Lent is perhaps the most important period of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Liturgy. This period runs from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday, and as its name implies, spans forty days.
During this time the good Christian is expected to genuinely repent of his sins and to be able to change from the depths of his interior, in order to be a better person and to be able to live closer to Jesus Christ, praying and doing works of good and charity. It is considered a time of mourning and penance (reflected in the color purple), also of reflection and, above all, of dedication towards a spiritual change and fraternal reconciliation.
Lent lasts forty days because the number forty has a special symbolism in the Bible: there were forty days of the Universal Flood, forty the years during which the Hebrew people wandered through the desert upon leaving Egypt, which lasted 400 years, and forty the days that Jesus was in the desert before beginning his teachings.
It is said that it is time to fast Y abstinence. However, as we read in a passage from the book of Isaiah, “the fasting pleasing to God consists in sharing bread with the hungry, letting the homeless poor into the house, clothing the naked, and not turning back. back to others ”.
Here are twelve prayers to pronounce in Lent:
- Our Father who art in Heaven, during this time of repentance, have mercy on us. With our prayer, our fasting, and our good works, transform our selfishness into generosity. Open our hearts to your Word, heal our wounds from sin, help us to do good in this world.
- Where is your light Give me, Lord, your guiding hand. Tell me where the sunlight hides. Where the real life. Where the true redemptive death.
- Look at my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen one, whom I prefer. I have put my spirit on him, so that he may bring justice to the nations.
- My Lord, Jesus Christ, I firmly believe that you are here; In these few minutes of prayer that I begin now I want to ask you and thank you. Ask you for the grace to realize more that you live, listen to me and love me; so much so that you wanted to freely die for me on the cross and renew that sacrifice every day at Mass. And thank you with works how much you love me: I am yours, I was born for you! What do you want, Lord, from me?
- Convert us, God our Savior, and help us to progress in the knowledge of your word, so that the celebration of this Lent will bear abundant fruit in us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in unity with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
- Good Jesus, who retired forty days in the desert to prepare your mission among us, allow me that your example is a mirror where to see myself reflected during this Lent. I also know that I must prepare for each moment of my life, I know that together with You I can take the strength I need to live as the Father wants.
- Lord, I am looking forward to Lent because it has to do with my life. I know it will do me good because it is the fight between instinct and good, the flesh and the Spirit. That is why I ask you that by your goodness, this time be for my life a time of grace, peace and happiness.
- Lord, look with love at your people, who try to purify their spirit in these Lenten days with moderation in the use of earthly things and make this sobriety nourish in them the desire to possess you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in unity with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
- Mother of Mercy, your kind heart overflows with mercy, for this I implore you to obtain forgiveness for the many evils I have done, and also, oh Mother! Teach me to forgive because in the face of so many evils that they did to you, even snatching your divine Son aside, you always responded with the most magnanimous forgiveness. Amen.
- Lord, help your people to duly penetrate the meaning of Lent and thus prepare for the Easter festivals, so that corporal penance, typical of this time, may serve for the spiritual renewal of all your faithful. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
- Lord, look with pleasure at your people, who fervently desire to give themselves to a holy life, and, since with their privations they strive to dominate the body, that the practice of good works transform their soul. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in unity with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
- May your conversion feel over me and mine light up with the fire of yours, which always burns, there within me. And start being human, being a person.
