2025 Lenten and Easter Observance

Diocese of Salt Lake City

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“Lent is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday [March 5, 2025] and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. It’s a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. During Lent, we seek the Lord in prayer by reading Sacred Scripture; we serve by giving alms; and we practice self-control through fasting. We are called not only to abstain from luxuries during Lent, but to a true inner conversion of heart as we seek to follow Christ’s will more faithfully. We recall the waters of baptism in which we were also baptized into Christ’s death, died to sin and evil, and began new life in Christ.” - USCCB.org

FAST AND ABSTINENCE

1. All Catholics 14 years and older are to abstain from all meat on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays of Lent, unless a particular Friday is a solemnity.

2. All Catholics who are between the ages of 18-59 are obliged to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. (Canon #1252)

3. Fasting permits one full meal and two lesser meals, which combined are not greater than the full meal. Eating between meals is not permitted.

4. A spirit of fasting is recommended during all of Lent in anticipation of the great feast of Easter. In this way, Christians express their hunger for God, their responsibility to the poor and their recognition of the kingdom of God as the answer to all human hungers.

5. “Pastors and parents are to see to it that minors who are not bound by the law of fast and abstinence are educated in an authentic sense of penance.” (Canon #1252)

PRIVILEGES – PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Airport workers, travelers and others while on board ships or airplanes are dispensed from the laws of fasting and abstinence for the duration of their journey (except Good Friday). However, it is desirable that those so dispensed should perform some pious work in compensation.

EASTER DUTY

Every Catholic is to receive Holy Communion at least once between the First Sunday of Lent, March 9, 2025 and Pentecost, June 8, 2025 unless a just cause would warrant some other time of year. (Canon #920) After having reached the age of discretion, each member of the faithful is obliged to confess faithfully his or her grave sins at least once a year. (Canon #989) This precept ensures preparation for the Eucharist by the reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which continues Baptism’s work of conversion and forgiveness. (CCC 2042)

MARRIAGES

Those marrying during Lent are to abstain from “excessive festivity” and are to take into account the special character of the liturgical season. The only days a marriage cannot be celebrated are Good Friday (The Passion of the Lord) and Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil), because of the spiritual significance of these days.

LITURGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

According to the Congregation for Divine Worship’s document Paschalis Solemnitatis, On the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feasts, in Lent the altar should not be decorated with flowers, and musical instruments may be played only to give “necessary support to the singing;” this is in order that the penitential character of the season be preserved.

Likewise, from the beginning of Lent until the paschal Vigil, “Alleluia” is to be omitted in all celebrations, even on solemnities and feasts.

According to a response from the Congregation for Divine Worship (Jan. 1985) and the Book of Blessings #1659, other persons may assist the priest in the imposition of ashes, e.g., deacons, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and other lay persons, when there is a true pastoral need.

Deacons and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion may bring blessed ashes to the sick and those confined to their homes. If a minister is not available, a member of the family or another person may bring blessed ashes to a shut-in, using one of the formulas in the Roman Missal (“Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel” or “Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return”) to impose the ashes. (BCL Newsletter, Jan. 1980 and Book of Blessings #1671)

The chants to be sung in celebrations, especially of the Eucharist, and at devotional exercises should be in harmony with the spirit of the season and the liturgical texts.

Devotional exercises that harmonize with the Lenten season are to be encouraged, for example, the Stations of the Cross. They should help foster the liturgical spirit with which the faithful can prepare themselves for the celebration of Christ’s paschal mystery.

The Mass of the Lord’s Supper (Holy Thursday) is not to begin before 4 p.m. and is the only Mass to be celebrated on that day. Before Mass begins, the tabernacle should be entirely empty.

The celebration of the Lord’s Passion (Good Friday), the principal celebration of this day, should take place about 3 p.m.

The Most Reverend Oscar A. Solis, Bishop of Salt Lake City, has determined the Easter Vigil should not be celebrated before 9:15 p.m. in the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

Deacon George Reade, Chancellor

By order of: Most Reverend Oscar A. Solis, D.D. Bishop of Salt Lake City