Next week marks the beginning of the liturgical season known as Lent. We'll be touching on different aspects of this season over the next several weeks, but it might be helpful to start with a little background.
The Liturgical Year
In the Catholic Church, time is marked by a liturgical calendar. This calendar highlights the feast days and seasons of the Church year. The beginning of the liturgical year is not January 1st, but rather the first Sunday of Advent (usually the last weekend of November or the first weekend of December).
The season of Advent is followed by the Christmas season ending on the Epiphany. Then comes a brief period known as Ordinary Time. It's important to note that Ordinary Time does not refer to time without purpose or meaning. In fact it comes from the Latin word ordo meaning "order." These days refer to the ordered life of the Church. This is the time when we celebrate the life and mysteries of Christ. Anything but average!
This brief Ordinary Time leads to Lent and Holy Week, then Easter. The Easter season ends on Pentecost Sunday. After Easter comes a second, longer period of Ordinary Time that continues until the following Advent.
What exactly is Lent?
So now that we have a little perspective on how the year is structured, what exactly is Lent? Lent refers to the 40 days of preparation the Church marks before Easter. It is a solemn time characterized by fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, which we'll talk about more next week, Lent continues until Holy Thursday.
For many, the idea of Lent conjures up images of people being miserably deprived of meat and candy. While a focus of this season is certainly one of penance and sacrifice, it should not be characterized as a time of misery. In fact, our goal should be just the opposite.
Lent is meant to provide us a time to free ourselves from the things of the world to which we have become chained. During this time, we remember that we are not meant to be beholden to technology, material goods, food, and unhealthy habits. Our freedom lies not in the ability to do and have whatever we want, instead true freedom is only in being able to shed these things and still know that God's love is all we ever really needed.
Each year the Pope gives a message at Lent. The full text of this year's message is linked below, but one part really struck me.
. . . we are moved to free our hearts every day from the burden of material things, from a self-centered relationship with the "world" that impoverishes us and prevents us from being available and open to God and our neighbor.
That's Lent in a nutshell. We follow Jesus into the desert and begin peeling away the layers we've added between ourselves and true happiness.
So perhaps this Lent, I won't focus on how hard it is to give up the things I think make my life richer. Instead, I'll reassess whether or not these luxuries and habits are actually making me spiritually poor. How about you?
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