PRAYER, FASTING, & ALMSGIVING
Lent is the Church's primary penitential season in the liturgical year. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts until the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday. The season has six Sundays: the final one, known as Passion (or Palm) Sunday, begins Holy Week. The origin of Lenten observances dates back to the fourth century or earlier. The length of the season reflects the forty days Christ spent praying and fasting in the desert (see Matthew 4: 1-11) and is a time of preparation for the great feast of Easter.
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