What is Lent?

6 min

Awaiting theological review

The simple answer

Lent is the season of about forty days before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday, when Catholics receive a cross of ashes on the forehead, and ends on Holy Thursday evening, when the three great days of Easter begin. It is a time to turn back to God with three practices that Jesus himself names: prayer, fasting and giving to the poor. The colour is purple. Lent is not about being sad: it is a spring cleaning of the heart, so that Easter finds us ready.

In the Bible

Scripture

Jesus fasts forty days in the desert and is tempted, and he answers each temptation with the word of God.

Matthew 4:1–11

Scripture

Forty is the Bible's number for testing and preparation: forty years of Israel in the desert, forty days of Moses on the mountain, forty days of Elijah's journey to the mountain of God.

Deuteronomy 8:2 · Exodus 34:28 · 1 Kings 19:8

Scripture

On Ash Wednesday the Church reads Joel: return to the Lord with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning; rend your hearts and not your garments.

Joel 2:12–13

Scripture

The Gospel of Ash Wednesday is Jesus' teaching on almsgiving, prayer and fasting done in secret, for the Father who sees.

Matthew 6:1–6 · Matthew 6:16–18

Scripture

One formula for giving ashes recalls God's words to Adam after the fall: dust you are, and to dust you shall return.

Genesis 3:19

Scripture

The people of Nineveh turn from their ways with fasting and sackcloth, and God has mercy on them.

Jonah 3:5–10

Where it comes from

Early Christian source

The Council of Nicaea (325) already speaks of a forty-day period before Easter.

Council of Nicaea, canon 5 (325; locator awaiting verification)(awaiting verification)

Historical context

In the early Church, Lent was the final preparation of adults who would be baptised at the Easter Vigil, and the whole community prayed and fasted with them.

Historical context

Ashes were first given to public penitents. By around the 11th century, the custom had spread to all the faithful. The ashes are usually made by burning the palms of the previous Palm Sunday.

Historical context

The traditional count of forty days, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, leaves out the six Sundays, because every Sunday is a little Easter. Since the reform of the calendar in 1969, Lent formally ends on Holy Thursday evening, when the Easter Triduum begins: the number forty is symbolic more than arithmetic.

What the Church teaches

Church teaching

Lent has two sides: it recalls baptism or prepares for it, and it is a time of penance. Both prepare the faithful to celebrate the Paschal mystery.

Sacrosanctum Concilium, 109–110(awaiting verification)

Church teaching

Each year, through the forty days of Lent, the Church unites herself to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.

Catechism 540 (number awaiting verification)(awaiting verification)

Church teaching

Lent is a time of penance in the Church, especially suited to spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and sharing with others.

Catechism 1438 (number awaiting verification)(awaiting verification)

Church teaching

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fasting and abstinence; the Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat.

Code of Canon Law, can. 1250–1251(awaiting verification)

A common misunderstanding

Lent is a religious diet: giving up chocolate for forty days and being a bit gloomy.

In fact

What we give up matters only as a way of making room for God and for others. The goal is conversion and Easter joy, and Sundays remain days of feasting.

Why it matters today

Choose one concrete thing for each of the three: a daily prayer time, a small fast, and a gift of money or time to someone in need. Many people also go to confession during Lent to arrive at Easter with a clean heart.

Bible passages