“Lent is a season of spiritual recuperation. Just as during the summer season, rest and refreshment come to jaded minds and bodies from nearer contact with nature: so during Lent, as we draw away from the cares and pleasures and distractions of the world, the spirit may become reinvigorated by closer association with God through prayer and fasting, by service, and alms-giving. Lent is soul tonic.”
William Leonard (1829-1916) Episcopal Bishop of Ohio in Lent: The Holy Season (Washington, D.C.: Neale Publishing Company, 1902) 104.