Objective:
The middle school youth will develop a deeper awareness of the season of Lent; its traditions and significance to the spiritual life of a Christian.
Overview:
The Lenten season is one of sacrifice, almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Few of our modern middle school youth are accustomed to these things, nor do most of them know the significance of the Lenten Christian practices. Lent is a time to shed all that interferes with our relationship with God. It is a time of change: a change of mind and a change of heart. Beginning with Ash Wednesday, we are called to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. During Lent we are called to continue to examine our lives and our values to see how they stack up against the values Jesus challenges us to adopt. Lent is a long retreat, a season of spiritual development and enlightenment. Through this season we remember that Christ suffered just as we often do.
[…] This is why Christ vanquished the tempter for us: “for we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.” By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert (Catechism of the Catholic Church 540).