Finance          Automotive          Computers          Health          Shopping          Sports         News          Reference           Print Facts in English - BCUZ.COMlos hechos en Español

Lent



Fasting during Lent was more severe in ancient times than today. Socrates Scholasticus reports that in some places, all animal products were strictly forbidden, while others will permit fish, others permit fish and fowl, others prohibit fruit and eggs, and still others eat only bread. In some places, believers abstained from food for an entire day; others took only one meal each day, while others abstained from all food until 3 o'clock. In most places, however, the practice was to abstain from eating until the evening, when a small meal without meat or alcohol was eaten.

During the early Middle Ages, meat, eggs and dairy products were generally proscribed. Thomas Aquinas argued that "they afford greater pleasure as food [than fish], and greater nourishment to the human body, so that from their consumption there results a greater surplus available for seminal matter, which when abundant becomes a great incentive to lust."[7]

However, dispensations for dairy products were given, frequently for a donation, from which several churches are popularly believed to have been built, including the "Butter Tower" of the Rouen Cathedral. In Spain, the bull of the Holy Crusade (renewed periodically after 1492) allowed the consumption of dairy products[8] and eggs during Lent in exchange for a contribution to the war against Islam.

Giraldus Cambrensis in his Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales reports that "in Germany and the arctic regions," "great and religious persons," classified the tail of beavers as "fish" because of its superficial resemblance to a fish and their relative abundance.

Today, in the West, the practice is considerably relaxed, though in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches abstinence from the above-mentioned food products is still commonly practiced, meaning only vegetarian meals are consumed during this time in many Eastern countries. Lenten practices (as well as various other liturgical practices) are more common in Protestant circles than they once were. In the Roman Catholic Church it is tradition to abstain from meat from Ungulates (meaning roughly "being hooved" or "hooved animal") every Friday for the duration of Lent, although dairy products are still permitted. On Ash Wednesday it is customary to fast for the day, with no meat, eating only one full meal, and if necessary, two small meals also.[9]

Current fasting practice in the Roman Catholic Church binds persons over the age of 18 and younger than fifty-nine (Canon 1252). Pursuant to Canon 1253, days of fasting and abstinence are set by the national Episcopal conference. On days of fasting, one eats only one full meal, but may eat two smaller meals as necessary to keep up one's strength. The two small meals together must sum to less than the one full meal. Parallel to the fasting laws are the laws of abstinence. These bind those over the age of fourteen. On days of abstinence, the person must not eat meat or poultry. According to canon law, all Fridays of the year, Ash Wednesday and several other days are days of abstinence, though in most countries, the strict requirements of abstinence have been limited by the bishops (in accordance with Canon 1253) to the Fridays of Lent and Ash Wednesday. On other abstinence days, the faithful are invited to perform some other act of penance.

Many modern Protestants consider the observation of Lent to be a choice, rather than an obligation. They may decide to give up a favorite food or drink (e.g. chocolate, alcohol) or activity (e.g. going to the movies, playing video games) for Lent, or they may instead decide to take on a Lenten discipline such as devotions, volunteering for charity work, and so forth. Roman Catholics may also observe Lent in this way, in addition to the dietary restrictions outlined above, though observation is no longer mandatory under the threat of mortal sin. Many Christians who choose not to follow the dietary restrictions cite 1 Timothy 4:1-5 which warns of doctrines that "forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth."

Liturgical year
Western
Eastern

When observing fasting or abstinence during Lent, regard must be paid to the fact that Sundays are Feast Days, so the fast or abstinence may be broken. If one counts the days from Ash Wednesday to the day before Easter Sunday, excluding the Sundays, one will see that there are 40 of them, equating with the number of days Christ spent in the wilderness.

[

Holy Days

There are several holy days within the season of Lent.

  • Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent in Western Christianity.
  • Clean Monday (or "Ash Monday") is the first day in Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
  • The fourth Lenten Sunday, which marks the halfway point between Ash Wednesday and Easter, is sometimes referred to as Laetare Sunday, particularly by Roman Catholics, and Mothering Sunday, which has become synonymous with Mother's Day in the United Kingdom. However, its origin is a sixteenth century celebration of the Mother Church.
  • The fifth Lenten Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday (however, that term is also applied to Palm Sunday) marks the beginning of Passiontide.
  • The sixth Lenten Sunday, commonly called Palm Sunday, marks the beginning of Holy Week, the final week of Lent immediately preceding Easter.
  • Wednesday of Holy Week is known as Spy Wednesday to commemorate the days on which Judas spied on Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane before betraying him.
  • Thursday is known as Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday, and is a day Christians commemorate the Last Supper shared by Christ with his disciples.
  • Good Friday follows the next day, on which Christians remember His crucifixion and burial.
In the Roman Catholic Church, Mass is a three day event called the Easter Triduum that begins with the opening song of the Holy Thursday celebration. After the Holy Thursday celebration, the communion bread and wine is taken from the altar with no formal closing. Instead, the parish is invited to worship the holy Body of Christ. The next day is the official commemoration of The Passion of Jesus Christ and is usually celebrated at 3 PM local time though some parishes usually change the time due to work schedules. This commemoration is part of the Triduum Mass which the opening is just a prayer followed by the day's readings. The service usually ends with a shortened communion involving only the Body of Christ and a post communion prayer before the service ends without dismissal. The Easter Vigil is the start of the end of the Triduum mass and usually starts with a fire service before the readings which explore the history of mankind. The service also includes baptism and confirmation services which are usually celebrated after the homily. The Easter Vigil and Triduum Mass ends in the usual way with full communion.

Holy Week and the season of Lent, depending on denomination and local custom, end with Easter Vigil at sundown on Holy Saturday or on the morning of Easter Sunday. It is custom for some churches to hold sunrise services which include open air celebrations in some places.

In the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican traditions, the altar linens and priest's vestments are violet during the season of Lent. However, during the holy days the linens often change. See Liturgical colours.

There are some Christian denominations that do not practice Lent and see it as an obscure tradition that the Church practices without Biblical merit.[10]

[

References

  1. ^ a b The Liturgical Year. The Anglican Catholic Church. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
  2. ^ a b What is Lent and why does it last forty days?. The United Methodist Church. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
  3. ^ Thurston, Herbert (1910), “Lent”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. IX, New York: Robert Appleton Company, <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09152a.htm>. Retrieved on 2008-02-15 
  4. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia - Lent See paragraph: Duration of the Fast
  5. ^ Lent & Beyond: Dr. Peter Toon—From Septuagesima to Quadragesima
  6. ^ Spirit Home: Lent—disciplines and practices
  7. ^ Summa Theologica Q147a8.
  8. ^ Implicaciones económicas del miedo religioso en dos instituciones del Antiguo Régimen: la Inquisición y la Bula de Cruzada., Alejandro Torres Gutiérrez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Millennium:Fear and Religion.
  9. ^ Colin B. Donovan, Fast and Abstinence. Accessed 2007-12-28.
  10. ^ The Restored Church of God: The True Meaning of Lent

[

See also

Look up Lent in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

[

External links




BCUZ.com FACTS Encyclopedia content is licensed under the GFDL as approved by Wikipedia.
For more information review our copyright contact and privacy policy.
© 1996 - BCUZ.COM - We have all the FACTS you need about Small Business Financing, Behavior Disorder, Having Too Many Bills, Needing Cash Fast, Structured Settlements, Frequent Flier Programs, Top Steak Houses, The Mayan Indians, Norfolk and Suffolk England, Growing Longer Hair and a full reference English Encyclopedia and Spanish Encyclopedia.Privacy Policy