(some material adapted from christianity.com)

The Lenten Season begins with Ash Wednesday on February 22 and ends on Saturday, April 8. This eve of Easter is often called Holy Saturday. Resurrection Sunday is April 9. Ash Wednesday is a somber day dedicated to reflection, confession, forgiveness and repentance. The service often includes putting ashes in a cross pattern on the forehead.

In many congregations, the ashes are prepared by burning palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday, churches bless and hand out palm branches to attendees, referencing the Gospels’ account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when onlookers lay palm branches on his path.

The ashes of this holiday symbolize two main things: death and repentance. “Ashes are equivalent to dust, and human flesh is composed of dust or clay (Genesis 2:7), and when a human corpse decomposes, it returns to dust or ash.”

“When we come forward to receive ashes on Ash Wednesday, we are saying that we are sorry for our sins and that we want to use the season of Lent to correct our faults, purify our hearts, control our desires and grow in holiness so we will be prepared to celebrate Easter with great joy”

Our Cry of Repentance: Psalm 51:7- 10 – Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

The Lent season is a 6-week time of somber reflection and remembrance. Lent is traditionally a time of fasting and abstaining from something to repent and focus our hearts and minds on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Lent is a 40-day season (not counting Sundays) marked by repentance, fasting, reflection, and ultimately celebration. The 40-day period represents Christ’s time of temptation in the wilderness, where he fasted and where Satan tempted him. Lent asks believers to set aside a time each year for similar fasting, marking an intentional season of focus on Christ’s life, ministry, sacrifice, and resurrection.

Lent can help families in the same way Advent helps parents prepare their children for Christmas. The Lent season provides families an opportunity to strengthen spiritual discipline together. Rather than engaging in the distraction of the baskets and egg hunts, Lent can help your family focus on the real meaning of Easter and what Jesus’ sacrifice means for our salvation.