Spiritual Disciplines – Lent
Lent is the season starting with Ash Wednesday that end on Easter Sunday. These 47 days are marked by observers with commitments of fasting, ascetic piety, or/and increased spiritual activity. Eastern Christians (Othrodox, Pelagian, and others) observe 40 days of Lent prior to their Easter (or Pascha) celebration. The Western tradition is also 40 days of observance along with 6 Sundays offering small breaks and Easter Sunday proper. Since the commitments of observance are typically designed to match the sober tone leading up to Easter celebrations, each Sunday are typically days “off” or as celebrations anticipating Easter. (By the way, the word Lent derives from the Danish lente or German lenz, words meaning Spring.)
For most Christians, the significance of 40 through out the Bible is sufficient justification for the duration of the Lent season, but of course the historical development took some time. My personal favorite place to start the story is with Cyril of Jerusalem. Easter (or Pascha – the Greek transliteration) began to be celebrated by Christians prior to the middle of the second century BCE. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, delivered his Catechetical lectures prior to Easter baptism ceremonies for the new converts. As the practice of baptizing new converts on Easter developed in the church, so did the practice of asking those seeking baptism to fast for the week during or more that their training classes were being delivered. These are the foreshadows of Lent from what I understand.
As the tradition progressed, the duration of the fast stretched to 40 days and the church was asked to join the new converts in abstaining from certain foods and beverages as Easter was anticipated. Many different observances during Lent have developed, and many liturgical modifications have been made during by various Christian streams to commemorate Lent. Today many Christians observe Lent by giving up something in order to identify with Christ in his suffering and to prepare for the celebration of Easter. Many groups of protestant Christians have little formal observance of Lent, some in the United States see a growing interest among individuals from these Christian backgrounds.
Here are some random Lent Resources online:
Bread for the World’s Lent Guide
A Sermon (text) by a Presbyterian about Lent
Some Christianity Today Articles about Lent: What groups can do, A bunch of articles on Lent and Easter
Also for more detailed musing of amateur historians, pick up the wikipedia articles I linked to in my last post.
