Many people have questions about Ash Wednesday and the Lenten Season, so we rounded up some terrific explanations and insights for you. As we approach Easter, many Christians find Lent to be a deeply spiritual time of reflection and refocusing, and we hope that this post and our Lent devotional series will help you grow closer to God this year.
What is Lent? Lent FAQ
“Lent is a liturgical season of the year during which many Christians prepare themselves for Easter by an increased focus on spiritual practices. It is always six weeks long, beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on the Thursday before Easter. Since Easter is a moveable feast day—fixed in relation to the full moon following the northern hemisphere’s vernal equinox—the beginning of Lent also moves. The word lent simply refers to Spring. The beginning of Spring almost always occurs during Lent.” Keep reading here.
Why do Catholics and other Christians put ashes on our heads on Ash Wednesday?
“’Excuse me, you’ve got some dirt on your head.’
Every year someone says that to me on Ash Wednesday. Maybe it has happened to you too. In the past it used to frustrate me, but in recent years I have come to see it as a great opportunity to evangelize, to share with someone about the most important person in my life: Jesus Christ.” Keep reading here.
Lent and Ash Wednesday in Two Minutes
Click here to watch this week’s video.
Why One Baptist Chooses to Observe Lent
“I’m a Southern Baptist, which, among other things, means I’m a low church, free church evangelical. Furthermore, I’m a convictionally reformational Baptist, meaning I resonate with what I believe to be the best of the magisterial reformers in terms of Scripture and salvation and the best of the radical reformers in terms of ecclesiology and mission. Folks like me are supposed to be suspicious of Lent. Yet, beginning tomorrow, I will be observing the Lenten season for the next forty days, as I have done virtually every year for the past dozen years. Why?” Keep reading here.
Series on Ash Wednesday Practice and Meaning
“I grew up with only a vague notion of Ash Wednesday. To me, it was some Catholic holy day that I, as an evangelical Protestant, didn’t have to worry about, thanks be to God. In my view, all of ‘that religious stuff’ detracted from what really mattered, which was having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In my early evangelical years it never dawned on me that some of “the religious stuff” might actually enrich my faith in Christ.” Keep reading here.
If you’d like another wonderful way to engage with Lent, please read our weekly Lenten devotional here.