Comments for The Lenten Thing at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Sat, 25 May 2013 06:08:58 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/the-lenten-thing.html#comment-6247 Nothing stops us from keeping an heroic Lent, if we want to: the Church's laws and regulations around Lent, fasting, and abstinence set the minimum required to be in fulfillment of the command. We can fast more, and harder. We can ask for Confession any time we want, and if one's own priest is unwilling or unavailable, the good Lord will provide the right priest. We can do Stations on our own in our parish churches. We can keep Lenten collection boxes to give to the poor. We can practice the works of mercy with renewed vigor and commitment. We can pray more, for deeper conversion through detachment from deliberate venial sin and our favorite faults and attachment to God through lectio divina, study of Church doctrine and papal teachings, etc. etc. It was easier before, I suppose, when the Church provided greater exterior structure; but the Holy Spirit is still active in the Church and, as the saying goes, the more we pursue the Lord, the more we find him. May you have a blessed, fruitful Lent. - Dave Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:51:55 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/the-lenten-thing.html#comment-6246 Thank you so very much, dear Prof! Until reading your post and Mr. Gilbert's fine comments, I had no idea why the Catholic Fast imposed by the Church is "so wimpy." Growing up an Evangelical/Fundamentalist, we NEVER fasted at all. As a late teen I went to an Assemblies of God/Pentecostal church. The whole (800-1000 people or so) congregation was encouraged to fast every single Wednesday (why Wednesday? maybe because Friday was "too Catholic?") and that meant NO FOOD, ONLY WATER for 24 hours. I knew teen-aged boys who were in sports who would stay up eating until midnight Tuesday nights then stay up and eat at 12:01 AM on Thursday.....those who participated in this "Body of Christ" fast were serious. Then 30 yrs ago the Holy Spirit moved me (a bit kicking & screaming I confess) into the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and my first Lent I discovered that "fasting is defined as 2 small meals and one regular meal with no meat." All I could do was shake my head! These Catholics! They smoke, drink, gamble, dance (all within the Church grounds!) and eat during a fast.....was the Holy Spirit SURE I belonged with this group? Then some Charismatic people explained to me that the guests do not fast while the Bridegroom is "with them" and He IS HERE in the Blessed Sacrament....oh brother! It took me awhile (3 yrs or so) to find out we were not Required to eat fish on Friday (fish is far more expensive than cheap chicken)....along this bumpy mountain climb on the way to the desert, Love did something. He drew me to fast. All year long....joining with Him in the emptying of myself, my desires, even if the fast for the day is so small-as the good Prof notes-as in offering up a 2nd cup of coffee at DD (the big SB is way too expensive) for a person who has asked for prayer. Love takes you into His desert, into His chamber and slowly penetrates the hidden, confused, lonely cave of the heart. He is Advent at Dawn, Christmas in the Morning, Ordinary Time at mid-day, Lent at Nightfall, Glorious Easter & Pentecost in the Stillness of the Night..... so over the last several years, the Season of Lent has become harder for me to practice well, more intensely. Thanks to Lee's history lesson and personal family practice, he has both put to rest this gnawing irritation experienced in the "2 small 1 regular so as to feel hunger" and have given me better direction in fasting everyday this Lent. I am grateful. - debby Wed, 09 Mar 2011 05:36:53 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/the-lenten-thing.html#comment-6245 I loved your words. I liked the part about conversion as part of Lent. I will try this Lent to not only fast for the forty days but do something that makes a difference in someone else's life. Thank you listening. - Sharon Chapman Wed, 09 Mar 2011 02:52:30 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/the-lenten-thing.html#comment-6244 To me our current situation is summed up every year when the priest says, "Please sit down for the reading of the Passion." I'm sixty-seven. My wife asked me this evening if I remember the keeping of Lent before the regulations changed. Barely. I like to think I may have kept a stringent Lent once or twice in my life, but I am not sure. But I do remember that at one time we were a far more penitential people, with no meat on Friday, a far stricter communion fast, ember days four times a year-three days of fast and abstinence. My parents kept heroic Lents, as had their parents and forebears. Those were the days before we ran out of grace, when the lines at the Confessional on Saturday evening were full, and when occasionally from deep in the dark interior of the church would be heard sobs of remorse and repentance. We would have Forty Hours or a Mission and everyone would show up. The Church would be packed. The missioner, typically a Passionist, full of zeal and holiness, would preach well, and the point of his preaching was to move the parishioners out of the pews and into one of the lines for Confession. He talked about Heaven and Hell, about sin and forgiveness, about the mercy of God, about staying in a state of grace. He was salt and light. And something else, impossible to describe, maybe once or twice a year the Lord would show up in a very powerful way at Sunday Mass. Perhaps it was in the preaching, perhaps in a palpable aura of peace and beauty, but it was very real and noticed by everyone. We were a pentitential people. Grace came down in showers. - Lee Gilbert Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:40:09 +0100