LENT

BASIC R.C. BELIEF

The name given to the 40 week days before Easter, starting Ash Wednesday.

During Lent Roman Catholics are supposed to undergo some voluntary

privation and penance in anticipation of Christ's sufferings.

CHRISTIAN COMMENT

There is no scriptural warrant for such a period; many Roman Catholics

don't give up things of consequence, and those who do feel this aids in

salvation. This concept of privation has resulted in pre-Lenten festivals:

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and carnival (carne val, farewell to meat).

In pagan Babylon, 40 days were observed weeping for Tammuz (Nimrod), that

he would rise from the dead and cause Spring to begin. With other pagan

customs, this became a part of the Church. Msgr. O'Sullivan in EXTERNALS OF

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (p. 209) says, "From about the 4th century, Lent became

a fast of forty days."

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