Decorating the House for Lent

 What is Lent?

According to Catholic Answers, the basic meaning of Lent is: "The Teutonic word Lent, which we employ to denote the forty days’ fast preceding Easter, originally meant no more than the spring season. Still it has been used from the Anglo-Saxon period to translate the more significant Latin term quadragesima (Fr. careme, It. quaresima, Span. cuaresma), meaning the “forty days”, or more literally the “fortieth day”. This in turn imitated the Greek name for Lent, tessarakost? (fortieth), a word formed on the analogy of Pentecost (pent?kost?), which last was in use for the Jewish festival before New-Testament times. This etymology, as we shall see, is of some little importance in explaining the early developments of the Easter fast".  

To me, Lent is a time to get closer to Jesus.  It's our time in the desert.  Last year during Covid quarantine was definitely my time in the desert.  I truly understood what that meant.  We were in lockdown.  Churches were closed.  There weren't any Stations of the Cross, there wasn't any soup suppers at our parish....and our parish didn't do any online services.  I felt utterly alone and utterly in the desert.  We watched mass on TV, but it wasn't the same.  It wasn't MY parish.  There was a lot I had to come to terms with.  Holy Week is a very special yet somber time at our house and it was made so much more so by the uncertainty of Covid and being locked out of our church during the most holy time in our religion.  

I'm hoping this Lent is just as special as always and although things are not back to normal, we CAN go to church and I'm prepared to do our own Stations of the Cross and I'm prepared for the different.  

I started decorating for Lent today.  It's a process.

The "Lent" banner is up.

The Lent Tree is up too.

This turntable decoration is new this year.  Right now I have a burlap table runner, a blessed candle, some crosses, and a cactus (desert).  I also have some purple napkins, but we won't start using those until Ash Wednesday.  Since this is new, I'm sure I will fuss with it and change it as the weeks go forward.

I started the the table in the foyer today, but I didn't finish it and I'm not sure where I'm going with it.  So this will definitely be a work in process.

We just got the call that the boys have a snow day tomorrow, so I'll have some extra time to work with this.

Lent is such a barren time.  I would love nothing more than to decorate with flowers, and bunnies, and chicks.  But that is not where we are at.  We need to sit in the desolate, dark times so that light will come and we will understand it's full meaning.