by Vonda J. Sines

Created on: February 05, 2008

If you're like most of us, last year your Lent got off to a pretty good start. You gave upwhat else?chocolate and promised to read a chapter in the New Testament every night.

This lasted maybe six days, until you had to work late. After getting home around 8:30, walking the dog, and scarfing down a dinner you nuked in the microwave, you click on the late news. As the clock inched toward 1:00 AM, you suddenly awoke, yawned, and headed wearily for bed. At least you didn't grab a Hershey bar on your way.

This is pretty much the way it is for many people during Lent. They begin with some worthwhile changes they plan to implement. This is exactly what they do for a few days, sometimes even a week. Then they fail to keep up the good work just once and decide it's not even worth it to keep trying. Oh, well.

For Western Christians, Lent is the liturgical season that starts with Ash Wednesday, which falls on February 6 this year. It ends with Easter Sunday, on March 23 in 2008. Christians always refer to 40 days of Lent even though Easter Sundays falls 46 days after Ash Wednesday. The seeming disparity in the count occurs because the Western Church omits Sundays, given that fasting on Sundays is considered inappropriate.

Lent is considered a time of preparation for Holy Week, which ends with the commemoration of Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday. Holy Week recalls the events preceding and during Christ's crucifixion around 30 A.D. The number 40 is significant because it symbolizes the 40 days spent in the wilderness by both Moses and Elijah. Some Christians also point to the 40 days and 40 nights of rain Noah and his family spent in the ark as well as 40 years the Jews wandered in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.

Where do we get the word Lent? It originates from the Germanic room for Spring. With the adoption of Christianity as the state religion of Rome, Lent was associated with a period of fasting and renouncing pleasures of the flesh.

Fasting today is much less severe today than in ancient times. The Roman Catholic Church requires most adults to fast and practice days of abstinence when meat and poultry are forbidden. In the United States, the faithful observe days of fasting on Ash Wednesdays and all Fridays in Lent. They are allowed to have one full meal plus two smaller meals.

In addition to the obligatory aspects of Roman Catholic requirements, many Anglicans and those from other Protestant denominations consider Lenten observances a choice instead

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>