The Truth About Lent

In her work, "Christian Feast Days and Their Relationship to Pagan Holidays," by Donna-Lynn Riley, she states: "As you progress through the Christian liturgical year, the other significant holiday is Easter, which is the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The forty days prior to this holiday is called Lent. In 519 AD, Lent gained acceptance by the Catholic Church. A writer of that time, John Cassian explains that the church didn't observe Lent. But as believers started to decline from their devotion, priests had called for a period of fasting to recall them to their original fervor. Many other regions, practiced a forty-day periods of fasting. In the Andes and in Mexico pagan followers practiced a solemn fast of forty days to honor the sun. The Egyptians also observed a fast of forty days to honor Adonis or Osiris, the mediatorial god. Among the Pagans, Lent seems to be a fast to prepare for the annual festival in commemoration of the "death and resurrection of Tammuz which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing...being observed in Palestine and Assyria in June, therefore called the 'month of Tammuz' Once again correlations can be found between the Christian Lent and practices of fasting in preparation for a great event or occasion. This event for most of the pagan religions appears to be the preparation for the coming of spring and the 'rebirth' of the land. This can be compared to the Christian belief that even though Jesus had died, that He was "reborn" in his resurrection and that the followers need to prepare themselves for the anniversary of this event by the practice of fasting."

Lent was not practiced by Yeshua, i.e. Jesus, Kefa, i.e. Peter, Sha'ul, i.e. Paul, or any of the early disciples. It was created by the Catholic Church some hundreds of years after the resurrection of Yeshua. Why would you want to practice a ritual not created by the One you claim to follow? If you are going to follow Yeshua, you should do what He did and He didn't do Lent. Further, He obviously never taught the disciples to perform the ritual because they did not either. The real issue is, who or what are you going to follow?

It is time to make a stand against a religion that dishonors YHWH. Lent may be for the "Christian," but it is not for the follower of YHWH and His Son Yeshua. We are to keep the Sabbath and the festivals as set forth in the Hebrew Scriptures. Don't be deceived. Be alarmed, very alarmed at the power of darkness that seeks to corrupt the true religion.

The Catholic Church Rules Yahweh Inappropriate For Liturgical Use

The following is a news article from the Vatican. The true name of Hashem will not be allowed in their services. The article speaks for itself. Latin becomes more important than Hebrew. This is a furtherance of the Catholic Churches' attempt to separate its faith from the Hebraic roots of Yeshua's faith. It began in the 4TH Century and continues today.

News Feature
Vatican directive: "Yahweh" inappropriate for liturgical use August 13, 2008

The Vatican has ruled that the Name of God, commonly rendered as "Yahweh," should not be pronounced in the Catholic liturgy.

The Vatican directive will not require any changes in the language of liturgy, since the Name of God is not spelled out in any authorized translation of the Roman Missal. However some hymns may be deemed inappropriate for liturgical use.

The Congregation for Divine Worship, in issuing the new directive, reminds bishops that in the Hebrew tradition, which the early Christians adopted, the faithful avoided pronouncing the Name of God. The Vatican directive explains that "as an expression of the infinite greatness and majesty of God, it was held to be unpronounceable."

In place of the Name of God, pious Hebrews used the four-letter tetragammaton YHWH, or substituted the terms "Adonai" or "the Lord." The first Christians continued this practice, the Vatican notes.

The Congregation for Divine Worship observes that the invocation of "the Lord" in Scriptural text follows this practice. Thus when St. Paul prays that "every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord," the Vatican letter says that his statement "corresponds exactly to a proclamation of [Christ's] divinity."

The Bible reflects the Hebrew tradition, and the Name of God is not spelled out in authorized Catholic translations. The Vatican instruction says that liturgical language should adhere carefully to the Scriptural texts, so that the Word of God is "conserved and transmitted in an integral and faithful manner."

However, the instruction notes, "in recent years the practice has crept in" of using the Name of God and spelling out the tetragrammaton. That practice should be avoided in the Catholic liturgy, the Vatican says.

The effect of the Vatican directive should be evident in the selection of hymns, since some contemporary liturgical music violates the policy by pronouncing the Name of God. The policy will also call for some care in the preparation of variable elements in the liturgy, such as the Prayers of the Faithful.

The letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship, dated June 29, was signed by Cardinal Francis Arinze and Archbishop Malcom Ranjith, the prefect and secretary, respectively of that congregation.

In an August 8 letter to the bishops of the US hierarchy, relaying the Vatican directive, Bishop Arthur Serratelli-- the chairman of the US bishops' liturgy committee-- welcomed the instruction, saying that it "helps to emphasize the theological accuracy of our language and appropriate reverence for the name of God."