Lent is a forty-day preparation period for Good Friday and Easter which begins on Ash Wednesday and continues through the Thursday before Easter, excluding Sundays. In this penitential season, Christians around the world renew their commitment to prayer (right relationship with God), fasting (right relationship with self), and giving (right relationship with others). These spiritual disciplines slow us down, help us to see the world and our faith in a new way, and lead us toward greater shalom and justice.
We use the color purple in the sanctuary during Lent. The color symbolizes the
pain and suffering leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus, but also, as the color
of royalty, it anticipates the final resurrection and the hope of newness that will
be celebrated in Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter Sunday.