How are you spending Lent?

For the next six weeks what will you be doing in preparation for the celebration of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ? This time of preparation for the Catholic Church along with other Christians around the world for what is called the season of Lent. For the Catholic Church in particular it is a time of fasting, penance and alms giving.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church it describes the season of Lent as the following:

"The liturgical season of forty days which begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with the celebration of the Paschal Mystery (Easter Triduum). Lent is the primary penitential season in the Church's liturgical year, reflecting the forty days Jesus spent in the desert in fasting and prayer."

I hope that however you are spending it you are using the time to prepare for the greatest of all Christian holidays (holy days) Easter.

If you are a Catholic the Church requires you to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Also we are not to eat meat on all Friday's through out Lent, which includes any meat that is from a warm-blooded animal.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church also speaks of the season of Lent as the following:

Catechism 1438,
"The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works)."

Although most people think of Lent as a time of giving things up we can also spend it by doing more to enrich our faith. Whether it is more time in prayer, possibly praying the Rosary or Chaplet of Divine Mercy, or daily Mass we can all give the Lord a little more of our time. How are you going to spend your 40 days in the desert?