{"id":6195,"date":"2017-03-01T09:25:27","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T13:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/?p=6195"},"modified":"2017-03-01T19:21:11","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T23:21:11","slug":"three-lenten-disciplines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2017\/03\/01\/three-lenten-disciplines\/","title":{"rendered":"The three Lenten disciplines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Public<\/a>
As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain in the United States.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Today is Ash Wednesday, when Christians around the world have ashes put on their foreheads to represent mourning and repentance. \u00a0This is the first day of Lent, when we follow in the footsteps of Jesus as he prepared for his public ministry by spending forty days in the desert wrestling with Satan. It is a time for us to clean house spiritually, to examine our lives for sin, repent, and draw closer to God. \u00a0<\/p>\n

There are three Lenten disciplines which the Great Tradition has taught us to keep during the next 46 days (six are Sundays where in the West there is still feasting): prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.<\/p>\n

All Christians are supposed to do all three of these things throughout their lives. \u00a0But in Lent we are to do each in a special or extra way.<\/p>\n

\"photo-1414202251636-d05ac44c0182_opt\"<\/a>Fasting is the discipline best associated with Lent. \u00a0Perhaps this is because most Christians don\u2019t normally fast. \u00a0Yet Jesus said \u201cWhen<\/em> you fast . . .\u201d (Mt 6.16), not \u201cIf\u00a0<\/em>you fast . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Eastern Orthodox churches, Christians go without meat and dairy products throughout Lent, but in the West Catholic Christians fast meat on Fridays and have only one large meal a day (with two smaller ones). Anglicans fast in a variety of ways. \u00a0Many give up alcohol and sweets, and all food\u00a0one day a week.<\/p>\n

The purpose of fasting is to recognize in a deeper way our dependence on God. \u00a0Feeling weak and tired, which often comes from fasting, can do that. \u00a0We realize in a more tangible\u00a0way how much we need God.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Ash Wednesday, when Christians around the world have ashes put on their foreheads to represent mourning and repentance. \u00a0This is the first day of Lent, when we follow in the footsteps of Jesus as he prepared for his public ministry by spending forty days in the desert wrestling with Satan. It is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2043,"featured_media":6089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThree Lenten disciplines<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are three Lenten disciplines which the Great Tradition has taught us to keep during the next 46 days (six are Sundays where in the West there is still feasting): prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2017\/03\/01\/three-lenten-disciplines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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