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Meaning of Lent: 40 Days Explained

Lent is the 40 day period before Easter that is intended as a time of intensive preparation for celebrating the Paschal Mystery. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts until Holy Thursday evening. The number 40 is significant in Scripture and represents times of testing, purification, and preparation for salvation. During Lent, Christians focus on the three pillars of faith - prayer, fasting, and almsgiving - to draw closer to God through spiritual discipline and compassion for others.

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10 views23 pages

Meaning of Lent: 40 Days Explained

Lent is the 40 day period before Easter that is intended as a time of intensive preparation for celebrating the Paschal Mystery. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts until Holy Thursday evening. The number 40 is significant in Scripture and represents times of testing, purification, and preparation for salvation. During Lent, Christians focus on the three pillars of faith - prayer, fasting, and almsgiving - to draw closer to God through spiritual discipline and compassion for others.

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belle dlms
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Lent is can be defined as a

period of forty (40) days before


Easter, intended to be a time of
intensive preparation for the
celebration of the Paschal Mystery.
Lent begins on
Ash Wednesday and lasts
up to the Holy Thursday
Evening.
What is the significance of
forty (40) days in our
Lenten preparations?
• Number forty (40) is traditionally
emphasized because it is often found
in the Scriptures connecting it to the
salvation history.

• These scriptural allusions were used


by the Church Fathers in explaining
to us the meaning of Lent.
• Genesis 7:12, 17
“Noah and the Great Flood”
“Rain fell upon the earth forty days and
forty nights”
“The flood continued forty days upon the
earth…”
The New creation begun after destroying
the corrupted mankind through a flood.
Exodus 16:35
“Journey to the Promised Land”
“And the people of Israel ate the
manna for forty years, till they came
to a habitable land:
The Israelites walked to the promised
land and has escaped the slavery of the
Egyptians.
1 Kings 19:8
“Elijah on the way to Horeb”
“Elijah arose and ate and drank and went
in the strength of that food forty days and
forty nights to Horeb the Mt. of God.
Elijah is comforted and strengthened by a
food so could reach the Mountain of God
– Horeb.
Exodus 24:18
“Moses on Mt. Sanai
“And Moses entered the cloud, and went
up on the mountain and Moses was on
the mountain forty day/forty nights.
“Moses spent solitude with God,
listening and knowing the plan and will
of God.
Mt. 4:1-11/Luke 4:1-13
“The Temptation of Jesus”
“Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And he fasted forty days and forty nights.

Jesus was tempted but He knows who He


is and His mission is clear to Him.
How do we prepare
ourselves?
A time of intensive
preparation for the
celebration of the Paschal
Mystery.
THE 3 PILLARS OF FAITH
THE 3 PILLARS OF FAITH
PRAYER - Throughout
the season of Lent, we are
called to deepen our
prayer life.
Fasting is much more than a
means of developing self-control.
Fasting is spiritual and physical
purification; the pangs of hunger remind us
of our hunger for God.
Fasting and abstinence help us to
participate more fully in the cross of Christ.
ALMSGIVING
The Lenten call to almsgiving
means making the needs of other
people our own. One of the central
lessons of the cross is compassion;
the heavy burdens we carry help us
to appreciate the suffering in others.
When do
Lent begin?
What is the
meaning of
ashes during
Ash
Wednesday?
The ashes imposed on us
on Ash Wednesday
remind us that we are
dust and to dust we shall
return.
and that therefore the
entire life of a Christian
should be marked by
works of self-denial and
generosity.

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