Thursdays at 5:15 PM

Each year the Church relives the life of Jesus Christ. Advent prepares for his coming, Christmas celebrates the Incarnation, Ordinary Time focuses on the miracles and teachings of Jesus, Lent delves into Christ's passion and death, and Easter celebrates the Resurrection. 

Lent is the season in which we prepare ourselves for Christ's resurrection. In order to do this fully, we have to recognize all that Jesus did for us. Lent is 40 days long to commemorate Jesus' first sacrifice on our behalf-his 40 days fasting in the wilderness. 

During the season of Lent we focus on three things to help us participate in the sufferings of Jesus: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

We tend to focus on "giving things up for Lent" but it is just as important to take things up for Lent, in particular habits of prayer and habits of charity (almsgiving). Even those things we give up should be to strengthen us spiritually. Instead of just giving up something like chocolate, we could offer a prayer for the starving people in the world each time we have a craving for chocolate. 

You can take up daily reflections by using a guidebook during Lent. Here are some online reflections you can use to get the most out of Lent:

Dynamic Catholic Lenten Reflections
Fr. Rocky's Lenten Lessons on the Mass
Formed.org Lenten Videos (Living Lent as a Family)