Lent

Whether it's a new car, a big promotion, or even the smaller things in life that can dominate our focus, such as that extra glass of wine or 10 more minutes ...

[Catholic Church](https://www.dioceseofsalford.org.uk/tag/catholic-church) [Bishop John](https://www.dioceseofsalford.org.uk/tag/bishop-john) These passages aim to help focus our minds on our relationship with God, his love and his desire for us to be united to him, and how that, in turn, leads to true happiness. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.” Listen to me and you will eat food that is good.” We’re always on the search for more.

Lent is a period of spiritual preparation for Easter Sunday, the celebration of the resurrection, which falls this year on April 9. In his 2023 message for Lent ...

“The light that Jesus shows the disciples is an anticipation of Easter glory, and that must be the goal of our own journey, as we follow ‘him alone,’” he said. “During this liturgical season, the Lord takes us with him to a place apart,” Pope Francis said. “We need to set out on the journey, an uphill path that, like a mountain trek, requires effort, sacrifice, and concentration.” “We need to listen to Jesus,” Pope Francis said this week. Clergy applying the ashes will quote Genesis: “You are dust and to dust you shall return,” a reminder of human mortality. On Ash Wednesday, many Christians fast and begin penance by giving up something for Lent.

Lent 2023, will be observed from February 22 to April 8 this year. Lent is a period of religious observance in the Christian liturgical calendar and it ...

- The time and duration of Lent vary according to different Christian denominations. - These 40 days of fasting before Easter are believed to be clarified at the Nicene Council. Lent is a period of religious observance in the Christian liturgical calendar and it marks the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting in the desert. On Palm Sunday Christians everywhere remember Jesus’ triumphant arrival in Jerusalem. Shrove Tuesday origined from the word shrive (meaning “absolve”). It is a period of grief and suffering but also rejoicing in how Jesus overcame Satan's temptation and fulfilled God's will by completely submitting himself.

Lent is the six-week period before Easter when Christians (usually from a Catholic, Orthodox or Anglican background) will prepare their hearts for the ...

Murphy emphasizes the intention behind observing Lent is to focus on loving God and loving others well. This year, Ascension is gathering on three Wednesday nights throughout the season to enjoy fellowship with one another. In this way, a believer is making room in their life to quiet themselves and hear from God. “The question is, how are we personally drawn into the world in a way that stops [us] from listening to God?” Lent is the six-week period before Easter when Christians (usually from a Catholic, Orthodox or Anglican background) will prepare their hearts for the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus. This season has been observed by the church for hundreds of years, focusing on dedication to Christ as an individual and a community.

The observance of Ash Wednesday starts off the holy period of Lent with an intimate mass liturgy in the Catholic church. Senior psychology major Hannah ...

“It is giving things up, but it’s also giving them up in order to bring you closer to God.” “I will leave them on until I go to sleep because I think it’s a really cool way to evangelize to other people,” Fender said. During Lent, Catholics may choose to abstain from a particular activity or thing to show appreciation for their Savior. “What you have on this Earth is nothing compared to the treasures in heaven.” Because Catholics believe Jesus sacrificed himself for them on Good Friday, they refrain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent. Priests apply them in the form of crosses after blessing them with holy water.

Today, Christians in Nigeria join their counterparts around the world to commence the 2023 Lenten season. The 40-day spiritual exercise begins with Ash.

Religious leaders should use this period to harp on the importance of unity among all groups in the country so that citizens can be their brother’s keeper. As it is a period to specifically avoid sin, the faithful and indeed all Nigerians should start by ensuring that they abide by the provisions of the electoral law before, during and after the elections. Clerics are enjoined to preach peace at this period so that the faithful will eschew violence and live with their neighbours and peoples of all faiths in harmony. This period indeed provides an opportunity for Nigerians to fervently pray that things take a turn for the better. If we choose to do this, then we must embrace a life of love for all, commitment to the good of all, especially the poor, the disadvantaged, the lowly and the despised. The tradition which has been on for many years and re-enacted every year is symbolic of the mortality of man and a call to humility by all Christians.

Today is Ash Wednesday which in the Christian faith is the first day of Lent occurring six-and-a half weeks before Easter.

In the Bible, ashes are a symbol of repentance and death. The ash sets followers free from sin and death. On this day, Christians attend Mass/Service and religious leaders draw the sign of a cross with ashes onto their foreheads.

The annual religious observance is followed by millions of Christians worldwide, culminating in Easter celebrations.

The period of acknowledgement of the 40 days the Bible says Christ spent in the desert begins exactly 46 days before Easter. As with Ramadan, Lent is not held on the same dates each year. Observers usually attend special church services on the first day to prepare.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Christians are marking Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent. It's the 40-day period of prayer, self-sacrifice, and acts of ...

They are placed onto a parishioner's forehead in the sign of the cross to symbolize that God made everyone out of dust, and all shall return to dust at the end of their lives. * The Cathedral of St.

I started going to Ash Wednesday services when I was working in New York City, in an office a few blocks from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

“There is a balm in Gilead,” the choir sang in the cathedral. I knew which teas she kept in a jar and the taste of the persimmon cookies she made. Ash Wednesday not as a private meditation but as a communal practice; Ash Wednesday in a place I lived rather than a place I visited: This was the remembrance I needed. From my vantage point on the stage, I watched my fellow congregants, only 15 of them, form a line and approach the altar. The ashes in the bowl are made from the fronds of the palms we waved the year before. From our place on the stage, my husband and I sang our way through the service. There can be a strange beauty in the difficult and the macabre, in silence and penitence. John the Divine, I am part of the life of this congregation. If we’re not careful, Lent in the life of the church can be like a John Keats ode, a tragic play, or a sad song: there to provide emotional release. Was it wrong to look forward to a service about a subject—my sin, my death—that I was supposed to face with fear and trembling? In the Howells Requiem, in Bach’s St. I went to the cathedral only on special occasions like Ash Wednesday, when the professional choir would sing polyphony and spirituals and Gregorian chants.

Each Ash Wednesday, our pews are overflowing. How can we turn our Lenten promises into a dialogue with those who might not usually attend Mass outside of ...

Some of the most common things I hear in Lent are “This reminds me of my family” (or “my parents” or “my grandparents”) and “I do this because I’m Catholic” (or “Christian”). Getting to know the story of a newcomer and gently reaching out to support them in their joys and struggles can go a long way to turning a forgettable moment of return into a memorable milestone along the journey of faith. Just imagine what would happen if all the people of the church were attentive and present to those who reconnect on Ash Wednesday and during Lent. When experiences of Lent are streamlined, calm and quiet, many people find the peace and refuge they so desperately crave amid the craziness of life. The mark of ashes on the forehead signals a fresh start. Within a social media culture especially, our “imperfect” lives are constantly visible to others, and we see how “perfect” everyone else’s life seems to be. The reasons for this phenomenon are often as varied as the number of people in the pews. Some call those individuals “spiritual but not religious.” No matter the name, a good number do find solace in the spirituality of the Lenten season. To commit to a 40-day fast is quite “doable” to many people. There are several common threads that have emerged in my listening with people, despite the very specific nuances of each one’s story. The very thing that many active churchgoers wish for (“if only more people would come to Mass”) finally comes to pass. These staggering numbers go squarely against the observations of pundits and prognosticators who claim that most Americans, especially youth and young adults, are done with religion.

The readings for the First Sunday of Lent provide an opportunity to discern two voices: the voice of the tempter and the voice of the Spirit.

Lent is a time to hear Jesus clearly speak: “Get away, Satan!” Lent is a time to hear clearly the voice that comes from the source of life. Satan the prosecutor has merged with the serpent of Genesis as well as traditions of other biblical divine opponents to become the preeminent transcendental personification of evil. The idea of a being like Satan has developed over time in our faith tradition. The voice of this ambiguous creature planted a seed of doubt for the first pair of humans, a seed that grew into an inheritance that we now call the doctrine of original sin. Jesus silences the voice of the tempter, “Get away, Satan! The readings for the First Sunday of Lent provide an opportunity to discern two voices: the voice of the tempter and the voice of the Spirit.

HUMOR: “After Dean Dolan sent out that memo about respecting religious observances, I knew exactly what I had to do: follow my faith and fast for Lent.

Ther confirmed he heard this rumbling and voice in the afternoon of Feb. And he told me that it was his will that I reject the pleasures of thesising for a more discerning life.” “After Dean Dolan sent out that memo about respecting religious observances, I knew exactly what I had to do: follow my faith and fast for Lent.

In The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis, hell consists of quarrelsome neighbors moving ever further way from each other. A quarrel is such a simple thing: it is a ...

Morning prayer: Grant, O Lord,. that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service,. so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils,.

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This is the encouragement addressed this year to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Guangzhou by Archbishop joseph Gan Junqiu, in the pastoral letter which he ...

Catholic Patriarchs open the time of the "Great Fast" under the sign of the Fathers of the Church](/en/news/73438) [ASIA/MYANMAR - Fasting from hatred: in time of Lent, the life of displaced people of the civil conflict](/en/news/73441) [ASIA/MYANMAR - The people of God gather at Mary's feet to ask for peace, justice, healing, reconciliation](/en/news/73404) [ASIA/VIETNAM - Priests at the service of the poor, of young people, of the care of the "Common Home" in small communities](/en/news/73422) Catholic Patriarchs open the time of the "Great Fast" under the sign of the Fathers of the Church](/en/news/73438) [AFRICA/EGYPT - Coptic Patriarch Tawadros: Christians and Muslims should live Lent and Ramadan as a time of fasting and healing](/en/news/71937) [ASIA/MYANMAR - Fasting from hatred: in time of Lent, the life of displaced people of the civil conflict](/en/news/73441) [ASIA/MIDDLE EAST- Lent. In his Lenten Letter, the Bishop of Guangzhou also called on the baptized to live the Lenten season by bringing with them the many questions that arose in their hearts during the most virulent phases of the pandemic contagion.

The Bible places many spiritual disciplines, but these two — fasting and prayer — are always associated with seeking the Lord and repentance. The Israelites, as ...

While people still die, Jesus made the way for people to have a relationship with God in this life and to spend eternity with Him in heaven. God is looking for a community of people that is broken over its sinfulness and wants to change. However, the Prophet Joel called upon the Israelites to “rend their hearts and not their garments”. - Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. - Maundy Thursday is the day before Good Friday. The Israelites, as an act of repentance had a tradition to tear their garments, wear sackcloth and heap ashes on their heads.