She Turned Me Into a Newt

By: Rong Posted in piety, ponderings

… I got better. Well, I’m getting better. My apologies for not posting in a while, but I’ve been down and out with a sinus infection. Don’t usually get ill but when I do, well my wife can vouch for what a whining little pansy I become. So today is my first day back to work this week and I realized that I needed to get something into this blog so…

Our intern who was raised Catholic asked whether I attended Ash Wednesday yesterday. I told him that I didn’t. Knowing that I’m a Christian he asked why not. My answer was because my church doesn’t observe it. Which then of course begged me to ask the question of why not. At this point I’d like to pass you onto a post over at the Thinklings on Lent and suggest that you read the comments, then I’ll ask my readers the same question as Alan.

Do you follow the church calendar, including observing Ash Wednesday, Lent, and all that? Do you not observe any of it?

Why or why not?

To the guys in my men’s group – what are your thoughts on observing the church calendar? While I certainly believe it’s not mandated, I think (like many of the commenter’s at the Thinklings) that there is a rightness to it in the discipline that’s required of us and some of the simple sacrifices that afford us an opportunity to better focus our attentions.

Comments

  1. I just got a post from a good friend of mine after a discussion about fasting/spiritual disciplines with regard to lent it’s on a site called the Clapham Institute. It’s not about church calendar so much as spiritual disciplines but they’re related. I’ll add more later…

  2. Here’s the money quote from the above post:

    Ancient disciplines such as fasting arose from this positive view of the human body. Redemption included reining in habits and appetites to make them better allies, which is why Paul warned: “do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” This bodily view of abstinence and charisma led to the practice of Lent, which dates from the decrees of the Council of Nicaea in 325.

    “As such, charisma was not a rare possession attached to a few lucky people but a quality open to all who obeyed divine commands – in particular, the prohibitive “Thou Shalt Nots” that make genuine culture and human inwardness possible by restricting man’s self-destructive impulses.”

Leave a Reply