Lent is a Catholic-centered season that lasts from February 18 to April 2. It’s a time when Catholics are focused on fasting, prayer and repentance. They use these practices to prepare for Easter by focusing on self-examination, spiritual renewal and encouraging others to turn away from sin to deepen their relationship with God.
To many catholic identifying students at Del Mar, Lent is something that is important to them and is something that they choose to participate in. Students can participate in Lent in many different ways, depending on what they decide to grow from.
Freshman, Gunnar Thorvund explains how he follows Lent by patterns, practices and growing spiritual faith during his personal life.
“During Lent, I try to pick something I’d like to improve about myself to create a better version of myself for after Lent is over,” Thorvund said.
Thorvund adds that he doesn’t include school as part of his participation in Lent because he would rather focus on himself as a person, not as a student.
“I usually pick stuff that is broader than academics, since I think of Lent as a chance to better build on myself personally,” Thorvund adds.
He also talks about how his faith grows throughout the Catholic season more thoroughly than it does at other times, such as when the season is over.
“I’m just more aware of what I do in connection to what I want to improve. I feel that Lent gives me the opportunity to restart on my actions to feel more connected with my religion,” Thorvund said.
Not only do religious students focus on Lent for their personal life, but they also connect it to their academic life to improve their friendships, grades and life as a student.
Freshman, Jhesli Mendoza addresses how she deals with participating in Lent while being a student by trying to balance it into her school and social life.
“For me, I mostly use my balance of paying attention to the teachers and completing my work. It helps me put more focus on Lent rather than focusing on school all the time,” Mendoza explains.
Although balancing school with Lent may already cause stress, it can be a big deal depending on how much work a student has. But for Mendoza, it doesn’t seem to be an issue.
“Since Lent has started, I haven’t really had any struggles with school happening at the same time. It just feels like how it did before Lent started,” Mendoza adds.
Participating in Lent doesn’t interfere with Mendoza’s friendships or social life, “Lent has been very impactful towards a lot of aspects in my life, but there hasn’t been many changes with my current friendships. I feel that my friendships are doing just fine,” she says.
As students participate in Lent, there are many students who have a similar practice outside of Catholicism. Trying to balance school, friendships and personal life at the same time can be difficult during Lent, as students are focused on bettering themselves as people. While Lent is about growing their faith, students at Del Mar engage in Lent to also create personal goals to create a better version of themselves.
