The Lenten Season

Dear WISDOM Sisters:

I would like to share with you some thoughts about the upcoming Christian Lenten season by Rev. Kenneth W. Collins. Following Rev. Collins discussion about Lent, please read David Crumm’s www.Readthespirit.com happenings that will be taking place online during Lent.

I wish all our Christian friends a peaceful and meaningful Lenten Season.

Gail

The Season of Lent

Theme:

Retreating Into the Wilderness with Jesus

Dates:

Lent is a forty-day period before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday
and ends on the day before Easter Day. We skip Sundays when we
count the forty days, because Sundays commemorate the
Resurrection.
In the Roman Catholic Church, Lent officially ends at sundown on
Holy Thursday, with the beginning of the mass of the Lord’s Supper.

Colors:

In most churches, the decorations are purple or blue, royal colors to
prepare for the King.

The East:

In Orthodox churches, this season is called the Great Lent. It begins
on Clean Monday.

Special Days:

Ash Wednesday
The Annunciation, 25 March

Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a season for
reflection and taking stock. Lent originated in the very earliest days of
the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated
themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared
for baptism. By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian
imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days. All
churches that have a continuous history extending before AD 1500
observe Lent. The ancient church that wrote, collected, canonized, and
propagated the New Testament also observed Lent, believing it to be a
commandment from the apostles. (See The Apostolic Constitutions, Book
V, Section III.)

Fasting is a spiritual discipline that does not involve starvation or
dehydration. Quite often, our bodily appetites control our actions. The
purpose of fasting is to make your bodily appetites your servant rather
than your master.

The Western Church

Because Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, we skip over Sundays
when we calculate the length of Lent. Therefore, in the Western Church,
Lent always begins on Ash Wednesday, the seventh Wednesday before
Easter.

In many countries, the last day before Lent (called Mardi Gras, Shrove
Tuesday, Carnival, or Fasching) has become a last fling before the
solemnity of Lent. For centuries, it was customary to fast by abstaining
from meat during Lent, which is why some people call the festival
Carnival, which is Latin for farewell to meat.

The Eastern Church

The Eastern Church does not skip over Sundays when calculating the
length of the Great Lent. Therefore, the Great Lent always begins on
Clean Monday, the seventh Monday before Easter, and ends on the
Friday before Palm Sunday—using of course the eastern date for Easter.
The Lenten fast is relaxed on the weekends in honor of the Sabbath
(Saturday) and the Resurrection (Sunday). The Great Lent is followed by
Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, which are feast days, then the
Lenten fast resumes on Monday of Holy Week. Technically, in the
Eastern Church, Holy Week is a separate season from the Great Lent.

Special Days

The purpose of the liturgical calendar is to relive the major events in
Jesus’ life in real time, which is why Lent is forty days long. If Jesus
were born on 25 December, then His conception would have been nine
months earlier, on about 25 March. That is when the angel Gabriel would
have announced Jesus’ birth to Mary. Thus 25 March is known in the
historic church as The Annunciation.

Roughly speaking, the Western Church consists of Protestants, Catholics, and
Anglicans. The Eastern Church consists of the Eastern Orthodox churches, the
Oriental Orthodox churches, and the eastern-rite churches affiliated with the
Roman Catholic Church

Copyright ©1995-2004 by the Rev. Kenneth W. Collins. All rights reserved.



And from our very special friend, David Crumm on www.ReadtheSpirit.com. If you are interested, go to this website to follow David’s Lenten discussion!!

Welcome to a Spiritual Journey with Friends: Our Lent / Things We Carry
WELCOME!

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (February 25) for Western Christians and on Clean Monday (March 2) for Orthodox Christians. We invite you to bookmark this page, think about buying a copy of our companion book (click the Amazon link at right) — and plan to enjoy an exciting, challenging and spiritually rewarding journey with friends!

"Our Lent: Things We Carry" is a 40-chapter journey written by ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm. But — there's so much more to this online Lenten pilgrimage.

You'll find readers adding their comments throughout Lent along the right side of this page. Please, take a moment right now and add a quick Comment — we really do appreciate hearing from you.
Plus — we've got some exciting "Partners" this year who will share a wide range of spiritual reflections. Please, click on that "Meet Our Partners" link (at left) to read a pre-Lenten story about preparing for this season!
Popular writer Phyllis Tickle is providing special introductions to ancient Christian practices, such as Fasting and Fixed-Hour Prayer.
Peter Wallace — another inspirational author beloved for his collections of day-by-day inspirational reflections (and also the man behind the Day 1 Web site and radio network) — will share his thoughts throughout the season.
In addition each day, you can listen to the Scottish brogue and deep wisdom of Norman Pritchard, pastor of a landmark Presbyterian church in the Midwest.
We've also invited urban pastor Tonya Arnesen to share her thoughts as senior pastor of an ethnically and culturally diverse congregation in the heart of one of America's great cities.
Right now, you're joining nearly 2 billion people around the world in reflecting on Lent!
WHY make this Lent a special season in your life?
Lent is the perfect Christian season for our spiritual revival in this new Third Millennium. Uncluttered by the commercial avalanche that has all but buried the Christmas season over the past century, Lent retains much of its ancient religious potential. Dr. Wayne Baker, the University of Michigan scholar who produces the OurValues.org discussion site, has shown in his own research over the years why we're drawn toward experiences like this. Compared with other global cultures, Americans are overwhelmingly religious. But, when it comes to values concerning self expression — all of those individual choices that lie at the heart of spiritual reflection — Americans surpass Scandinavians in our zeal to honestly express ourselves.
In such an era, Lent is the perfect, untarnished blend of religious tradition and spiritual adventure — ancient roots blossoming into self reflection and self expression.
Or, to put it another way, Lent is the "Lord of the Rings" of scriptural stories — a loyal fellowship of men and women fearlessly summoning all of their traditional knowledge as they make their way toward a dangerous encounter in a city where the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Yet, unlike the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy, each of us is invited to make our own Lenten pilgrimage each year. That's how millions of Christians experience the season — preparing our hearts, minds and daily lives in fresh ways for this epic quest. Thousands of churches distribute coat-pocket devotionals, guidebooks to help shape the Lenten journey.
That is the core of this season — a personal encounter with the sacred.
WHAT'S the main plot of this 40-day story?
The big picture behind "Our Lent: Things We Carry" is this: Jesus' journey 2,000 years ago was a public pilgrimage of such profound importance that we mark it each year, day by day, even in the Third Millennium since he walked the Earth. Rather than leaving such a powerful religious narrative locked inside individual churches and individual lives — we are moving the Lenten adventure back into the biggest public roadway of our time: the Internet.
While some of the "things" along this journey are scenes and lessons, most of the things in our 40-chapter journey are quite tangible things: coins, basins, bowls, bread, cups, swords and tables, to name a few. This was the stuff of Jesus' world. It's still the stuff of our lives, 2,000 years after Jesus' world-shaking walk to Jerusalem.

This year, come along.
Walk with us. Bring friends.
You're already carrying things.
Help us to lighten the load!