Lent

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 5:29 am

If you observe Lent, what will you be doing? Giving up? Adding in?

This was a nice thread last year to just share plans and thoughts throughout the Lenten season.

I had forgotten what I did last year, and, tonight, while trying to decide what to do this year, I came up with the same thing I did last year! (I just checked the old thread.) <shrug> Well, that should still work, right?

I'm going to give up my morning internet time and replace it with time with God in prayer and reading.

Post by **Elentári** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 9:58 am

Great minds think alike..I was planning to cut down on my online time, too...well, probably just reduce the number of sites I post on for a while.

If I could persuade my husband to do the same it would be a miracle...

Post by **Padme** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 3:15 pm

Steals from Jen...

I'm giving up lent for lent.

I've already cut back on my internet time, cut back on my sugar/carbs/fat laden rich foods consumption, cut back on goofing off at work, cut back on drinking to the point I might as well give it up. So do I have to give up something or can I improve on something, because I really need to exercise more and was thinking that should be a better habit just this morning.

Ok so maybe it will be to give up watching TV in the evening when I get home to exercise more. Get rid of one and replace with another habit.

I have also given up watching so much news, thanks to Maria's inspiration. It helps my mind not to be bombarded with all the bad news, even though I know it's happening.

Post by **Pearly Di** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:11 pm

I have decided to give up sex for Lent.

OK, being serious now.

-- I have seriously decided not to give up red wine or chocolate. I kinda think the Lord is fine with me needing them.

(I'll make sure the chocolate is Fairtraded though!)

-- But some serious abstaining from the Internet won't go amiss. (Except not in this thread.

)

-- I will be giving up my chronically bad habit of scoffing birthday cake whenever a work colleague puts one in the kitchen (which they do every other week.

)

- I will be reading my favourite Lenten spiritual book, by Brother Ramon.

-- There's Christian Aid's 'Count your Blessings':
http://www.christianaid.org.uk/getinvol ... urces.aspx

Or a very similar scheme from another UK church organisation:
http://www.urc.org.uk/what_we_do/commit ... t_for_life

-- And, like you, Lali, I do intend to spend far more time with God.

To kick the season off, tonight I am going with Jewelsong to the Ash Wednesday Sung Eucharist at St-Martin-in-the Fields:
http://www2.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/ ... /home.html

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:27 pm

Lent doesn't have to be about giving things up. It can be about adding good things in that deepen your faith. (Sometimes that means other things fall by the wayside, but that's okay. Then you're "giving things up" without making a big deal about them.)

I'll write more later. I have to go get ready for the Lenten service I'm going to.

Post by **JewelSong** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 7:21 am

Pearly Di wrote:I have decided to give up sex for Lent.

Oh, me, too.

But if God decides to put some temptation in my way, I may fail...

To kick the season off, tonight I am going with Jewelsong to the Ash Wednesday Sung Eucharist at St-Martin-in-the Fields:

This was a lovely service and a wonderful way to begin the Lenten season. The choir was just terrific - small, but with a wonderful tone and great blend of voices. St Martin's is very good acoustically and the music just soared.

They are doing Mozart's Requiem this Friday there and I may go, if I am not too shattered by the end of the week. Music makes me feel very spiritually nourished.

Post by **Crucifer** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 3:34 pm

They are doing Mozart's Requiem this Friday there and I may go, if I am not too shattered by the end of the week. Music makes me feel very spiritually nourished.

Oh! Who's conducting?

This lent, I don't have time to do anything. I have 7 concerts in March, including the kick off to my independent solo career, singing the bass solo in Bach's Magnificat, and joining with a professional consort from London to do a concert in early March with one of my lecturers who was recently sacked for trying to misuse funds... Not to mention the astronomically difficult "My song is love unknown" by Francis Pott on Palm Sunday with my Cathedral Choir, which is one of the most difficult choral pieces I have yet encountered (but it's sooooo fulfilling...)

And there's so much more... So this lent, I'm going to learn lots of notes!

Post by **solicitr** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:04 pm

including the kick off to my independent solo career, singing the bass solo in Bach's Magnificat

Oh, I envy you.

Unfortunately for me, there's precious little solo work for a basso profundo.

Post by **Frelga** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 7:16 pm

Crucifer, that sounds so exciting! Best of luck with your solo career.

And... is there an appropriate felicitation for Lent?

I don't know what it is, but I certainly wish everyone who observes a meaningful and spiritually fulfilling time.

The one thing I know about Lent is that some years my grandmother's birthday falls on the intersection of Lent and Passover. Which means my Christian cousin won't eat meat and I won't eat grains, and that makes for a tricky celebration. More so when my son still had the dairy allergy!

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:22 pm

That's an excellent thing to wish people during Lent, Frelga.

I'm not giving anything up because all I'm doing is working and sleeping.

Maybe next week I will be able to stop and think.

Post by **Lidless** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 8:07 am

I have decided to give up finishing sentenc

Post by **JewelSong** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:35 am

You know, Lidless, it might seem funny to make a joke about "giving something up" for Lent. Pearl and I already made a joke about "giving up sex!"

And it can be a cliche, I suppose.

But for me, the deliberate act of forgoing something you usually indulge in can be quite instructive and, in a strange sense, freeing. It makes you stop and think about...well, about a lot of things. It can be a way to slow yourself down a bit.

Lent is a peculiarly Christian seasons, but many religions have periods of fasting and times when it is appropriate to abstain from certain things. (Sex included!) It has the effect of focusing your mind and also allows you to appreciate those things all the more.

Post by **Lalaith** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:21 pm

My internet addiction is pretty strong.

I'm having a hard time not abiding by what I had said. I keep checking my email when I first get up. Like the world will END if I don't check my email straightaway in the morning.

Anyway, all of the music stuff sounds lovely! I wonder if we have anything at all like that around here.

I had wanted to attend a mid-week service at a nearby church, but I had a meeting at the same time. I'll have to try again next week.

Post by **Elentári** » Sat Feb 27, 2010 2:33 pm

Although I've been trying to limit my time spent here and other sites, I was inspired to tell you all about an exhibition my mother went to locally, of panels from the Quaker Tapestry...

In January 1981, Anne Wynn-Wilson began teaching an 11-year-old boy at the Taunton Friends Meeting. She intended to make a long frieze, illustrated with stories about Quaker historical figures. The boy Jonathan asked Anne if it could be done in embroidery. This was the start of the Quaker Tapestry.

In the next 15 years, more than 4,000 people of all ages from 15 countries contributed to the 77 panels. In addition to historical figures, the panels illustrate Quaker testimonies, events, projects, institutions and more. They tell the story of the Quaker Movement over nearly 350 years. The tapestry is not an academic history, but a celebration of Quakers' ideas and experiences since the founding of the Quaker movement by George Fox in 1652. The Quaker Tapestry Exhibition has been housed in the Kendal Meetinghouse in Cumbria since 1994.

Each winter, when the Exhibition Centre in Kendal is closed, 39 of the 77 Tapestry panels are taken on tour for a month to a major cathedral town or city in the United Kingdom, giving those in other parts of the country the opportunity to see the beautiful embroidery, and to find out more about the stories told within its panels. Since its first public exhibition, the Quaker Tapestry has travelled to over 150 venues in the UK, Europe and America.

If you ever get a chance to see it, go...it is beautiful and inspiring.

More photos of individual panels on their website, here: http://www.quaker-tapestry.co.uk/home/

Post by **Lalaith** » Sat Feb 27, 2010 3:33 pm

Oh, how neat! Thanks for sharing that, Elen.

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:06 pm

I thought I'd bump this thread for 2011. (I changed the thread title to reflect that as well.)

The family and I just attended a lovely Ash Wednesday service at a nearby Episcopal church. The rector gave a very moving sermon; it was really spot on. I'll have to summarize it later, but I need to get to school with the girls right now.

Everyone feel free to post your thoughts and experiences!

Oh, here is something I found that might be neat to do:

http://bustedhalo.com/features/fast-pray-give

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:24 pm

That is a neat thing.

I'm going to try (again) to form a few better habits. Just a few—mostly related to time management (writing and exercise). We'll see. Six years after finishing chemo I'm maybe ready to stop spoiling myself.

Post by **yovargas** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:49 pm

I am giving up sex for lent.............

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:44 pm

Prim, I liked what the rector had to say today. He said that Lent wasn't so much about self-improvement, though that may certainly be a side benefit. It wasn't just about self-denial either, though that may be part of it. It was about acknowledging our mortality but also squarely facing the reason for that mortality--our sinfulness. So he encouraged us to self-examination, to look at those places of sin in our lives to bring them to Jesus for healing.

He gave the example of the winners of the Biggest Loser. The ones who go on to the finals are the ones who don't just deal with the outward aspects of physical health, i.e., food choice changes and exercise. The ones who win do so because they face the inward issues, the wound or reasons why they are overeating. Once they heal those inner wounds, then the outward body begins to reflect that.

So he challenged us to do the things that will help us examine our hearts, our areas of sinfulness, and give them to God for healing.

Like I said, I thought he was spot on. Now I just need to figure how to put that into practice...

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:14 pm

That's kind of what's leading me to choose what I chose to work on. Not trying to be perfect. Trying to face in the right direction and take a step or two. Forty days gives a new habit a chance to take root. I hope. And maybe root out some anger and fear, too, or at least let some air in on it.