After the celebration of
Christmas and New Year, now time of spring also time to observe lent. We can
keep Lent best by denying ourselves not “things” but negative thoughts and
feelings. Only through the prayer and study, we can contemplate the victorious Christ
and attempt to be more like Him.
The word LENT comes from the
Anglo-Saxon word for spring, which is derived from a verb meaning to lengthen.
Lent comes in the spring when the days become noticeably longer.
This annual season of fasting,
prayer, and penitence have been observed by the Western Church since the first
century after Christ, although it has not always been forty days long. In more
recent times it has been kept forty days, after the example of Moses and
Elijah, and to commemorate the forty days of fasting and prayer that Jesus
spent in the wilderness.
The first day of Lent is called
Ash Wednesday from the custom that prevailed in the early Church of sprinkling
ashes on the heads of penitents on the first day of Lent, in token of
repentance for sin.
Ash Wednesday comes forty-six
days before Easter. There are six Sundays in Lent, and they are not considered
part of Lent, because in the Western Church Sunday is always a feast day. The
forty weekdays beginning with Ash Wednesday constitute Lent. Sundays belong to
the season of Easter all year long and every Sunday is the celebration of
Easter.
The fifth Sunday in Lent is known
as Passion Sunday, because it marks the beginning of Passion-tide, the last two
weeks of Lent. These two weeks specifically commemorate the Passion of Jesus,
or His experiences following the Last Supper.
The last week of Lent is called
Holy Week. It includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday.
Palm Sunday, the Sunday before
Easter, commemorates Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem when the people strewed
palms in His way.
Maundy Thursday, the Thursday
before Easter, is a corruption of the Latin word mandati meaning “of the
commandment,” and refers to the command “This do in remembrance of me” spoken
by Jesus in regard to His breaking of the bread and drinking of the wine at the
Last Supper. Maundy Thursday commemorates the event of the Last Supper.
Good Friday, the Friday before
Easter, probably known originally as God’s Friday, commemorates the crucifixion
of Jesus.
Easter Day, of course,
commemorates the Resurrection. The word Easter comes from the Anglo-Saxon word
Eastre, the name of the Goddess of spring, in whose honour a festival was
celebrated each April. Easter Day always comes on the first Sunday after the
full moon that occurs on or after March 21. If the full moon falls on a Sunday,
Easter is the next Sunday. Easter can never fall earlier than March 22 nor
later than April 25.
Lent is a season of spiritual
growth, when we can blend and merge our mind with God-Mind; the way is open for
the Lord to glorify us and to lift us into a higher, purer, more spiritual
state.
Fasting means abstaining from; it
is abstinence. The place of overcoming is in the consciousness of man. The forty-day
fast is an all-round denial of sense demands. In fasting, we as metaphysicians
abstain from error thinking and meditate on spiritual Truth until we
incorporate it into the consciousness of oneness with the Father.
The desire to excel is in all men
and women. It is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which ever urges us on
through the earth toward heaven. It should be encouraged and cultivated in the
right direction.
Let us observe Lent
