Advent - extension of a commercial holiday - is easier to assimilate for many of us, but Lent is another thing altogether. Pacing the 40 days - not counting the Resurrection days of the week, Sundays - leading to Easter, Lent mimics in time what pilgrimages follow in space; ie identifying with Christ's suffering; a preamble framed upon the 40 days of Christ's temptations in the desert.
We are therefore fasting something - dessert, IPOD, facebook (that's easy), coffee (that's hard) - in order to shift focus onto Christ's life & death before we celebrate the most important day of the Christian calendar - His resurrection.
Misere mei Dei (Have Mercy Upon Me, O God), the choral adaptation of Psalm 51, is performed during Holy Week.
1 comment:
I enjoyed learning about the somber attitude of Advent that the commercial end totally misses. Replacing sombre reflection with spastic shopping.
Trying to figure out what attitude to assume during Lent. Is it similar to Advent?
Advent anticipates a birth, but the birth reminds us of a death to come. Lent anticipates a death, but the death reminds us of a life to come.
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