What is Lent for?

[Zundrah]

I’m really hoping you aren’t serious and you posted without thinking but…
Do you realize how wrong this would be? You are not allowed to receive Communion until you have been formally received into the Church, this means Baptism(or First Confession if previously baptized.) and since you are an adult, Confirmation as well and after that you would be able to receive Holy Communion.
I personally take offense to this since as a convert I know what it is to crave the Eucharist more than anything but having to wait patiently and pray for spiritual Communion each week. When I was able to receive the first time it was an experience that moved me to tears and all the waiting was worth the joy of receiving Our Lord. To even consider stealing the Precious Body and then consume Him in secret is just plain wrong and downright disrespectful. And you wouldn’t consume in secret anyway because He sees everything and knows our sins even before we get to the confessional he already knows. Do you really want your first confession to be about stealing Holy Communion and receiving without being properly disposed? You have the rest of your life ahead of you to receive Our Lord and you’ve already waited this long so would waiting a few more months until you are received really going to hurt?

Maybe as a convert I am a little more sensitive to such statements but that is how I feel.

Just a little sensitive are we? Come on, really, do you think I would literaly steal the Eucharist!? …really? He he he… I was mearly expressing how much I wanted it, I didn’t make my statement with a real intension! It was an expression - noob!

 

[Tracy24]

Just a little sensitive are we? Come on, really, do you think I would literaly steal the Eucharist!? …really? He he he… I was mearly expressing how much I wanted it, I didn’t make my statement with a real intension! It was an expression - noob!

Name calling now? How very nice and this is supposed to help you make your point?
How would I know whether you would steal the Eucharist or not? I do not know you and all I have to go on is a blatant statement that you made. There are ways of expressing how much you want it without saying something like that.

I usually stay away from your threads and replies like that are the main reason why.

 

[Zundrah]

Name calling now? How very nice and this is supposed to help you make your point?
How would I know whether you would steal the Eucharist or not? I do not know you and all I have to go on is a blatant statement that you made. There are ways of expressing how much you want it without saying something like that.

I usually stay away from your threads and replies like that are the main reason why.

…you are making a mountain out of a mole hill…

 

[Tracy24]

How? Please elaborate.

I gave the facts of the situation again based on your statement. Again I do not know you so I’m not sure how you’d expect me to assume you are only kidding. I cannot reliably comment as to your character based on interactions in an internet forum. I can, however, comment as to what is posted in a thread. It is up to you to clarify your point, add pertinent details etc.

I will not back off of my feelings about this and you say you are kidding…fine so be it. I was only commenting based on your statement which I feel compelled to point out lacks tone, body language and expression because this is an internet forum, so a little more care to how things are worded or a simple j/k would save these misunderstandings in the future. As to the name calling, I never called you names so how do you justify doing it to me?

I’m done posting on this thread it has become a pointless debate and has totally gotten away from the original topic.

 

[Zundrah]

How? Please elaborate.

I gave the facts of the situation again based on your statement. Again I do not know you so I’m not sure how you’d expect me to assume you are only kidding. I cannot reliably comment as to your character based on interactions in an internet forum. I can, however, comment as to what is posted in a thread. It is up to you to clarify your point, add pertinent details etc.

I will not back off of my feelings about this and you say you are kidding…fine so be it. I was only commenting based on your statement which I feel compelled to point out lacks tone, body language and expression because this is an internet forum, so a little more care to how things are worded or a simple j/k would save these misunderstandings in the future. As to the name calling, I never called you names so how do you justify doing it to me?

I’m done posting on this thread it has become a pointless debate and has totally gotten away from the original topic.

You are so angry today! What is j/k!?

 

[Patrick_Eastin]

The topic of this thread is “What is Lent for?”. If you cannot stay on topic without descent into personal attacks over off-topic statements, I will close this thread. Any further off-topic comments will result in infractions.

 

[Zundrah]

The topic of this thread is “What is Lent for?”. If you cannot stay on topic without descent into personal attacks over off-topic statements, I will close this thread. Any further off-topic comments will result in infractions.

Oops, that was my fault…

 

[Zundrah]

Lent is the forty days before easter. When did people first start fasting during it?

 

[DavidMark]

It behoveth the people of Bahá throughout these days,
to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred
and, beyond them, the poor and needy,
and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord,
to sing His praise and magnify His Name;
and when they end – these days of giving that precede the season of restraint
– let them enter upon the Fast.
Thus hath it been ordained by Him Who is the Lord of all mankind.
(Baha’u’llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 25)

from a prayer for the Fasting season
Since Thou hast adorned them, O my Lord, with the ornament of the fast prescribed by Thee, do Thou adorn them also with the ornament of Thine acceptance, through Thy grace and bountiful favor. For the doings of men are all dependent upon Thy good-pleasure, and are conditioned by Thy behest.
Shouldst Thou regard him who hath broken the fast as one who hath observed it, such a man would be reckoned among them who from eternity had been keeping the fast.
And shouldst Thou decree that he who hath observed the fast hath broken it, that person would be numbered with such as have caused the Robe of Thy Revelation to be stained with dust, and been far removed from the crystal waters of this living Fountain. ( Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u’llah, p. 66)

 

[Zundrah]

It behoveth the people of Bahá throughout these days,
to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred
and, beyond them, the poor and needy,
and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord,
to sing His praise and magnify His Name;
and when they end – these days of giving that precede the season of restraint
– let them enter upon the Fast.
Thus hath it been ordained by Him Who is the Lord of all mankind.
(Baha’u’llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 25)

from a prayer for the Fasting season
Since Thou hast adorned them, O my Lord, with the ornament of the fast prescribed by Thee, do Thou adorn them also with the ornament of Thine acceptance, through Thy grace and bountiful favor. For the doings of men are all dependent upon Thy good-pleasure, and are conditioned by Thy behest.
Shouldst Thou regard him who hath broken the fast as one who hath observed it, such a man would be reckoned among them who from eternity had been keeping the fast.
And shouldst Thou decree that he who hath observed the fast hath broken it, that person would be numbered with such as have caused the Robe of Thy Revelation to be stained with dust, and been far removed from the crystal waters of this living Fountain. ( Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u’llah, p. 66)

em… what is Baha’i!?

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

I found this in the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Some of the Fathers as early as the fifth century supported the view that this forty days’ fast was of Apostolic institution. For example, St. Leo (d. 461) exhorts his hearers to abstain that they may “fulfill with their fasts the Apostolic institution of the forty days” — ut apostolica institutio quadraginta dierum jejuniis impleatur (P.L., LIV, 633), and the historian Socrates (d. 433) and St. Jerome (d. 420) use similar language (P.G., LXVII, 633; P.L., XXII, 475).

Thanks for the opportunity to increase my knowledge about Lent!

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

PS, I found this, too. Don’t know whether either is the definitive answer:

Dear Grace, Someone asked me with a question about why we have Lent and also why we do not fast for the entire forty days. Could you please explain the message behind Lent and why we do not fast every single day of the forty days?

As Christians, in everything we do, we should have as our model Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and he fasted forty days and forty nights” (Matthew 4:1-2). The season of Lent is a commemoration of Our Lord’s fast, which He undertook before entering into His public ministry. It was a time of preparation for the tremendous mission that lay before Him. To do this, He denied Himself food and water during those forty days and nights, relying instead only on God (wih whom He was One) to sustain Him.

In the history of the Church, Lent has undergone much development and change, both in duration and in practice. In other words, it was not always forty days in length and the fast was not always observed the same way. For example, during the late second century, the season of penance before Easter was much shorter and some people fasted for one day, others for two days, and others for a greater number of days. The first clear mention and observance of the forty days does not come to us until the fourth century in the decrees of the Council of Nicea in 325 AD.

What we see from some of the earliest references is that originally the season of Lent was meant as a preparation for baptism or as a time in which people sought absolution from God for their sins. Even though fasting and abstinence were part of the practice, there was no uniform manner in which this was done. That came later. It was observed differently in various countries, and in Rome n(where it had been customarily three weeks), it was eventually extended to six weeks, but always leaving out the Sundays. Because this made the Lenten season only thirty-six days in duration, with time it was lengthened by adding four more days, making it forty, in remembrance of Jesus’ fast in the desert.

You ask in your letter why we do not fast the entire forty days of Lent. In reality, we are to fast all forty days. On November 18, 1966, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in keeping with the letter and spirit of Pope Paul’s constitution Pænitemini, published some norms on penitential observance. In one part of the document, they specifically wrote about what is expected and recommended for all Catholics during the entire season of Lent. They stated: “We ask, urgently and prayerfully, that we, as people of God, make of the entire Lenten season a period of special penitential observance.”

But I was under the impression that only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday were required fast days.

 

[Zundrah]

I found this in the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Thanks for the opportunity to increase my knowledge about Lent!

PS, I found this, too. Don’t know whether either is the definitive answer:

But I was under the impression that only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday were required fast days.

Well this is fantastic, thank you. Anything you have to say about lent will be all new to me so bring on the bacon baby!

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Just not on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday.

 

[Zundrah]

Just not on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday.

Okay… (when is ash wednesday?)

 

[preV2tradcath]

Under the current regulations Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are required fast days. Before the changes made after Vatican II, all the days of Lent, except Sundays, were fast days.

PS, I found this, too. Don’t know whether either is the definitive answer:

But I was under the impression that only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday were required fast days.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

I’ve heard people here say that they fast the whole 40 days. Since I’m not too good at that I admire their ability to do so. Usually I give up some kind of food or other licit pleasure for the whole 40 days.

In our parish when I was in RCIA they suggested instead of fasting we pray for people we didn’t like. I did it, but even back then I felt it was about the type of penance that gives something up.

 

[Zundrah]

I’ve heard people here say that they fast the whole 40 days. Since I’m not too good at that I admire their ability to do so. Usually I give up some kind of food or other licit pleasure for the whole 40 days.

…I felt it was about the type of penance that gives something up.

That’s right, if the early church fathers did it then so should we!

 

[DavidMark]

I asume RCC means Roman Catholic Church. Another ‘Latin rite’ woman in this blog insisted it was not ‘Roman’. It would seem to me that it is, the Vatican succeeded the Roman Empire and is surrounded by Rome.

 

[Zundrah]

I asume RCC means Roman Catholic Church. Another ‘Latin rite’ woman in this blog insisted it was not ‘Roman’. It would seem to me that it is, the Vatican succeeded the Roman Empire and is surrounded by Rome.

Yes David, the RCC means Roman Catholic Church. And CC means Catholic Church. Ask anyone and they will tell you the same thing.