Tower and Town, February 2016 (view the full edition)Clergy Letter: LentThe Season Of Lent The forty day Christian season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (10th February this year) and it is a time of fasting, prayer and almsgiving in preparation for Easter. The name "Lent" is from the Middle English Lenten and Anglo-Saxon Lencten , meaning spring. Its more primitive name was the "forty days", Tessaracoste in Greek. The pre-Easter fast in the first three centuries, observed especially by those preparing to be Christians and their sponsors, lasted only two or three days. It later developed into three or four weeks. The number forty is first noted in the Canons of the Council of Nicaea (AD 325), and is likely to be in imitation of Jesus' fast in the desert before His public ministry (with Old Testament precedents in Moses and Elijah). In some Eastern Churches this meant five fast days per week for seven weeks - Saturdays and Sundays were not included - making the total only thirty-five; in Jerusalem in the fourth century, this meant five days' fast for eight weeks. In most of the West at the time, this meant six days' fast per week of six weeks; in the seventh century the days from Ash Wednesday until the next Sunday were added to make the number forty. The first day of Lent is called Ash Wednesday - a day on which ashes are blessed and used to mark the foreheads of the people as a sign of the penitential character of the Lenten season. These ashes come from the burning of palm branches used on Palm Sunday of the previous year. May the holy season of Lent be a time for us to share in Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection. Lent is a gift! Fr John Blacker |