Prepping for Lent: Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving

How do you know it’s Lent?

It’s not so much by the ash mark on your forehead or fish marks on the calendar. Tradition tells us that Lent has three distinguishing marks: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

This three-part series will examine those practices. Prayer is surely the best place to begin, because it’s the one that unites them all. Fasting and almsgiving are themselves just forms of prayer.

Mike Aquilina

No one explains Catholicism more understandably than Mike Aquilina. So it's only natural that I turn every year to his wonderful pieces about the basics of Lent:

• Prayer
• Fasting
• Almsgiving

If you ever wondered why we have to fast, how giving to the poor is prayer, or how to better incorporate prayer into your Lenten life, then this series is for you.

It will help you get in the mindset to let God in deeper and to have a more meaningful Lent.