Debate: Is giving up alcohol, chocolate or biscuits the best way of marking Lent?

One should give up nothing for lent. One should take up stuff for Lent.Daily Mass, extra shifts at the soup kitchen, visiting the elderly etc. The list is endless.

I plan on doing both – the giving up and the something extra. 

I have been “absent” from my faith til the whole same sex marriage debacle made me realise how much hatred there is out there towards us and with no good reason. I was shall we say a relaxed Catholic. Too much so. 

I now plan on giving up bread (as I LOVE it) and attending Mass every Sunday (May sound silly to some but I don’t regularly attend. Small baby makes that difficult). I plan on attending, giving it my full attention and setting aside time for daily prayer. 

I would also like to volunteer for the Church in some way but find it difficult to discover what’s on and where I could help.

The post-Vatican II Church doesn’t do penance and sacrifices. We are told that “living a normal life” is penance enough (i.e, no penances or sacrifices to be made as a way of offering to God a sincere sorrow for our sins which put Him on the Cross and as a way of mastering our passions). The modern Church is in total contradiction to all the Fathers, the Saints, the calls of Our Lady and the constant practice of the Church until 1965.

In the same way, the midnight fast before Communion was ousted, and reduced to 15 minutes (!) I believe at the present time. 

As a normal life involves for most people guzzling alcohol, chocolate and anything else on top, the old Catholic understanding of making personal sacrifices for the sake of our eternal souls has been thrown onto the midden by the Church along with everything else. 

May God forgive these post-Vatican II churchmen! I can hardly bring myself to. 

And let me say, has anyone noticed that almost nothing the Pope says each day has any direct relevance to the worries and problems of the ordinary serious Catholic? He goes on about dialogue, respect for this, that and the other while the Church withers and in many places dies. Heterodox theologians, Bishops, Cardinals, priests – no condemnation, no action, the Vatican fast asleep.

Just like the period of the Arian heresy, the modern church, riven at the top by Modernism and neo-Modernism, leaves the faithful leaderless, rudderless, having to find their own way amongst the snares of this world. And my God! they are many and nasty, bringing many souls to ruin. 

So give up your chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes and whatever else it is you like. Throw out the television (for good). GET YOURSELF to Confession regularly and pray that Christ will cleanse His Church sooner rather than later. 

And find the nearest priest to you offering the Old Mass. That’s the best Lenten resolution of all.

I have been “absent” from my faith til the whole same sex marriage
debacle made me realise how much hatred there is out there towards us
and with no good reason. I was shall we say a relaxed Catholic. Too much
so.

It is very hard to think of a finer Lenten resolution than this return to the Faith — may God bless you in your holy desire for Him !!!

Both / and. No TV is the toughest one for me but as I have a weakness in that regard it is most necessary. Here’s an idea, ask someone close to you what they think would be a good sacrifice for you to make. Could be challenging.

All you are saying is that the Church is not in step with what you personally would like it to be. 

You would like that to be so. 

Giving up chocolate and/or alcohol for Lent may not be the best  way of marking Lent but it does remind me at least once a day that I need to try to do better…

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When we say no, we say yes to something else. Why not say no to something that does not glorify God and say yes to something that does say Yes to God. And hopefully, we can continue that something past Easter, bringing us all the closer to God.

I could also say that some people don’t eat chocolate, sweets, biscuits, cupcakes (or indeed any cakes), drink alcohol or caffeine beverages either - for health reasons and some because they don’t feel any great loss or ‘cold turkey’ if they never see another Cadbury’s Flake ever again i.e. it’s no great sacrifice.

Back in September 2011, the Bishops of England and Wales re-introduced Friday abstinence from meat (i.e. beef, pork, chicken, turkey, bacon, game) – marking the first anniversary of the State Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to England and Scotland.

The meat abstinence is a centuries old Church practise because meat was (and still is) regarded as a luxury.

There are other things apart from Lenten food fasting.

The abstinence from meat during Lent is mediaeval and Mediterranean in origin — and the original purpose of the custom is medical, as a form of health diet.

The winter diet consisted of conserved and meats, salted, smoked, sausages etc kept over from harvest time.

Daily consumption of these fatty and salty meats was causative of health problems, and Lent (with the start of Spring) is the time of year when it was possible to switch back to fresh food, from the remains of the previous year’s foodstuffs.

The inventions of the railway, and industrialised food manufacturing, and the refrigerator have mostly put an end to these medical reasons — and this Mediterranean custom is not really coherent with the very northerly or southerly climates, nor indeed the entire Southern Hemisphere — but the spiritual nature of the Lenten period remains, even though it can no longer be directly associated with those healthy eating customs of the Middle Ages and Renaissance and pre-industrialisation Early Modern periods.

I know meat abstinence is a long tradition because it was once regarded as a luxury.  But it is irrelevant for vegetarians, and many other people don’t much like it. When the bishops brought it back, they said it was to “show our Catholic identity”. Is it really being suggested that, if someone is seen eating fish on a Friday, people will think “ah, they must be Catholic”?  I think the bishops’ ruling (which I adhere to) is absurd.
Personally I shall try to give up cake and chocolate, as they are the most irresistible unnecessary things. 

Speak for yourself, phil136 !!!

Are you going to be giving up your trolling and your evil impersonations during Lent ?

Yes, indeedy!

We gave up TV for lent 20 years ago and afterwards threw the telly out and what joy it has been since with so much more time for God.  So if you are to give up something for Lent make sure it helps you get closer to God.
Bless you all for trying especially in this year of faith.

Jesus teaching in the Beatitudes in Matthew 6 is one in which our Lord is warning against public practice of righteousness to be noticed.  After that, throughout the chapter, Jesus says, ‘when you give alms’, ‘when you pray’, ‘when you fast.’  Seem there is an assumption that it is happening.  Jesus never prescribed what the fasting, the praying (other than his model prayer) and giving entailed, but he seemed to assume it was happening and that it was to be done in secret and in a way that we could lay up treasures where moth and rust doesn’t corrupt.  Fasting is a lost art in this day, and perhaps should once again be found. What, it seems to me has to do with that which is significant to the individual and God. 

Lent has become progressively less demanding over the centuries. I am not sure that this is desirable. What about a return to the traditional practices; no meat or dairy products, one meal a day only and a collation. That is pretty challenging and will keep the idea of penitence firmly in mind!