Easter 2015 season started on February 18, the first day of Lent that will last for 40 days and culminate on Easter Sunday; this year it will be April 5. Although for a lot of people Easter 2015 will probably be limited to this one day, for practicing Christians all over the world, the main part of the season has already started and will determine their lives for more than a month.
The Inquisitr already told about the importance of Lent and the ways in which Christians of different denominations commemorate it.
“Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59-years-old are forbidden from eating any kind of meat on Friday during lent and traditionally give some of their favorite things up during this time. The elderly and younger children are excluded from this practice, as are people who suffer from serious illnesses. Other Christian denominations also use fasting during lent, but the rules are optional”.
At the beginning of the Lent, the Pope traditionally addresses all Catholics, and this year wasn’t an exception. According to Time , in his address, Pope Francis said that to perceive the Lent as simply the time of fast would be incorrect. Although fasting and self-denial are both very important components of this period, they mean nothing if they are superficial and aren’t reinforced by good deeds.
“In his annual Lenten message, the pope writes, “Indifference to our neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience”.
In other words, the Pontiff thinks that the Lent is an ideal time to fast from indifference towards others. He often quotes an early Christian mystic John Chrysostom, whose main idea is that fasting and mortification mean nothing if they are not combined with good deeds. No act of virtue is complete if it doesn’t bring good to others.
Ironically, of all constituents of the Lent, it is fasting that gets most attention from non-Christians – to the extent of being adopted as a regular practice by some people who have little to do with religion in general and Christianity in particular. They praise it for its health benefits and claim to feel much better after each period of fasting.
When all is said and done, Easter 2015 is an excellent pretext to train your own willpower while improving your health.
