During Lent, Christians pray, fast to grow in Christ

by Valerie Hunt
For The Post

Today is Ash Wednesday, the Christian holiday that marks the beginning of Lent; it places emphasis on charity and self-improvement. During the church service, priests mark attendees with ashen crosses on their foreheads. The ashes consist of burnt palm branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday. 

The Rev. Mary Jo Yeakel from First United Methodist Church, 2 S. College St., explained the meaning of ashes.

“It’s a reminder of our baptism, that we are followers of Christ and we should try to imitate Christ’s actions,” she said. 

The traced cross serves as an outward expression of one’s faith as well as a reminder that people are mortal and time on earth should be spent trying to live as Christ did.

The traditional three facets of Ash Wednesday are prayer, fasting and abstinence, and alms giving. Prayer involves any sort of private conversation with God and can extend beyond church walls. Ohio University senior Addie Church plans on reading scripture during Lent.

“I’m going to divide up the Psalms and read a little bit every night so that when Lent is over, hopefully I will have read them all,” Church said. 

Her bible study group is doing an outreach program on Ash Wednesday as well. 

“We’re going to Jeff Hall and having an ice cream social and speaking to residents about Christian relationships,” she said.

  Clergy encourage Christians to fast and abstain to the best of their ability. Fasting usually consists of having one large meal during the day or several small meals. Typically, those engaged in fasting try not to snack. Abstinence in this context means not eating meat on specified days as a way of sacrifice to promote self-discipline. This includes the popular act of giving something up for Lent.

Yeakel noted an increase in this deed.

“When people deny themselves certain material pleasures, it helps improve their self-discipline and be more like Christ,” she said.

The concept of alms giving has changed throughout the years. These days, the preferred method of alms giving is volunteerism and community service. 

“Giving up something for Lent is fine, but it would be better to improve the world around you,” said Sister Kathy Wiesneski from Christ the King University Parish, 75 Stewart St. “Ash Wednesday is the start of the season when we should look within ourselves to see if we’re making the effort to live as Christ did.”

Campus Crusade for Christ also is planning Lenten events. 

“We’re speaking to different student organizations on campus about their individual spiritual interests,” said Mark Heflin, one of the group leaders of CCC.  “We also recently donated a U-Haul van full of clothes to disadvantaged youth.”