What is Lent all about?
Image via Wikipedia Let’s start with the history of Lent. What’s it all about? Lent is one of the oldest observations on the Christian calendar . It is a preparation for the Easter Season . Like all Christian holy days and holidays, it has changed over the years, but its purpose has always been the same: self-examination and penitence. demonstrated by self denial, in preparation for Easter . Early church father Irenaus of Lyons (c.130-c.200) wrote about such a season in the earliest days of the church, but back then it lasted only two or three days, not 40 days. In 325, the council of Nicea discussed a 40 day Lenten season of fasting, but it’s not clear whether its original intent was just for the new Christians (Catechumens) preparing for Baptism , but it soon encompassed the whole church. Self denial…preparation… Lent also takes us, metaphorically, back to the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert before His own ministry started. We are readying ourselves during these next