<p>Edit above - “Too bad I CAN’T stick with that the rest of the year”!</p>
<p>"but at the same time to take something up make the world better place "
Thats why God does not want us to hang on to our sense of humour,especially during lent.</p>
<p>^^^???</p>
<p>Not sure what the above post was trying to say. Of course we all need to keep a sense of humor. I’m the one who, two years ago, two days into my Lenten discipline which included giving up alcohol, wound up at a church supper group after a particularly tough day at work and immediately had a glass of wine in one hand and a beer in the other!
Another year our mission trip to Honduras fell during Lent and we all decided that the mission work compensated for our breaking of any no-alcohol Lenten vow! Episcopalians can be counted on to rationalize anything having to do with alcohol!</p>
<p>Sorry that should read
“but at the same time take something up to make the world a better place”</p>
<p>Lent “officially” ends on Holy Thursday. Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter aren’t part of Lent. </p>
<p>And, MOWC, I respectfully disagree. For some of us, sacrificing something we enjoy during Lent IS meaningful. I haven’t met a whole lot of folks who give up candy or booze or movies or whatever for Lent who don’t go to church more than twice a year.</p>
<p>^^ I don’t disagree with what you are saying. Sacrificing something can be an important part of a Lenten discipline, but it has become the whole thing to many people. It’s like a game or competition and not a religous observance.</p>
<p>In Western Christianity Lent concludes on Holy Saturday which is part of Lent. That is why our church has the Easter Vigil service on Saturday evening which ends in a celebratory manner and is followed by a “feast”.</p>
<p>Tough luck to the religious- I gave up Christianity/Catholicism a long time ago. I gave up on the hypocrisy and bigotry. I also gave up trying to reconcile what is truth with Judeaochristian mythology- just can’t get into the creation myth and need to be saved (if a god thought that was correct 1/2 the world wouldn’t have different versions). My memories of “meatless” Fridays include luxury seafood being allowed (I know there is historical context) and all sorts of fasting rule changes to make it more palatable to people. The world would have been better off without Europeans being converted to Christianity- taking the good ideas pushed by early followers but not the biblical version of history and insistence that theirs was the only way (same thing with Islam). I feel confident Christ would agree with me, if he is indeed one of the manifestaions of a god.</p>
<p>^^ To me that seems to be throwing the baby out with the bath water, as the saying goes. My liberal Episcopal church doesn’t seem to have the failings that drove you away, but I can understand how one could arrive at your viewpoint.</p>
<p>ALL Christian churches have the failings (Mom was raised Episcopalian, btw).</p>
<p>I agree with lololu - sacrifice and give. And if we were living like that everyday, giving something up or giving more wouldn’t be such a big deal.</p>
<p>One of the fun things has been to have kids pair their choices. If you give up candy, you might take up providing cookies for after school program. The best one this year, one girl is giving up drinking soda and taking up drinking pomegranate juice. When I asked her why pomegranate juice she told me that Afghan farmers can make more money raising pomegranates then opium, but they need world demand to grow to convince more farmers to make the switch. She’s doing her part to stablize Afghanistan. After looking at the price of pomegranate juice I hope she makes it 40 days.</p>
<p><<<<tiptoeing gently=“” into=“” this=“” thread=“”>>>>> Don’t get mad at me, MOWC, but I used to use as an analogy to something that was not a sacrifice, that it was like giving up brussel sprouts for Lent. Oh, and apologies to anyone who loves brussel sprouts.</tiptoeing></p>
<p>I love brussel sprouts. But I’m not easily offended :)</p>
<p>Sorry in advance to all offended, but I’m giving up listening to that crazy pope.</p>
<p>I am not Catholic, but in memory of my Irish Catholic grandmother I usually give something up, this year I am giving up elevators, hopefully I’ll lose some weight!</p>
<p>Some thoughts on Lent</p>
<p>I remember that our family would give up ice cream for lent but would get to go to Baskin Robbins on Sunday. I guess Sunday’s you got a pass. The best tradition on lent that I remember is that the grade school kids were provided with a small stone that they were to keep in their pocket and to put in their bed at night to remind them of the suffering of Christ. Then on Easter Sunday the kids would line up and place their stones at the statue of Jesus. Something a little different and maybe a little more meaningful. </p>
<p>Another interesting item. We knew a woman who was becoming a nun. Three months before she was to become a nun she took up smoking. Her mother asked her why she would start such a bad habit. The woman said that when you become a nun you need to give up something so she decided to start smoking and then give it up.</p>