Catholic Singles

Dear Fr. Jim - OK - I gotta a somewhat lame question but I figured I'd ask.  Maybe I missed something, but everyone says Lent is 40 days - but when I count the days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, I get 46.  What gives?  Matt

Dear Matt -

So what did you give up for Lent that you're already counting the days!!! Ha ha, just kidding! 

Actually that's not a lame question, and a very good observation.  The Church has always considered Sundays to be the day we recall the Lord's Resurrection from the dead.  For the Catholic Christian, it's the most important day of the week -so in a sense, it ranks above every other day.  So the 5 Sundays of Lent and Palm Sunday don't figure into the 40 days of Lent.

For this reason, some people choose to relax their "fasts" on Sundays (so in my case, I gave up Coffee - really miss it already by the way -- so they might allow themselves to have it on Sunday)  While these fasts are personal sacrifices, so we can kind of make our own free choice/decisions on these things, I would point out that even though Sundays are always "special", we don't want to diminish the seriousness and solemnity of the Lenten season.  That's why we don't sing or say the word ALLELUIA or sing or say the GLORIA during Lent, it's meant to reflect a more somber, reflective tone.

Hope that helps Matt!  God Bless you during your Lenten season, all 46 days of it!

Fr Jim