This month’s edition of the West Texas Angelus is published in the heart of the season of Lent. This presents an opportunity for us to deepen our understanding of the origin and meaning of this holy season.

Most of us have some idea of what a retreat is. It is when one sets aside a certain period of time to let go of distractions and open the door of one’s heart to God. Lent is like that. It is like an annual retreat that is carried out in the midst of our daily commitments, by which we prepare spiritually for the Easter Triduum, the memorial of the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord, which is the heart of the mystery of our salvation. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at the beginning of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening.

The word “Lent” comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which means “springtime.” Literally, the word translates as “lengthening of days,” because in the northern hemisphere, throughout the spring, the days grow longer and the nights grow shorter, day by day. So, in this time of year, the light is gradually winning over the darkness. That symbolizes what is happening to us spiritually.

Lent originally developed as a period of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, preparing Christian converts to be baptized at Easter time. Those converts went through an intense period of purification and enlightenment to get ready to receive the sacraments of Christian initiation. In many Christian churches today, including the CatholicChurch, this same pattern is still followed.

While those preparing to be baptized at the Easter Vigil devote themselves to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the whole Church lifts them up in our prayers. The celebration of the sacraments of initiation takes place during the Easter Vigil liturgy on Holy Saturday evening when the elect receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and holy Eucharist, becoming fully initiated members of the Catholic Church.

The season of Lent is not only for those preparing for baptism. It is also a time for all members of the Church to pray more attentively with the Scriptures and to renew our commitment of faith in Jesus Christ. The spiritual activities of Lent help to identify relationships that are disordered, to break the chains of sin, and to open human hearts to the healing mercy of God. These activities help one to evaluate life honestly and to root out all that is not good and true.

In the first three centuries of Christianity, the Lenten period of fasting before Easter varied from a few days to one week. The first mention of a period of forty days is in the fifth canon of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325. Since the end of the fourth century, Lent has been observed as a forty-day period throughout the Christian world (New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 8, p. 634).

The forty-day time frame of Lent is reminiscent of some very important events in biblical history:

• The great flood lasted forty days, leading to God’s covenant with Noah.
• Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai, fasting and conversing with God, after which he was given the tablets of God’s law.
• The people of Israel wandered in the desert for forty years after God rescued them from slavery in Egypt and before they entered the promised land.
• It took the prophet Elijah forty days to reach Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, where he had a powerful experience of prayer with God.
• Before Jesus began his public ministry, he spent forty days in the desert praying and fasting.

Here I would like to offer some reflections on the three ancient practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Prayer is that personal conversation which keeps God at the center of one’s life. It is carried out in silent contemplation as well as in community worship.

Fasting includes any voluntary reduction of food, drink, or luxuries. It highlights the fact that humans have a deep, innate hunger for God that cannot be satisfied by material things. God is the greatest treasure of the human heart. St. Augustine said: “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Confessions, book I, par. 1). Fasting reminds us that there is a source of life that is infinitely more profound than food or drink.

Through our fasting and abstinence, we choose togive up certain things, such as meat, dessert, or alcohol, as an act of personal sacrifice in order to connect more closely with the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. Jesus said in Luke 9:23: “If you want to come after me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”

Almsgiving includes acts of fraternal charity that express solidarity with the poor. It serves as a reminder of the Christian teaching that love of God goes hand in hand with love of neighbor.

All these three Lenten disciplines make us more aware. Almsgiving makes us more aware of the needs of others. Fasting makes us more aware of what we consume and what consumes us. Prayer makes us more aware that God is our strength and our savior.

Some Christians who do not understand the practices of Lent will challenge us by asking, “Are you just trying to save yourselves through good works?” The answer is no; our Lenten practices are not intended to prove our own holiness or to win God’s love for us. Our salvation was won on the cross in A.D. 33. In response to God’s unconditional love, we joyfully carry out our activities of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in order to thank God and to open ourselves more fully to God’s gift of grace.

Another question we are sometimes asked is, “If you give up something for Lent, why do you only give it up for Lent, and not all the time?” The answer is that the things we give up for Lent are not necessarily bad in themselves. For example, if one gives up candy or meat or wine or ice cream, it's not because they are evil or bad. They are part of the good fruits of God’s earth, but we freely choose to take on a sacrifice by doing without them, for these reasons: to connect with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, to deepen our solidarity with the poor, to remember not to take these things for granted, and to open ourselves to be filled with Jesus Christ. If we want our heart to be filled with Jesus, then we need to make some room to let him in.

Lent is a time that is specially dedicated to penance and conversion. Conversion is turning away from something and turning toward something else. In Lent, we turn away from shallow superficiality and toward a deeper level of faith. We turn away from noise and distractions and toward God, who is our true fountain of love. Christian conversion is a turning away from the darkness of sin and toward the light of Christ.

The holy season of Lent is intended to help us get out of the rut of our comfortable routines and open the door of our heart to God. Many world religions have their holy seasons. For example, the Muslims have Ramadan, the Jews have Yom Kippur, and we Christians have Lent.

Lent is not just a Catholic thing. In fact, most Christians in the world observe Lent — Catholics and non-Catholics, including the Orthodox, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and many more. The percentage of Christians who do not observe Lent are actually a minority in the Christian world.

Thus, one does not have to be Catholic to observe the season of Lent. Anyone who seeks to follow Christ can choose to prepare for Easter through some special commitment of prayer, fasting, or almsgiving. We Christians believe that the saving events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday are so profound that they merit a conscious personal and communal preparation. After passing through the observance of Lent, the Christian heart is made more ready to celebrate the Paschal Triduum and the victory of Easter.