Have a holy and blessed season of Lent

I am certain we have heard the saying about the month of March, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” This concerns the weather we have in the month of March and, often enough, it is pretty accurate.

However, the month of March in which all or almost all the season of Lent occurs, we know that Lent prepares us for spring in the seasonal world and the spiritual and eternal spring brought about by the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. 

This fact is far more important not just for us who are Catholic but for the world itself. Even the secularist liberal progressives cannot deny the fact of Easter and how that event changed the course of human history. But, back to the season of Lent. It begins with the celebration of Ash Wednesday and continues until the celebration of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening. Then, the shortest liturgical season begins, the Paschal Triduum which begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and ends with Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday. This season is the holiest three days of our Church’s year of grace and favor from the Lord. It is the time when all of us memorialize liturgically the institution of the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and the priesthood, the Passion, Death and burial of the Lord Jesus, and His glorious resurrection from the dead early on Easter morning.

It is the ancient tradition of the Church that Catholics prepare themselves for these sacred days by spending a period of 40 days in intense prayer, penance and almsgiving to those in need. We need to rid ourselves of sin and its effects in our lives so that we can understand better what the Lord has done for us and why we could not have done this for ourselves. In other words, we have been redeemed at the greatest cost not because we deserved it but because we have been and are loved with a merciful love by a merciful God.

This is what the season of Lent is meant to help us understand better and, understanding this better, we must allow God’s grace to transform us into even better and more faithful disciples, willing, ready and able to live a life worthy of our baptism into the dying and rising of Christ. Let us realize that the Sign of the Cross in ashes on our foreheads represents the indelible mark etched on our souls at baptism which identifies us with Jesus as the adopted sons and daughters of a merciful and loving Father.

This is why the discipline of Lent is something we should want to observe, and it is something which should accompany us to Easter Sunday and the Easter season and beyond. Have a holy and blessed Lent!