Going No Meat During Lent: What's the Point?

In most of western Christianity, Lent - which means fasting from "some-thing" - is coming to an end. In some Christian groups, the individual chooses that "thing" more than having it proscribed by the Church. In the Roman Catholic church, there are a few more "rules" that most people seem to follow - I can't say what those rules are, I've never been Catholic, but it seems to be a little more than the pick-your-own variety.

(image from vectorstock.com)

In the Orthodox church, we have only just started Great Lent and its fast yet, but the overlap of the western Lent and that practiced in the Eastern Orthodox church has brought up discussion about the differences between the two. One particular point that has been commented on is the point of fasting from meat.

Checking In - 2 Weeks

It has been two weeks since I signed off of most of the more recreational things that I do on the Internet. Things like streaming TV shows via Netflix, FaceBook, FaceBook games, my blog... But some of the things I've noticed bear comment so I've decided to do a sort of "check in" post. I still want to leave my last post about Ray up for the duration of September so I am writing this on the 14th, but won't post it until October 1st.

One thing I had planned to "leave behind" more was e-mail. I meant only to check on my e-mail once a week but quickly discovered that it just is not that easy in our society today. I would like to let it all go for the whole time, but I've had requests for information to be sent that just couldn't wait (homeschooling stuff, church stuff, scheduling, etc.)

So much easier is the "do as I say not as I do" aspect. The kids have not watched a show or played a video game. Maestro has been online a few times to work on the Computer Science badge he started for Boy Scouts. He started the badge before we started out "fast" and I decided at the beginning of the school season that I wanted to try to incorporate his badges into his every-day school work so he's been allowed to keep up with his badge work.

The kids have started asking how much time is left in September - or how much time is left before they're not "grounded." But I really don't see it that way. I don't look at it as a grounding at all - more of a ... break. A fasting period. It's good for us as a family.