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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 ...
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]). [42] However it is known that the 40-day period of fasting – the season later named Lent – before Eastertide was clarified at the Nicene Council. [45]
In Western Christianity, fasting is observed during the forty-day season of Lent by many communicants of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, Anglican Communion, Methodist Churches and the Western Orthodox Churches to commemorate the fast observed by Christ during his temptation in the desert. [39]
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". [139]
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 origin of the Lenten supper lies in the early Church, when Christians would fast from food and water until sunset and then consume a Lenten supper once sundown occurred. [6] The Apostolic Constitutions only allowed for "bread, vegetables, salt and water" in the Lenten supper, with meat, lacticinia, and alcohol being forbidden. [ 7 ]
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.
In the early 20th century, Church law prescribed fasting throughout Lent, with abstinence only on Friday and Saturday. Some countries received dispensations: Rome in 1918 allowed the bishops of Ireland to transfer the Saturday obligation to Wednesday; [citation needed] in the United States, abstinence was not required on Saturday. The other ...