\u201cIt\u2019s a time to get closer to God, time to fast, time to pray, a time to just kind of humble yourself,\u201d Nicolas Smok Blanchard, a senior at Berkeley High School and president of the Christ Club, said when explaining what Lent means to him. Blanchard gave up Instagram Reels this season for Lent, which is a 40 day season of prayer and fasting that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday. While Lent is primarily observed in Catholicism, it is observed in many other Christian sects as well. During Lent, participants practice self-discipline through fasting and additionally abstain from one specific luxury, such as giving up sweets or shopping. Many are encouraged to give \u201calms\u201d \u2014 time, talents, or money to people that need it \u2014 to follow Christ faithfully in a time where he sacrificed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just started doing Lent because I\u2019ve been doing a lot of research into Catholicism, and they practice Lent the most. So I thought it was cool to uphold tradition and it\u2019s kind of cool to see Christians all around the world doing Lent, and I\u2019m part of that too,\u201d Blanchard said. The Christ Club meets weekly at lunch on Wednesdays, in C-310, where they host guest speakers, discussions, dive into sections of the Bible, and host a space for prayer and connection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year is the first time Cheyenne Paxton, a BHS senior and secretary of the Christ Club, has practiced Lent. She gave up \u201cfantasizing about things that will just lead me into a part where I feel empty and void \u2026 so we\u2019re doing Lent to see how it\u2019s gonna affect my life,\u201d Paxton said, \u201cI\u2019m also giving up academic performance, like placing my worth inside of my academics. My grades do not determine how valuable I am.\u201d In most Lent-observing religions, the last week of Lent is known as the Holy Week, which begins with Palm Sunday. Last year, the Christ Club hosted a meeting, going over what Holy Week, the Last Supper, Jesus\u2019 final moments, and resurrection were.<\/p>\n
Adonai Nikodimos, a BHS junior, gave up sugar this year for Lent and has been practicing the holiday for as long as he can remember, but said it got more serious for him in high school. \u201cI think (Lent) is eye opening for me, a lot of things that get revealed to me, and I understand (things I struggle with) more overall,\u201d Nikodimos said.<\/p>\n
The Biblical foundations of Lent originate with Jesus\u2019 40 day fasting period in the desert, where he was led into the wilderness and tempted by Satan to show believers how to resist the devil, to confirm his obedience to God, identity as the son of God, and demonstrate victory over sin. After this 40 day period, Jesus was established as a sinless High Priest. \u201cThe whole point of Lent is that Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, so it just means to implement something that you know that can change you. So for right now, even though I\u2019m doing this for 40 days, I\u2019m hoping to see (change) in my day-to-day life after the 40 days. So that\u2019s what it means to me,\u201d Paxton said. \u201cI\u2019m working on something that I will see later in my life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Paxton also found changes in herself, noticing differences in her attitudes and behaviors as a result of giving up placing her worth in academics, even halfway through Lent this year. \u201cI\u2019m not placing my worth inside of my academics, I see myself finding my worth in God, and my value in God \u2026 my academics don\u2019t determine who I am as a person. So I am seeing that fruitfully,\u201d Paxton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lent will end on Thursday, Apr. 2, 2026, with Easter the following Sunday, Apr. 5. 2026. Lent can encourage people to give up bad habits, focus on helping others, or improve upon themselves, and can inspire individuals to carry on with these values and habits even when Lent is over.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s a time to get closer to God, time to fast, time to pray, a time to just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-218928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}