WHAT IS LENT?

Lent is a forty-day liturgical season that initiates the most sacred part of the Christian year. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on the Great Vigil of Easter. Sundays are not included in the forty-day count because every Sunday is a joyful celebration of our Lord's resurrection. During Lent, Christians meditate on the great paschal mystery -- the salvation God won for us sinners by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.