Lent

PREPARING THE WAY Lent, with its focus on abstinence, is a way of getting ready for Easter.

Counting the dispensations of Lent

De Facto

Liamy McNally

Lent looms large like a black rain cloud on the horizon. It will pour down on us tomorrow in the guise of Ash Wednesday. We shall become ashen-faced. Every willing participant will be stamped in the annual parade of sin and good intentions. The battle between ‘giving up’ and ‘taking up’ vie for attention in the vast abyss of a person’s mind. Human nature at its best! The 40 days of Lent is the only occasion on record when time passes slowly! One reason is that the 40 days is a bit of a myth. The duration of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday is actually 47 days!

DIGESTING MERRIMAN

Add to that the speed with which Lent came knocking this year. We are just about dusting ourselves down after Christmas and the New Year when mindsets and body gears must change dramatically. There is not even sufficient time to digest the joys of the Winter Merriman weekend in Hotel Westport. Úna Quinn, Mary O’Neill, Eamonn Gannon and Francis Hughes have once again provided a weekend of taste and delectation. A kaleidoscope of acquaintances has been renewed as fresh faces still smile with the usual abundance of ceol agus craic. A weekend of magic unfolded under our noses amidst the welcoming of the kind stranger. Pat Friel, Liam Grealis and Dee Moore set the dancers and sang the singers while the lone wolf-warblers soared in lyrical skies in adjoining rooms. What would happen if the Winter Merriman ‘fell’ during Lent? It would induce a lot of ‘falling’.

THE PIONEERS OF ISLANDEADY

Last weekend there was a constant stream of willing ‘temporary’ participants in St Patrick’s Church in Islandeady. For some it might have seemed like they were putting one foot forward and then two back but they eventually arrived at the top of the queue! For a mere €5 a brand new Short Term Pledge Pioneer pin was proffered with a daily prayer, words of encouragement and the signature of the witness, the Parish Priest, Fr Pat Donnellan. For those freshly-hued from the Winter Merriman weekend bhí cúpla focal as Gaeilge ann freisin – Gealltanas Gearrthéarma. One is invited to abstain from alcohol for the duration of Lent. Mindful of the celebratory nature of our nationality, in the interest of mathematics (40 days versus 47 days) and thanks to the caring pastoral nature of a parish priest fully in tune with his flock there is also the little issue of dispensation. This is where one is ‘allowed’ to indulge even during a time of abstinence. While no hard and fast ‘dispensation’ rule was pronounced upon, no doubt some purists will titter at the notion while spirited temporary pin wearers will get the calculator out! To further complicate matters the theological experts will insist that Lent is ‘technically’ over on Holy Thursday, just before the Easter Triduum!

One man who is not bothered about dispensations is Martin McManamon from Islandeady who was the centre of attention during Mass on Saturday evening last. To rapturous applause Martin stepped forward and was presented with the Fr James Cullen Memorial Medal and Certificate for being a member of the pioneer association, PTAA, for more than 50 years. The Mass was in honour of the local Pioneer branch, founded in the early ‘50s. The reader and lay ministers were also local PTAA members Bernie Walsh, Ann McCormack and Mary O’Malley. Sunday was Temperance Sunday, the PP reminded us! 

LENTEN SOURCE

For the past two months we have been meandering through Church seasons, jumping from Church year-end to Advent, then Christmas, on to Ordinary Time and now into Lent before we cross the threshold of Easter. Lent was traditionally a time of preparation for people (catechumens) who were instructed in the faith. They were baptised on Holy Saturday night vigil in time to enjoy the full thrust of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Catechumens were dressed in white robes, as are children today during baptism. 

Forty is a ‘fullness’ number in Judaism. It is used to depict a period of time it takes to carry out a mission on God’s behalf. Moses led the chosen people in the wilderness en route from Egypt to the Promised Land for forty years. Elijah, Noah and Jonah also knew about the forty day blues! Jesus, the ‘new’ Moses, fasted for 40 days in preparation for his public ministry. It is also claimed that Jesus lay in the tomb for 40 hours. The 40 days of Lent are a preparation for Easter, the greatest of Christian feasts. The 40 days exclude Sundays (because they celebrate the Resurrection) and ends on Holy Thursday at the start of the Easter Triduum. When we were children and off sweets for Lent, Sunday was a ‘dispensation’ day, albeit a limited one! 

The Church colour for Lent is violet – the highest colour of the spectrum. It is a royal colour, worn by the priests and ministers to prepare for the celebration of the King. It is also worn during Advent in preparation for the birth of Christ. The Catholic Encyclopaedia explains Lent as: ”The Teutonic word Lent,…originally meant no more than the spring season. Still it has been used from the Anglo-Saxon period to translate the more significant Latin term quadragesima (French carême, Italian quaresima, Spanish cuaresma), meaning the ‘40 days’, or more literally the ‘fortieth day’. This in turn imitated the Greek name for Lent, tessarakoste (fortieth), a word formed on the analogy of Pentecost (pentekoste), which last was in use for the Jewish festival before New Testament times.”

ASHES AND FASTING

The days of the sackcloth have disappeared. In Old Testament times the wearing of such a garment was an outward sign of sorrow, as was the covering of one’s head in ashes. Today’s ashes are neatly dispensed from cut corks using the burned ashes of the branches from Psalm Sunday. Fasting goes hand in hand with the Lenten ashes. Fasting has a varied tradition in the Church, ranging from meat to eggs and dairy. Some people fasted for 40 days (eight weeks of five days). The Catholic Encyclopaedia states: ”This general prohibition of eggs and milk during Lent is perpetuated in the popular custom of blessing or making gifts of eggs at Easter, and in the English usage of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.”

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the only two designated fast days in the Church calendar. Many pilgrims to Medjugorge will attest to the benefits of regular fasting, which is encouraged by local Church leaders when they visit the holy sites. People are urged to renew the weekly Friday fast while others are also encouraged to fast on Wednesdays. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the three points of viewing ‘heaven’ from Lent’s triangle. While the Eastern Church has different dates for Lent, here along the western shores of belief it will officially end at sundown on March  20(Holy Thursday), with the beginning of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the celebration of priesthood. Today, Shrove Tuesday, is for those with the last fling, stag night mentality. Celebrate today because Lent’s ‘hard rain’s a gonna fall’ tomorrow.