The season known as Lent has a long history. The word itself is from an Old English word meaning “spring,” the time of lengthening days. Eventually this time of fasting became an imitation of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. In the western church the forty days of Lent extend from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, omitting Sundays. Today Lent is a time when all Christians are invited “to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, and by acts of care and self discipline.