The Church in its liturgical prayers year-round is constantly praying in

Lenten regulations a. Ash Wednesday is a day of fast and abstinence. This means that all the faithful between the ages of 18-59, who are otherwise in good health, should eat only one full meal on Ash Wednesday. Two lighter meals are also permitted. In addition, the law of abstinence requires that all of those who are 14 years of age or over are to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday. b. Similarly, Good Friday is also a day of fast and abstinence. The same rules apply as on Ash Wednesday. (This is part of the most ancient fast in the church, the Paschal Fast for Easter. The Holy See encourages all to continue that fast, where possible, into Holy Saturday. This is especially true for the catechumens and candidates for initiation.) c. The Fridays of Lent are to be observed as days of abstinence. For those 14 years of age and over, no meat is to be eaten on those days. d. Each individual Catholic should resolve to engage in other activities of prayer, fasting, almsgiving and mortification during the 40 days of Lent. The celebration of Mass, sacramental reconciliation, generous assistance to the poor and religious/charitable causes should be a part of everyone's Lent.

our name that we seek God's forgiveness and flee from sin. In addition, the church sets aside six-and-a-half weeks every year, during the spring, to help each of us to confront ourselves about the sinful side of our lives. We name those weeks Lent - a special time for us.

In the Gospel of the first Sunday of Lent we discover the core element of sin: it's a fraud. And its main perpetrator is a master of deceit. If the core element of sin is fraud, then sin cannot begin inside of anyone. No it begins outside of everyone, proposed as a "good", and that proposal is what we call temptation. Just as Jesus went to the desert to face his temptations so must each of us use this time of Lent to face our temptations. We must bring ourselves to see our temptations as a test of our loyalty to God, our Father. Each temptation is a test to our character and nothing else. Each temptation presents the same simple question from God. "Do you love me more than everything else?" And if from that we commit sin that is our answer to God.