Lent is the designation of forty-day period preceding the main celebration of Christianity: Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is commemorated on Sunday. It is a practice present in the lives of Christians since the fourth century.
According to the Apostolic Letter of Pope Paul VI, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends before the Foot Wash Mass on Maundy Thursday. In 2022, Lent will begin on March 2nd and end on April 14th.
During the forty days that precede Holy Week and Easter, Christians are dedicated to reflection and spiritual conversion. They usually gather in prayer and penance to remember the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert and the sufferings he endured on the cross.
During Lent, the Church dresses its ministers in purple garments, which symbolize sadness and pain. Ash Wednesday is a day used to remember the end of mortality itself.
It is customary for masses to be held where the faithful are marked on their foreheads with ashes. This mark usually remains on the forehead until sunset. This symbolism is part of the tradition demonstrated in the Bible, where several characters threw ashes on their heads as proof of repentance.
In the Bible, the number forty is often cited to represent periods of 40 days or 40 years that precede or mark important events. Some better known examples are:
- 40 days of flood from Noah's Ark;
- 40 days of Moses on Mount Sinai;
- 40 days of Jesus in the desert, before the beginning of his ministry;
- 40 years of pilgrimage of the people of Israel in the desert.
About two hundred years after the birth of Christ, Christians began to prepare the feast of Easter with three days of prayer, meditation and fasting. Around 350, the Church increased the preparation time to forty days, and that's how Lent began.
Lent of St. Michael
The Lent of São Miguel is a period of 40 days that starts on the 15th of August and runs until the 29th of September. The Lent of St. Michael was created by St. Francis of Assisi in 1224. It is a time of fasting and prayer, inspired by Archangel Michael. St. Francis of Assisi believed that the Archangel Michael had the function of saving souls at the last moment and also had the ability to remove souls from purgatory.
See also these meanings:
- Ash Wednesday
- Easter
- Easter symbols
- Meaning of Easter Fish
- day of Pentecost
- meaning of Holy Week