Every year, the liturgical season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday. Before Ash Wednesday arrives, let us prepare for Lent with this helpful guide.
Preparation can help you make the most of this penitential season as a Catholic!
Here’s some important dates to remember during Lent:
February 22, Ash Wednesday
April 2, Palm Sunday
April 6-8, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday
April 9, Easter Sunday
Although the Church does not require the following suggestions (the only hard requirement is fasting and abstaining from meat on Ash Wednesday, and abstaining from meat every Friday during the Lenten season), taking on one of these suggestions below can bring about incredible changes of heart and help you grow in your faith leading up to Holy Week.
Here are 5 tips to help you live liturgically this Lenten season:
As we prepare to enter this journey on Ash Wednesday, let us focus on true sacrifice. Unite your temptations with Jesus in the desert and your sufferings with Christ on the Cross.
St. John Paul II says, “Lent is a season of intense prayer, fasting, and concern for those in need. It offers all Christians an opportunity to prepare for Easter by serious discernment about their lives, with particular attention to the word of God which enlightens the daily journey of all who believe.”
Preparing for Lent could mean something different for each of us based on our season in life, daily struggles, current prayer life, vocation, and more!
The first step is simply inviting the Holy Spirit into our hearts and asking where we need to return to Him.
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit,
did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever enjoy His consolations,
Through Christ Our Lord,
Amen.
As illustrated on EWTN’s Lenten Guide:
“Since Lent is a time of penitence, it is usual to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, both to appeal for the grace of personal conversion, and to strengthen our will to be able to cooperate with that grace. The two go together, since without God we can do nothing (John 15:5).”
“The best sacrifice we can make is to give up sinning. The liturgies of the first days of Lent make this point of the vanity of prayer and penitence without moral conversion. For the Catholic, daily examinations of conscience, more frequent Confession, as well as more frequent Mass and Holy Communion…are especially good ways to prepare for Easter. It would also be good to read Sacred Scripture, pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Holy Rosary, daily if possible, meditating on the texts or prayers.”
How will you prepare for the season of Lent? 🙏✝️🙏
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[See also: God Wants to Forgive You: Let Confession Bring You Fully Home This Lent]
[See also: 5 Graces Praying the Rosary Daily Gave My Family: “The Family That Prays Together Stays Together”]