Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1913-02-08
The Holy Season of Lent Is
Derived From the
Apostles.
Significance of the Gospels and
the Lessons They o..
Teach.
WHAT CATHOLICS SHOULD DO

Last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday
when the ashes we're blessed and dis
tributed, the church entered upon
the holy season of Lent. As all
know, IL is a special time of fast and
abstinence established by our holy
mother the church. in imitation OF
the forty days fast of our Blessed
Lord, and to prepare us for the
Paschal communion. Periods of fast
ana abstinence are commanded to
enable us to strengthen our soul and
restore its dominion over the senses,
to expiate our sins and to render to
!God homage for the benefits He has
conferred upon us. The holy season
OF Lent is of great antiquity, and is
derived from the Apostles. It has
always been observed in every por-
ticn of the church. The first Chris
tians kept a very strict fast, and
gave in aims what they retrenched
from their tables.
We should endeavor to spend the
holy season in the proper spirit and
prepare for our PaschaI duties. We
must seek to expiate our sins by PEN
ance proportionate to their number
and grievousness. To this end the
church exhorts us without ceasing
during Lent, by giving the most
beautiful instructions, to animate
our confidence and make us enter
into ourselves. We find these in
structions particularly in the gospels
of Lent. The first Sunday of Lent
the church shows us Jesus Christ in
the desert praying and fasting. On
the second Sunday she speaks to us
of heaven, which will be the recon-
pense of the truly penitent. On the
third Sunday she depicts the un-
| happy state of sin to induce us to
quit It; and on the fourth, she holds
Iup to our view the holy communion,
in which we should all participate.
The last fifteen days of Lent are
consecrated TO the Passion 1900
blessed Lord f. Fer ssfeason the
church, in the gospel of each day,
rehearses the benefits and the most
striking miracles of our Savior, and
the injustice Of the Jews, who sought
to put Him to death. On Friday,
before the passion, she celebrates
the Seven Dolors of the Blessed
Virgin, whose heart was pierced with
sorrow on seeing the treatment
which her Divine. Son suffered.
The last week of Lent is called
Holy Week on account of the great
ness and grandeur and holiness of
the mysteries the church presents to
us and the holiness she requires OF
us. Therefore we should all seek to
spend this season in the most
recollected manner, abiding by the
regulations of the church and pre-
pairing for the great duty of our
Easter communion.
The solemn fast observed by Cath
olics in preparation for Easter, and
called "Lent" from an Anglo-Saxon
word signifying spring, though easily
traced back to Apostolic times. va
ried at first both in length and in
severity. So late as the pontificate
of st. Gregory the Great A. d. 5000
the Roman Lent lasted six weeks
only; giving therefore to this exer-
else of penance Sundays being ex-
cluded) thirty-six days, that is a
1.-THE or tenth part of the year. This
older discipline still obtains at
Milan; but the observing, after the
example set Us by our Lord Himself,
of a Lent of forty fasting days, has
IIong since become practically uni
yersal in the Catholic church. Hence
the wednesday of the seventh week
before Easter, which we know as
Ash wednesday, has become the first
day OF Lent.