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Seventh Sunday of the Year
21 February 2009
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
The season of Lent is a period of 40 days of fasting, prayer, and works of mercy kept by the entire Church to prepare for the celebration of the Paschal Triduum of Christ’s passion, death, and Resurrection. The 40 days of Lent (from an Old English word meaning ‘springtime’) are simply an imitation of Christ who fasted and prayed for 40 days in the desert before the beginning of His public ministry.
There are six full weeks in Lent, and they are preceded by the four days between Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday of Lent. Because every Sunday is a celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, Sunday is never a day of penance or fasting. So six days of penance over six weeks plus the four days that start on Ash Wednesday give us the period of 40 days on examination of conscience, spiritual exercises, acts of self-denial, works of charity, almsgiving, and more intense prayer which prepares us to celebrate Easter worthily and with the authentic joy of faithful Christian disciples.
In the early centuries of Christianity, penance was always performed in public, and sackcloth sprinkled with ashes was a common sign of a Christian enrolled in the Order of Penitents because of serious sin. Even as penance became a largely private discipline, however, the Church retained the custom for all the faithful to begin Lent with the imposition of ashes, and between the 4th and the 11th centuries the Lenten liturgy we still observe took shape.
On Ash Wednesday, all persons who confess Christ as Lord and seek to live according to His Gospel are welcome to receive the blessing with ashes. Because this is a sacramental and not one of the seven sacraments, it is not necessary to be a Catholic or in full communion with the Church to receive the imposition of ashes, and everyone who desires to worship the living God in Spirit and in truth is invited to receive this blessing to begin the paradoxically joyful season of Lent.
Father Newman