Repentance and Renewal in the season of Lent

Therefore, turn away from our sinfulness, recommit ourselves to following Jesus, and deepen our relationship and closeness to God by reflecting on His Words. We remember in Lent that our faults can lead us away from God, and also make us selfish, forgetting about the needs of others. We think for a moment about our own lives and we ask God?s forgiveness. During this time of Lent, we learn to let go of all unnecessary things and be more mindful of our dependence on God. We fast, abstain, pray and give alms. 

Lord, during this Lenten season 

nourish us with Your word of life 

and make us one in love and prayer.

The forty days of Lent represent Jesus forty days in the desert fasting, overcoming temptations, and praying after His baptism by John the Baptist,  Let us be like Jesus who never gave in to temptations during His forty days in the desert, We to need to pray to God like Jesus did in over coming temptations.

The Church has never allowed Sundays to be kept as days of fast ... Every Sunday is a day of obligation, the paschal mystery is celebrated (Canon 1246) and is also mini Easter. 

Sunday, on which by apostolic tradition 

the paschal mystery is celebrated, 

must be observed in the universal Church 

as the primordial holy day of obligation.

(Canon 1246)

Abstinence from meat, 

or from some other food 

as determined by the Episcopal Conference, 

is to be observed on all Fridays, 

unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed 

on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

(Canon 1251)

Therefore the calculation on how forty days came about is as follows:

From Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday is 46 days and there is 6 Sundays within that period. Therefore, 46 days minus 6 Sundays equals to 40 days of Lent fasting.

Ash Wednesday as we begin Lent Prayer

The ashes we use are the burnt palms from last year's celebration of Passion Sunday.
We begin our Lenten journey aware of where we are going.
We want to enter into the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus for us more fully.
That is the purpose of our journey. It is why we mark our heads with his cross.
It is why we fast today and abstain from meat.

Our Lenten program is not an effort to save ourselves. 

We have been saved by his sacrifice. 

Our self-denial helps us, in the darkness that surrounds us, 

to prepare ourselves to receive his light. 

For this is a journey to the Easter font, 

where we will renew the promises of our Baptism, 

remembering that in dying with him in the waters of Baptism, 

we are re-born with him to everlasting life.

This year's journey begins today.

Yet even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;

Rend your hearts, not your garments, 

and return to the LORD, your God. 

For gracious and merciful is he, 

slow to anger, rich in kindness, 

and relenting in punishment. 

~ Joel 2:12-13 ~

Liturgical Calendar for Lent 2013

List of the dates of the Sundays and major feast days that fall in Lent 2013.

Ash Wednesday (Wednesday, 13 February, 2013)
First Sunday of Lent (Sunday, 17 February, 2013)
Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter (Friday, 22 February, 2013)
Second Sunday of Lent (Sunday, 24 February, 2013)
Third Sunday of Lent (Sunday, 3 March, 2013)
Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday) (Sunday, 10 March, 2013)
Feast of Saint Patrick (Sunday, 17 March, 2013)
Fifth Sunday of Lent (Passion Sunday) (Sunday, 17 March, 2013)
Feast of Saint Joseph (Tuesday, 19 March, 2013)
Palm Sunday (Sunday, 24 March, 2013)
The Annunciation of the Lord (Monday, 25 March, 2013)
Holy Thursday (Thursday, 28 March, 2013)
Good Friday (Friday, 29 March, 2013)
Holy Saturday (Saturday, 30 March, 2013)
Easter (Sunday, 31 March, 2013)

** What is Laetare Sunday

Laetare Sunday is the fourth Sunday in Lent (Western Christian Church), based on the first word �Rejoice� of the introit of the liturgy (Isaiah 66:10-11). This Sunday is also known as mid-Lent Sunday.

Isaiah 66:10-11
10 �Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her,
    all you who love her;
rejoice greatly with her,
    all you who mourn over her.
11 For you will nurse and be satisfied
    at her comforting breasts;
you will drink deeply
    and delight in her overflowing abundance.�

Laetare Sunday has traditionally been observed as a day of celebration, during which the austerity of Lent is briefly reduced. On Laetare Sunday, the purple vestments and altar cloths of Lent are set aside, and rose ones are used instead. Flowers, which are normally forbidden during Lent, may be placed on the altar.

Lent is also where people recall or tell stories about "the Journey of Faith". The time when we think about the story of the Israelites escaping from slavery in Egypt, miraculously crossing the Red Sea, struggling through the wilderness for forty years, and, at last, entering the promised land.

Lent

http://resource4christians.blogspot.com/2012/12/lent.html

Lenten Psalm
http://resource4christians.blogspot.com/2012/12/lenten-psalm.html

Prayers during Lent
http://resource4christians.blogspot.com/2012/12/prayers-during-lent.html

Prayer for Holy Weekhttp://resource4christians.blogspot.com/2012/12/prayer-for-holy-week.html