The word "Lent" comes from an old English word meaning "to lengthen" and it names the time of the year when (in the Northern Hemisphere) the days begin to get longer in the spring.  After the cold, dark, and often dismal months of the year, come the signs of renewal. Thus, the calendar year aids the liturgical year and explains why Lent is known as the Springtime of the Soul.

Two concerns drive the Lenten season.  Lent is driven by our need for renewal in both mind and spirit.  The former need gives the season a catechetical (teaching) dynamic, the latter need a penitential dynamic.  Through the Lenten disciplines of bible-study, prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we bend to the training of the season in order that we might become seasoned athletes of faith (1 Cor. 9:24-27).

All of our Lenten preparations culminate in The Three Days, a liturgical observance known as the Triduum.  Beginning on Maundy Thursday evening and concluding on the evening of Easter Sunday, we engage in a three-act liturgy. In one continuous celebration encompassing three consecutive days, the church remembers Christ's salvific acts and experiences his presence in the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist.

In act one, we celebrate Maundy Thursday. "Maundy" is derived from Jesus' "new commandment" (man datum) to love one another (John 13:34).  We remember Christ's meal with his disciples and the foot washing that follows.  We wash feet as a reminder that we follow the path of Christ's humble love for others.  We share the meal of bread and wine, remembering that Christ instituted the Lord's Supper on this day. We strip the chancel area, a further reminder that Christ was stripped of his dignity on the cross and that our servant hood involves humility and self-denial.  No benediction or dismissal is given at the conclusion of the service.  Act Two will resume the following evening.  We depart in silence and reflection.

On Good Friday, Act Two presents the culmination of Christ's servant hood in a chancel that has been stripped of all our earthly treasures.  A bare altar before us and the wooden cross above us are vivid reminders that Jesus becomes the paschal lamb who was slain so that God might pass-over our transgressions.  However, Good Friday is not a funeral service for Jesus.  Rather, it is a celebration in which we gather to celebrate Jesus' sacrifice and triumph on the cross.  We come to this service hungry in body and spirit.  Due to our observation of the Paschal fast, we abstain from our daily bread and the Bread of Life (Holy Communion).  In some communities, they even preserve the "fast of the ears" by limiting the accompaniment to the hymns.  As on Maundy Thursday, at the conclusion to the Good Friday liturgy there is no benediction or dismissal. The three-day, three-part liturgy of the Triduum, began on Thursday, continues with the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday.

Act Three,  the Great Vigil, has four scenes.  We gather outside to celebrate the new fire, a symbol of Christ's glorious resurrection from the dead.  Entering the darkened sanctuary, led by the paschal candle, our actions and the words of the Easter proclamation remind us that Christ leads us from the darkness of sin to the light of forgiveness.  Scene two places the spotlight on our salvation history.  All of our readings (creation, flood, exodus, valley of dry bones, three men in the furnace) contain images that prefigure our baptismal passage from death to life, thus foreshadowing our transition to the font (scene three), where new members are welcomed into the body of Christ, the church.  We are all reminded that in baptism we die and rise again with Christ, are cleansed from sin, and are marked with the cross of Christ forever. Hungry for the Lord's table, we expectantly await scene four, when we will be fed spiritual food that is a foretaste of the feast to come.  We anticipate the day when Christ will come again to share with us the great and promised feast, a transition from this life to the next.  Only then can we depart in peace, to love and serve the Lord, knowing that our three-day liturgy is complete.

Easter Sunday then becomes an extended epilogue in which we stand at the empty tomb to experience the risen Lord.  We begin Easter with a spontaneous shout.  Christ Is Risen!  And thus begins our fifty day journey through the Easter season.  May God bless you in your Lenten journey and Easter celebrations.