“Most Catholics seem to be aware of the forty-day period before the feast of Easter.  Lent, which comes from the Anglo-Saxon work lencten, meaning ‘spring,’ is a time marked by particular rituals, such as the reception of ashes on Ash Wednesday or the decision to ‘give up French Fries’ as a Lenten practice.  Is Lent broader than just these practices which seem to be left over from another era?”  Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Lent and Easter Wisdom from Fulton J. Sheen)