Weekly Service Bulletin
A Brief Description of Our Liturgical Season - Lent
Lent is one of the most important seasons of the church year and has two major focuses:
The first is on baptism, which in the early church occurred only at Easter. The Sunday readings provide a short course on the meaning of baptism.
The second Lenten theme—one with which most of us are now more familiar—is that of fasting and renunciation. This theme recalls Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, and through them the discipline of self-denial reflecting the sacrifice of our will to the purpose of God.
The word “Lent” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, or spring, the time of year when the days begin to lengthen. Lent itself is always the same period of time, but its starting date is tied to the movable feast of Easter and can be as early as February 4 or as late as March 10. Lent is one of the most important seasons of the church year because it is a time of penitence, an introspective period during which we take stock of our lives and our relationships to discover and change what we must to prepare for Easter and experience the spiritual renewal that comes when we engage in this type of “making right” activity. So, during Lent we each follow the example of Jesus by sacrificing our own will to the purpose of God. After Jesus was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert in preparation for his ministry. For forty days and forty nights he was tempted by the Devil, but remained sinless. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and extends forty days through Holy Saturday representing the forty days Jesus prayed and was tempted.