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Season Of Lent
The Holy Season of Lent is a journey of faith of the pilgrim Church on earth on its way to meet the Lord at Easter. The Lenten Season begins on Ash Wednesday (reminding us through the observance of interior repentance and penance, prayer, fasting and almsgiving) fine tuning our hearts and minds reflecting on the redemptive actions of Jesus and ends with the Mass of the Lord's Supper, exclusive on Holy Thursday.
This season has a unique two part preparation:
- The First part, includes the "Pre-Lent" of Ash Wednesday liturgy, and continues through the rest fo week till Saturday of the Third Sunday of Lent. In these three and half weeks, the Gospel Texts are taken from the synoptics and the Old Testament Readings are chosen accordingly. The message running throughout is a call to a life of Gospel conversion. The pericopes speak of beginning anew, of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving; of conversion; of mutual forgiveness; of hardness of ehart, of love of enemies; of absolute claims of justice and love over ritual and cult; of the call to holiness and so forth.
- The readings for the Second half of Lent, are taken from the Gospel of John, beginning on Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent at Chapter 4:43 and going through, omitting passages read on Sundays and during Easter, to chapter 13. It is a presentation of the mystery of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, of whom John says that all who believe in him will have eternal life. Chirst is presented as a healer and life-giver, as the one who gives life through his confrontation with death and gathers into one the scattered children of God.
The Lenten Season presents before us the shift from the ethical to the Christological:
- Ethical: The purpose of the first part is to bring us to a compunction (which means to puncture), suggesting the deflation of our inflated egos, a challenge to any self-deceit about the quality of our lives as disciples of Jesus. By hitting us again and again with the demands of the Gospel, which we not only fail to heed and obey, but which we come to realize (left to ourselves) as being quite beyond us; the Gospels therefore confront our illusions about ourselves.: "Remember, you are dust..." to bring home to us our radical need of salvation.
- Christological: In answer to this profound awareness of need the Gospels transition from the demands of discipleship to the person of Jesus. John presents Jesus as the Savior, but Jesus can only save those who know their need for salvation. Confronted with our alienation from God, helplessness and powerlessness, we pray for our salvation.
Taken from ‘The Spirit of Lent,” Mark Searle, in Assembly, Volume 8:3, Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, Notre Dame, IN
The Lenten Season has a twofold character, namely:
To prepare both catechumen and faithful to celebrate the Paschal Mystery.
The Catechumens, both with the Rite of Election and Scrutinies and by Catechesis, are prepared for the celebration of the Sacraments of Christian initiation;
The faithful, ever more attentive to the word of God and prayer, prepare themselves by penance and other Lenten spiritual exercises for the renewal of their Baptismal promises. (Ceremoniale episcoporum, 249)
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and continues until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, exclusive on Holy Thursday. During these days, there is usually a definitive noticeable change employed in the celebration of the Liturgy of the Word. Alleluia is not sung nor is Gloria employed until the celebration of the Easter Vigil.
The presentation of the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer normally take place after the first and third scrutinizes.
The readings for the Mass during the Lenten Season are arranged around the themes relating to the Baptismal promises, renewal and penance.
In the fittingness of things, the sacraments of initiation are celebrated during the Easter Solemnities, and preparation for these sacraments is part of the distinctive nature of the Lenten season.
The Rite of Election is normally arranged to be celebrated on the First Sunday of Lent, underscoring the intense level of preparation of the elect. (RCIA, 126). In view of this, a solemn rite of sending is introduced at a local Parish level, sending the catechumens to their ‘election’ by the local Bishop. (RCIA, 106, 108).
