Observance of Lent

"Lord, may our observance of Lent help to renew us and prepare us to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ ….. " (Opening Prayer in a Lenten Mass)

I wrote the following comment in my journal on the above in 1999:

How we observe Lent:

• Fasting and abstinence
  
• Prayer and almsgiving
  

We are renewed through the observance of the above exercises and others. This observance becomes a mysterious vehicle of grace.