Question for Christians

[chickenfeet]

So this year Easter comes early enough to place St. Valentine's day squarely in Lent. Now I'm pretty sure that chocolate and sex are things one is supposed to abstain from during Lent. So what the heck does one do on the 14th?

Comments

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

Supply IOUs?

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

Give up Christianity for Lent on that day.

[steverogerson.livejournal.com]

Eat chocolate, have sex, stuff Lent

[meirion.livejournal.com]

celebrate SS cyril and methodius day instead?

(for those of us who are single, it's not going to make much difference ...)

-m-

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

How about: abstain from something that you'll feel the lack of (on 14th or throughout Lent, whichever feels right for you), so that you get the spirit of the thing, but do whatever you want / need to do on 14th February to be close to your loved one? I'm fairly sure love trumps everything in the Christian canon - lots of evidence to support.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly sure love trumps everything in the Christian canon

agape perhaps, but not eros.

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Who says they're mutually exclusive? She's your wife, goddammit.

Incidentally, and I've just posted on a similar topic, I don't actually think giving up sex for Lent is a good idea unless one only has casual partners. I can't believe that what you're meant to do is give up something if someone else suffers as a result.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

This would suggest the possibility of someone suffering from not having sex with me!!!

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, I was assuming that since she seems to have married you, it can't be that much of a chore.

Unless it's your cooking that keeps her spellbound, of course.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was my enormous...











wallet

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Size of wallet doesn't matter. It's what you do with what's in it.

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for atheism!

I think I'm gonna walk down the street and stand in front of the Catholic church with a tray of homemade truffles.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

...wearing interesting underwear?

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

??

No... wearing pants. And a coat. The chocolate should be temptation enough.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Prickly tickly hairshirts for two?

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

You don't have to abstain from those things unless you're giving them up specifically. Though some cultures do stay away from rich foods in general during the season.

This early Lent season is weirding me out, though. Shrove Tuesday already? Geez.

[tanuja.livejournal.com]

I thought that you decided what to give up for lent, rather than it being a generic "all christians must give up chocolate and sex". Also, I thought that you're supposed to give the money you save from the things you're abstaining from to the church/charity, so unless people regularly pay for sex, then giving up sex wouldn't really work, would it?

An Irish lady I work with was planning on giving up alcohol, until she remembered that, yet again, St Paddy's day fall's smack in the middle of lent, so she's giving up crips instead!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Well that's the modern version. Prior to Vatican 2 (I think) the RC church was more prescriptive about fasts. After all, if eggs, dairy products etc weren't excluded during Lent there would be no rationale for eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.