{"id":17929,"date":"2025-03-05T21:27:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T21:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/?p=17929"},"modified":"2025-03-05T21:27:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T21:27:40","slug":"lent-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/lent-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Lent 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Pope Francis invites us to \u2018journey together in hope\u2019 for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/francesco\/en\/messages\/lent\/documents\/20250206-messaggio-quaresima2025.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/francesco\/en\/messages\/lent\/documents\/20250206-messaggio-quaresima2025.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1741102689458000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3gBd725A5N9CF47AyOG79a\">Lent 2025<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lent 2025 began on Ash Wednesday, 5 March.\u00a0 For Christians, Lent is the time of preparation for Easter and it commemorates Jesus\u2019 forty days of fasting in the desert before He began His public ministry.\u00a0 During Lent \u2013 through prayer, sacrifice and charity \u2013 we are called to renew our Christian life in preparation for Easter:<\/p>\n<p><u>Prayer<\/u><br \/>\nThe Stations of the Cross, a devotional commemoration of Christ\u2019s carrying the Cross and of His execution, are often observed.\u00a0 As well as giving something up it is becoming more common to take something up as well and this may include taking time to volunteer, or spending more time in prayer.<br \/>\n<u>Sacrifice<\/u><br \/>\nSacrifice (penance) is an essential part of the lives of all Christ\u2019s faithful.\u00a0 It arises from the Lord\u2019s call to conversion and repentance.\u00a0 Christians undertake penance: in memory of the Passion and death of Jesus; as a sharing in Christ\u2019s suffering; as an expression of inner conversion; as a form of reparation for sin.\u00a0<br \/>\n<u>Charity<\/u><br \/>\nTraditionally during Lent many of the faithful commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penitence, the money saved from this can be donated to charity, for example, contributing to their Tr\u00f3caire box.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Meaning of Lent<\/strong><br \/>\nThe English word \u2018Lent\u2019 comes from the Anglo-Saxon word\u00a0Lencten, meaning \u2018Spring\u2019.\u00a0 In other languages the word comes from the Latin,\u00a0Quadragesima\u00a0\u2013 a period of 40 days.\u00a0 In the Christian tradition the forty days is understood to refer to a time of intense prayer and preparation; we remember the biblical stories of Noah and the flood of 40 days, the forty years the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness and Christ\u2019s forty day fast in the desert in preparation for his earthly ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Francis invites us to \u2018journey together in hope\u2019 for\u00a0Lent 2025\u00a0 Lent 2025 began on Ash Wednesday, 5 March.\u00a0 For Christians, Lent is the time of preparation for Easter and it commemorates Jesus\u2019 forty days of fasting in the desert before He began His public ministry.\u00a0 During Lent \u2013 through prayer, sacrifice and charity \u2013 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/lent-2025\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Lent 2025<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17930,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17929\/revisions\/17930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballygallparish.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}