As John mentioned yesterday, he and I have been invited to blog our way through the season of Lent, with a group of fellow believers in our local community of faith. I thought it might be nice to first reflect on where “Lent” came from. We hope you enjoy these posts….
Gregory the Great (540-604) dictating the Gregorian chant
The period of Lent, derived from a 14 century English word for “springtime”, has a long history within Christianity. In the first few centuries of the Christian movement, believers would spend several days in fasting and preparation for the celebration of the Resurrection at Easter. The Lenten period was eventually extended to forty days, but it got its biggest boost from the sixth century bishop of Rome, Gregory the Great (540-604). Gregory moved the beginning of Lent to what many Christians now call “Ash Wednesday”, establishing “Lent” as an important period in the yearly calendar of the Western Christian church.
The Chapel is a diverse community of faith, and so the idea of “Lent” for some may sound a little weird, or simply “a bit too Catholic”. So perhaps it might be some consolation to you to know…
View original post 307 more words
Veracity 
March 13th, 2014 at 1:14 am
http://eadiocese.org/News/2014/march/ludwell.en.htm
Apparently a colonial Williamsburg resident translated Gregory the Great’s (also called the Dialogist) lenten texts into English back in the day and there is celebration of it this weekend.
LikeLike