RCIA presenation on Lent, given by David Jensen at St. Patrick Catholic Church on 16 Feb 2010.

1. What is Lent?

2. Opening Prayer
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
Enkindle in us the fire of Your love.
Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created,
and You shall renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit
instructs the hearts of Your faithful, grant that
by that same Spirit we may be truly wise and
ever rejoice in His consolation. We ask this
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

3. Overview
• Origins and Purpose of Lent
• Calls to Penance in the Bible
• How Lent is Observed by the
Church
• Pope‟s Message for Lent

4. Origins and Purpose of Lent
• “Lent” derives from Anglo-Saxon word
lengten, which means “lengthen,” referring to
the days of Spring
• Lent = Season of prayer and penance to
prepare for Easter
• Originally 2 or 3 days of fasting, but 40
days was customary by the 4th century
– United with Christ‟s 40-day fast in the
desert (Mt 4:1-11; Mk 1:9-13, Lk4:1-14)

5. Calls to Penance in the Bible
• “Now therefore, says the Lord, Be
converted to me with all your heart, in fasting
and in weeping and in mourning” (Joel 2:12-
13)
• “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand” (Mt 3:2, cf. Mt 4:17)
• “Do penance and be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the
remission of your sins. And you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38)

6. Calls to Penance in the Bible
• Penance includes voluntary mortification
– St. Paul: “I chastise my body and bring it
into subjection.” (1 Cor 9:27)
– “They who belong to Christ have crucified
their flesh with its passions and desires.”(Gal
5:24)
– “I now rejoice in my sufferings... and fill up
those things that are wanting of the
sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body,
which is the Church."(Col 1:24)

7. How Lent is Observed
in the Church
• Observed by encountering Christ, first and
foremost in the Liturgy and Sacraments
• John XXIII: “Clearly the most efficacious
kind of prayer….is prayer that is offered
publicly by the whole community; for Our
Redeemer said: „Where two or three are
gathered together for my sake, there am I in
the midst of them.‟(Mt 18:20)”

8. How Lent is Observed
in the Church
• “The interior penance of the Christian can
be expressed in many and various ways.
Scripture and the Fathers insist above all
on three forms, fasting, prayer, and
almsgiving, which express conversion in
relation to oneself, to God, and to others”
CCC 1434

10. Ash
Laetere Wed
(Rejoice)
Feast of the Sunday
Chair of St. Peter (mid-Lent) Fridays – Evening
Prayer; Stations
of the Cross
Solemnity of St.
Joseph, Husband of Passion
Mary Sunday (or
Palm Sunday)
Solemnity of the Beginning of
Annunciation of the Holy Week
Lord
PaschalTriduum
Easter Triduum
Holy Thursday – Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Holy Thursday – Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Good Friday – Veneration of the Cross
Good Friday – Veneration of the Cross Easter
Holy Saturday – Easter Vigil Mass
Holy Saturday – Easter Vigil Mass Sunday

11. Pope‟s Message for Lent
• “On the occasion of Lent, the Church
invites us to a sincere review of our life in
light of the teachings of the Gospel…. What
man needs most cannot be guaranteed to
him by law. In order to live life to the full,
something more intimate is necessary that
can be granted only as a gift: we could say
that man lives by that love which only God
can communicate ….”

12. Pope‟s Message for Lent
• “…Just as man needs bread, so does man
have even more need of God…Injustice,
the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively
external roots; its origin lies in the human
heart, where the seeds are found of a
mysterious cooperation with evil…. Indeed,
man is weakened by an intense influence,
which wounds his capacity to enter into
communion with the other….”

13. Pope‟s Message for Lent
• “…How can man free himself from this selfish
influence and open himself to love?... we find
a profound link between faith in God who
„lifts the needy from the ash heap‟ (Ps
113,7) and justice towards one‟s
neighbor….”

14. Pope‟s Message for Lent
• “... In order to enter into justice, it is thus
necessary to leave that illusion of self-
sufficiency, the profound state of closure,
which is the very origin of injustice. In other
words, what is needed is…a liberation of the
heart, which the Law on its own is powerless
to realize…”

15. Pope‟s Message for Lent
• “…it is not man‟s sacrifices that free him from
the weight of his faults, but the loving act of
God… Conversion to Christ, believing in
the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the
illusion of self-sufficiency in order to
discover and accept one‟s own need – the
need of others and God, the need of His
forgiveness and His friendship

16. Pope‟s Message for Lent
• …humility is required to accept that I need
Another [i.e. God] to free me from “what is
mine,” to give me gratuitously “what is His.”
This happens especially in the sacraments
of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.
Thanks to Christ‟s action, we may enter
into the „greatest‟ justice, which is that of
love…”
Pope Benedict XVI

17. Questions?

18. Closing Prayer
Bless us O Lord, and these thy gifts
which we are about to receive,
from thy bounty
and through Christ our Lord.
Amen.