Suggestion for collective worship in a primary school
Perhaps have the words Lengthen and Lent available on flashcards
Ask children if they know what Lengthen means Confirm that it means 'getting longer' Ask if they have noticed that the days are getting longer (in the northern hemisphere) as the sun rises earlier and sets later in the day.
Ask if they have heard of Lent Explain that the word Lent has come into being as a shorter form of Lengthen, and that it refers to this time of year, the early spring, when the days are getting longer
Explain that to Christians Lent has another very special meaning. It refers to a particular time in the Christian year - like Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, or Harvest, when we give thanks for the food that has grown in the fields.
Lent for Christians is at this time of year, in the months of February, March and April, so Christians use the word for early spring. But what they mark in Lent is a period of forty days and forty nights after Jesus's baptism and before He began His work of teaching. He spent those forty days and nights on His own, in a very wild place. He had nothing to eat.
We are told that He was tempted to do silly and wrong things. But He did not give way to temptation. We can think of the time alone, in the wilderness, as a period of trial for Jesus. It was a time when His character was strengthened so that He could go back among people and teach them the importance of loving each other, caring for each other's needs and forgiving each other's wrong doing.

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