Even the apostles gathered grain on the Sabbath. If you have a reason I don't see it being a problem. Even if you just need to vent or let loose I don't really see a problem. I Mean you have your penances that you do anyway right? Here's one: I am going to a concert tonight its Friday I am going to a Guster concert tonight by the way.
Lent is a time for conversion, reflection, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, but it's not necessarily a sin to not do these things. Although you're going to a party or concert, it doesn't necessarily take away from Lenten sacrifices. You could sacrifice while at the party or concert. For instance, don't drink or don't put salt on your food, etc.
You can still do little things to remind you of the season. Having a party or going to a concert are not sinful activities in themselves nor is it a precept of the Church to stop observing them during Lent. So long you attend as a Christian that is, act like it , you're fine. It's no more sinful than at any other time of the year. I suppose ultimately whether there is a sin or not is between you and God presuming there is not sinful "partying" involved.
However, parties in general should definitely be discouraged during Lent. Parties are contrary to the Lenten spirit of penance and self-denial. Share on print. Time for Celebration Second, remember also that the Church has not removed all of its liturgical solemnities from the calendar during Lent. Tags: Celebrations , Fr. Prev Previous I like dogs better than people, am I off base? Next River of suffering — St. John of the Cross Next.
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He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in After college, he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and baseball coach. He then spent a year as a professional actor in Chicago before entering the religious Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in We also have a rule that if we are on the road during a Friday and fish or vegetarian meals are hard to come by at restaurants, we can have chicken.
Holy Week birthdays are the trickiest part for me, because it is hard to make an exception during that time. And to my memory, the Church itself doesn't even celebrate the Annunciation when it's during Holy Week. My kids are at an age in which they know about their real birthday and they care about their real birthday. So not celebrating on the actual day is disappointment.
But it's only an issue for one of them, and hers falls on Easter Sunday this year. It hardly feels worth it to work out a system when the particulars change every year. Flexibility and making stuff up as we go seems to work best for us, at least in this. My birthday is always during Lent and my brother's is almost always and growing up we always did birthday cake. We didn't break our Lenten disciplines on Sundays so our birthdays were the only times we got sweets and it worked out well that way.
I think we'll continue to do that as family — not take Sundays "off" but have birthday cake. It's interesting that you don't have any babies born during Lent, Kendra. Do you have certain times of the year when ALL the birthdays are?
I know two of your boys always have a joint birthday party, but are there other birthdays clumped together? We are fall birthday heavy.
We have four birthdays in five weeks from Oct Dec 2. Then we've got two soon to be three summer birthdays, and Betty is on her own in February. My birthday falls on Ash Wednesday this year, so I'm thinking we'll have to do a Mardi Gra celebration instead! Although my due date is February 19, so maybe I'll just be in labor… Thanks for the insightful post! This is our second Lent and we have one birthday that falls right after Lent starts.
Thankfully it is on a Sunday, with her party on the Saturday before. But, if it falls on a weekday in the future we'll still celebrate as an immediate family on her birthday and save her party for a weekend.
Hi Kendra, I love the point you make about not refusing hospitality when it butts up against our lenten sacrifice. And the hubs and I don't give up coffee for Lent because it would cause more suffering for each other. We do enough of that already. We also have a couple of birthdays that are sometimes in Lent late March, early April We've got one this year that falls the week before Holy Week this year phew!
Also,I think you might have gotten your holy days mixed up. In fact, if I remember correctly, its a mortal sin for a priest to celebrate Mass on Good Friday, because they're under obedience not to! Hey, actually, we're both right! I had forgotten since we spend so much time at church on Good Friday with the various services, but it's not Mass. Check out the About page on Holy Saturday for all the details. Our pastor once explained that the entire triduum was only one mass spread over three days.
That on Thursday and Friday there is no dismissal at the end of mass, because it is not yet finished. This is so helpfu. I especially like it because it supports exactly the way we handle our many Lenten birthdays — we consider them family feast days and we still celebrate with cake! The Triduum would be harder and we don't usually have to deal with a Good Friday birthday, but we have 3 out of 6 birthdays during Lent every year and that doesn't count our extended family!
Thanks Kendra! I had to go and look up my son's birthday, which is February 6. It could potentially fall during Lent if Easter is on March He is just a year old, and Easter will not fall on March until , so he is all set.
There are a couple of March 25th Easters in there, which will make his birthday fall on Fat Tuesday. Glad I timed things out well for him. I love your blog so much! You have a beautiful family and I wish you knew how much you have helped me embrace the Liturgical year and family culture. I even bought your book on Confession!!! I agree so much with your practical advice!!
My oldest daughter's birthday is March 15, so we have had to hash this one out. We used to live in Omaha, and they diocess really goes all out for St. Patrick's Day. So much so that the bishop gave it "off" to Catholics during Lent! We have parties during Lent. We have treats, cake, presents. We even had it once on a Friday and served cheese pizza!
So now I'm going to open up my own can of worms. It's started to bother me how Catholics tend to always give up sugar, pop, chocolate, etc. I know those are good sacrifices, but how about fixing something that's keeping you from Christ?
I don't know. It just seems like everyone gives up food. I give up food, too, but I also love your list of other things to do. I once gave up sleeping with a pillow- harder than you might think. I've also tried not hitting the snooze button.
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