LENT & HOLY WEEK

Lent is "a season of penitence and fasting” in preparation for the Paschal feast

The Wilderness of Preparation

The "forty days" before Easter is a time of intentional preparation, a formative season which invites Christians to enter—symbolically and spiritually—the wilderness where God shapes, refines, and restores God’s people.

During this period, the Church embraces a posture of reflection and renewal, echoing the great biblical journeys of transformation: Noah awaiting new creation through forty days of floodwaters, Israel being formed as God’s people through forty years in the Sinai wilderness, and Jesus confronting temptation during forty days in the desert.

Lent

Across centuries, Lent has served as a time of deep preparation, especially for those preparing for Holy Baptism. Today, the season continues to call all Christians into a renewed encounter with the Paschal Mystery—Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection—so that we may enter Easter with hearts made ready for new life.

Lent invites us to examine our lives with honesty and hope, clearing away whatever obscures our relationship with God. It is a season for returning—returning to prayer, returning to simplicity, returning to compassion, returning to the truth of who we are: beloved children of God. Through its disciplines, Lent forms us to live more fully as followers of Jesus.

Prayer — Prayer opens us to God’s presence and reveals our truest selves. In quiet reflection, Scripture, and communal worship, we learn to recognize the habits, fears, and distractions that keep us from living as God intends. Prayer restores clarity, grounding us in God’s love and guiding us toward transformation.

Fasting — Fasting is not merely abstaining from food; it is a spiritual practice that helps us release whatever diminishes charity, compassion, and holiness. By letting go of unhealthy patterns—whether physical, emotional, or spiritual—we make space for grace to reshape our lives and relationships.

Almsgiving — Almsgiving turns our attention outward, awakening us to the needs of others, especially the poor, the lonely, and the marginalized. Through generosity, service, and acts of mercy, we learn to see Christ in our neighbors and to participate in God’s healing work in the world.

The liturgical color of Lent is purple, a hue that carries two layers of meaning:

Penitence and sorrow, reflecting our honest reckoning with sin and our longing for renewal.
Royal dignity, recalling King David and pointing toward Christ the King, whose reign is marked not by power but by sacrificial love.

Lent is not meant to burden us but to free us. Through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we journey with Christ toward the promise of Easter—toward redemption, reconciliation, and the joy of new life. It is a season that shapes the heart of Christian discipleship, calling us to return to God with intention, courage, and trust.

HOLY WEEK

Holy Week is the culmination of Lent, a week-long series of services that honor the events of Jesus' last days - his final supper with the disciples, his passion, the way of the cross, and the crucifixion, all culminating in the resurrection. This is the Paschal Mystery by which, through God in Jesus, death has been destroyed and creation set free. Holy Week is the most sacred time of the Christian year.

The liturgical color of Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday is Red, reflecting both the blood of Jesus and the fire of the Spirit.

From early times Christians have observed the week before Easter as a time of special devotion.

Palm Sunday-Sunday of the Passion - The liturgy first recalls Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and then turn towards the recollection of the Passion and Crucifixion with the recitation of the Passion narrative.

Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week - These liturgies bear account of lamentation and mercy by giving voice to the pain and sorrow of our own lives and making room for Christ to enter.

Maundy Thursday - This liturgy recollects and enacts the events of the Last Supper. So, first of all, the liturgy allows us to follow Jesus' command ("Maundy" comes from the Latin mandatum, meaning "commandment") to share his body and blood - to break bread and share the cup of wine - in remembrance of him. And second, the liturgy makes space for us to symbolically washing our neighbor's feet - "to do as I [Jesus] have done to you".

Good Friday - The liturgy honors Christ's crucifixion, his courage to live the truth of his love for us even to death. Again, the Passion narrative is proclaimed, prayers are offered, and veneration is made to the holy and life-giving cross.

The Great Vigil - The church gathering before sunrise, this liturgy proclaims the story of God redeeming love from the Hebrew Scriptures. At an appointed time (usually around sunrise), the Resurrection is proclaimed and the church rejoices in the first Eucharist of Easter. More than any other liturgy, this one truly enters into the mystery of the sacred with ample use of fire, candles, incense, chant, story, and water. It is the traditional day for the baptism of adults.