The Season of Lent

What is Lent?

Lent is a forty-day season (excluding Sundays) of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, this season recalls our Lord’s very own fasting and temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). The Early Church crafted Lent as a season of preparation for those preparing for baptism at the Great Vigil of Easter.

In the Gospels, Jesus expects his followers to engage in spiritual disciplines, especially prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. (Matthew 6:1, 5, 16) We encourage everyone at Christ Church to live into these disciplines in the following ways:

How To Pray

One of the simplest ways to engage in prayer during Lent is through praying the Daily Office. Our prayerbook offers a daily morning and evening prayer liturgy saturated in Holy Scriptures; a very straightforward discipline to start in this season of penitence.

If you need help learning how to pray morning and evening prayer, please check out the Daily Office 2019 app (or the webpage), and use the Daily Office Podcast to follow along.

How To Fast

This Lent, we encourage everyone to fast from all food on Fridays (if physically able) beginning Thursdays after dinner and the breaking fast with dinner on Fridays. If you already do this, we would encourage you to join in on Wednesdays as well.

If you have questions about the why and how of fasting, please read this article for more information.

How To Give Alms

This Lent, Christ Church is partnering with the Salem Pregnancy Center in the Baby Bottle Campaign. This is one way we as a church can contribute to those in need (sometimes called “Almsgiving”) during this Lenten season. Though the Baby Bottle Campaign typically takes place between Mother’s and Father’s Days, we are participating in this starting Ash Wednesday, stretching until the Second Sunday of Easter.

For more questions on Almsgiving, please read the following article at Anglican Compass.

Lenten Theme: 2025

This Lent, our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving will be focused on cultivating a spirit of evangelism within our parish. Please commit to praying daily the “Prayer for a Spirit of Evangelism” (BCP p.652) and check out the article “Lent at Antioch” to see how both spiritual disciplines and mission went hand-in-hand for the first Christians.

Almighty God our Savior, you desire that none should perish, and you have taught us through your Son that there is great joy in heaven over every sinner who repents: Grant that our hearts may ache for a lost and broken world. May your Holy Spirit work through our words, deeds, and prayers, that the lost may be found and the dead made alive, and that all your redeemed may rejoice around your throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.