Lent

This year is my first year of observing Lent. To be honest I didn't even know what Lent was up until about 5 or 6 years ago. A few months ago my roommate (who does observe Lent) was asking me if I was going to do it this year. The thought had been mulling in my brain ever since. Then someone in my spiritual formations class suggested that we should all practice Lent this year. At that point I decided to start praying about how I would observe Lent, what I would sacrifice from my daily life. I have to admit that I thought more than once about not bothering with it. I decided to do some reading and figure out just what this was all about anyway. The following is a summary of what I discovered.

Lent is supposed to be a time of soul-searching and repentance, a time for reflection and taking stock. It originated as a time of preparation for Easter. The forty days of Lent are symbolic of Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days. Sundays are not counted as being a part of the forty days because Sunday is traditionally the day set aside for commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus and therefore fasting was considered inappropriate on Sundays. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, the seventh Wednesday before Easter. That means that this year Lent began on February 21st and ends on April 7th, which is the day before Easter. In some countries, the last day before Lent has become the last chance to enjoy oneself before Lent begins. This is the case in Brasil where they celebrate Carnival. I'll save my comments on Carnival for another post. Today I'm writing about Lent.

I came to the conclusion that Lent fits very nicely into how I have been trying to shape my life. I long for my focus to be completely on God. Why wouldn't I choose to simplify my life for a period of forty days with the goal of focusing on my relationship with my Lord? So I knew that I wanted to do it but I still didn't know how I was going to do it. Traditionally people gave up meat. It seems that today people observe Lent in a multitude of ways. Abstaining from TV, chocolate, junk food, caffeine, the list could go on. Basically sacrificing something from your daily life in order to help you focus on Christ. After a lot of contemplation and prayer I decided that I would give up sugar during Lent. It amazed me how much I craved it as soon as Lent started. Just knowing that I wasn't supposed to have it made me want it all the more. It hasn't been even a full week yet but I am already glad that I chose to do this. I want God to have a bigger place in my life and I believe that spiritual disciplines such as the observance of Lent can help me on this journey.