What is Lent, and why do Catholics fast?

Forty days with Jesus in the desert

After his baptism, Jesus "fasted for forty days and forty nights" in the desert (Matthew 4:2). Each year the Church unites herself to that mystery (CCC 540). The forty days also echo Israel's forty years in the wilderness and Moses' forty days on Sinai.

The three practices

Jesus speaks of all three in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6):

• Prayer — more time with God: daily Mass, the Stations of the Cross, Scripture.
• Fasting — denying ourselves something good, to hunger for God and gain self-mastery.
• Almsgiving — giving to those in need.

The Church's minimum rules (Latin Church, U.S. norms)

• Fasting (one full meal, plus two smaller meals that together do not equal a full meal) on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, for ages 18–59.
• Abstinence from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all Fridays of Lent, from age 14.

Those who are ill, pregnant or otherwise unable are excused.

Why fish is allowed

Abstinence traditionally referred to the flesh of warm-blooded animals. Fish was historically a simple, ordinary food — hence the Friday fish fry.

Ashes

On Ash Wednesday, ashes are placed on the forehead with words such as "Repent, and believe in the Gospel." It is not a holy day of obligation, but it is one of the best-attended days of the year.

Toward Easter

Lent ends with Holy Week and the Easter Triduum — Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil — the heart of the whole liturgical year.