Lent begins with a 40-day journey that leads to Holy Week and the Triduum. During this season, the Church commits to three core practices: fasting, prayer, and giving to those in need. Scripture frames this pattern through significant moments of “forty”: Mary and Joseph present Jesus in the temple forty days after his birth, and Jesus later spends forty days in the wilderness. In the same way, the faithful enter their own forty days, gathering for worship, deepening their prayer, and learning again to depend on God.
The presentation of Christ in the temple also introduces Anna, the widow who devotes her life to prayer and fasting. In Luke’s Gospel, where meals and feasting often take centre stage, her fasting stands out. Fasting can express protest, a quiet but firm declaration that the world does not yet reflect God’s justice and peace. It can also hold grief, making space for sorrow that lingers long after loss. Lent invites honest acknowledgement of both personal and communal brokenness.
At the same time, fasting embodies hope. Anna’s prayerful waiting reflects confidence that God is at work and that God’s reign is drawing near in Jesus Christ. Christian fasting does not arise from despair, but from trust in the God who renews creation through Christ’s death and resurrection and through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Lent therefore becomes a season of hopeful resistance: a time to pray, to fast, to grieve where needed, and to look toward God’s ongoing work of restoration.