Lent begins this week
This Wednesday, Feb. 14, is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Many people, especially those around my age, seem to have a touch of post-traumatic stress disorder when it comes to Lent. We were taught a very negative idea of Lent with a focus on our need to be punished and our need to suffer during this time. I believe we need a new way of looking at Lent.
In the Book of Hosea, Israel had fallen away from God, and had begun worshipping idols. Using the image of a marriage, God sadly, and at times angrily, compares Israel’s faithlessness to an adulterous wife. He looks back at the 40 years in the desert, when the Hebrew people knew who their God was, and that He loved them. He expresses a desire to take them back to the desert. From God’s perspective, those were the honeymoon years.
On the First Sunday of Lent, we see Jesus go into the desert to pray and be with God. That is what we do. It is like a second honeymoon with God, a time to grow closer to Him and to grow in our love for Him. Then three Lenten disciplines (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving) are intended to help us to let go of those things that get in the way of our relationship with God, and to strengthen our spiritual muscles.
Another image for Lent is bootcamp, where we go to prepare for battle—in this case spiritual battle. Most of us get a little spiritually flabby and soft throughout the year, and we need a time to get back in shape, and to be ready to fight for our relationship with God.
Do whatever you need to do to turn this into a great and profitable Lent.
In the Book of Hosea, Israel had fallen away from God, and had begun worshipping idols. Using the image of a marriage, God sadly, and at times angrily, compares Israel’s faithlessness to an adulterous wife. He looks back at the 40 years in the desert, when the Hebrew people knew who their God was, and that He loved them. He expresses a desire to take them back to the desert. From God’s perspective, those were the honeymoon years.
On the First Sunday of Lent, we see Jesus go into the desert to pray and be with God. That is what we do. It is like a second honeymoon with God, a time to grow closer to Him and to grow in our love for Him. Then three Lenten disciplines (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving) are intended to help us to let go of those things that get in the way of our relationship with God, and to strengthen our spiritual muscles.
Another image for Lent is bootcamp, where we go to prepare for battle—in this case spiritual battle. Most of us get a little spiritually flabby and soft throughout the year, and we need a time to get back in shape, and to be ready to fight for our relationship with God.
Do whatever you need to do to turn this into a great and profitable Lent.
What You Need to Know about Fasting and Abstinence
Fasting and abstinence are part of our Lenten bootcamp, disciplining ourselves to be able to say yes to God by our ability to say no to ourselves.
On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and all the Fridays of Lent, those who are 14 and up are to abstain from eating meat. Those who are 18 to 59 must also fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The Lenten fast requires that we eat only one full meal that day, and all the other food that we eat that day should not add up to a second meal.
On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and all the Fridays of Lent, those who are 14 and up are to abstain from eating meat. Those who are 18 to 59 must also fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The Lenten fast requires that we eat only one full meal that day, and all the other food that we eat that day should not add up to a second meal.