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IF YOU DIDN’T know it already, today marks the beginning of Lent.
For many Catholics across the country, it means prayer, penance and charity, representing Jesus’ 40 day fast in the desert.
But for other people, it is a time of the year that is more symbolic than faith-based – a time when they can decide to make a change for the better.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, mindfulness expert Josephine Lynch said giving up something can sometimes be “taking care of ourselves”. It can be exactly what we need.
“It seems like it’s not a positive thing but it can be kind of wholesome to restrain ourselves from eating too much and drinking too much.”
Keeping it specific
Psychologist Dr Eddie Murphy, who has appeared as an expert on RTÉ’s Operation Transformation, also said there are “basic good psychological principles around Lent”.
“Because it’s 40 days, that’s a very defined length of time and that’s good for learning new habits,” he explained. “Generally, it’s more specific than other times like New Years, where you might want to get healthier or get fitter, most people say for Lent what they’re giving up, that’s really specific and that’s ideal if you’re looking for a health change”.
He said time periods like this and ‘dry January’ also give people an opportunity to give up alcohol without having to explain themselves.
If you’re saying you’ve given up something for Lent, it’s a type of social camouflage. If you go out drinking in June and you’re saying you’ve given up the beer, people might think “oh he’s a terrible dry sh***”.
Many people will take this opportunity to give up or cut down on their social media interactions and while this can be healthy, Murphy warned that people should do it at a comfortable pace.
“For some people, that can be a big ask – sometimes it can leave people more anxious – so try to make it achievable, like saying you’ll only look at it for half an hour a day,” he suggested.
His advice is to keep it specific and choose something you do actually want to change or give up. ”
“It doesn’t just have to be about giving up, it can be a time for doing something different,” he said. “That’s something I like, that whole notion of stretching boundaries and finding different passions.”
Doing it for your faith
There are, of course, many people who are making sacrifices this Lent for their faith.
A Catholic Communications spokesperson said that while they have no problem with people who want to “piggyback on an original Christian idea in a respectful way”, the Lenten period is supposed to be about reflecting on faith.
Catholic bishops have launched a Facebook page to help and inspire people over the next 40 days and nights. Christians are invited to pray more often and attend mass more frequently during this time and give to charity.
Trócaire boxes, something we all remember fondly from our childhood, are still as popular as ever and the charity launched its 2015 appeal yesterday, revealing that last year’s Lenten campaign in Ireland raised €7.8 million.
Will you be giving up anything for Lent? And what’s your motivation? Tell us in the comments below…
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A time to”reflect on your faith”?…..if people really did reflect on their faith, they’d give that up too!
Gave up on my “faith” when I reached the age if reason. I was a bit slow as a 9 year old
Comment of the week!
Iam going to stop procrastinating, not this lent but the one after maybe.
After spending 40 days starving to near death in the blistering inhospitable desert. . . jesus invented the easter egg as he flew on his magical flying donkey back to bethlahem to avoid the life after death he made up on another one of his crazy adventures
Hey it’s in the bible!!
Well then it must be true.
Praise jeebus !!
Who doesn’t love a good easter egg making zombie jew man!
http://explosm.net/comics/502/, that is all :-)
Christianity espouses that one should “love thy neighbour”. We’re not in the business of mocking you or your disbelief. We may not agree with you but we must try to love you. That’s not always easy, but that’s the challenge of being a Christian.
How about, for Lent, you try being a bit more tolerant and less dismissive of those who do believe in God? If you don’t it’s no big deal. Christianity was born out of persecution. It thrives when it is among the poorest, the weakest, the most marginalised. It is by giving that we receive, after all.
Be careful now. Don’t forget Ireland’s blasphemy laws
Brian – “Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock.” Psalms 137:9
Yep, a whole lot of love going on there!
Brian, where was the intolerance? It was an accurate and humourous comic strip pointing out that there are none of the lent/easter practices in the bible, but Christians have decided to adapt these. If anything it only mocks the comment by the priest in the article who accuses those who give up something as “jumping on the christian bandwagon”, whereas it is the opposite – he is jumping on the tradition bandwagon.
I do hope you show the same level of tolerance ensuring that the church are not forcing ashes on (usually very young) children’s heads in schools today, and then by fasting for 40 days and 40 nights *without food and water* (Exodus 34:28), or do as Jesus did (Matthew 4:1) and visit somewhere where you are likely to be tempted; like a pub, pornhub or a country funeral (free fags!) for the next 40 days.
PS: 40 days from now is the Monday *before* Good Friday. Just saying, you don’t need to wait until Sunday for the Easter eggs if you follow the bible – they are two different parables.
Think I’ll give up reading all the Journal comments.
Do it for Crumlin Children’s Hospital :) http://www.giveitup.ie We’ve a swear jar in work and I’m giving up fast food.
Asked my wife to save the last pancake as I fancied it for breakfast this morning but she said no as its lent – who the hell would want to borrow a pancake….
Lent is a time to sacrifice something you like…. It’s not a slimming opportunity….
What the point of sacrificing something you like? I don’t get it
Desert heat combined with lack of food and water could very easily induce hallucinations due to the physiological effects of dehydration and or sunstroke Anyone of us could converse with the devil if in those circumstances.
It’s cultural… Once a Catholic always a Catholic.
As usual it’s a mixture of cultures – fat Tuesday and carnival were originally Greco-roman days of indulgence before a new harvest period, while ash Wednesday came from rubbing ash on foreheads for Odin’s protection in Norse mythology. Giving up “something/anything” is a recent phenomenon, and Donegal Tuesday is distinctively Irish. Any catholic claim is simply a reinvention to link pagan traditions to biblical stories. The key is in when it occurs – every lent/Easter (a Germanic tradition) is tied into the phases of the moon, a bit animistic for a church that has everything else on specific days?
Thou shalt wear a mark on the forehead without washing it and fast for 40 days and nights.
Except for the Feast of St Patrick’s, on the which occasion thou shalt eat confectionary and consume to excess to make up for the previous few weeks.
I am giving up the past tense for lend.
sure tis good craic torturing yourself for a few weeks
It’s called brainwashing
For many Catholics, it means prayer, penance and fasting?
In my experience growing up as a catholic it means:
- wearing a “holier than thou” smudge on the forehead for a day or two until the dirt forces a wash;
- exactly ZERO additional mass visits until Holy Week itself.
- stupid pressure from school to give up something for a few days until the whole thing is forgotten.
- no prayers.
It’s really just a vehicle for apparently pious celibate old men to preach to the downtrodden.
I guess you just weren’t doing it right.
I played the guitar when I was a young teenager, insofar as I owned a guitar, I went occasionally to guitar lessons (although I never practiced at home). I did like the looks I got from the girls as I carried the guitar around, but that would wain after I figured learning guitar was boring and it hurt my fingers, it was painful.
Looking back now, if I stuck with it and practiced regularly and properly, I may have gotten a lot more out of it than the amount of effort put in.
I suppose it’s never too late to try again.
Lent,from the beginning I gave up my “imaginary friend”,was the time of giving to charity.Nothing more.
“If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives.” (Leviticus 20:13 NAB)”
Another great line from the bible.Hmm…
I gave up giving up stuff.
Long term effects of brainwashing in schools with patronage.
I never did lent as a child, family aren’t religious, but I do it now with the cousins &a siblings and we all place bets on how long we last… Very charitable so we are ;-)
I counted exactly ONE grey haired old lady with a smudge on her forehead in town this morning on my way into work.
Still flying the flag.
Well done.
I wonder has Bertie got the ashes today? When he was Taoiseach he used to make a point of having the contents of the Pigeon House chimneys plastered all over his mush on Ash Wednesday.
He has much more to be penitent about today.
It’s fine to sacrifice something meaningful as long as you pass it on to someone who needs it , religious or not lent is a time to reflect and maybe pay it forward , if you don’t want to do it at this time time of year because of the religious attachment do it some other time, I’m not religious but I wouldn’t mock anyone who makes the effort to be less selfish for 40 days .
Fasting cleanses the body
Farting is more productive than fasting!
Same reason they christen their kids. They’re spas and cowards.
Because people are idiots
“A Catholic Communications spokesperson said that while they have no problem with people who want to “piggyback on an original Christian idea in a respectful way”, the Lenten period is supposed to be about reflecting on faith.”
Lent comes from an Anglo Saxon tradition..Lenctentid or in English the month when the days start to get longer. There are no original Christian ideas the same way there are no original ideas in any religion.
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