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bigmalone
Guest
was wondering what exactly lent celebrates?? also i know catholics do lent do lutherans?
thanks for all replys
thanks for all replys
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ggonzalez435
Guest
Is there any truth to the idea that lent was created by a pope that had a brother in the fishing business? That he restarted the idea of lent to boost his brothers business. I guess it doesn’t matter how it started but that it became a church tradition. Just wondering!
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styrgwillidar
Guest
From the CCC:
540 Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.” By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.
1095 For this reason the Church, especially during Advent and Lent and above all at the Easter Vigil, re-reads and re-lives the great events of salvation history in the “today” of her liturgy. But this also demands that catechesis help the faithful to open themselves to this spiritual understanding of the economy of salvation as the Church’s liturgy reveals it and enables us to live it.
1438 The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).
In the Church calendar, Lent is a preparation for Easter. A time to contemplate our sins and Christ’s sacrifice in atoning for those sins. As we contemplate them, we naturally consider ways to atone for them, to attempt in a human way to emulate Christ’s offering of Himself as a sacrifice for forgiveness of our sins enabling our salvation. The practise/disciplines of making sacrfices, i.e. giving up certain earthly things or making the effort to perform more acts of mercy is partially atonement but also a means of lessening our attachment to things of this world and focusing on charitable acts to, hopefully, bring us closer to God. It diminishes the focus on the material of things of this world and increases our focus on carrying out those actions Christ directed we do as His followers.
Shorter answer- humans tend to get complacent and Lent is a time for us to break that complacency.
540 Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.” By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.
1095 For this reason the Church, especially during Advent and Lent and above all at the Easter Vigil, re-reads and re-lives the great events of salvation history in the “today” of her liturgy. But this also demands that catechesis help the faithful to open themselves to this spiritual understanding of the economy of salvation as the Church’s liturgy reveals it and enables us to live it.
1438 The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).
In the Church calendar, Lent is a preparation for Easter. A time to contemplate our sins and Christ’s sacrifice in atoning for those sins. As we contemplate them, we naturally consider ways to atone for them, to attempt in a human way to emulate Christ’s offering of Himself as a sacrifice for forgiveness of our sins enabling our salvation. The practise/disciplines of making sacrfices, i.e. giving up certain earthly things or making the effort to perform more acts of mercy is partially atonement but also a means of lessening our attachment to things of this world and focusing on charitable acts to, hopefully, bring us closer to God. It diminishes the focus on the material of things of this world and increases our focus on carrying out those actions Christ directed we do as His followers.
Shorter answer- humans tend to get complacent and Lent is a time for us to break that complacency.
crystal_waters
New member
its a time to asbstain in honour of jesus fourty days and fourty nights fast…what you abstain from can be anything, candy, certain foods, cigarettes, alcohol etc…
plus its a lead up preparation for the easter celebrations
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jtodisco
Guest
Lent has nothing to do with the fishing industry, that’s just an anti-Catholic rumor that refuses to die. Lent is not something celebrated only by Catholics either, so were it merely some “invention of the Pope’s” then I highly doubt other Christian sects would be practicing it. Lastly, as the others have said, Lent is a time of reflection and fasting in imitation of our Lord’s 40 days in the wilderness when he ate nothing and resisted all the trials of the devil.
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Student09
Guest
Confessional Lutherans observe Lent, the others I don’t know.
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kentuckyliz
Guest
You don’t have to have fish on the Fridays of Lent.
Eggs beans cheese salad vegetarian pasta pancakes…
My parish has an awesome meatless potluck and Stations of the Cross on the Fridays of Lent, with good participation.
Bean burritos, cheese pizza, tomato or cheese or primavera pasta dishes, Asian noodles with veggies, eggs, pancakes, crudités, hummus with pita chips…
OMG we eat well and it doesn’t feel very penitential!
Eggs beans cheese salad vegetarian pasta pancakes…
My parish has an awesome meatless potluck and Stations of the Cross on the Fridays of Lent, with good participation.
Bean burritos, cheese pizza, tomato or cheese or primavera pasta dishes, Asian noodles with veggies, eggs, pancakes, crudités, hummus with pita chips…
OMG we eat well and it doesn’t feel very penitential!
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melpote
Guest
Hahaha Kentuckyliz! You gave me some great ideas there! Made me hungry even! I can’t wait until Lent! hahahaha 
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Origen_1999
Guest
the “pope with a brother in the fishing business” is sort of funny. Actually, as has been noted on earlier threads here, the early Catholic apostolic church did not observe a 40 day “lent”. Some, by the second century, fasted for the amount of time they reckoned Christ was in the tomb (approx 40 hours). Early 4th century, some had mistakenly presumed the fast for “40” was 40 days. Not hours. I personally don’t celebrate it.
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midori
Guest
Think of it as a January 1st that lasts for about 6 weeks.
Some people use it for self-discipline (ie, giving up something as a form of self-denial).
Others use it for spiritual growth (ie, increasing one’s prayer life or doing more reading from the Bible or the saints’ writings).
Some people focus on self-improvement and making positive corrections to their behavior/habits to benefit themselves and others around them (ie, "be a better parent/spouse/child by paying more attention to x).
So it’s not a celebration, per se… it’s a time of fasting and penitence, in memory of the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert.
Likewise, extra attention is dedicated towards abstaining from carne (blood-meat) on particular days during this time period. Things like fish are okay; your usual poultry, beef, pork, etc, are avoided as a discipline. Certain foodstuffs (like capybara, fetal rabbit, and beaver’s tail) have been given special dispensation to be consumed by various cultures in various time periods and still retain the spirit of the abstaining from carne, but not deprive the poor of an important source of protein. (It drives me nuts every time I see that stupid “Catholics decided a beaver was a fish” meme, ugh.)
Some people use it for self-discipline (ie, giving up something as a form of self-denial).
Others use it for spiritual growth (ie, increasing one’s prayer life or doing more reading from the Bible or the saints’ writings).
Some people focus on self-improvement and making positive corrections to their behavior/habits to benefit themselves and others around them (ie, "be a better parent/spouse/child by paying more attention to x).
So it’s not a celebration, per se… it’s a time of fasting and penitence, in memory of the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert.
Likewise, extra attention is dedicated towards abstaining from carne (blood-meat) on particular days during this time period. Things like fish are okay; your usual poultry, beef, pork, etc, are avoided as a discipline. Certain foodstuffs (like capybara, fetal rabbit, and beaver’s tail) have been given special dispensation to be consumed by various cultures in various time periods and still retain the spirit of the abstaining from carne, but not deprive the poor of an important source of protein. (It drives me nuts every time I see that stupid “Catholics decided a beaver was a fish” meme, ugh.)
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