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Ash Wednesday & Lent

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  • Ash Wednesday & Lent

    How will you be spending the Lenten season?

    My friends and I have been of the opinion that in addition to giving something up, one should take something on. So this year, I'm giving up late-night television except on weekends, and I'm making it to church every Sunday through Easter.

    I can't decide which is going to be tougher. When I had church commitments (playing guitar or teaching Sunday School), of course I was there every Sunday. Now, it's just sooooooo easy to hit the snooze bar several times until it's too late.
    But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
    GrouchyTeacher.com

  • #2
    Re: Ash Wednesday & Lent

    Interesting. Fostering a virtue while giving up a vice? I don't know the particulars all that well, but I wonder why Ash Wednesday/Lent - let alone if any formal period - includes a "do good works" emphasis.

    My wife had me block her access to a celebrity gossip website last night, so that's one guilty pleasure gone... And I suppose I could make sure we make it to church more regularly on the other side. Regular worship is a whole new ball of wax for us, now that we live 24 miles away from our (or "their") church, versus three blocks.

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    • #3
      Re: Ash Wednesday & Lent

      hmmm
      church. worship. vice/virtue and the swapping of them. guilty pleasures. giving something up/take something on. Ash Wednesday. church commitments. "do good works". Lent. Regular worship.



      uh... this is christian stuff ain't it?
      ok. I got it.

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      • #4
        Re: Ash Wednesday & Lent

        I admire the tenacity both of you have in sticking with it through the whole Lent thing. (I don't get the whole "giving up something for Lent" and being redeemed bit either, but then again, I'm not a Catholic).

        The interesting thing I just found out from my boss, who's gone back to school part time to eventually become a Catholic deacon, is that growth in the Catholic church has been increasing rather markedly, even (or maybe because of) the scandals that have been rocking your church lately and in the aftermath of 9/11. My boss says that those who are returning to the faith of their childhood are ones who are angry at all the scandals in the American Catholic church and have returned to their faith to try to change things for the better. The unfortunate thing is, though, the number of active clergy has decreased so much that there aren't enough parish priests to serve all the churches that need leadership.


        Miulang
        "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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        • #5
          Re: Ash Wednesday & Lent

          Just to clarify, we have a multi-faith household. Or, well, at least a three-quarters-Catholic household. My wife is a (sometimes reluctant )Catholic, and we've decided to raise our three kids as such, but I'm an atheist with agnostic tendencies. I support their faith, as much as I will support our children's decision to choose their own path when the time comes for them to make such decisions. Ultimately, I figured it's better that they have some framework to either rebel against or embrace, rather than starting from nothing.

          I've sensed both a resurgence in the Catholic faith (despite, or perhaps because, of negative scandals), which seems to be coming at the same time as drastic reorganizations (again, prompted largely by recent problems) that are closing, moving, and consolidating churches.

          Times, they are a'changing, but I don't see the church, or any church, going out of business anytime soon.

          As for me and Lent? I don't have many vices, but the ones I do have, I don't think I could live without. Or, rather, I don't think the world would want to live with me if I were denied them. I suppose, though, I could at least work on my junk-food resolution (as my soda resolution is still holding relatively well!).

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          • #6
            Re: Ash Wednesday & Lent

            As an out of practice, non-practicing Catholic, during Lent when I was a kid, the most we ever did was eating fish on Friday and attend the stations of the cross on Friday nights. We never did things like give up something for the Lent season.

            Or was this something new that was added to the season?

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            • #7
              Re: Ash Wednesday & Lent

              There's a difference between the Lent of the historical church and the Lent of the modern church. However, the difference is mostly in practice and not in rationale. So, since more than one person mentioned it, allow me to explore them both.

              The rationale for Lent has to do with the coming of Easter. As Christ entered the final days of his ministry, he prepared himself for his impending death. Believers do this symbolically by denying themselves not necessarily a vice, but something meaningful (such as meat, which is where the fish-on-Fridays thing comes from, but more on that in a second)--it is a symbolic dying-to-oneself, as Jesus surrendered his own will for the purpose of the greater good ("Not my will, but thy will be done," he prayed in Gethsemane). The Stations of the Cross are another symbolic attempt to follow in Christ's footsteps.

              During this time of mourning (hence the ashes on the foreheads), this self-denial is supposed to remind the believer of the suffering of Jesus, not only for his physical injuries on the cross, but for the condition of the human race.

              One might feel the pangs of cigarette cravings (or, as in my own case many years, caffeine cravings), but those pains are supposed to remind us of the far-more-severe pains Jesus endured on our behalf.

              What Lent has become, as PZ mentions, is the giving-up of a vice--an attempt to make oneself better (I'd like to think "better" is a secularized version of "in Christ's image," but then I'm something of a Pollyanna about stuff like that) in some way. There are still those who see this as giving up something that perhaps stands in the way of attaining this Christ-likeness. It's true, after all, that fewer hours per week in front of the television or fewer dollars per day on coffee could mean more resources for things that are of greater importance.

              The fish-on-Fridays thing is an abbreviation or simplification of this concept--it has nothing to do with giving up meat, but everything to do with reminding the practitioner of what's important.

              Yes, Lent has become ritualized to the point that many practitioners don't even know why they do it, except just for tradition; many would scoff at this idea, but in many ways it's not very much different from a lot of the rituals we practice in other areas of our lives--taking shoes off before entering homes, or burning incense at the family temple, for example. These practices have maybe lost their original significance, but there's still something equally meaningful going on.

              I am neither Catholic nor Anglican, but when I learned about Lent in high school, I knew it was something I wanted to bring into my own spiritual life. In many ways, I think I benefit from not having grown up with this ritual, as it has never been something I inherited from something else. Rather, it is a conscious effort to evaluate, commemorate, and reflect on the significance of the historical forty days that most define who I am.
              But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
              GrouchyTeacher.com

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