We Don’t Fast Like We Used To + Lentil Soup + Love Lent!

Welcome to Cooking with Catholic History where in each posting we talk about Catholic people and/or events and a related topic, as well as look at one of my personal takes on recipes.

This time we’re talking about We Don’t Fast Like We Used To, Love Lent, and Lentil Soup plus some Lenten apparel along the way. You’ll love it!

We Don’t Fast Like We Used To

Really, the Catholic Church doesn’t fast the way or as often as it used to. A lot has changed over history. It has changed slowly. One day here. One food added here. One option here. Let’s take a brief look at those changes.

Vigil of Feast Days

Fasting on the vigil before a feast day was once commonplace. Working to prepare ourselves internally for celebrating the feast day by practicing penitential prayer and fasting. This was once imposed and has not been recently. However, we the faithful are permitted and encouraged to freely do so for our own spiritual growth.

Ember Days

Ember Days, three days, each season for fasting in thanksgiving to God for the gifts of nature and prayer. They are thankfully being observed more and more. As stated they are days of fasting and abstinence from meat along with prayer in thanksgiving for food, those who work in agriculture, those who are involved in food distribution and production, and for those who distribute the food, including religious such as priests.

Advent

Advent itself also used to be a time of fasting similar to Lent. A time in preparation of ourselves for the coming of Jesus at Christmas as well as at the end of time.

Lent

These days we’re used to picking something to “give up” for Lent. Unfortunately, people pick a minor inconvenience, then we fast and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Additionally we abstain from meat on Fridays.

This is the modern Lenten practice. While changes began before the major change came during the pontificate of Saint Paul VI with the 1966 Apostolic Constitution Paenitemini which changed Lenten fasting to only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, among other things. ( USCCB has digitally published their statement from their conference at that time here)

Before that fasting was all of Lent, save Sundays. Abstinence from meats, eggs, and dairy was maintained throughout as well (depending on the time period). Ash Wednesday and Black Friday were days of total abstinence from food, unless one was old or sick.

That’s a drastic difference from where we are now. Now, not all the changes happened at once. Allowances to fasting were added over time, snack like considerations for manual laborers, changes in how much or even when you could eat, the addition of dairy into the diet, and so on. It wasn’t Paenitemini in 1966, it didn’t change everything, that’s just the most recent change to Lent itself.

You know, that we all could do to hold Lent in our hearts with greater love as a church. After some soup, let’s look at loving Lent.

Lentil Soup

The name of lentils is not actually related to Lent nor the other way around. The name of lenses that we use on glasses, cameras, telescopes, etc. is a direct follow from the shape of the food though, so that’s cool. However, lentils are historically eaten during Lent as well as a meat replacement during both World Wars, though the US didn’t really promote them until the second World War.

Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking Time: 25-35 minutes
Servings: 4+

Materials & Equipment

Equipment

2 pots (you can use 1 it takes longer)
knife and cutting board
blender, with good lid
something to stir the pots, you only need one
strainer

Ingredients

½ bag of dry lentils (1/2 pound)
¼ white onion
1 cup of canned tomatoes (inc liquid)
1 cup frozen spinach (thawed) <you can use fresh it’ll just take more>
Enough water to cook the lentils +2 1/2 cups (you can substitute stock for this if desired)
garlic, pepper, salt, and Italian seasoning to taste (you can also add red pepper flakes if you want)

Prep

Dice onion (and spinach if fresh)
in one pot bring the water for the lentils up to temp as per directions on your lentil bag

Cooking

Put lentils in their pot following the directions on their bag (for half the bag)
Put the rest of the liquid, veggies, seasoning in the other pot on medium heat
stir veggies occasionally
when lentils are done strain, add to the other pot, turn off the heat
pour half of the mixture (or as much as will fit safely into your blender) and blend until smooth
recombine and serve hot
Thank God and remember He loves you!

Love Lent

A lot of people struggle with Lent. Including active Catholics. That’s a problem as Lent is not only a key part of our liturgical calendar but it’s also one of our few fasting times left in the year. I’d like to take a moment to talk about a few of the complaints about Lent and why those complaints are exactly what we should love about it.

Ash Wednesday – You Are Dust

“You are dust!”

That’s a powerful statement. It’s a bit hard too, isn’t it. It is a statement. It’s direct and to the point. We’re little, small. Like dust. Just like dust, and ashes, in our sinful nature we have the habit of making a mess of things. We’re messy. Even when we try to keep ourselves together somehow or another we commit this sin or that sin, like dust somehow ending up even in the air with the gentlest nudge. It hits our pride hard, dust doesn’t matter, it isn’t needed.

That’s the thing though. The root of this pain. Pride. It makes people want to be giants or invisible, dust is neither. God doesn’t need us! That’s a hard fact. Yet, and yet, He loves us. He wants us. God doesn’t need us, but He chose to become man, suffer scourging, then suffer on a cross to the point of death all for our failings, our disobedience, our meanness, then He rose from the dead that we may have hope to be with Him. He sent us the Holy Spirit to be with us and in us. Still, we are dust. We didn’t do anything to deserve that love.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t do anything before I was born to deserve my life. Personally, I know that I’ve made my share of mistakes. The thanksgiving that rises up in me for Reconciliation for all of the Sacraments is beyond words. I can’t do enough to show my thankfulness to that.

God, who can fit all of creation in His hand looks down and we are smaller than dust. Still, we are loved more by Him than all of the love we feel in our entire lives for all people (and things if our love is misplaced) combined. We’re small, tiny, not needed, but very much wanted, even more so loved, and we unlike dust we matter to God, to others, and what we do matters inasmuch.

Ash Wednesday – Tempus Fugit Momento Mori

“Time Flies Remember Death!”

Our lives are short as pointed out in Psalm 39. Many people don’t like to think about death. We tend to avoid thinking about dying and like to think about things here and now.

Now Mother Angelica beautifully talked about this in one of her Mother Angelica Live talks. I’ll include the link to that at the end so that you don’t get distracted yet. You should watch it as she has other many wonderful things to say on the subject.

Death I think scares a lot of people, even Catholic Christians. Partially because we struggle with trust. Trusting the word of God. Trusting in the word of His saints. Trusting in something we haven’t seen, the old Saint Thomas struggle.

Another reason death scares a lot of people is they know deep down, they aren’t right with God. It’s our morals. The Holy Spirit giving us the tap on the shoulder. Our Guardian Angel exhausted because we’re still too attached to the worldly things. It’s that part of us that quivers at the thought of Purgatory and it’s cleansing fire, or even more so at the thought that we could be separated from God already and at death the door may shut and we may be in Hell. That’s a scary thought to have sit on one’s subconscious, whisper into our hearts.

Fridays & Ash Wednesday – Abstaining from Meat

Abstaining from meat.

Unless you’re a vegetarian that’s not an easy statement. If you’re a vegetarian you might not see what’s so hard about it one Wednesday then each Friday for just over 6 weeks.

From people being forgetful, especially if they forget to set their cellphones to remind them about “no meat.” A complaint I’m saddened to hear from almost every age group. It shows a problem about our reliance on technology to think for us, when we need to do real thinking.

To people struggling to give up meat because that’s such a key component of their diet. Yes, I’m looking at a lot of my fellow men for that one, I know a bunch of my fellows still have diets mostly of meat, carbs, and dairy from personal interactions. It can be hard, to let go of that piece of yourself.

Lenten Fast – Self Denial

Letting go of the pieces of the world that we’ve picked up and grafted onto ourselves is difficult. Our flawed human nature has ingrown a tendency to grab these things and hold fast to them. These things we pick up take an inexorable count of possibilities. They can be habits swearing, storing up money or any item(s), keeping too busy, over gambling, alcoholism, and more. They can be mindsets prejudice, indifference, spiritual lounging, negativity, and more. Even still they can be literal things that involved with other facets distract us from God and from the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. This can be the TV distracting us from prayer. It can be a cellphone distracting us from a neighbor in need. It can be a book or movie or game that distracts from the call of God in your heart, to action. Still, it can be a newspaper or a political blog post that we permit ourselves to believe over our Catholic Church and our God about what we should call right or wrong without source or foundation except feeling or pride. Never trust anything that encourages you based on pride, that’s an encouragement based on sin, there’s a scary amount of that right now, but that’s a talk for another day.

We have a lot of these things. From grave sin to venial and their comfortable. They really are. That’s the thing with sin, it’s comfortable, even the most venial of sins. It’s almost like they’re a part of us. They can physically hurt to try and change. The more important they are and the more ingrown into us they are the more it hurts to change them.

But, it’s worth it.

Love Lent!

Lent isn’t just about struggling with facets of ourselves that are difficult. There’s more to it than that. It’s journeying out into the desert, like our Lord, who we love. We have a little struggle, knowing He struggled more, we can see Him better, and love Jesus more. There’s hopefully a gain of letting go a bit from attachments here to be attached more to Heaven and to grow in faith that we do live out here.

Lent is a time of painting. On the canvas of ourselves. As many artists can tell you the more emotion that is poured in the more love the more devotion to the depiction (which I hope we’re focused on God and thus painting Him) the more the piece touches the hearts that look upon it.

If you don’t love Lent right now. That’s not worth being a villain to yourself over, the devil is your adversary, side with God. Instead, I would commend you to try and love the good that comes from Lent, when done right. The imitation of Jesus Christ, the letting go of worldly things a bit more, and so on. You are a seed that has been planted, let this season, though it seems harsh water you and bring growth. Sure, you may never fully love Lent, still I hope and pray you may at least love the little graces that come from it.