Catholic Things: Ash Wednesday and Lent

Because not all readers of this little blog are Catholics, I have decided to do a recurring series of posts called “Catholic Things.” I'll use these posts to explain various aspects of Catholic tradition, especially our calendar. I hope they are accurate and illuminating. To my fellow Catholics: if I make any mistakes, call me out on it!

Source

Today is Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent. You might vaguely remember Ash Wednesday as the day in February when some people walk around with dark smudges on their foreheads. The smudges are made from ashes. Catholics who attend mass on Ash Wednesday receive the ashes as part of a special ceremony in the middle of the mass. As the priest smears the ashes on your head he says either “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” or “repent, and believe in the Gospel.” Both are rather grim messages, the first a reminder of your mortality and insignificance, the second a reminder of your sinfulness. That's intentional. Lent is a solemn time.

Lent is a 40 day period that begins on Ash Wednesday and leads up to Easter Sunday. It is a time of preparation. Preparation is focused around prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. There are many different ways Lent is observed around the world, indeed within just different homes. In the US, a common Lenten tradition is to give something up for Lent. Usually it's a special food like chocolate.* That food is all the more delicious on Easter Sunday after missing it for 40 days. Official fasting guidelines are defined by the regional conference of bishops. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USBCC) guidelines for Lenten fasting and abstinence (not the sex kind) can be found here.

What Twitter users are giving up for Lent.
From Christianitytoday.org. 

My Muslim and Jewish friends would be right to point out that the Catholic idea of fasting is pretty easy compared to their observances. The idea of Catholic fasting is not deprivation, but simplification. It's a way to remind yourself of the Lenten season and be more intentional about food, one of the most basic aspects of life.

For the prayer focus of Lent, you can find many different pocket sized Lenten guides. These books usually lead you through the daily mass readings and some reflections and prayers related to the readings. Some Catholics decide to attend daily mass throughout Lent.**

Finally we have almsgiving. The NGO Catholic Relief Services (CRS) holds a fundraiser each Lent called Operation Rice Bowl. This is generally the center of my family's Lenten observance. The rice bowl comes with a calendar that suggests small donations to make on different days. The donation amount is based on global poverty statistics (e.g. 750 million peopel do not have access to clean drinking water,*** give $0.75 for every glass of water you had today). I like Operation Rice Bowl because it brings focus to different areas of the world and makes me more conscious of injustices.

So that's Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. You don't have to be Catholic to do it. You don't even have to be religious. You could meditate, give something up, and set aside a small amount each week for a favorite charity. Even though it is a subdued and solemn time in the Catholic calendar, I like Lent. It helps me to improve myself and my habits. I am a better person for my Lenten observances. And at the end of Lent, I'm more ready to enter into the whirlwind of masses that makes up Holy Week.

Fellow Catholics, anything to add? How do you and your family/parish celebrate Lent?

Footnotes:

*As my cousin learned when she was younger, you can't give up vegetables for Lent. It has to be something you enjoy.

**Mass is offered every day at many parishes, but most Catholics only go on Sundays, which is the Christian sabbath day.

***Weirdly enough, I guess I'm included in that statistic now. When I get a chance, I'll show you our whole process to make clean drinking water. Source for statistic is water.org.