Lent

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  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    And I'm not even religious, but the whole family does it and I do it for support.

    I get that. It's related to why my friend still does goes all out for Holy Week and does a kind of modified version (really basically like the Catholic version) the rest of Lent. It's her compromise between her own impulses and family and tradition.
  • mastickles
    mastickles Posts: 9 Member
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    lesteidel wrote: »
    I try to follow the traditional orthodox rules of fasting during lent. No animal products, no meat, no oils etc and there are a few days in there that are complete fasts. To us, the point of lent is a fast so you can concentrate on spiritual matters, not simply giving up one item that we enjoy. Since it is a religious fast, I follow the guidelines (as best I can) that are given by my religion :)

    I'm Orthodox as well, but in my family we do both the regular fasting rules as well as giving up something. Although it's less a matter of "giving up one item that we enjoy" than giving up the things that most tend to distract from spiritual focus - namely, most computer games and fiction books.
  • gotolam
    gotolam Posts: 262 Member
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    I am caveating this to say that this is my belief. I am sharing it. I am not attempting to preach, persuade or otherwise judge those who don't share this belief.

    Lent has been completely bastardized; as is the idea of fasting. I don't have a problem with folks who give up meat on Fridays or give up sweets for 40 days or whatever. It's just not the point of lent.

    Someone said that fasting, alms giving and prayer are the three requirements during this time and that you should do all three. The mistake is to think that those are three separate things. They're not. You fast and use those resources you would have otherwise used on your food to provide alms. The fasted state provides an avenue for you to be closer to God and presumably, an environment more conducive to prayer.

    Make no mistake, hunger is an extremely important part of Lent. It is the physical manifestation of your sacrifice. Hunger makes you think of those less fortunate than you that live with that hunger every day. It makes you appreciate the bounty of God. It makes you realize that our day-to-day focus on food and other worldly things are minor details in the grand scheme of things.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,034 Member
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    I don't go all out doing big things for Lent but I have given up chocolate for lent for several years now.
    It doesn't really help my calorie goal directly as I just eat other calories - but it does give me an experience of resisting temptation and developing self discipline especially in the lead up to Easter, when chocolates are constantly everywhere. ( and I LOVE chocolate B)
    - I think doing this helps me to realise how surrounded by food we are in the first world and how much I take that for granted.
    - Obviously it is a first world issue to be able to do this and to see it as even a small sacrifice - someone in a famine in a third world country would not have to resist the temptation of constantly available treat food like I do.

    Most years I also do a Lenten study - which isn't really giving anything up ( spare time, perhaps) but of course is part of the spiritual focus.

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