Lenten Opportunities

Journey with the staff and volunteers of Good Shepherd this Lent as we share our personal reflections on the daily Gospel readings. We hope that by reading our thoughts and experiences, we all grow in love of Christ this season.

Are you seeking to find ways to move closer to Christ? Let Lent be a time of Reflection, Repentance, Recommitting, Reconnecting, Renewal, and Rejoicing! See below for opportunities of spiritual growth to help guide you through Lent. We hope you keep coming back to this page to find encouragement, resources, and ideas for how to live out your Lenten journey.

Ash Wednesday is a day of universal fast and abstinence in the Church. All Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence. The norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59.

When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal. The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding for all who are age 14 onwards.

What is Lent?

Lent is a 40 day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. It's a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter. The official liturgical color for the season of Lent is violet.

When is Lent?

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter, and provides a 40-day period for fasting and abstinence, in imitation of Jesus Christ's fasting in the wilderness before he began his public ministry.

What do ashes signify?

The first day of Lent is Ash Wednesday. On this special day of reflection, Catholics wear a marking of the cross in ash on their foreheads. The ashes symbolize our mortality – “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”