The Lenten Season

Lent is a preparation for the celebration of Easter. For the Lenten liturgy disposes both catechumens and the faithful to celebrate the paschal mystery: catechumens, through the stages of Christian initiation; the faithful, through reminders of their own baptism and through penitential services.

Some Notes on the Lenten Season
(lifted from the Jesuit Ordo of the Philippine Province)

1. The Sundays of Lent are so important that not even a solemnity can take their place. Solemnities occurring on these Sundays are observed on the Saturday preceding.

2. The weeks of Lent from Ash Wednesday to the Saturday before Palm Sunday take precedence over the memorials of saints, which may be celebrated only according to the norms established by liturgical statutes.

3. The Alleluia is always omitted where it is found in the Liturgy of the Hours and in the celebration of the Mass.

4. The Te Deum and the Gloria are suppressed except on solemnities and feasts, and also on festive occasions.

5. In the Office: the antiphon at the Invitatory, hymn at the Office of Readings, Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, and the antiphon at Daytime Prayer and Night Prayer are found the proper of this Season.

6. Flowers and decorations at the altar are prohibited; the organ and other musical instruments may be used only to accompany the singing, except on Laetare Sunday (4th Sunday of Lent) and during solemnities and feasts.

7. Catholics are obliged to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and are to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all the Fridays of Lent. We are also reminded, as stipulated in the Code of Canon Law, that there are other works and means of doing penance: prayer, acts of self-denial, almsgiving and works of personal charity. Attending Mass daily or several times a week, praying the rosary, making the way of the cross, teaching the illiterate to read, reading to the blind, helping at a soup kitchen, visiting the sick and shut-ins and giving an overworked mother a break by baby-sitting—all of these can be even more meaningful and demanding than simply abstaining from meat on Friday.

May you have a meaningful and Christ-centered Lenten season this year.