Lent 2027

Lent 2027 begins on Ash Wednesday, February 10, 2027, and runs until the evening of Holy Thursday, March 25. Here are the dates of the season, the fasting and abstinence rules, each Friday of Lent 2027, and some practical ideas for keeping these forty days well.

Lent 2027 dates

• Ash Wednesday: February 10. Fasting and abstinence. See Ash Wednesday 2027.
• First Sunday of Lent: February 14
• Second Sunday of Lent: February 21
• Third Sunday of Lent: February 28
• Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday): March 7
• Fifth Sunday of Lent: March 14
• St. Joseph: Friday, March 19, a solemnity
• Palm Sunday: March 21, the start of Holy Week
• Holy Thursday: March 25. Lent ends before the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper.
• Good Friday: March 26. Fasting and abstinence.
• Easter Sunday: March 28. See Easter 2027.

The Church's norms put it plainly: "Lent runs from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord's Supper exclusive." Good Friday and Holy Saturday belong to the Easter Triduum, but most of us keep our Lenten sacrifices until Easter morning, and the Good Friday fast is meant to stretch, where possible, to the Easter Vigil.

Why forty days?

Count from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday and you get 46 days. Take away the six Sundays, which are never fast days, and forty remain. The number recalls the forty days Christ fasted in the desert before his public ministry, and before that Moses' forty days on the mountain and Elijah's forty-day journey to Horeb.

The custom grew over time. By 331 St. Athanasius was asking the faithful of Alexandria to keep a forty days' fast before the stricter fast of Holy Week, and a few years later he wrote that it was kept throughout the world. In Rome in the time of St. Gregory the Great there were 36 fast days, which Gregory called a tithe of the year. The four days from Ash Wednesday to the first Sunday were added later to make a full forty. The Fathers of the fifth century, among them St. Leo the Great, already spoke of "the Apostolic institution of the forty days."

The three pillars: prayer, fasting and almsgiving

The Gospel for Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6) names the three works of Lent: giving alms, praying and fasting, each done in secret for the Father who sees in secret. The US bishops describe them the same way: we seek the Lord in prayer, serve by giving alms, and practice self-control through fasting.

They belong together. Fasting without prayer turns into a diet, and prayer without charity grows cold. The money saved by a simpler table is meant to reach the poor; that is the idea behind CRS Rice Bowl, the cardboard box many American families keep on the kitchen table through Lent.

Catholic fasting and abstinence rules for Lent 2027

These are the rules for Latin Catholics in the United States, from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and canons 1250 to 1253 of the Code of Canon Law:

• Fasting binds from age 18 until age 59 on Ash Wednesday (February 10) and Good Friday (March 26). On a fast day you may eat one full meal and two smaller meals that together don't equal a full meal. Liquids are allowed; no snacking between meals.
• Abstinence from meat binds everyone 14 and older on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and every Friday of Lent.
• Meat means the flesh of land animals and birds. Fish, shellfish, eggs, milk and cheese are permitted. The bishops add that a lavish seafood dinner "sort of misses the point."
• Excused: the physically or mentally ill, including those with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, and pregnant or nursing women. Common sense comes first.

Eastern Catholics follow the law of their own Church, which has its own fast days and customs.

The Fridays of Lent 2027

1. February 12
2. February 19
3. February 26
4. March 5
5. March 12
6. March 19, the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Canon 1251 requires abstinence on all Fridays "unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday," so meat is allowed. Many families keep the day with a feast in honor of St. Joseph, and some Italian parishes set up a St. Joseph's table of meatless dishes and bread for the poor.
7. March 26, Good Friday: fasting and abstinence

What to give up for Lent

A good Lenten sacrifice costs something, and it is chosen with a purpose: to make room for God and to strengthen us against a particular weakness. Some ideas that people have found fruitful:

• Food and drink: sweets, desserts, alcohol, coffee, snacks between meals, eating out.
• Screens: social media, streaming, video games, or the phone at meals and in bed.
• Comforts: the snooze button, music in the car, hot showers, shopping for things you don't need.
• Habits of the tongue: complaining, gossip, sarcasm, swearing.

Pick one or two you can keep, not ten you'll drop by the second week. If you slip, start again the next morning.

What to add for Lent

Many people find it more fruitful to add something than to give something up. Some ideas:

• Go to confession during Lent. Many parishes add hours in the weeks before Easter.
• Attend one weekday Mass a week, or every day if you can.
• Pray the Stations of the Cross on Fridays (see below).
• Read one of the Gospels slowly from start to finish, or the daily Mass readings each morning.
• Pray a daily Rosary, or a decade on the way to work.
• Give alms: the money from what you gave up, a monthly gift to a food pantry, or CRS Rice Bowl.
• Practice a work of mercy each week: visit someone who is sick or alone, write to someone in prison, call a relative you've neglected.

The Stations of the Cross

Most parishes pray the Stations of the Cross every Friday in Lent, often in the evening after a simple soup supper. The fourteen stations follow Christ from his condemnation to the tomb, and the faithful walk from one to the next around the church, meditating on each. The Church grants a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, for making the Way of the Cross. The full prayers are on our page on the Stations of the Cross, and the woman who wiped the Lord's face at the sixth station is honored as St. Veronica.

Laetare Sunday, March 7

The Fourth Sunday of Lent takes its name from the first word of the entrance antiphon, "Laetare, Jerusalem," "Rejoice, Jerusalem," from Isaiah 66. It falls at the midpoint of the season and gives a breath of joy before the last weeks. Priests may wear rose vestments instead of violet, and flowers and the organ, set aside during Lent, may return for the day. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the popes once blessed the Golden Rose on this Sunday, and in England it became Mothering Sunday.

Holy Week 2027

Lent's last week begins with Palm Sunday, March 21, when we carry palms in procession and hear the Passion read. On Holy Thursday, March 25, Lent ends and the Triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, when the priest washes the feet of members of the parish as Christ washed the feet of the apostles. Good Friday, March 26, is the day of the Lord's Passion and the second day of fasting. After the silence of Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil on the night of March 27 opens the Easter season. The full day-by-day guide is on our Easter 2027 page.

Holy Thursday 2027 also falls on March 25, the usual date of the Annunciation. That solemnity moves to Monday, April 5, after the Easter Octave.

Let us keep these forty days faithfully, asking the Lord who fasted in the desert to give us the grace of a true change of heart before Easter.