The Season of Lent

"Lent” is the forty days leading up to Easter. The word itself simply means “Spring” and finds its etymology in some Teutonic phrase for lengthening days. There was a time when the forty days were called “Quadragesima” (forty-days); but fortunately, “Lent” won out. “Ash Wednesday” is the first day of Lent. Now, if you are astute – or really bored – and you do the math, you’ll find there are 47 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. For some reason the Sundays don’t count, subtracting them out gives you forty days. These forty days have the obvious parallel with Christ’s time in the wilderness – hence the idea of fasting, or giving something up. It also finds a parallel with Israel’s wondering wilderness - it is a time of preparation and repentance.

Lent is probably the oldest tradition in the Christian calendar. The Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) noted that two provincial synods should be held each year, “one before the 40 days of Lent.” Athanasius (d. 373) in his “Festal Letters” implored his congregation to make a 40-day fast prior to a more intense fasting of Holy Week. So the forty days before Easter were a “special time” as far back as the 4th Century. Gregory the Great, who is regarded as the father of the Medieval Papacy, is credited with the ceremony that gave Ash Wednesday its name. Some time in the late 6th Century the Church started marking the foreheads of Christians as they came to their churches on the first day of Lent. The ashes reminding them of the biblical symbol of repentance (sackcloth and ashes) and their mortality (dust to dust).

For this year, I am going to do two things. The first thing that I am going to do is a lental devotional. the devotional is called: Listening to Lent: Daily Devotions, Discovering the Lessons of Lent. The second thing is that I am going to "give up" something for Lent. The item that I am going to give up for Lent is coffee.

The devotional will be "easy" for me for the most part. Spending time reading Scripture, reading a devotion and then pondering a thought comes fairly natural.

The giving up of coffee may be a little difficult. I love coffee and have several cups a day. Some days, I will (would) drink 6 cups. So, this will be a sacrifice. I have to tell you a funny story (to me) on me giving coffee up.

When Isaiah found out that I was giving up coffee for Lent, he was not happy. He let out a big sigh and threw his arms up in the air. He said what about me ??? Does that mean that I will not beable to have my coffee now on Saturday mornings ??? For you see, each Saturday morning, he has coffee with daddy while eating the donuts.