10 Things you should know about Lent

As we all know in the Catholic Church, the year is divided into liturgical seasons based on significant events in the life and earthly ministry of Jesus Christ as well as the great Mysteries of our Faith. We Catholics, are called to live liturgically by actually entering into the Church year.

Last week, we have welcomed the season of Lent—a time of self-examination, fasting and penance in preparation for Easter. Lent is the forty-day period before Easter which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday.

So there! I got couple of things I want to share about Lent. I list at least 10 things you should know about this liturgical season—and you should not miss them! I’ll give two every week for the next five weeks!

First, the counting of 40 days is not importantly exact as forty because the liturgical calendar is different from the civil calendar. According to the ORDO for the use of the Liturgy of the Hours and Celebration of the Holy Eucharist for the Dioceses in the Philippines, “Lent runs from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper exclusive on Holy Thursday.”

Second, why call it Lent, anyway?

The 40 days of self-examination, fasting and penance is called Lent because that is “the Old English word for spring, the season of the year during which they fall. This is something unique to English. In almost all other languages its name is a derivative of the Latin term Quadragesima, or ‘the forty days.'”

It is interesting to learn the old languages like Hebrew, Greek or Latin for us to know the origin of a particular word.

I will leave it here for now. More facts about Lent next week. Do not miss it.