to wonder why Lent fasting has become so diluted?

[Wonderingwhyyy]

I was talking to a Christian who told me she fasts the traditional way in Lent. No food or water from sunrise to sunset. She was the first I had met who actually abstains from food and drink for a significant period of time.

Other Christians I know choose to give up one food e.g. chocolate, wine, tea, coffee. One Christian told me she gave up Facebook for Lent.

The Christian who said she fasted the traditional way told me she gained many benefits such as spiritual closeness to God, self discipline, greater self control.

It did make sense. Giving up Facebook doesn't seem likely to bring many benefits although may it did for that one person.

I wonder why it became diluted and whether Christianity has lost its followers by allowing most things it did not used to.

In your OP and responses.

I reread my OP @Mulledjuice.

Quote me where I said that.

"I wonder why it became diluted and whether Christianity has lost its followers by allowing most things it did not used to."

As PP have confirmed, not fasting during Lent has been "allowed" since the 5/6th century.

You said in your update "it is dying out. Attendance is dropping. That is clear to see already"

Christianity was the religion of the establishment and the vast majority of the population still practised (even if they didn't believe) at the beginning of the 20th Century.

You're the one linking the decline in attendance (a 20th/21st C phenomenon) to the cessation of full fasting (5/6th century).

All the Christian churches, Oriental, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, are in a constant state of reform and renewal. Views on fasting and on other expressions of repentance (which is what fasting is) come in and out of fashion - as do fashions in types of prayer practice.

Did anyone ever read Noel Streatfield's autobiography, and the description of her father's appalled reaction when his daughters were invited to a party in Lent by one of his rich parishioners, and the girls' horror at the rules laid down on not dancing and only eating bread-and-butter, nothing sweet. That was an early 20th century Anglican clergyman, later a bishop.

Show me where I have linked it. You have just put a few statements I made together and come up with your own conclusion.

I’m 67, was brought up as a practicing RC in a practicing extended family and I’ve never heard of Lent being a sunrise to sundown fast.

It isn't and traditionally never was a sunrise to sunset dry fast. The oldest established churches have pretty good records on practices (including designating beavers as fish for Lenten purposes) and whilst they record many bizarre practices sunrise to sunset dry fasting is a recent minority adoption by some breakaway sects and branches.

The OP's premise is arse about tit - its recent sects and breakaway groups from Christianity which have adopted the more extreme version of fasting rather than the traditional approach across Orthodox, Coptic and Catholic Churches.

It was clarified at the time that 'it does not rise to the level of mortal sin'. IOW, no need to confess it.

You can have the duck and prawn toast.

Oh yes… I forgot ducks could be fish 🤣

'Ducks can be fish' would make an excellent username.

They do in Islam and Judaism because that's what it says in the religious texts. (Whether they are actually the rules of God or the rules of men who lived in that time saying they were the words God told him, who knows?) Christians follow the new Testament, which doesn't demand fasting or any dietary rules, in fact says that nothing made by God is unclean. So actually everyone is following what their respective religious texts say, except the Christians who are fasting from sunrise to sunset. They have added this on top, probably because it makes them feel more pious than other Christians. Which again, specifically goes against the teachings of the New testament. Your premise is fundamentally wrong, and you have been told this by several Christians.

I don't think Catholics can do what Henry VIII said, can we due to the whole Reformation/dissolution of the Monasteries/break from Rome unpleasantness! Only your DH can have the duck pancakes! You will have to have extra salt and pepper squid!

At our Lenten Bible discussion yesterday we used a reading sheet where a gap at the end (all short readings this week) was filled by a quote from Pope Francis:

Fasting makes sense if it really chips away at our security and, as a consequence, benefits someone else, if it helps us cultivate the style of the good Samaritan, who bent down to his brother in need and took care of him.

In other words, (yet again) we don't do it for health benefits to ourselves. It's the physical expression of a spiritual exercise.

After the Bible discussion we all had tea and a biscuit.

I do remember reading that, @DeanElderberry - thank you for reminding me.

Orthodox Christians fast for lent by which it means giving up meat, dairy and oil for the period of lent.

I have been thinking about your OP and about your use of the word 'dilute' . Is it the case that you see change in the practice of faith as invariably negative?

I think it can be depending on the practice.

That's a statement so noncommittal as to be meaningless. However, it does imply that you think there is a single 'right' way to do religion. And if that were true, we wouldn't have the myriad of faiths that we do across the world. All faiths have different branches within them, with differences in practice which are often profound. Not one of them can prove, with evidence, that theirs is correct. And yet most of them claim that theirs is the only correct one.

And that is why I am an atheist.

At my Lent discussion - we are looking at the Nicene creed - we had parsnip and ginger soup and home made bread, grapes and some of us had biscuits as well as tea or coffee (I was slightly miffed that the real coffee on offer last week is only instant this week).

It is non committal and meaningless yet enough for you to make an implication?

Parsnip and ginger soup sounds delicious, @DeanElderberry - is there any chance you could share the recipe, please and thank you!

It wasn't me that mentioned it, it was @Grammarnut and I agree it sounds delicious and recipe-worthy.

Though by coincidence, the biscuits we had were Lidl's gluten-free ginger cookies, so ginger and religious study seem to be a good fit.

I'm an idiot, @DeanElderberry - possibly too much blood in my caffeine stream!

There is a lovely recipe here