Enter into the forty days of Lent with a deeper understanding of the Church’s ancient call to penance, conversion, and preparation for Easter.

Volume 5 of Dom Prosper Guéranger’s monumental The Liturgical Year is devoted to Lent, guiding the reader through the first four weeks of this great penitential season.

Dom Guéranger begins by explaining the origins and development of the traditional forty-day fast, tracing Lent back to the example of Christ Himself, who fasted for forty days in the desert. He then explores the spiritual purpose of the season and the disciplines by which the Church prepares the faithful for the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord.

Readers will explore:

• The history and development of Lent
• The spiritual mystery and purpose of the forty-day fast
• Traditional Catholic practices of prayer, fasting, and penance
• Morning and evening prayers for the Lenten season
• Guidance for assisting at Mass during Lent
• Preparation for and reception of Holy Communion
• Vespers and Compline during Lent
• The First through Fourth Sundays of Lent
• The daily Masses and meditations of the first four weeks
• The traditional Lenten Ember Days
• Important saints and feasts occurring during the season, including St. Joseph, St. Benedict, St. Gabriel the Archangel, and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Throughout these weeks, Dom Guéranger continually returns to the great themes of repentance, temptation, spiritual combat, mercy, and conversion. The Scripture readings and prayers of the ancient Roman liturgy become a daily guide, showing how the Church gradually prepares the soul for the increasingly solemn mysteries that lie ahead.

Lent is presented not simply as a season of giving things up, but as a deliberate return to God. Fasting disciplines the body, prayer raises the soul, and penance turns the heart away from sin so that the faithful may approach Easter renewed.

Dom Guéranger also draws attention to the remarkable biblical readings chosen by the Church for each day of Lent, explaining imagery and lessons that were once familiar to generations of Catholics but can easily be missed without guidance.

As the fourth week comes to a close, the reader stands at the threshold of the most solemn portion of the liturgical year. The final two weeks of Lent—Passiontide and Holy Week—are given their own extensive treatment in Volume 6.

The Liturgical Year was written to help Catholics do more than observe the Church calendar. It allows the reader to pray with the Church day by day, discovering the doctrine, Scripture, history, and spiritual wisdom contained within her ancient liturgy.

Volume 5: Lent is an ideal companion for Catholics seeking to make Lent more intentional, understand its traditional liturgy more deeply, and prepare themselves spiritually for the mysteries of Easter.

By: Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.
Translated by: Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.
Series: The Liturgical Year, Volume 5 of 15
Season: Lent — First Four Weeks