In our last class, we spoke about Lent- we used a Scripture
book of the bible and talked about how it related to Lent. Specifically, we
spoke about Jonah and the whale. In this book of the bible, we learn that God
asks Jonah to go to Nineveh and warn the people there of the consequences of
their sinful behavior. Jonah did not think the people of Nineveh were ‘worthy;,
so he ran off in a different direction.
A great storm began and the ship he boarded was being tossed about in
the waves. The crew believed this was
the wrath of God, and it even had Pegan sailors praying for God’s Mercy! Finally, Jonah dove overboard as he was the
cause of the turmoil!
It was God’s mercy that a big whale came and swallowed him,
saving him from drowning. He was in the
belly of the whale for 3 days….. The
whale spit him out on the shore of Nineveh, and he warned them that in 40 days
they would experience God’s wrath for their sinful ways. The emperor took this very seriously and
ordered the people to wear sack cloths (very
scratchy) and cover themselves with ashes.
Because they repented, their empire was saved.
In this story, we see
similarities to Lent in that Nineveh had 40 days to repent, they used ashes as
the people were repenting, and Jonah was in the belly of the what for 3 days.
They were saved by turning to God and repenting of their sinful ways.
**Today, we are going to talk about Praying. In addition to
scripture, a form of prayer that is more prevalent in Lent than in other times
of the church calendar, and that is the Stations of the Cross.
Father Max shared that in the days right after Jesus crucifixion,
the people would walk the ‘steps’ of Jesus and his steps on the way to the cross
and pray. As the world expended and
people could not make ‘Pilgrimages to the site of the crucifixion, images were
created and placed in churches and that is how the Stations of the Cross
began. The Stations are in the church
all year long and we can pray them anytime, but in Lent, we can gather at the
churches and pray them together on Fridays.
That is because Jesus died on the cross on Friday.
Another custom that began was fasting- and in the days
before the 1800’s, people abstained from meat, dairy and fish during Lent. The
40 days of Lent represent the 40 day fast Jesus had in the desert. We abstain
from meat, as Jesus gave up his ‘flesh’ for us to redeem us from our sins. There
was no dairy consumed and no fish as well.
Only one meal was allowed in the 40 days of Lent, and it was after
sundown.
When Lent was about to end, the kids would decorate eggs and
exchange them with each other : )
In those days, they did not have constant bombardment of ads
for delicious and fast foods on TV and billboards.
In the three video’s we will watch today, we will talk about
Praying.
