People are tightening their belts, recalibrating lifestyles, cutting waste, disciplining appetites and refocusing on core values.
It’s called Lent.
This year it’s also called shrinking American prosperity, and it’s going to last longer than the 40 days of Lent.
Many Americans — even those who don’t observe the solemn Christian season of prayer, fasting and charitable works leading up to Easter — have had many decadent impulses chastened.
The talk isn’t about only economics but ethos, with many expressing weariness of unchecked extravagance and new contempt of conspicuous consumption.
Americans sound a little like prodigal sons and daughters, who recklessly squandered a fortune and weren’t quite prepared for the famine.
“I think one of the benefits of a bad economy is that you have to think about what is really important,” said Teresa Donahue. “Lent has always helped us reorder priorities.”
Lent is different — more real — this year, said Mary Welch, a staff member at Holy Ghost Catholic Church in downtown Denver.
“As we hear more and more cries for help, sacrifice seems more real,” she said. “We’re all more in tune with suffering, with Christ’s suffering. We’re all a little afraid.”
Observance of the Lenten season originated in the fourth century of the Christian church to prepare believers to fully share, in a spiritual sense, in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It also commemorates the 40 days the Bible says Jesus spent in the desert fasting, praying and enduring temptation by the devil before he began his public ministry.
The purpose of Lent, Catholic and Protestant theologians say, is to become more aware of God and one’s relationships with others through self-discipline and avoiding temptations.
Early Christians abstained from eating flesh and all foods deriving from the flesh. Where modern parents gave up hours of TV, drinking alcohol or smoking, today’s Christians are just as likely to give up their iPods and abstain from text-messaging or social-networking.
About 60 percent of Catholics still don’t eat meat on Fridays during Lent, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
About 38 percent of Catholics surveyed said they also would give up something else. And 44 percent said they would try to do something positive this Lent, such as trying to be a better person or giving more assistance to the needy.
Connor Kennedy, 26, of Denver gave up fried food and goes to Mass more often. Josh Norcross of Boulder attends Mass daily and is a volunteer tutor at Samaritan House.
Some Christians redouble efforts to battle their addictions during Lent. Whether one faces such overwhelming temptation or simply gives up chocolate, the overarching themes of Lent are timeless.
“We’re all trying to make ourselves right for God,” said Cheryl Darragh. “We certainly live in a world where we’re repeatedly told, ‘It’s all about us.’ It’s not all about us.
“You ramp up your prayer life,” said the Golden mother of three. “You work on bad habits.”
Sister Janet Marie Wehmhoff introduced her first-graders at St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic School to the concept of Lenten sacrifice on Friday, explaining it is about “doing hard things for Jesus and others.”
The students listened to Sister Wehmhoff read the Bible story of the prodigal son. They briefly contemplated this story of reckless behavior, followed by a contrite heart and loving forgiveness from his father.
Then the students filed, one at a time, to a basket full of crosses fashioned from pink construction paper and blue yarn. Each cross carried a handwritten message, such as “smile more; complain less,” and “ask forgiveness if you’ve hurt someone.”
Amelia Barrett’s cross told her to “clean up your room.” Luke Trujillo’s said, “Give up a favorite food and give to the poor.” The students took turns hanging their crosses on a little tree.
Sister Wehmhoff said she wants the Lenten season to give her students a rare opportunity to be quiet, to be as contemplative as a 6-year-old can be.
Some Lenten seasons are more somber than others. The year that Darragh’s young son was diagnosed with diabetes, she remembers thinking, “Lent is more Lentish this year.”
Lent feels that way now for many people, especially those facing the loss of a job or home.
“Any sacrifices we make bring us closer to Americans who are really suffering in this economy,” said Patrick Rivera, a young Catholic missionary working on the University of Denver campus.
Some speak almost gratefully of the new sobriety.
Humility, “a lost art,” Darragh said, is becoming real for new generations of Americans who are being forced to dispense with luxuries and some former “necessities.”
“When are your heart and mind more right than when you’re hitting your knees in desperation and need?” she asked.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
