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Taking my inspiration from the parish of Berwyn-Grimshaw, who distributed pamphlets explaining Shrove Tuesday and Lent at their recent pancake supper, let’s talk about Lent.

 

What about Lent?

 

Moses went up the mountain for 40 days and nights to pray and fast before receiving the Ten Commandments.

Elijah walked for 40 days and nights, praying and fasting, to meet God on Mount Horeb.

Jesus prayed and fasted in the desert for 40 days while tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1-3).

 

Growing out of the biblical traditions noted above and the imposition of fasting and praying before baptisms (commonly held at Easter Vigil), Lent is 40 days of praying and fasting, formalized by the Council of Nicea A.D. 325.  Maximus of Turin (A.D. 380-465) wrote, that Elijah was a model to be copied, "so that we, also fasting a total of forty days, might merit the spiritual rain of baptism...[and] a shower from heaven might pour down upon the dry earth of the whole world, and the abundant waters of the saving bath might saturate the lengthy drought of the gentiles (unbelievers).”

 

Lent combined practices of baptism preparation with general preparation for Easter through the three pillars of Lent: prayer (love of God), fasting (love of self), and almsgiving / donating to the poor (love of others), coming from Matthew 6:1-18).  In conjunction with baptism preparation, self-reflection, repentance of sins, self-denial, and striving for simplicity in life interweave with Lenten practice.  Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, culminates in Good Friday (both days focussing heavily on our need to repent of our sins), and ends on Holy Saturday with the Easter Vigil, lasting for 40 days (excluding Sundays, which are always days of celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection).   

 

Over the years, various forms of fasting have been observed.  The Apostolic Constitutions (written around A.D. 375 in Syria) allowed only one meal a day, after sunset, of bread, vegetables, salt, and water in Lent, which was a widespread practice, with exceptions granted for medical or special reasons.  This was adjusted to one large meal and two smaller ones in the 6th century.  Today, fasting is encouraged on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, with temperance or abstinence of specific items during Lent (for example, chocolate) often being observed, as well as practices such as Stations of the Cross, praying through a Lenten Calendar, or daily devotional observances.


The Book of Common Prayer (1662) designates "All the Fridays in the Year, except Christmas Day" as days of fasting and abstinence, alongside the forty days of Lent, the Ember Days, the Rogation Days, and the vigils of feast days. Saint Augustine's Prayer Book, published by the Order of the Holy Cross, an Anglican monastic community, as a companion to the Book of Common Prayer, states that fasting is "usually meaning not more than a light breakfast, one full meal, and one half meal, on the forty days of Lent."  It further states that "the major Fast Days of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are stricter in obligation, though not in observance, than the other Fast Days, and therefore should not be neglected except in cases of serious illness or other necessity of an absolute character.”

 

May you have the blessing of a holy and life-giving Lent.

 

+David