How to observe Lent as a Catholic

On this Lenten site, Our Sunday Visitor has gathered ideas, information, and resources to help make Lent more reverent, more meaningful, and more prayerful.

Free PDF download from OSV Newsweekly: Your Guide to Lent. From the Stations of the Cross to 10 tips to making Lent more meaningful, this full-color poster taken from the pages of our Feb. 3, 2008, issue, will help you along the path to Easter. Download and print it out now»

Also: Your Guide to Holy Week In Focus section from the March 16, 2008, issue of OSV Newsweekly. From Holy Week customs to the Seven Last Words of Jesus, your definitive guide to making Holy Week more meaningful. Download the PDF file here»

What is Lent?

Lent is the forty-day liturgical season of fasting, special prayer and almsgiving in preparation for Easter. The name “Lent” is from the Middle English Lenten and Anglo-Saxon Lenten, meaning spring; its more primitive ecclesiastical name was the “forty days,” tessaracoste in Greek. The number "forty" is first noted in the Canons of Nicaea (A.D. 325), likely in imitation of Jesus' fast in the desert before His public ministry (with Old Testament precedent in Moses and Elijah). By the fourth century, in most of the West, it referred to six days' fast per week of six weeks (Sundays were excluded); in the seventh century the days from Ash Wednesday through the First Sunday were added to make the number forty.

When is Lent?

The penitential season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday can occur as early as February 4 and as late as March 11, depending on the date of Easter, and lasts until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper (Holy Thursday). It has six Sundays. The sixth Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week and is known as Passion (formerly called Palm) Sunday. The Easter Triduum begins with evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper and ends with Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday. In 2008 Lent begins on February 6. (For a downloadable Church Calendar, click here»)

The Easter season, whose theme is resurrection from sin to the life of grace, lasts for 50 days, from Easter to Pentecost. Easter, the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, occurs between Mar. 22 and Apr. 25. The terminal phase of the Easter season, between the solemnities of the Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost, stresses anticipation of the coming and action of the Holy Spirit. (From Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encyclopedia, Copyright © 1994, Our Sunday Visitor.)

Observe a Catholic Lent

Some of the ways you can make Lent more meaningful include the following. Click to be taken to new page.