Frequently Asked Questions About Lent

Lent ends on Holy Thursday afternoon. Why doesn’t it go until Easter?
The shortest, but by far the most important, season of the Church’s year are the three days that form a bridge between Lent and Easter. This is the Easter Triduum (triduum comes from the Latin for three, meaning, here, three days). The Triduum, the Church tells us, “begins with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, reaches its high point in the Easter Vigil, and closes with evening prayer on Easter Sunday” (General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, No. 19).

Thursday to Sunday sounds like four days. Why is this time called the Triduum — three days?
The Church follows the ancient Jewish practice of a day starting in the evening of the previous day (that’s why the Saturday vigil Mass in your parish is a Sunday celebration). So, as the Church reckons time, Thursday evening to Friday evening is one day, Friday evening to Saturday evening is the second day, and Saturday evening to Sunday evening is the third day.

How is the Triduum different from Lent?
The Triduum is the center of the Church’s liturgical year. All our seasons, all our sacraments, all our lives as Jesus’ followers, are rooted in the Triduum’s remembrance of the Paschal Mystery — Christ’s redemptive life, death, and Resurrection. During the Triduum, we also remember our own part in this mystery — how in the waters of Baptism, we die with Christ so that we may rise with Him, as St. Paul says. This pattern of dying for the life of the world is meant to be the pattern of our whole lives. Lent prepares us to enter into these holy three days in Christ. The 50 days of Easter, which follow, are a joyous time to come to a deeper understanding of what Christ has accomplished and is still accomplishing in us.

In our tradition, prayer, fasting, and giving our money to the poor are central Lenten activities. They can be part of our lives in numerous ways.

Do we still “give things up” for Lent?
In our tradition, prayer, fasting, and giving our money to the poor are central Lenten activities. They can be part of our lives in numerous ways. The purpose of all these practices is to help us move more deeply into our life of Baptism and Eucharist, into Christ’s Paschal Mystery — dying in our own sinfulness and self-centeredness and rising to new life in Christ. We fast and practice other disciplines, not as ends in themselves, but so that we can clear away the clutter of our lives and see what is really important, and how much we need and hunger for God.

The value of any Lenten activity can be judged by how well it helps us live our Baptism, by how it helps connect us to the Catholic community and the Body of Christ, and by how Christ-like it helps us become. Some of our younger members might be able to do this by giving up gum. The rest of us probably will want to look a little deeper.

So if I give something up, can I have it again on Holy Thursday — since Lent ends on Holy Thursday evening?
Well … sorry, but, no. The Lenten fast ends when Lent ends, on Holy Thursday evening, but the Triduum, especially Good Friday and Holy Saturday, has its own solemn Paschal fast in anticipation of Easter. While fasting in Lent is more penitential in character, this Paschal fast is more about waiting for Easter, clearing away all nonessentials, so that we can enter more fully into Christ’s dying and rising in our lives. Save the treat for the 50 days of Easter — that’s the season for feasting.

Reprinted from “Bring Lent Home: 21 Ways to Celebrate,” Bayard, Inc., 2006. Dan Connors is editor-in-chief of Catholic Digest.