Lent 2025: Living Consciously – A Path to Inner Reflection!
The Austrian Catholic Family Association invites you to consciously experience the upcoming Lent and discover new impulses for mindfulness.
Lent 2025: Living Consciously – A Path to Inner Reflection!
Vienna, February 27, 2025 - Lent begins on March 5, and the President of the Austrian Catholic Family Association, Peter Mender, invites you to make this pre-Easter time a conscious break from the often stressful everyday life. How kathpress.at reports, this time should not just be seen as a painful renunciation, but rather as an opportunity to re-examine habits and enrich personal experiences. The association offers under the motto "Do we have what we need? Do we need what we have?" offers numerous activities and impulses that appeal to both families and individuals, regardless of their religious background.
This year, an innovative way to experience Lent is also offered via the family association's WhatsApp channel, where inspiration, simple recipes and psalms are shared daily. Mender explains that everyone can integrate small moments of mindfulness into their everyday lives at their own pace. Special online campaigns and apps such as the Boomerang app also make it easier for the family to take part in fasting individually. The goal is to stick to Lent resolutions while promoting a sense of community. Lent spans 40 days from Ash Wednesday and prepares for the celebration of Christ's death and resurrection, as in katholisch.de is highlighted.
The ethical dimension of Lent
The Catholic Catechism calls Lent an “Easter penitential period” that calls for not only physical deprivation but also inner conversion. It is emphasized that fasting and abstinence should not only be characterized by external activities, but is seen as a path to opening the heart. Lent lasts until the beginning of the Communion Mass on Maundy Thursday, which can vary depending on liturgical regulations, but is often symbolically associated with 40 days, citing biblical traditions. The Catholic faith teaches that abstinence during Lent should not be rigid and rule-based, but can be tailored individually in order to prepare for Easter.
In summary, the coming Lent opens an opportunity for reflection, both in the ecclesial sense and in daily life, and offers a variety of opportunities to make conscious decisions that go beyond the center of life.