Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
There were shorter periods of fasting observed in the pre-Nicene church (Athanasius noted that the 4th-century Alexandrian church observed a period of fasting before Pascha [Easter]). [41] However it is known that the 40-day period of fasting – the season later named Lent – before Eastertide was clarified at the Nicene Council. [44]
The Reformed Church in America describes the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, as a day "focused on prayer, fasting, and repentance" and considers fasting a focus of the whole Lenten season, [75] as demonstrated in the "Invitation to Observe a Lenten Discipline", found in the Reformed liturgy for the Ash Wednesday service, which is read by the ...
In the Catholic Church as a communal practice and among some Protestants as a personal practice, fasting is observed during the forty-day season of Lent to commemorate the fast observed by Christ during his temptation in the desert. [38]
A Handbook for the Discipline of Lent delineates the following Lutheran fasting guidelines: [6] Fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday with only one simple meal during the day, usually without meat. Refrain from eating meat (bloody foods) on all Fridays in Lent, substituting fish for example. Eliminate a food or food group for the entire season.
Lent starts on Feb. 14 and is observed for 40 days through abstinence and penitence. It ends with Easter, which falls on March 31 this year. There are 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter ...
The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in the 19th century, observed Ash Wednesday: "as a day of fasting and humiliation, wherein we are publicly to confess our sins, meekly to implore God's mercy and forgiveness, and humbly to intercede for the continuance of his favour". [132]
Many Christians choose to practice teetotalism during Lent, thus giving up alcoholic beverages during the liturgical season. [1] [2]A Lenten sacrifice is a spiritual practice where Christians, particularly Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Moravians and the United Protestants voluntarily renounce a pleasure or luxury during the observance of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday.
Among Catholic and Mainline Protestant Christians, the Daniel Fast has been practiced by some during the 40-day season of Lent, [1] [2] [4] though the Daniel Fast can variously be set at three weeks, [1] or even ten days. As such, evangelical Christian churches such as those of the Baptist tradition, have partaken in the fast at various times ...