LENT is that time in the liturgical calendar before Easter when we prepare to recommit ourselves to our Baptismal vows. It’s a time for Christian growth, to become more like Christ, and to practice self-denial for a period of forty days. During the Anglo-Saxon period lent became associated with the Latin term “quadragesima”, alluding to Jesus time in the Desert and Moses traveling to the Promised Land. The Activities of Lent are: Fasting, Alms Giving, Praying
The following is a summary the Catholic Encyclopedia’s Explanation of Lent:
Origins of the custom of Lent
The best scholars agree lent was not introduced during the apostolic era.
During the first three centuries there was considerable diversity in the Lenten practices and duration.
In a letter to Pope Victor, Irenaeus (early church father and bishop) indicated controversy:
“For some think they ought to fast for one day, others for two days, and others even for several, while others reckon forty hours both of day and night to their fast”.
Tertullian, an ecclesiastical writer in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, noticed that Catholics fasted from Friday until Sunday only. He contrasts the very slender term of fasting observed by the Catholics (i.e., “the days on which the bridegroom was taken away”, probably meaning the Friday and Saturday of Holy Week) with the longer but still restricted period of a fortnight which was kept by the Montanists.
We can conclude that Irenaeus knew nothing of Lenten fasts lasting for 40 days. St. Athanasius (Bishop of Alexandria, 331 AD) enjoined his flock to engage in 40 days of fasting and then a stricter fast during Holy Week and urged that this practice should be universal.
Duration during 4th century centered around Quadragesima (the forty days) which was originally a period marked by fasting, but not necessarily a period in which the faithful fasted every day. Still, this principle was differently understood in different localities, and great divergences of practice were the result. In Rome, in the fifth century, Lent lasted six weeks, but according to the historian Socrates there were only three weeks of actual fasting, exclusive even then of the Saturday and Sunday.
5th Century: In Rome. Lent lasted for six weeks, but included only three weeks of fasting (1, 4, and 6), exclusive of Saturdays and Sundays. These fast days were preliminary to the stricter fasts of Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
We find Other (pilgrim to Holy Land, possibly a nun) in her “Peregrinatio” speaking of a Lent of eight weeks in all observed at Jerusalem, which, remembering that both the Saturday and Sunday of ordinary weeks were exempt, gives five times eight, i.e., forty days for fasting.
In the time of Gregory the Great (590-604) there were apparently at Rome six weeks of six days each, making thirty-six fast days in all,so at a later date the beginning of Lent was pushed back to Ash Wednesday to ensure a total of forty days.
Divergence Regarding Nature of Fast and Abstinence
Some ate fish only, some ate birds also, since they originated from the sea. Others fasted from all living creatures; others ate dry bread only.
More diversity: Some ate only two meals a week; some expected themselves to go for 24 hours without food. Some fasted from all latticinio.
But the ordinary rule on fasting days was to take but one meal a day and that only in the evening, while meat and, in the early centuries, wine were entirely forbidden. During Holy Week, or at least on Good Friday it was common to enjoin the xerophagiæ, i.e., a diet of dry food, bread, salt, and vegetables.
Theodulphus of Orleans in the eighth century regarded abstinence from eggs, cheese, and fish as a mark of exceptional virtue. None the less St. Gregory writing to St. Augustine of England laid down the rule, “We abstain from flesh meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, and eggs.”
Exceptions were admitted if pious works were performed (Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday originated from the fasting of egg products during lent.)
Relaxations of Lenten Fasts
In the West during the Middle Ages, Lent consisted of 40 days and six Sundays. All flesh and meat and latticinio (milk related foods) were forbidden even on Sundays. Only one meal was permitted on fasting days and it was not permitted before the evening.
The relaxation Included the fact that people could break the fast at mid day. Collation was introduced in the 9th century, sanctioned by the Council of Aix le Chapelle. People exhausted from physical labor were permitted water.
The principle of parvitas materiae, i.e., that a small quantity of nourishment which was not taken directly as a meal did not break the fast, was adopted by St. Thomas Aquinas and other theologians, and in the course of centuries a recognized quantity of solid food, which according to received authorities must not exceed eight ounces, had come to be permitted after the midday repast.
A later development included8 oz. Of food was allowed after the midday repast Tea, coffee and chocolate allowed with bread or toast in morning.
The Holy See allowed meat at the principal meal, then on Sundays, then on weekdays.
Meat was allowed on Maundy Thursday. (The word is derived from the man datum commandment – the new commandment: “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” – John 13:34)
Contemporary Rules Regarding Fasting and Abstaining (Consult your doctor on this. The church does not want to get sick.)
- Fast and abstain on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
- Abstain on Fridays
- A fast equals 3 meals with total adding up to no more than your main meal.
- Abstain means refrain from eating meat.
Ages:
Age 14 and over abstain
Age 18-59 – fast