Lent: known by many as the forty-day preparation period for Easter Sunday, and one of the major liturgical seasons of the Roman Catholic Church. Though its beginning is marked with ashes upon the foreheads of devout Catholics and its end soon proclaimed with crowded churches, feasting and egg hunts, what exactly is the purpose of the whole season, and how has it changed the outlook people hold on their faith?

 “Lent was a good time for Catholics to reflect upon their faith and ask themselves how they could grow closer to God,” said Cathedral Catholic chaplain and religion teacher, Fr. Brian Kelly. “In order to do so, people could have attended penance services, started going to Mass regularly, or even just picked up their Bibles and read the accounts of Jesus’s passion and death in the Gospels in a prayerful manner.”

Cathedral provided students with a plethora of opportunities to help prepare for Easter. On March 6^th and 7^th, every student received the chance to attend a penance service during his or her religion class. Priests from all over San Diego came to the St. Therese Chapel at CCHS to help cleanse students of their sins.

In addition, the Campus Ministry service class held a successful Lenten drive, where thousands of dollars were raised to help out inner city Catholic schools such as Our Lady’s School, St. Rita’s, and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

Finally, Cathedral offered a chance for students to attend Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every Friday, with a brief Benediction service held around eleven in the morning.

Many students also took it upon themselves to make sacrifices or practice good behavior habits in preparation for Jesus’ resurrection.

Junior Ben Lampe decided to stop procrastinating for Lent. “Though I wasn’t perfect, I am now going to continue on this positive behavior even after Lent is over, because it makes life a lot less hectic and gives me more time to reflect on myself and my relationship with God,” he said.

Sophomore Vanessa Collins decided to go a different route. “Instead of giving up something to eat for Lent, as I usually do, I instead made sure to give a stranger a compliment each day,” she said. “I feel like this changed me a lot! It was really rewarding to see the smiles on people’s faces. After Lent, I have decided to make this a daily practice: to put myself out there and be the best person I can be.”

Lent held various different interpretations for people, as many instilled personalized practices into their everyday lives.

Sophomore Mika Schmeling said, “I didn’t really follow the traditional actions for Lent, but I worked more on renewing my relationship with God. I attended Mass a lot more than usual, and I would pray whenever I had a chance.”

Small actions like this seemed to have paid off. “I feel like this Lent was really a unique experience for me,” said Mika. “Ever since I was little, I never knew what Lent was, and I kind of just followed what my parents and family did. I finally realized this year that everything I do can’t be about myself. I have to take action in thinking about what God would want me to do, and how I can start living His call in my ordinary life.”

Though Lent is traditionally viewed as a sorrowful period with fasting, charity and abstinence, many looked upon the season in a more positive light by identifying favorite aspects.

Fr. Kelly said that his favorite part of Lent was helping organize the penance services. “It was great to gain the support of so many good priests in the area, and to see so many of our students take this opportunity for reconciliation with Jesus so seriously,” he said.

Ben said, “My favorite part of Lent is getting to focus on Christ’s Passion; it is the ultimate example of sacrificial love. It is great to be able to focus on that and be reminded of how much God loves us.”

“The whole Cathedral community really tries to ensure that we pick up on the true meaning of the season,” said Mika. “We give things up in honor of Jesus, who faced temptations and made the ultimate sacrifice for us, because he loves us. This time helped us fine tune our relationship with God while also following in Christ’s footsteps, becoming the Catholics we always should be.”

“We tend to let things get in the way of our relationship with God, so giving them up frees up time or energy and, instead, turns our attention to our faith,” said Fr. Kelly. “Lent shows us that we can live without material things, but we can’t live without God.”