Lent is a forty-day period before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday. We skip Sundays when we count the forty days, because Sundays commemorate the Resurrection. Lent begins on 9 March 2011 and ends on 23 April 2011, which is the day before Easter.
The purpose of Lent is to be a season of fasting, self-denial, Christian growth, penitence, conversion, and simplicity.
Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance.
Lent, which comes from the Teutonic (Germanic) word for springtime, can be viewed as a spiritual spring cleaning: a time for taking spiritual inventory and then cleaning out those things which hinder our corporate and personal relationships with Jesus Christ and our service to him.
Are you participating in Lent? Are you doing it to improve your relationship with God, or is it just a way to rid yourself of a few pounds, loose some bad habits?
What are you giving up?
