Just as a general note. . .

[xiphias]

I think that the whole thing of giving up something you enjoy for Lent is a really wonderful spiritual practice. Not for me, of course, as I'm not Christian, but I think it's a nifty idea that teaches important lessons.

Comments

[lietya.livejournal.com]

I do, too, and I'm an ex-Catholic. This is the time of year when I miss it, and I think that Lent is an important introduction to the concept of sacrifice.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

If you miss it, perhaps you could just do it anyway, either during Lent or during another season that feels right to you? My friend katyha is an ex-Christian who still gives up chocolate for Lent each year.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I never thought about doing it during another season. I like that idea. (Some years I *have* still given something up for Lent, although not this one.)

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Glad you like the idea. When I was Asatru, I also found I missed a regular fasting/abstaining period and was considering adopting one of my own. I never quite found a season that suited me, but autumn felt closest to what I was looking for.

[steelwngs.livejournal.com]

I used to do that as a Catholic every year as a kid. Since losing the catholic faith for becoming a pagan I have decided that instead of losing something I like I would do something that is good for me instead. (E.G. exercising more, laugh more, learn something new each day)

Why go through life suffering. Instead do something that improves your life.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I think that's a wonderful thing -- but I also think that there is something to be learned from limited, specific, conscious, deliberate deprivation. That's a lot of qualifications, because I don't think that just plain suffering is a good thing, but I think there's something vaguely related to it that might be.

[steelwngs.livejournal.com]

Well it's just that most people that I know that still do the lent thing never really follow through with it. they do the customary week or something like that.

[cellio]

The month of Elul comes to mind as a candidate time for something like this.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Especially with Felis Sidis's comments about how Lent can ALSO be about taking on extra, as well as giving things up.

[breadd.livejournal.com]

I don't see why Lent or Christianity has to enter into it, though.

Occasional deprivation helps one appreciate what one has the rest of the time.

Anyone who hikes long distances can tell you how things that we take for granted in every day life - something as simple as a drink of clear, cold water - become an astonishingly satisfying things after a few days on the trail.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I guess that's one of the things I'm thinking about: how else, besides Lent, does this dynamic play out, either in formal, ritual ways (giving up leavened bread for Pesach, not eating during daylight in Ramadan), or in informal, spontaneous ways?

Lenten practices

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, the whole "giving up something for Lent" thing represents an incomplete understanding of what a penitential season is about in the Catholic tradition. While it's certainly valid to observe Lent by giving something up, it's equally valid in the Catholic religion to observe Lent by doing something positive. It could be a religious observance of some sort - daily prayer, for example, - or some sort of community service, or other practice that helps others or improves ourselves, such as some of those Steelwings mentions. It should be something that requires us to make an effort, though, and it should be done regularly. This aspect of Lenten observance doesn't get as much public mention as the idea of giving something up, but it is part of the tradition. Whether by giving something up or doing something extra, we remind ourselves daily of the meaning of the season, and try to end Lent a better person than we began.
- Felis Sidus

[navrins]

What lessons?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I'm having trouble putting it into words. It's something about "sacrifice", and "self-discipline", and "doing something for a spiritual purpose (which is related to 'sacrifice', and is why 'sacrifice' is different than 'deprivation')".

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

My favorite not-my-religion tradition is Yom Kippur's asking friends and loved ones for forgiveness for any wrongs of the past year.

It seems important to do an occasional "reality check" on ways you may have hurt those close to you, and to discuss and ask forgiveness for those things. Especially since you don't always know if something was hurtful. Reflecting on it further, though, it also seems a useful and possibly cathartic exercise for the forgiver, to express these hurts and then try to let them go.

I wanted to observe this tradition last year when Yom Kippur came around, but I feel intensely uncomfortable taking on the practices and observations of faiths that aren't mine, as if I'm co-opting them and somehow cheapening the meaning. New Year's would have been another good time for this exercise, and I don't know why I didn't think of it then.

[watercolorblue.livejournal.com]

I know a friend who has given up masturbation for Lent. I have no idea how he's managing this, but I'm impressed....
also, hello *waves*...I've been thinking about bartending as a career, and my friend Bill/bikergeek recommended I talk to you.