Lent
This last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday
so we are now in the Season of Lent.
One Lent found St. Francis of Assisi
(1181/2 – 1226 AD) in the process of making a small cup which, however, became
a distraction during prayer. What St.
Francis did might surprise us. His
biographer tells the story: One day as
St. Francis was devoutly praying Terce with his brothers – the liturgical
prayers for 9:00 AM, which consisted primarily of praying the Psalms – “his
eyes casually fell on the cup and he began to look at it, and he felt his inner
self was being hindered in its devotion. He grieved that the cry of his heart to the divine ears had been
interrupted, and when Terce ended he said, so the brothers could hear: ‘Alas, that such a trifle had such power over
me as to bend my soul to itself! I will
sacrifice it to the Lord, whose sacrifice it had interrupted!’ Saying this he grabbed the cup and burned it
in the fire. ‘Let us be ashamed,’ he
said, ‘to be seized by petty distractions when we are speaking with the Great
King at the time of prayer.’” (From the Second
Life of Saint Francis by Thomas of Celano, Second Book, Chapter LXIII.)
Thomas of Celano tells us that this
occurred during the season of Lent, and the story shows that St. Francis’ heart
lived continually the meaning of Lent:
putting God first in all things and taking concrete steps to increase
our conversion.
Lent calls us to remembrance of the
sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus, and to renewed the efforts required as a
follower of Jesus who calls us each to take up our cross to follow Him. “By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church
unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert” (Catechism of
the Catholic Church, 540) – to his fasting, prayer and overcoming the devil’s
temptations.
There is evidence back to the second
century that since the time of the Apostles some form of Lenten observance was
followed by the Church in different forms in different locations, always
including prayer and fasting. The
observance probably became standardized after the legalization of Christianity
by the Roman Empire in 313 AD. We expect this because the Council of Nicea in
325 refers to “the 40 days of Lent” indicating the practice must by then be universal.
Pope St. Gregory the Great (c. 540-640
AD) is credited with giving us the Ash Wednesday ceremony where the priest or
other minister marks the penitent’s forehead with ashes to remind us of the
Biblical symbol of repentance (sackcloth and ashes) and mortality (“You are
dust, and to dust you will return,” Gen. 3:19). The 40 days of Lent initially denoted the
number of fasting days before Easter, which exclude Sundays. Today the number of required fasting days is
only two (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday), but the 40 days for this penitential
season remains.
During Lent, Christians are to fast, pray and give
alms (charity) “which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to
others” (Catechism, 1434). The season is
to draw us into deeper penitence, a deeper turning to Christ, seeking Him, to
receive God's love, and to conform our lives more clearly to Christ's.
Dibby Green
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.