Please use the scrollbar at right to read through this article. 

Lent is a time for spiritual preparation through repentance and growth in faith for . It is the time of the church year when the passion and death of the Savior come into focus. It begins with a special day of repentance, Ash Wednesday, and ends in the depth of sorrow and tragedy on Good Friday.
     
The name of the season, LENT, does not reflect the mood or message of the season….it is an old Anglo-Saxon word “Lencten or Lenchthen” meaning the lengthening of the days as spring appears.
     
Lent is a period of forty days:
         The last six days are known as Holy Week which are to be days of strict abstinence.
         Holy week began in Jerusalem during the fourth century.
         Services were held on the appropriate day at the places where special events took place during the last week of Jesus’ life: the Upper Room, Gethesemane, Pilate’s Court……
        
When Holy Week was observed in the west we substituted the stations of the cross for actual places in Jerusalem. In the fourth century, the days of Holy Week were designated:
         Palm Sunday – entry into Jerusalem
         Monday – the cleansing of the temple
         Tuesday – the Discourse on the Mount of Olives 
         Wednesday – Judas agreement
         Maundy Thursday – upper Room meeting
         Good Friday – Calvary
         \Saturday –in the tomb

         These six days grew into thirty-six days, as a tithe of the 365 days of the year….by approximately 731AD, the time of Charlemagne, four days were added to the thirty-six to make the present season of forty days. The four extra days consisted of Ash Wednesday to the First Sunday in Lent.

       This number forty is a holy and meaningful number:
        --Jesus was tempted for forty days in the wilderness,
-        -Moses fasted forty days on Sinai,
-        -Elijah fasted forty days on the way to the mountain of God,
-        -and the Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness.

       Sundays were never a part of Lent. We speak of the Sundays “IN” Lent, not “OF” Lent. The Sundays are known by their Latin names which come from the first Latin word of Introit…..however….the Lenten emphasis spilled over into the Sunday ervices in terms of the use of the penitential color, violet.

        Just a bit more information……Lent is to be a special time of prayer. So did you know….the traditional symbol for Lenten prayer is the pretzel. In Lent, Christians made dough of flour, salt, and water. They shaped the dough in the form of two crossed arms to remind themselves to pray. The bread was called “little arms”….. “bracellae” later called “Brezel” or “Pretzel”. Pretzels were a Lenten food and thus only eaten during the period as a reminder to pray more often.


      So….we began with Ash Wednesday as the first day of Lent. At this service of worship tonight, worshippers had the opportunity to come forward for the blessing of ashes. The pastor marked the forehead of each participant with black ashes, in the shape of a cross (or for those who did not wish your forehead to be marked the hand is an alternative) which traditionally is retained until it is washed off the next morning. This symbolism echoes the ancient Near East tradition of throwing ash over one's head signifying repentance before God. Instruction was offered while applying the ashes. Here is an example:
"Remember that you are dust,aAnd unto dust you shall return."
(Latin: Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.)
This wording comes from Genesis 3:19.

        The ashes were been prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebration and mixing them with olive oil as a fixative.