Weaning
According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, “The purpose of Lent is to provide … purification by weaning people from sin and selfishness through self-denial and prayer.”

Slackened
During the Middle Ages, Lent came to refer to the 40 weekdays of fasting in the lead-up to Easter. Sundays were excluded. Fasting restrictions were rigid at first, but have slackened over the centuries.

Liturgical antidote to excess
Lent can be the liturgical antidote to consumer stress and excess. It is the optimal season in which to experiment with extracting oneself from consumptive living.

Despite the connotations of earnest piety and religious compunction, Lent has a certain appeal. Deep down, most of us have a strong hunch that the life abundant is not synonymous with life over-indulgent. And Lent can lure us to that knowledge. It can be a gentle path of spiritual de-corporatization.

Rather than continually trying to conjure the willpower to do “the right thing,” I like to think of being drawn into the flow and rhythm of the liturgical calendar. I imagine being carried along by a phenomenon beyond myself. Liturgy gently stirs us; it connects us with rhythms of change. It holds the possibility of matching ancient, ongoing undercurrents with nitty-gritty lifestyle challenges. I think of it as practical liturgy.

The grand culmination of Lent is not some quagmire of hand-wringing deprivation, but Easter redemption. Lent looks forward to the mystery at the heart of life abundant. The practical liturgy of the season offers the possibility of peeling away layers that obscure our view of that life. And ultimately, the primal flow of Lent carries us toward the imminent eruption of life and grace. – Will Braun, adapted from a 2005 article about giving up soda pop for Lent

Clearances
Theologian and philosopher John O’Donohue writes [that] a little self-denial can provide a sense of space, and help to make “clearances in the undergrowth of banality and sensation” which leaves us so distracted and overwhelmed. – From Giving it up for Lent, by Brian Draper

This year
Lent started on February 25 and ends with Easter on April 12. It’s not too late to sneak in some experimentation of your own.