Lent 2025 - Living Hope

Lent begins on Wednesday, 5th March - Ash Wednesday - and continues for 40 days (Sundays are not included), meaning that it culminates in Holy Week (beginning with Palm Sunday) and finishes on Holy Saturday, 19 April. The Church of England’s Lent theme for 2025 is Living Hope.

Lent is an important part of the Christian calendar as it is a time when Christians can prepare for the celebrations of Easter by reflecting on their behaviour over the last year and finding ways to live a life based on the teaching of Jesus. People do this in different ways: some people fast, eat frugally, give up treats, or give to charity.

In Lent we journey with Jesus on the difficult and thorny road that leads all the way to the cross on Good Friday – and beyond, to the transformation of Easter Day. God invites us to bring to him our own journey through everyday life. In the disappointment of daily setbacks and the pain of deeper hurts, we discover that God is present with us. And God promises a future where all things are healed and made new.  
Living Hope offers us the opportunity to deepen our hope in God and be part of what God is doing to bring hope in the world.

Lent lasts for 40 days because this is the amount of time Jesus fasted in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. Sundays, which always celebrate the resurrection, are excluded from this total of forty. During Lent this year, readings and reflections will explore how we can have hope in times of frustration or uncertainty; the hope found in joining with others; the invitation to notice signs of hope around us; the courage to face reality and pursue a hopeful future; and the ways God transforms death into life at Easter. The Church of England offers resources to help us achieve this, including free daily Lent reflection emails - click this link. 

We will explore Lent in more detail in the coming weeks.

Inservi Deo et laetare.

Sue Hannam, Headteacher