Forty days. You can't count the Sundays. Sundays are weekly celebrations of the glorious resurrection of Jesus. They are always supposed to be times that we spend with God. So, they don't count in the countdown of Lent. It starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday at the Easter Vigil mass.
Forty days. Through one month and into another. Almost seven weeks. According to brain research, that's the time it takes to stop a bad habit or start a good one. It's a time for us to purify ourselves, to either remove something that distracts us from God or add something that brings us closer to Him. It's the time it takes for us to become better people.
Forty days.