A Lenten supper is a meal that takes place in the evenings to break the day's fast during the Christian liturgical season of Lent, which is widely observed by members of the Catholic, Lutheran, Moravian, Anglican, Methodist, and United Protestant traditions, in addition to certain Reformed denominations. [1] [2]
The origin of the Lenten supper lies in the early Church, when Christians would fast from food and water until sunset and then consume a Lenten supper once sundown occurred. [3] The Apostolic Constitutions only allowed for "bread, vegetables, salt and water" in the Lenten supper, with meat, lacticinia, and alcohol being forbidden. [4] For the final week of Lent—Holy Week—only bread and salt was permitted by the Canons of Hippolytus for the Lenten supper. [4] The post-Nicene church father John Chrysostom recorded that "no flesh was eaten during the whole of Lent." [4]
Lenten suppers occur daily from Mondays through Saturdays at sunset during the Lenten season in the context of Christian family life (if that family is observing all forty days of Lent through fasting); in a communal context, they are often held on Wednesdays (though they can be held any day[s] on Monday through Saturday) on which Christians of various denominations often attend a service of worship and then break that day's Lenten fast together through a community Lenten supper. The traditional Black Fast of Lent is kept by not eating during the day and then breaking the fast after sunset; the Eucharistic Fast enjoins fasting before the reception of Holy Communion, with the duration of this fast depending on the denomination. [upper-alpha 1] [6] [1] [7] [8]
Lenten suppers are often held in the church's parish hall in the public setting and in the context of a family meal in the home setting. [6] [9] A Mealtime Prayer is always offered before Christians partake in the Lenten supper. When they are held on Fridays, often following the Stations of the Cross devotion, they often take the form of a fish fry given that many Christians (especially Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists and Anglicans) practice abstinence from meat on Fridays. [10] [11] [12] [13] Given the Lenten focus on sacrifice, abstinence and plainness, Lenten suppers are simple, having foods like vegetarian soup (such as carrot soup), bread and water, with no desserts (as many people practice vegetarianism and teetotalism as a Lenten sacrifice). [1] [6]
Christians of various traditions, who have voluntarily undertaken the Daniel Fast during the season of Lent, would consume Lenten suppers made from vegetables, fruits, lentils, beans, seeds and nuts, with meat, lacticinia and wine being excluded (cf. Daniel 10:3). [14] [15] [16] A basket for alms is often kept in the parish hall and Christians who are participating in the Lenten supper contribute to it; these alms are then given to the poor, as almsgiving is one of the three pillars of Lent. [1] In some communities, Lenten suppers are an expression of Christian ecumenism, with Wednesday Lenten services that are followed by Lenten suppers being held at a different denomination's local church each week of Lent (e.g. Catholic, Moravian, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist and Reformed). [1] Christians have also invited non-Christians to Lenten suppers to allow them to learn more about Christianity and to build bridges with other faith communities. [2]
Great Lent, or the Great Fast, is the most important fasting season of the church year within many denominations of Eastern Christianity. It is intended to prepare Christians for the greatest feast of the church year, Pascha (Easter).
The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of Scripture are to be read either in an annual cycle or in a cycle of several years.
Good Friday is a Christian holy day observing the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Black Friday, Holy Friday, Great Friday, Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord,Great and Holy Friday.
Shrove Tuesday is the final day of Shrovetide, marking the end of pre-Lent. Lent begins the following day with Ash Wednesday. Shrove Tuesday is observed in many Christian countries through participating in confession; the ritual burning of the previous year's Holy Week palms; finalizing one's Lenten sacrifice; as well as eating pancakes and other sweets.
Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and marks the first day of Lent, the six weeks of penitence before Easter.
Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday, among other names, is the day during Holy Week that commemorates the Washing of the Feet (Maundy) and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles, as described in the canonical gospels.
Holy Week is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. For all Christian traditions, it is a moveable observance. In Eastern Christianity, which also calls it Great Week, it is the week following Great Lent and Lazarus Saturday, starting on the evening of Palm Sunday and concluding on the evening of Great Saturday. In Western Christianity, Holy Week is the sixth and last week of Lent, beginning with Palm Sunday and concluding on Holy Saturday.
The Paschal Triduum or Easter Triduum, Holy Triduum, or the Three Days, is the period of three days that begins with the liturgy on the evening of Maundy Thursday, reaches its high point in the Easter Vigil, and closes with evening prayer on Easter Sunday. It is a moveable observance recalling the Passion, Crucifixion, Death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus, as portrayed in the canonical Gospels.
The term collation refers to one or two light meals allowed on days of fasting, especially in Western Christianity. Its purpose is to allow a believer to perform his/her duties while fasting throughout the day.
Christian vegetarianism is the practice of keeping to a vegetarian lifestyle for reasons connected to or derived from the Christian faith. The three primary reasons are spiritual, nutritional, and ethical. The ethical reasons may include a concern for God's creation, a concern for animal rights and welfare, or both. Likewise, Christian veganism is not using any animal products for reasons connected to or derived from the Christian faith.
A fish fry is a meal containing battered or breaded fried fish. It usually also includes french fries, coleslaw, macaroni salad, lemon slices, tartar sauce, hot sauce, malt vinegar and dessert. Some Native American versions are cooked by coating fish with semolina and egg yolk.
The Friday fast is a Christian practice of variously abstaining from meat, dairy products and alcohol, on Fridays, or holding a fast on Fridays, that is found most frequently in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist traditions. The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, written in the first century A.D., directed Christians to fast on both Wednesdays and Fridays. The Wednesday fast is done in remembrance of the story of the betrayal of Christ by Judas on Spy Wednesday, while the Friday fast is done in commemoration of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. As such, all Fridays of the year have been historically kept in many parts of Christendom as a day of strict fasting and abstinence from alcohol, meat and lacticinia. Abstinence from meat on Fridays is done as a sacrifice by many Christians because they believe that on Good Friday, Jesus sacrificed his flesh for humanity. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, in addition to fasting from food until sundown, the faithful are enjoined to abstain from sexual relations on Fridays as well.
The Catholic Church historically observes the disciplines of fasting and abstinence at various times each year. For Catholics, fasting is the reduction of one's intake of food, while abstinence refers to refraining from something that is good, and not inherently sinful, such as meat. The Catholic Church teaches that all people are obliged by God to perform some penance for their sins, and that these acts of penance are both personal and corporeal. Bodily fasting is meaningless unless it is joined with a spiritual avoidance of sin. Basil of Caesarea gives the following exhortation regarding fasting:
Let us fast an acceptable and very pleasing fast to the Lord. True fast is the estrangement from evil, temperance of tongue, abstinence from anger, separation from desires, slander, falsehood and perjury. Privation of these is true fasting.
The Copts, who belong mostly to the Coptic Orthodox Church, observe fasting periods according to the Coptic calendar. In Coptic Orthodox Christianity, fasting is defined as going without water and food from midnight to sunset; after that time, the consumption of water and one vegetarian meal is permitted. The fasting periods of Coptic Christians are exceeded by no other Christian denomination except the Orthodox Tewahedo. Out of the 365 days of the year, Copts often fast between 210 and 240 days. This means that Copts abstain from all animal products for up to two-thirds of each year. Coptic Orthodox fasts have evolved over time to become more lengthy and severe. A lifestyle involving such fasts may have contributed to the pacifist mindset of the Coptic people for centuries. Married couples refrain from sexual relations during Lent "to give themselves time for fasting and prayer".
A Black Fast, also known as a strict fast, is a form of early Christian fasting. Those undertaking a Black Fast consume no food or water during the day and then break the fast after sunset with prayer, as well as water and a vegetarian meal devoid of meat, eggs, dairy products (lacticinia), and alcohol. Christians normatively fasted in this way during Lent prior to the 6th century.
Abstinence is the practice of self-enforced restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to sexual abstinence, but it can also mean abstinence from alcohol, drugs, food, or other comforts.
Lent is the solemn Christian religious observance in the liturgical year commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, before beginning his public ministry. Lent is usually observed in the Catholic, Lutheran, Moravian, Anglican, United Protestant and Orthodox Christian traditions, among others. Some Anabaptist, Baptist, Methodist, Reformed, and nondenominational Christian churches also observe Lent, although many churches in these traditions do not.
Christian dietary laws vary between denominations. The general dietary restrictions specified for Christians in the New Testament are to "abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals". Some Christian denominations forbid certain foods during periods of fasting, which in some cases may cover half the year and may exclude meat, fish, dairy products, and olive oil.
A Lenten sacrifice is a spiritually motivated voluntary renunciation of a pleasure or luxury that most Christians give up for the observance of Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday. The tradition of Lent has its roots in Jesus Christ praying and fasting for forty days in the desert according to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. When Lent is over and Easter Sunday arrives, the faithful are able to indulge in what they sacrificed during the Lenten season.
Fasting is practiced in various religions. Examples include Lent in Christianity and Yom Kippur, Tisha B'av, Fast of Esther, Fast of Gedalia, the Seventeenth of Tammuz, and the Tenth of Tevet in Judaism. Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan each year. The fast includes refraining from consuming any food or liquid from sunup until sundown.
Among those Christians who practice some sacrifice in the Lenten period before Easter, soup often has a place as a simple but sustaining meal at home and in weeknight church meetings.
St. Benedict's rule prescribed a great many fasts, over and above the ecclesiastical fast of Lent; but it made this great distinction between the two: that whilst Lent obliged the monks, as well as the rest of the faithful, to abstain from food till sunset, these monastic fasts allowed the repast to be taken at the hour of None.
Stations of the Cross followed by Lenten supper Fridays during Lent at 6 p.m.
Days of Fasting or Abstinence All the Fridays in the Year, except Christmas-Day
In Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist traditions, regulations called for abstinence from meat on Fridays as a type of penance.
In some cases, entire churches do the Daniel Fast together during Lent. The idea strikes a chord in Methodist traditions, which trace their heritage to John Wesley, a proponent of fasting. Leaders in the African Methodist Episcopal Church have urged churchgoers to do the Daniel Fast together, and congregations from Washington to Pennsylvania and Maryland have joined in.
Many parishioners at St. Philip Neri are participating in the Daniel fast, a religious diet program based on the fasting experiences of the Old Testament prophet Daniel. ... participating parishioners started the fast Ash Wednesday (Feb. 10) and will continue through Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday.
Our family and friends are encouraged to take this journey during the season of Lent. This is a time we as Christians mature spiritually the 40 days before Resurrection Sunday. The Daniel Fast begins Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2021 and ends on Resurrection Sunday, April 4, 2021. Our common practice is 6 days on and 1 day off.