Lent: It's supposed to be hard.

[gurdymonkey]

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09152a.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12589a.htm

I remember my outrage at a Tournaments Illuminated article on keeping the Lenten fast several seasons ago in which the author's attitude was clearly, "It's Friday, I can have SHRIMP!" 

Um, no. You've missed the point. Lent does not mean going out to Red Lobster.

The point of the Quadrigesima is to imitate the forty days of fasting and denial of temptation that Christ underwent. It's about sacrifice. It's about testing oneself against temptation. It's about trying to wrap one's head and one's spirit around what it is like to suffer and suffer gladly, even on the piddling scale that is two actual fast days and a handful of post-Vatican II meatless Fridays.

"Offer it up," was the Lenten mantra I grew up with. http://www.fisheaters.com/offeringitup.html
Bite down on that blood sugar-induced mood swing and deal with the fact that being hungry for an hour or even the dreaded Good Friday noon to sundown shift is nothing to forty days in the desert.  Eat those hated fish sticks because to not do so is a criminal waste of food. Get thee behind me, Twinkie.

We did meatless Fridays hardcore in my house and in school too - and I grew up during a period when EVERY Friday was meatless, not just the ones in Lent. ( Even my Dad, who is a Jew, was resigned to eating what the rest of us did.) So in addition to meatless Fridays we were expected to make some other sacrifice.  BTW, vittoriosa , there is currently no doctrinal prohibition on eggs or dairy. Hardcore Lent meant a lot of tuna salad and egg salad and to this day I still can't bear the sight of cottage cheese. It meant doing the Stations and feeling like scum as we read the responsorial "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" 

It also meant that Easter was that much sweeter.

Comments

[baronnemelisend.livejournal.com]

This is the first Lent I'm actually taking a stab at. I can't quite Black-Fast it, though....

[danabren.livejournal.com]

When I was in high school (early 80's), the school lunch on Friday was fried fish. Every Friday.

[dustinmartinez.livejournal.com]

Silly Abrahamic faiths. Live in the present now. =)

[mermaidlady]

I was annoyed with that TI article too, and I'm not even Christian (although I do try to understand, appreciate, and respect my persona's beliefs).

All fish are not created equal... If I recall correctly, Margery Kempe was mocked for turning down herring, but eating pike. She defended her actions by explaining that she wasn't humble enough to eat the more lowly herring.

[erink.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who frequently gives up coffee during Lent. I think that's a great modern take on self-denial.

I grew up atheist and had more exposure to Jewish rituals than the religious Christian ones (because Jewish religious rituals got explained in schools but Christian ones didn't). So when people say "fast" I think, you don't eat. Then I found out that when Christians say "fast" they mean you don't eat meat - and by meat, we only mean beef, but pork and chicken and fish are okay. (Actually, I'm not sure about the pork now.) I was like, whoah, Christians are wimps compared to Jews! ;-)

(This is akin to the time I decided football players were wimps compared to hockey players, because football players only play once a week. I modified that opinion when I realized how common concussions were in football.)

I hear that when Muslims fast they can't smoke or drink water or brush their teeth - nothing goes in your mouth. I think Jews are a bit more permissive than that.