Do you have a scripture reference for the whole "giving up thinks for Lent" thing?
Post 66.
Taking up something can be just as meaningful. I challenged my 8th grate grade Catechism class to say at least one thing nice to their parents or brothers and sisters each day. And mean it!
In simple terms...Christ denied Himself for us.
He tells us to deny ourselves and lift up our crosses daily.
At least at lent, we struggle a bit harder to do just that in rememberence of what He gave for us.
Anyway, fasting is the quickest way to get in touch with your enslaved side of existence. Miss a day of food and you'll be praying to God to fill your belly. Try other fasts and soon you'll find out just how much of this world you're enslaved too.
Without fasting most people simply just wonder: So what did Christ set us free from?
Right next to the scripture reference for teetotalling---which is somewhere right after the Miracle at Cana gave all the guests a massive hangover.
"Therefore will I judge every man according to his ways, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God. Be converted, and do penance for all your iniquities: and iniquity shall not be your ruin." Ezechiel 18:30
"Now therefore saith the Lord: Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning." Joel 2:12
"And saying: Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 3:2
"Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry." Matthew 4:1-2
"From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 4:17
"And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest anoint thy head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee." Matthew 6:16-18
"But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, then shall they fast in those days." Luke 5:35
"But Peter said to them: Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Acts 2:38
I gave that up for lent.
Right after I discovered nothing in there about driving on the right side of the road either!
Damned papists!
It is an effort to emulate in our own small, human way, the time Christ spent in the desert.
Why are you concerned with this particular devotion being scriptural? I personally believe it is (the 40 days in the desert), but does it really matter? As Christians, we all carry the cross of Christ, as human beings we all carry our own personal crosses.
Our puny little sufferings (i.e. giving up the drink, or salt, or caffeine, or whatever) is nothing compared to what Our Lord endured. It's a good reminder and really does bring folks closer to Jesus, and not just Catholic folks.
I see the kids with those WWJD bracelets. They're not in the Bible, but I'm sure some teenagers are reminded of Christ's love and perfection by those bracelets and a result do not engage in the sin which is all around them.
Likewise, when we are reminded of Christ's love for us through our own personal sacrifices, we receive additional grace which brings all of us sinners closer to Christ.