Lent 2023 begins on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22)
and continues through Holy Thursday (April 6).

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fasting and abstinence. Fridays of Lent also are days of abstinence.

As outlined on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website on Lenten fasting and abstinence, “fasting is obligatory for all who have completed their 18th year and have not yet reached their 60th year.
Fasting allows a person to eat one full meal.
Two smaller meals may be taken, not to equal one full meal.

If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the ‘paschal fast’ to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection. Fridays in Lent are obligatory days of complete abstinence (from meat) for all who have completed their 14th year.

Through our works of prayer, fasting, and abstinence, let us heed the prophet Joel’s exhortation to return to God with our whole heart (2:12).”

Lent is a penitential season and as such religious practice such as daily Mass, reception of the Sacrament of Penance, the devotion of the Stations of the Cross, works of charity and justice, and acts of self-denial are highly encouraged.