What Is Lent?

What is Lent for children? See Lent coloring pages and more.

Definition Of Lent

What is Lent?

Q. 807. What is Lent?
A. Lent is the forty days before Easter Sunday, during which we do penance, fast and pray to prepare ourselves for the resurrection of Our Lord; and also to remind us of His own fast of forty days before His Passion.

Can you watch and pray with Jesus?

Each year, Lent is the time Catholics commemorate the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ with prayers, fasting, and alms giving.

The Lent definition by the book is defined by the number of days and the penitential observances the Catholic Church requires before Easter.

Time-wise the Lenten season is defined as the annual 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. Catholics fast and abstain from meat, pray, give alms, and sacrifice various pleasures for the love of God.

Lent is the most profitable time to offer prayers, sacrifices and alms in reparation for the sins in our lives because we join the whole Catholic Church in her wise advice to pray, to do penance, and to gain more graces for ourselves and others.

Any time our works are in union with the Church, we gain more graces.

If you're teaching little children you might like these pages:

The rest of this page has other ideas for the season of Lent.

Saint Anne's Helper Audio Baltimore Catechism CDs and downloads.

Use the Baltimore Catechism?

Join my Newsletter.

Disclosure: I show products that I think will help you. If you use my links, I may earn ad commissions at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Teaching Children About Lent

Children love Lent! Be sure to let them know what the adults are doing.

Why?

A good Lent is what helps them know and love Jesus and Mary!

They so often want to make the same sacrifices that you do. It's like rising to a challenge, and they really rise to the idea of helping Jesus. Be generous and they will do the same.

See these other related days and ideas on this page:

Eating Meat In Lent - Or Rather, Not Eating Meat

Eating meat for Lent traditionally meant that Catholics only ate meat once a day with no meat on Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays in Lent, especially Good Friday. At the time of this writing and traditionally, it is a mortal sin to eat meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Lent is what helps us remember to mortify ourselves and make sacrifices for others.

Children can make this sacrifice, yet do check what your diocese asks. The specific requirements for Lent depend on your local bishop, since there are local matters of circumstance. For instance some bishops allow Catholics to eat meat on St. Patrick's Day when it falls on a Friday in Lent. Contact the Chancellor's office in your diocese for the rules in your local Ordo.

1. Shrove Tuesday - The Day Before Lent

Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday. Many Catholics actually prepare for Lent with a celebration. In areas of French influence this is called Mardi Gras as in Louisiana.

In this way, our family starts the day before Ash Wednesday. We don't make too, too many festivities on that day since it is hard to eat up leftovers during the rest of the week, but we do like to mark the day.

If we do celebrate, we usually have ice cream or something like M&Ms or Skittles for the little ones, so that we can store leftovers till Sunday. Also, we make a point of not having too much so that it is not a sudden dearth to zero treats during Lent.

We also try to have dark clothes ready for Ash Wednesday's Mass the next day.

Another time we try to have dark or black clothes is for the Good Friday liturgy when we try to prepare ourselves as for a solemn funeral, as it commemorates the Burial of Jesus.

Audio Baltimore Catechism CDs and digital downloads.

Digital Baltimore Catechism Communion and Confirmation ebooks, worksheets, and coloring downloads.

Downloadable Catholic Coloring Pages to Print

Over 200 Catholic digital pictures to print.

Bonus: Christmas, Easter, animals, patriotic and more! Catholic Coloring Book Download. Ad-free PDF.

See sample coloring pages here.

2. What is Ash Wednesday?

What is Ash Wednesday? The Roman Catholic Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. It represents the forty days that Our Lord Jesus Christ spent in the desert preparing Himself for His public life.

Forty days before Easter Sunday (minus the Sundays in Lent), Catholics remember the meaning of Ash Wednesday by reading the Epistle and the Gospel for the day that tell the story of Man's fall and Original Sin, and God's word to "Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." (Genesis Chapter 1)

Lent includes Ash Wednesday, Passion Week, Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The easiest answer for children to understand is that Lent ends on Easter Day. Otherwise they may want to celebrate early on Holy Saturday. Our calendar hawk sure did.

You'll find Ash Wednesday coloring pages here.

3. How Long Is Lent?

Lent usually seems like a long time, but it's only from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday. This actually makes Lent 40 days as we do not fast, or keep Lent, on Sundays.

Sundays during Lent are mini feasts and everyone knows that you can't fast on a feast.

All the weeks leading up to Easter remind us about the prophecies made about Jesus in the Old Testament and His public life in the New Testament.

We read the foretelling of His coming, Death, and Resurrection and then we read of His historical Death and Resurrection. What is Lent without sorrow for our sins, prayers and sacrifices?

His Death was the promised Redemption, the promise given to Adam and Eve at the time of their Fall, or Original Sin. Through Adam death entered the world and by Jesus Christ death is vanquished!

The better we prepare through Lent fasting and praying, the better we will rejoice on Easter Sunday morning when Jesus rose from the dead!

4. Stations Of The Cross

Picture of Jesus to print and color for Lent.

Print and color this printable Stations booklet.

What is Lent but the best time to pray the Stations of the Cross? Having a booklet to read is a handy way "visit" all 14 Stations of the Cross even in your own home.

There are fourteen Stations in the traditional Stations of the Cross. During the Year of the Priest, as asked by Pope Benedict XVI, it was a good idea to say extra Rosaries for our priests and the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It's a good idea even now. :-)

Even the new Racolta still gives a plenary indulgence for praying the Stations under the usual conditions! See our free printable Stations booklet here.

5. Pray The Sorrowful Mysteries Of The Rosary During Lent

Sorrowful Mysteries for Lent coloring page.

Sorrowful Mysteries Coloring Pages

Also, the Sorrowful Mysteries are an excellent Rosary Meditation for the season of Lent when one doesn't have the Stations to read. These five Mysteries briefly cover Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

If you are praying five mysteries a day, pray the Sorrowful Mysteries on Sunday during Lent.

If you're teaching children about Lent, you'll like these Rosary pages:

6. What Is Lent For Little Ones?

Lent activities for children can answer the question, "What is Lent?" in a way that gives your children generous ideas to show their love for Jesus.

Show them the pictures of the Way of the Cross or a Bible Picture Book, and tell them the general story of Holy Week. Use a booklet like a photo album for the littlest children who wonder - What is Lent?

Give your children ideas for making sacrifices or saying extra prayers. We have used what a dear friend taught us to do with a Crown of Thorns made of very salty dough and toothpicks that the children can remove when they do a sacrifice for Our Lord. On Ash Wednesday braid the dough to make the "Crown".

Then as the dough is drying, insert many, many toothpicks, especially if you have many children. It is similar to the straws in the Crib for Baby Jesus during Advent, but in reverse. The kids are happy to be able remove the thorns.

You might find that you have to reload the toothpicks several times since your children might make many sacrifices, yet the children were sad to add thorns, too.

Watch out! Those toothpicks can be OWeee!

One time, we over baked the crown and they got stuck so hard that we had to use vise grips to get some of them out.

See how to make a Crown of Thorns to bake on our Catholic Lent activities page.

7. More Lent Activities for Children

Catholic Lent sacrifice chart for children.

Teach your children to love Jesus using this Catholic Lent chart. Plan to have a holy Lent.

Other Lent activities for children are to make a "calendar" path of blocks or a grid of calendar squares 7x7, to cover the weeks of Lent, on a large piece of paper or poster board with Lenten symbols. Then we made a legend or list of:

Hearts for acts of Charity,
Crosses for sacrifices,
Diamonds for Mass and Rosaries,
Pearls/circles for other prayers, etc.

Each child had his or her own different colored pen to make the marks. This worked wonderfully well, since they saw the times that they were slacking and worked harder on the other days.

You can color the Laetare Sunday block in pink and decorate days like Ash Wednesday, St. Patrick's Day, St. Joseph's Feast, St. Benedict... Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter with

Little piles of ashes (dots),
THREE leafed shamrocks,
Palms,
The three crosses
And a radiant sunrise for Easter.

This Lent calendar was the best project we have done for Lent since the children saw the fruits of their efforts in a more varied way with the different sacrifices, prayers and acts of Charity.

We have loads of Lenten printables for children:

Ash Wednesday Coloring
Printable Stations Booklet - St. Alphonsus Liguori
Lent Coloring Pages
Sorrowful Mysteries Rosary Coloring Pages
Palm Sunday, Good Friday Coloring
Easter Coloring

Now you have a great start for helping your children learn about "What is Lent?"

~Mary

Audio Baltimore Catechism, Catholic Worksheets, Catholic eBooks, and Catholic Coloring Pages:

Catholic catechism resources for your Roman Catholic catechism class, Faith formation, Catholic homeschool, religious education, or Sunday school lessons. Save on bundles!

Order our Baltimore Catechism worksheets. Choose your favorite fonts, colors, and SIZES on our fillable digital interactive worksheets and coloring pages. Paperless or printable.