Why Lent is My Favorite Liturgical Season

The liturgical year is split up into many various parts. There are the seasons of rejoicing, like Christmas and Easter, the season of Ordinary Time, which occurs twice during the year, and then there are the seasons of preparation (Lent/The Paschal Triduum and Advent) just before the big hurrahs of Christmas and Easter. 

For the purposes of this post, I asked my siblings and my wonderful friends what their favorite liturgical season is, and I got pretty much exactly what I expected (see the pie chart for more details!). Most loved Christmas, quite a few loved Easter, several loved the peaceful Advent nights leading up to "the most wonderful time of the year", and a handful enjoyed Lent. No one said Ordinary Time, but that's a discussion for another time.

I totally understand why Christmas and Easter are so beloved - there's no worries about fasting or abstinence, you've been waiting forever to get to the celebrations, and our secular society has wrapped the holy joy of these seasons in stories of Santa Claus and loads of candy. I have no problem with these seasons - I love them, especially when I can start enjoying the good stuff like chocolate whenever I want again after a long, sometimes grueling season of Lent. 

BUT

I cannot stress enough the fact that I am a very weird person (everyone who knows me would say that I am weird - I am proud of being weird, but that's beside the point). I actually enjoy the quiet peace of those preparational seasons, most especially Lent and the Paschal Triduum (nota bene - the Paschal Triduum is actually NOT a part of Lent! It all fits together though so usually I count it as one, but I thought it would be important to mention that it actually isn't all one season). I love being able to unite my sacrifices with Jesus' on the cross, and I love the beautiful quiet that comes around this time. While the world is spinning around us, be it a result of war or pandemic or any other conflict, we are called to enter a time of silence to prepare for the coming joy. We are called to walk with Jesus into the desert and resist the temptations of Satan. 

And then there's the Paschal Triduum! Those days just feel so mystical and beautiful and solemn and I absolutely love it. You go to church Thursday, you're back again on Friday, on Saturday everything is still in the house. Then at a certain point EWTN comes on with the Easter Vigil Mass and you watch the entire church flood with light...and then suddenly you're sitting in a pew on Easter Sunday, the Paschal Candle burning brightly, everybody smiling and looking their best. It's quick, but it is without a doubt the thing I wait for the most in the year - those quiet days of solemn reflection and peace, when you recall the sacrifices that were made for sinners. Some might feel guilty during this time, and I feel an appropriate amount of that too, but I also feel incredibly blessed and loved by the G'D that gave His very life for me. For me! For you! We certainly don't deserve it, do we? And yet He did anyway. And so we are called, each year, to spend these days in quiet reflection beside the cross with Christ. We are called to walk with Him from Gethsemane to Pilate, from the foot of Calvary to the very top, and we are called to die to ourselves and enter the tomb with Him. 

How beautiful that we are given the opportunity to reflect on the sacrifice of Christ in such a special way during the year. I ask you to take advantage of these forty days and find that place in your heart that really does enjoy this beautiful season. Embrace this time of
preparation, and remember in the silence that there are wonderful things to come - things beyond our wildest dreams. 

I am praying for you all! May G'D go with you!