2011 Small Group Lenten Guide for Family Daily Devotions
Wednesday, March 9 – Sunday, April 24, 2011
(This is taken from multiple sources – see last page for content references)
*Set aside a financial contribution to the Society of St. Andrew each day. SOSA delivers salvaged produce to agencies feeding hungry Americans for $0.02 a serving. The amount you give is up to each family. A gift of $1 each day during Lent ($40+) will provide over 2,000 servings of food that will feed our hungry brothers and sisters* INVOLVE the whole family to come up with where this $1 comes from. Do we skip chick fil a (2 kids meals = over $7), do we nix juice or desserts and apply that money to the SoSA jar? Be creative, let your children also give or do chores to add even more $$ into the pot. At the end of Lent we will, as a group, make this donation in a meaningful way.
*Candle Lighting – during devotion light a candle
Candle Lighter: Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Everyone Else: Change our thoughts to be more like yours, O God.
Wednesday, March 9 – Sunday, April 24, 2011
(This is taken from multiple sources – see last page for content references)
*Set aside a financial contribution to the Society of St. Andrew each day. SOSA delivers salvaged produce to agencies feeding hungry Americans for $0.02 a serving. The amount you give is up to each family. A gift of $1 each day during Lent ($40+) will provide over 2,000 servings of food that will feed our hungry brothers and sisters* INVOLVE the whole family to come up with where this $1 comes from. Do we skip chick fil a (2 kids meals = over $7), do we nix juice or desserts and apply that money to the SoSA jar? Be creative, let your children also give or do chores to add even more $$ into the pot. At the end of Lent we will, as a group, make this donation in a meaningful way.
*Candle Lighting – during devotion light a candle
Candle Lighter: Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Everyone Else: Change our thoughts to be more like yours, O God.
Q&A
When are the next Beach Baptisms? May 15th
How Are the 40 Days of Lent Calculated?
Lent, the period of prayer and fasting in preparation for Easter, is 40 days long, but there are 46 days between, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, and Easter. How can that be?
Answer: The answer takes us back to the earliest days of the Church. Christ's original disciples, who were Jewish, grew up with the idea that the Sabbath—the day of worship and of rest—was Saturday, the seventh day of the week, since the account of creation in Genesis says that God rested on the seventh day.
Christ rose from the dead, however, on Sunday, the first day of the week, and the early Christians, starting with the apostles (those original disciples), saw Christ's Resurrection as a new creation, and so they transferred the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
Since all Sundays—and not simply Easter Sunday—were days to celebrate Christ's Resurrection, Christians were forbidden to fast and do other forms of penance on those days. Therefore, when the Church expanded the period of fasting and prayer in preparation for Easter from a few days to 40 days (to mirror Christ's fasting in the desert, before He began His public ministry), Sundays could not be included in the count.
Thus, in order for Lent to include 40 days on which fasting could occur, it had to be expanded to six full weeks (with six days of fasting in each week) plus four extra days—Ash Wednesday and the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday that follow it. Six times six is thirty-six, plus four equals forty. And that's how we arrive at the 40 days of Lent!
Content/Sources
The Bible (NIV and Message Translation)
How Are the 40 Days of Lent Calculated?
Lent, the period of prayer and fasting in preparation for Easter, is 40 days long, but there are 46 days between, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, and Easter. How can that be?
Answer: The answer takes us back to the earliest days of the Church. Christ's original disciples, who were Jewish, grew up with the idea that the Sabbath—the day of worship and of rest—was Saturday, the seventh day of the week, since the account of creation in Genesis says that God rested on the seventh day.
Christ rose from the dead, however, on Sunday, the first day of the week, and the early Christians, starting with the apostles (those original disciples), saw Christ's Resurrection as a new creation, and so they transferred the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
Since all Sundays—and not simply Easter Sunday—were days to celebrate Christ's Resurrection, Christians were forbidden to fast and do other forms of penance on those days. Therefore, when the Church expanded the period of fasting and prayer in preparation for Easter from a few days to 40 days (to mirror Christ's fasting in the desert, before He began His public ministry), Sundays could not be included in the count.
Thus, in order for Lent to include 40 days on which fasting could occur, it had to be expanded to six full weeks (with six days of fasting in each week) plus four extra days—Ash Wednesday and the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday that follow it. Six times six is thirty-six, plus four equals forty. And that's how we arrive at the 40 days of Lent!
Content/Sources
The Bible (NIV and Message Translation)
Isaac Hunter's sermons
www.endhunger.org
www.kimberleeconwayireton.net
www.christianbiblestudies.com
www.severnaparkumc.com
And the Angels were Silent by Max Lucado
www.endhunger.org
www.kimberleeconwayireton.net
www.christianbiblestudies.com
www.severnaparkumc.com
And the Angels were Silent by Max Lucado
www.christianseder.com
http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/f/Counting_lent.htm
http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/f/Counting_lent.htm
