Historians of the Roman liturgy generally reckon the restorations of the Easter Vigil (by Pius XII) and the adult catechumenate (by Vatican II) as two of the signal accomplishments of the 20th-century liturgical movement. I wouldn’t contest that claim, but I’d add something else to the highlights reel: the recovery of the baptismal character of Lent for every Catholic.
Back in the day, Lent was about what you didn’t do: eat candy, smoke, drink, whatever. And of course the three classic methods of keeping the Forty Days—fasting, intensified prayer, and almsgiving—retain their perennial significance. What I discovered three years ago, however, was that those practices come into clearer spiritual focus when they’re “located” within an understanding that Lent is the season when all of us—not just those who will be baptized or received into full communion with the Church at Easter, but all of us—becomes, in a sense, catechumens.
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