offer of salvation to all people is revealed to them.
According to a Catholic News Agency article titled, The Significance of Good Friday, “On Good Friday, the entire Church fixes her gaze on the Cross at Calvary. Each member of the Church tries to understand at what cost Christ has won our redemption. In the solemn ceremonies of Good Friday, in the Adoration of the Cross, in the chanting of the ‘Reproaches’, in the reading of the Passion, and in receiving the pre-consecrated Host, we unite ourselves to our Savior, and we contemplate our own death to sin in the Death of our Lord.”
This sorrowful feeling continues until the joyful end of Lent on Easter Sunday. Catholics and all Christians believe that after Jesus’s death on Good Friday, he rises from the dead on Easter. Easter is considered the most important and joyful holiday in the liturgical year.
According to a USCCB page on Easter, “The word “Easter” comes from Old English, meaning simply the ‘East.’ The sun which rises in the East, bringing light, warmth, and hope, is a symbol for the Christian of the rising Christ, who is the true Light of the world.”
The joy Catholics and Christians feel on Easter, is due to the knowledge that God has conquered death and all sins, and that he is more powerful than any force that pulls us away from him. It shows that even in their own death, or in the depths of sin, God will always be with them.
According to a Hallow page titled Easter 2025, “At Easter, we rejoice in the empty tomb—Jesus’s resurrection. Easter is the day Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified. The empty tomb means that Jesus’s words rang true. He fulfilled the promises of Scripture and conquered sin and death. Had Jesus not risen from the dead, the world would have seen Him as just a prophet or teacher instead of who he is: the Son of God, the Messiah. Jesus overcoming death is the reason we know His name today. It’s the foundation of all Christianity. With His death and resurrection, Jesus opened heaven to all of us. Because of Easter, we know that no matter what sufferings we experience or what sins we struggle with, God is always with us.”
Easter is the ultimate finale to the season of Lent. It reminds Catholics why they have sacrificed so much leading up to the resurrection. For them, the seemingly difficult things they give up through fasting and abstinence throughout Lent, are nothing compared to the sacrifice Jesus gave by dying on the cross for sins.
All of their Lenten preparation has culminated into a deeper love and understanding of Christ’s teachings and all he has done for the world. Catholics around the world use this time to recognize their wrong-doings and the things that draw them away from God, and realizing that even in their failures, God is good.
“He has done so much for us, more than we could possibly fathom,” Fr. Eckrich said. “But the world around us is enticing, and can distract us from his incredible love. We need a chance to slow down and see that we would be nothing without him. It can be so easy to lie to ourselves that we are doing fine, and don’t really need a savior. But when we come face to face with our weakness, face to face with our failures and sinfulness, there can be no other response to him other than immense gratitude for loving us so much. The Church doesn’t want us to hate ourselves when we see our sinfulness, but simply to motivate us to not become complacent, and to keep “seeking first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness.” (Mt. 6:33.) When we have that awareness, it will make his death all the more impactful, as we will be more filled with gratitude, and it will make his resurrection more profound, as we will see that not even our weaknesses could keep him from loving us.”
If you want to learn even more about the beliefs of the Catholic Church, read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which outlines the important dates and practices in the Catholic faith.
