Saturday, March 01, 2008
2/6/08 Throwback: 40 Days and 40 Nights
So it's Lent. I say, "So what? BFD (Big Fucking Deal)."
What's Lent?
Growing up, I was proud to be Catholic. I guess you could say it felt like this special club, going to a Catholic school and all. You want to feel like you belong when you're growing up, right? When junior high rolled around, I started to feel increasingly detached from the religion. I'm not sure why. Adolescence? Menstruation and PMS? Boys as a new religion? Discovering the mall as an escape [Oh, Pinayism.]?
When I was a child, I assumed that everyone in my extended family was Catholic. But I later found out that wasn't the case. Some of my cousins didn't even get married in the Catholic Church. Another cousin and her family converted to nondenominational Christianity. Two of my cousins who are around my age haven't gotten confirmed either. That, and my "father" (I use that term very loosely) didn't fast during Lent. He ate meat on Fridays, too. Maybe it was a matter of consistency, or lack of it.
My cynicism grew when, for one, the Church's scandals started surfacing. If priests and other religious authorities can't resist temptation, then we're screwed! Two, an isolated incident during my senior year of high school. A friend called me out, asking if I was still a "V." I didn't respond back. This was after we had a guest speaker talk to the student body about abstinence and waiting until marriage to have sex. I had already lost my virginity the previous year. Naturally, I felt out of place. A black sheep. I thought Christianity, much less Catholicism, was about being compassionate, forgiving, loving your neighbor as yourself, not judging others, etc. That day, all of that went out the window.
I haven't gone to church every weekend since junior high.
I haven't given up anything for Lent since grade school.
After high school, I stopped fasting and not eating meat on Fridays during Lent.
I haven't been confirmed.
I haven't gone to confession since high school.
When I have children, I would want to let them make their own choices in regards to religion, among other things. To each, their own.
Pray for that.
What's Lent?
"Lent, in most Christian denominations, is the 40-day liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter. The 40 days represent the time Jesus spent in the desert, where, according to the Bible, he endured temptation by Satan. Different churches will calculate the 40 days differently.I guess I got sick and tired of Catholicism, much to the dismay of my mother. What a quarter's tuition is at the university I'm attending is equivalent to what she paid each year for the first 8 years of my 12-year private Catholic education. When I got to high school that tuition doubled to about $5000-6000/year. When Catholicism is part of your everyday academia for 12 years, it makes you not want to be Catholic. Or maybe that's just me.
The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer - through prayer, penitence, almsgiving, and self-denial - for the annual commemoration of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, as celebrated during Holy Week, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There are traditionally forty days in Lent which are marked by fasting, both from foods and festivities, and by other acts of penance. The three traditional practices to be taken up with renewed vigor during Lent are prayer (justice towards God), fasting (justice towards self), and almsgiving (justice towards neighbor). Today, some people give up a vice of theirs, add something that will bring them closer to God, and often give the time or money spent doing that to charitable purposes or organizations."
- Lent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Growing up, I was proud to be Catholic. I guess you could say it felt like this special club, going to a Catholic school and all. You want to feel like you belong when you're growing up, right? When junior high rolled around, I started to feel increasingly detached from the religion. I'm not sure why. Adolescence? Menstruation and PMS? Boys as a new religion? Discovering the mall as an escape [Oh, Pinayism.]?
When I was a child, I assumed that everyone in my extended family was Catholic. But I later found out that wasn't the case. Some of my cousins didn't even get married in the Catholic Church. Another cousin and her family converted to nondenominational Christianity. Two of my cousins who are around my age haven't gotten confirmed either. That, and my "father" (I use that term very loosely) didn't fast during Lent. He ate meat on Fridays, too. Maybe it was a matter of consistency, or lack of it.
My cynicism grew when, for one, the Church's scandals started surfacing. If priests and other religious authorities can't resist temptation, then we're screwed! Two, an isolated incident during my senior year of high school. A friend called me out, asking if I was still a "V." I didn't respond back. This was after we had a guest speaker talk to the student body about abstinence and waiting until marriage to have sex. I had already lost my virginity the previous year. Naturally, I felt out of place. A black sheep. I thought Christianity, much less Catholicism, was about being compassionate, forgiving, loving your neighbor as yourself, not judging others, etc. That day, all of that went out the window.
I haven't gone to church every weekend since junior high.
I haven't given up anything for Lent since grade school.
After high school, I stopped fasting and not eating meat on Fridays during Lent.
I haven't been confirmed.
I haven't gone to confession since high school.
When I have children, I would want to let them make their own choices in regards to religion, among other things. To each, their own.
Pray for that.
Labels: religion, storytime, words
// posted by April @ 5:46 AM 
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