Father Pierre Amar is a priest in Yvelines and editor on padreblog.fr. Mid-Lent was an opportunity, in the past, to break the fast in order to sell off the stocks of eggs which were kept for no more than twenty days.
The number forty also has its own symbolism: forty weeks is the duration of gestation. Easter joy is coming! Joy of knowing that death will not have the last word and that there will be reunions. The heart of desires, let us recognize it, is an immense box of desires which pull us upwards.