myk
New Member
Posts: 24
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Lent
Feb 24, 2009 18:05:28 GMT
Post by myk on Feb 24, 2009 18:05:28 GMT
I'm living in a country where christinity is a minority faith. I don't expect that I will get to Mass for Ash Wednesday (though I do hope to get to church services during Holy week).
I don't plan to do any particular penance during Lent but I do intend to pray and reflect on scripture each evening.
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Lent
Feb 24, 2009 22:29:26 GMT
Post by Michael O'Donovan on Feb 24, 2009 22:29:26 GMT
Good for you. I would like to think I could achieve something half as good.
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Lent
Feb 25, 2009 21:57:12 GMT
Post by guillaume on Feb 25, 2009 21:57:12 GMT
Good for you. I would like to think I could achieve something half as good. I was in Saint Kevin's Church in Dublin today for the 1pm Ash Wed. It was quite crowed though. The mass is said on the right altar of the Church, and it was packed. The priest celebrated the whole 1962 Missal, accordingly (i have one) and reminded the faithful to take the communion kneeling and on the tongue. The faithful were from all different ages. From teens (yes) to elder. There is a demand for the "old"mass in this country. As bi-ritualist, I also followed the mass at the Carmelite Withfriar Church. Such a beautifull church ! Dublin is indeed blessed with such treasures ! God bless You !
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Lent
Feb 26, 2009 9:36:08 GMT
Post by Hemingway on Feb 26, 2009 9:36:08 GMT
Even though I'm not religious anymore, I still usually give up alcohol for lent.
Funny that........
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Lent
Feb 26, 2009 10:31:15 GMT
Post by guillaume on Feb 26, 2009 10:31:15 GMT
Even though I'm not religious anymore, I still usually give up alcohol for lent. Funny that........ Good for you. There are many non practising Catholics who give up something for Lent. And also many practising Catholics who do not !
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Lent
Feb 26, 2009 10:31:42 GMT
Post by guillaume on Feb 26, 2009 10:31:42 GMT
I'm living in a country where christinity is a minority faith. I don't expect that I will get to Mass for Ash Wednesday (though I do hope to get to church services during Holy week). I don't plan to do any particular penance during Lent but I do intend to pray and reflect on scripture each evening. Where do you live ?
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Lent
Feb 26, 2009 11:05:37 GMT
Post by hibernicus on Feb 26, 2009 11:05:37 GMT
I have been trying to give up meat as well as sweets and biscuits (which I do every year), to reead the Divine Office and to attend Mass daily if I can. Hemingway is not that unusual - I quite often see in the English papers people who have never been Catholics and who may not even be practising Christians of any description describe themselves as giving up some bad habit for Lent because they find it an useful practice. (The Irish Government's habit of exhorting people to use Ash Wednesday as the day they give up smoking is another version of this secular usage.) BEcause we live in a society of plenty we forget one aspect of Lent - in a peasant society most people would be going short at this time anyway, because the stored harvest from last year would be running low and the new crops would not yet be ready. Observance of Lent served to sanctify what had to be endured anyway (and to some extent, in the case of those who had enough, reminded them of the plight of the poor and the need to assist them). The practice of abstention from marital intercourse during Lent also had a practical function, since children conceived during Lent would be born in the middle of winter.
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Lent
Feb 26, 2009 16:03:58 GMT
Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Feb 26, 2009 16:03:58 GMT
Even though I'm not religious anymore, I still usually give up alcohol for lent. Funny that........ Hemmingway, I don't think that is strange at all. Fasting and other types of what a Catholic or Orthodox might call Penance are part of the human condition, feature in most religions and some philosophies. Chistians have Lent; Jews have Yom Kippur; Muslims have Ramadan; and bored semi-pagan middle-aged, middle-class women have dieting. Even without being facetious, most of us recognise a little abstmiousness doesn't hurt from time to time, and the Irish Catholic culture does give the season of Lent as the time to do this.
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myk
New Member
Posts: 24
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Lent
Feb 26, 2009 17:53:10 GMT
Post by myk on Feb 26, 2009 17:53:10 GMT
Even though I'm not religious anymore, I still usually give up alcohol for lent. Funny that........ I have given it up twice for Lent. It is very tough. Best of luck!
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myk
New Member
Posts: 24
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Lent
Feb 26, 2009 17:54:38 GMT
Post by myk on Feb 26, 2009 17:54:38 GMT
I'm living in a country where christinity is a minority faith. I don't expect that I will get to Mass for Ash Wednesday (though I do hope to get to church services during Holy week). I don't plan to do any particular penance during Lent but I do intend to pray and reflect on scripture each evening. Where do you live ? Sudan
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Lent
Feb 27, 2009 10:08:50 GMT
Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Feb 27, 2009 10:08:50 GMT
That's very interesting. Are you in the position to give us some 1st hand information about Dafur and other issues? If you are, but it is too dangerous to do so, we'll understand.
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myk
New Member
Posts: 24
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Lent
Feb 27, 2009 15:30:18 GMT
Post by myk on Feb 27, 2009 15:30:18 GMT
That's very interesting. Are you in the position to give us some 1st hand information about Dafur and other issues? If you are, but it is too dangerous to do so, we'll understand. i haven't visited Darfur yet, but I hope to. So i don't have any special insight there. Even if i did, I probably couldn't shares on such a public forum.
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Lent
Feb 16, 2010 12:11:29 GMT
Post by hibernicus on Feb 16, 2010 12:11:29 GMT
Best wishes to all for the forthcoming Lent. Feast today, fast to morrow - both are part of God's plan.
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Lent
Feb 17, 2010 12:35:42 GMT
Post by hibernicus on Feb 17, 2010 12:35:42 GMT
I'm going to try to attend Mass daily and to start reading the Office again, and to give up meat, biscuits and sweets generally. I rarely drink so alcohol is not an issue. I don't expect to keep strictly to the "giving up meat" as I will be staying with relatives from time to time and I generally eat what they serve me so as not to make a fuss. I extend this even to eating meat on Friday if that is what they serve me. Does anyone think I am going too far with this? I tend to think it is in line with Our Lord's words about doing our fasting and penances in secret and not to make a show of ourselves as the hypocrites do (funny how although I hadn't thought of Joel's cry to penance and St. Paul on fasting and Our Lord's condemnations of the hypocrites since last year, I found them strangely familiar and resonant when I heard them today). There are times, however, when suspect I am jsut a coward and an appeaser. Should I make more of an issue about demanding fish on Friday when i am a guest (as I certainly would if I were served meat today or on Good Friday)?
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Lent
Feb 17, 2010 13:16:01 GMT
Post by guillaume on Feb 17, 2010 13:16:01 GMT
I eat fish or vegetarian meals every friday of the year. So Lent won't change anything for me about it. I am not a big eater, i usually eat one meal a day all year long, so fasting is not the issue for me. However Alcool is. I love my wine, as a good French man, and often i do drink far too much ! And being drunk make me weaker. It also leads me to serious temptations toward mortal sins. I am not an alcoholic, though ! I can spend days and days "dry" as we say, without troubles, above all when I work. But when I am off, and bit bored sometimes, i do drink wines. So i decided to be tea total at least for Lent. I do smoke, but wisely enough, i won't stop both addictions, it would be too tough and so too easy to fall back. In giving up things, i learnt by experience that you have to be reasonable, and not put the goal too far. However, a penance MUST BE a penance. Giving up chocolates does not seem to be too difficult. That is a penance for women ! ;D As I work in a very stressfull atmosphere, it will be tough sometimes. So yes, it will be a bit of a penance and a mortification.
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