Lent 2017 Ideas

[Illiniwek]

Does anybody have any good ideas on penances for Lent this year? What are you guys giving up?

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

I won't do anything special (normal non-christian)

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'll be going vegetarian for Lent again.  It's enough of an imposition to make me think without being so much of one as to be an impossible hassle.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I liked the one my church suggested one year for their Thing Not Called Lent where on certain days at a coffeeshop or bar you'd ask the person in line behind what they were ordering and then offer to pay for that as well.

[Green Line]

Social media is a good one.  No snapchat, facebook, instagram.  It really is liberating. 

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'll be praying when I wake up as well as when I go to bed, and praying for longer when I go to bed. I might also abstain from certain foods but I haven't decided what.

[Illiniwek]

Social media is a good one.  No snapchat, facebook, instagram.  It really is liberating. 

That's usually a really good one for my wife who can get pretty addicted to it. I'm reluctant to do the same because I really only use twitter and it's just to get my news.

[RFayette]

I need to start reading my Bible more.

[DC Al Fine]

Nothing. I'm not celebrating it.

[Santander]

I'm giving up alcohol.

It will be difficult, but worth it.

[NeverAgain]

I am giving up alcohol, smoking, drugs, prostitution, and meat (save for fish). I feel these are such good and tough penances, I never plan on stopping.

[Enduro]

Forgive my ignorance, but what's Lent?

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

^ It is the 40 days immediately prior to Easter. Some Christians give up something they really like for the period as a way to remember/commemorate the suffering/temptation Jesus went through during his 40 day fast in the Judaean Desert. It's not something I typically celebrate though.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Two posters in this thread so far have referred to "celebrating" Lent. I'm really not sure that's the right word.

[Santander]

Two posters in this thread so far have referred to "celebrating" Lent. I'm really not sure that's the right word.

Yeah, Lent is observed, not celebrated.

[DC Al Fine]

Two posters in this thread so far have referred to "celebrating" Lent. I'm really not sure that's the right word.

Yeah, Lent is observed, not celebrated.

Ok. Mea culpa.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

^ It is the 40 days immediately prior to Easter. Some Christians give up something they really like for the period as a way to remember/commemorate the suffering/temptation Jesus went through during his 40 day fast in the Judaean Desert. It's not something I typically celebrate though.

While Lent is 40 days for reasons given, it doesn't include Sundays, so Ash Wednesday is 46 days before Easter. Those Sundays are in Lent, not of Lent, so  those observing Lent by foregoing something won't have to on Sundays, but some do anyways.

[TJ in Oregon]

I'm planning to give up snacks and sweets this year. I've tried the same thing for several years now but usually end up screwing it up at some point in Lent. I think it's good to give up something involving eating since fasting has traditionally been such an important part of Christianity and hunger is not something we often experience in modern America.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Forgive my ignorance, but what's Lent?

It may have been Jesus who Himself said "forgive", but to this, I say "never".

[CatoMinor]

Would just like throw out a protip:

Lent is a fast of one or more things for the time before Easter. With it being a fast I would warn that a fast in the Christian sense should not include any sinful vices. We are to repent of sin and move on, not fast it for a period. I mention this because last year a friend wanted to join a group of us in fasting for a day and he chose to fast porn, kind of missing the point of what fasting is.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

If everything goes right, I'm giving up the male gender and quite possibly my safety.

[Strudelcutie4427]

I'm giving up chocolate, high sugar snacks, and soda/beer. Kill 2 bird with one stone. Make my lent sacrifices and get ripped for the summer

[rpryor03]

I'm fasting on the traditional days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday), as well as abstaining from meat on all Fridays.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Maybe it's just because I almost never eat meat anyway, but I've never quite understood why abstaining from it one day a week is supposed to be such a sacrifice that the Church felt the need to limit the requirement to Lent. The expectation of eating meat every day, or in some households even every meal, would have seemed absolutely ridiculous and disgustingly opulent to just about everyone as recently as a couple of generations ago. It would be better for diets, for culture, and for the environment if people went back to not having that expectation.