Our Lady of Guadalupe

Date: February, 18

The season of Lent is a Catholic liturgical season that is the forty days before Easter consisting of fasting, prayer, and penitence beginning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at sundown on Holy Thursday.

The 40 days of Lent, which precedes Easter is based on two Biblical accounts: the 40 years of wilderness wandering by the Israelite’s and our Lord’s 40 days in the wilderness at which point He was tempted by Satan.

Each year the Church observes Lent where we, like Israel and our Lord, are tested. We participate in abstinence, times of fasting, confession and acts of mercy to strengthen our faith and devotional disciplines.

The goal of every Christian is to leave Lent a stronger and more vital person of faith than when we entered.

• “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights..” Mattew 4. 1-2