Fasting and Feasting in Lent.

FEASTING in Lent? Really?

Isn’t it all about giving things up? Especially the things you like the most ….

Or even just giving up…

Or maybe GIVING UP giving up.

Because we could TAKE UP instead.

Forty days of renewal.

Forty days to go deeper.

Apparently it takes 21 days to confirm a new habit and 42 days to make it a lifestyle.

What new, or re-newing, lifestyle could help your journey with the Lord?

What could you TAKE UP instead of (or as well as) GIVING UP?

Giving up chocolate? And alcohol? Sugar or biscuits? Coffee or tea?

What do you give up for Lent?

They’re all good and helpful, and in giving them up it helps guard us from gluttony and desire and filling our minds with what might be unhelpful things. Reminding us that we are, essentially, dust. Easily trapped into wanting more of what’s not helpful.

I’m TAKING UP a daily devotional for Lent, something I do every year.

This year, it’s THE GRACE FILLED WILDERNESS by Magdalen Smith

You can buy the book here

Here’s the online blurb:

The Grace-filled Wilderness connects contemporary encounters of wilderness with the traditional themes of Lent and Jesus' journey to the cross. Magdalen Smith invites us to consider a series of subjects that are double-edged - they can bring us life or, if we handle them in the wrong way, drain life from us.

Our appetites, our identity, our work, our sense of freedom and our struggles with anxiety and pain are explored in connection with what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Six full weeks of readings help us to move gradually from wilderness to grace, until, finally, we encounter the miracle, hope and joy of Easter.

'On every page of this Lent book, there's an invitation to journey which is as enticing as it is challenging. I found myself wanting to venture into the wilderness out of choice and not simply circumstance, and the adventure left me seeing, feeling and sharing in God's grace.'
Jo Wells, Bishop of Dorking

Join me on the journey?

And tell me what you’re GIVING UP and TAKING UP on your journey through Lent to Easter day?

How to Feast and Fast during Lent

Forty days to go deeper.

Apparently it takes 21 days to confirm a new habit and 42 days to make it a lifestyle.

What new, or re-newing, lifestyle would best help your current walk with the Lord?

What might help you to go deeper in a relationship with him?

LENT.

A few weeks without chocolate.
And maybe alcohol.
A few weeks of abstinence. 
Of giving up things we like.

Or maybe for Lent this year - just giving up.

Hurry up, Easter. And spring. And chocolate eggs.

But maybe there's another way.
A way of feasting as well as fasting.

A way of drawing near to the Lord in and through it all. 


FASTING & FEASTING
Fast from a gloomy outlook on life
Feast on what is bright and cheerful.
 
Fast from always being right
Feast on seeing another's point of view.
 
Fast from always pointing out differences
Feast on what unites us all.
 
Fast from words that pollute
Feast on those that purify.
 
Fast from complaining
Feast on appreciation.
 
Fast from self-pity
Feast on goodness in others and self.
 
Fast from self-concern
Feast on going out to others.
 
Fast from overdoing
Feast on time for prayer.
 
Fast from worry
Feast on God's love.

(Father Kerry: Our Lady Queen of Angels
bulletin Lenten Reflection: Feb 2010.)

Come swiftly O Lord, to the dark moments when we are lost.
Make us aware of your presence.
Strengthen us to resist the urges and pulls to deeper darkness.
Stir us to move away from the dark moments of sinfulness
towards the light of your forgiveness.
Come quickly O Lord as we call – or forget to call – and
keep close to us and keep us close to you this day and night,
and as far as the days and nights stretch before us.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.

A Lenten Regime

February fill-dyke – only the rains came at the end of January. I’d alleviated the bleakmidwinter blues – by daring to live well, as the Revd Sydney Smith advocated. I’d made just a few resolutions – only those that I knew I would and could keep, that energized me. No strict regimes, no dieting or giving up alcohol – I needed every small help in January (see January archives for the complete miniseries!) But I DID resolve that, come February, there would be a month of being careful, of abstinence in some areas, of learning a new normality. It’s a short month, after all!

Only 28 days -  a mere 28 days to go without alcohol, take care with the diet, up the daily steps to a minimum of 12,000.

And then I realized three things.

-       we complete on buying and selling 2 properties on February 14.

A day for great celebration and love; a day for my favourite tipple - a glass or two of glorious champagne.

-       Lent starts on February 13^th this year. And that’s 6 weeks of giving up as a penitential, sacrificial reminder of all that Christ has done for me. Usually I give up reading novels and fiction and magazines. But I haven’t taken up reading again properly yet after PTSS, so it’s hardly worth giving up. And maybe the food and/or drink would be a more meaningful way for Lent this year.

-       I am an abstainer, not a moderator. All or nothing – in just about every area of my life. No good thinking I’ll just have a small piece of chocolate or simply one biscuit, or only one glass of champagne.  I can’t stick to ‘only one.’ But I can turn my back and say ‘absolutely nothing.’

A long time ago, when I was young and enthusiastic, I discovered that I could easily maintain a healthy weight by eating carefully and extremely moderately Monday to Friday and then enjoying the weekends with whatever I wanted, no holding back on food or drink. (I hasten to add that I don’t ever drink more than a couple of glasses of wine anyway, which is why I’m always the designated driver when we are out for dinner!)  Now I read that the new diet regime is a variation of that, a 5:2 timetable of 5 days eating moderately and 2 days of fasting.

In Times2 today there is an article comparing the Alkaline Diet with the 5:2 diet; and Vanora Bennett writes about her version of the latter, when she discovered the mediaeval menus of the Bergundian Cluny Abbey and its 13^th Century monks. They believed that fasting brought serenity of mind, that balance in all things was the centre of all things. The monks were served just one meal a day in the winter months, with two on feast days; and two meals a day in summer (when they were out working in the fields and so burning more energy) but only one on fast days.

Vanora modelled her diet on the monks’ winter menu, but added diet snacks, coffee instead of wine (the monks were wary of water but could enjoy wine even for breakfast after early prayers) and hot tea after dark.

So that’s what I am going to do. She quotes Adalbert de Vogue, the French monk, who wrote:

“My mind is at its most lucid, my body vigorous, and well disposed, my heart light and full of joy after experiencing a day of self-denial.”

OH YES to that! Isn't that how we all long to be?

I will start on February 15^th. I dare not start on 13^th and promise just 1 glass of champers on the 14!

Let’s be real and honest and set the standard in reality. 

And best of all, the time NOT spent in shopping, cooking, preparing, consuming, the normal vast quantities of stuff demanded by our western diets, is then available to be spent in relationship. With God, with my husband, with ….. oh, I forgot.

Husband needs to eat. Can I persuade him to follow this diet with me too?

Check back to see what happens – with my diet, my husband’s, and my time in relationship with God, my husband and others!

What are you doing in Lent this year? How do you find it easiest to give up things? What advice do you have for me and for others?

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