Current Liturgical Season: Lent
Since the earliest times, Christians have entered into an extended season of preparation for the celebration of the resurrection (Easter) as a powerful opportunity to be further conformed to Christ. This season of preparation eventually came to be formalized (325AD) as a 40-day season that we now call Lent, which begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with Maundy Thursday (with Good Friday and Holy Saturday added as additional fast days). The forty days of Lent echo a handful of significant biblical stories involving 40 days: Jesus fasting in the wilderness, Moses on Mt. Sinai, Jonah preaching repentance in Nineveh, and more. The season of Lent is a penitential time in the Church. It is associated with fasting, repentance, taking up new disciplines or practices, and almsgiving. We fast in order to reveal the deep hunger and thirst that we have for God. Lent reveals our need for the mercy and a grace that only God can provide.
The liturgical color for Lent is purple - the color for royalty, but also the color for repentance. Purple has long been a royal color associated with kings and rulers and with nobility. It later became a penitential color. This is because in Lent we focus on the fact that the King of the Universe came to die and rise again to free us from sin and death.