What is Lent?

Yesterday, Ash Wednesday, began lent - the 40 day (minus Sundays) pilgrimage of Christian souls to the understanding of the passion of Jesus Christ. Lent is a time of drawing closer to Jesus by repentance - which includes letting go of lusts that all too often replace healthy passion. We lust after food, drink, thrills, things, sex...... We should be passionate about life and love and caring for others and the created order. During lent we review our lives - we evaluate what we truly worship and emulate as gods - then we try to chip away at anything we find which hidners our love relationship with the Creator God whom we understand through the incarnation in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Lent is a challenging time. The faithful set aside time and resources to reach inward and serve outward. Christian pilgrims walk, talk, live and breathe - faith, hope, faithfulness, peace, passion, love, generosity - as part of the life God entrusts to us for the few years of this earthly existance. Let us learn to be good stewards of our blessings and truthful appraisers of what needs pruned (cut away) in our lives. Joy will be the result - maybe even exhuberance.

History of Ash Wednesday, the Beginning of Catholic Lent|Catholic Update February�2004

History of Ash Wednesday, the Beginning of Catholic LentCatholic Update February�2004