[Salvation]

Lent: Where Did It Come From?

Do you know that Lent literally means “lengthening of days,” or the “coming of spring time”? Do you know that Lent is the only season of the Church that starts on a weekday? Do you know how Lent has come to be what it is today? Here is the story at a glance…

1. The early Jewish Christians superimposed their worship of Jesus, the new Passover, on the annual celebration and understanding of Jewish Passover. This was preceded by a day of fasting.

2. The early Gentile Christian’s custom of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays and celebration of the breaking of bread after Sabbath merged with the new Passover celebration and the annual Easter feast was now celebrated on the Sunday closest to the Jewish Passover.

3. The Saturday before Easter Sunday became designated as a fast day and since the Friday fast was already in place, there emerged a two-day pre-Easter fast that later was extended to begin the Sunday before Easter (weeklong fast).

4. A process of initiation to become a Christian emerged in the third century that extended over a period of time and included several stages marked by a ritual celebration with baptisms most often celebrated during the 50 days between Passover and Pentecost.

5. The Council of Nicea set forth a forty day preparatory fast and a determined fixed date for the celebration of Easter.

6. A three week preparatory fast for baptism emerged in the 5th century.

7. Lent emerged as a six week period beginning on the first Sunday of Lent in the 4th century.

8. Since Sundays were not fast days in the sixth century, four more days were added into the six weeks to get the 40 days of Lent (modeled on Jesus’ 40 days in the desert) by beginning Lent on the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent.

9. Three scrutinies for those preparing for baptism emerged in the 8th century and are celebrated on three consecutive Sundays (3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of Lent).

10. The Second Vatican council restored a simpler earlier version of Lenten observance that eliminated the three penitential Sundays that had emerged in the 5th and 6th centuries. Lent now was to begin with Ash Wednesday and continue with the five Sundays of Lent, concluding with the Mass of Holy Thursday. (Adapted from the Word and Worship Workbook for Year C. Mary Birmingham. New York: Paulist Press, 1998, pp.113-114.]

[Uri’el-2012]

1. The early Jewish Christians superimposed their worship of Jesus, the new Passover, on the annual celebration and understanding of Jewish Passover. This was preceded by a day of fasting.

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12 posted on 03/15/2004 11:29:59 AM MST by Salvation

A Profession Of Faith From The Church Of Constantinople in the year 325 C.E.(A.D.) Under The Emperor Constantine

I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms. unleavened breads & sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews ,and all other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspersions, purifications, sanctifications and propitiations and fasts, and new moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and hymns and chants and observances and Synagogues, and the food and drink of the Hebrews; in one word, I renounce everything Jewish, every law, rite and custom and if afterwards I shall wish to deny and return to Jewish superstition, or shall be found eating with The Jews, or feasting with them, or secretly conversing and condemning the Christian religion instead of openly confuting them and condemning their vain faith, then let the trembling of Gehazi cleave to me, as well as the legal punishments to which I acknowledge myself liable. And may I be anathema in the world to come, and may my soul be set down with Satan and the devils.

Source: Parks, James The Conflict Of The Church And The Synagogue Atheneum, New York, 1974, pp. 397 - 398.

My L-rd, Y'shua is a Jewish Rabbi.

a bondslave to the Christ

chuck