T
toppick08
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For me growing up Catholic it was just how it was. As kids we didn't klnow why. It just was. Now I'm Baptist. I no longer care.
Your so close to a Methodist it......
Lent
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Your so close to a Methodist it......
camily
Peace
I guess you're right.My wifes family is Catholic - My family is Baptist, so God is God - it is about how you worship and get there in the end...
When we go and visit her family this time of year and Lent is on - the first time I ordered steak on a Friday they looked at me like I had three heads. Now, it is a joke with us and we all get a kick out of it!
From my perspective - the rib joints and steak houses are thin this time of year!
Which reminds me - Why no red meat on Friday? What is the signifigance of that?? :shrug:
It's not just red meat, it is all meat. To tell the truth, I'd have to look that one up for the official answer. What I've always understood and applied to my own faith journey is that it is 2-fold: #1- a way of remember the Sacrifice of Christ's flesh, and #2- that at some point in history meat would have been a "treat", so letting go of it on that day would be a mortification.
Some of the Biblical basis for these spiritual exercises are
1)The book of Daniel, "In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia . . . 'I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over'" (Dan. 10:1-3).
2)Paul recommended permanently giving up marriage and meat. Thus he himself was celibate (1 Cor. 7:8). He recommended the same for ministers (2 Tim. 2:3-4) and for the unmarried in order to devote themselves more fully to the Lord (1 Cor. 7:32-34), unless doing so would subject them to great temptations (1 Cor. 7:9). Similarly, he recommended giving up meat permanently if it would prevent others from sinning (1 Cor. 8:13).
3)In the Bible, forty days is a traditional number of discipline, devotion, and preparation. Moses stayed on the mountain of God forty days (Ex. 24:18, 34:28). The spies were in the land forty days (Num. 13:25). Elijah traveled forty days before he reached the cave where he had his vision (1 Kgs. 19:8). Nineveh was given forty days to repent (Jonah 3:4). And, most significantly for our Lenten observance, Jesus spent forty days in wilderness praying and fasting prior to undertaking his ministry (Matt. 4:2). Thus it is fitting for Christians to imitate him with a forty-day period of prayer and fasting to prepare to celebrate the climax of Christ's ministry, Good Friday (the day of the crucifixion) and Easter Sunday (the day of the Resurrection).