Lenten Journey

For those who were unaware, I have decided this year to join a large portion of Christ's Body in practicing the ancient Eastern Great Fast of Lent. I was a little unsure how this would go, whether I would be able to stick to it, and what I would think of it. I was very nervous about it, to say the least. The fasting rule is as follows:

First Week of Lent: Only two full meals are e
aten during the first five days, on Wednesday and Friday after the Presanctified Liturgy. Nothing is eaten from Monday morning until Wednesday evening, the longest time without food in the Church year. (Few laymen keep these rules in their fullness). For the Wednesday and Friday meals, as for all weekdays in Lent, meat and animal products, fish, dairy products, wine and oil are avoided. On Saturday of the first week, the usual rule for Lenten Saturdays begins (see below).
Weekdays in the Second through Sixth Weeks: The strict fasting rule is kept every day: avoidance of meat, meat products, fish, eggs, dairy, wine and oil.
Saturdays and Sundays in the Second through Sixth Weeks: Wine and oil are permitted; otherwise the strict fasting rule is kept.
Holy Week: The Thursday evening meal is ideally the last meal taken until Pascha. At this meal, wine and oil are permitted. The Fast of Great and Holy Friday is the strictest fast day of the year: even those who have not kept a strict Lenten fast are strongly urged not to eat on this day. After St. Basil's Liturgy on Holy Saturday, a little wine and fruit may be taken for sustenance. The fast is sometimes broken on Saturday night after Resurrection Matins, or, at the latest, after the Divine Liturgy on Pascha.
Also, most eat only one meal per day during the week, and two on Saturdays and Sundays.
So, first of all confessions -

Among the Scoffers...

Evangelical Christianity has a pretty popular song that they sing in worship services and, if I remember correctly, it was introduced to me by my high school youth pastor, Scott Priest. It is called "How Deep the Father's Love for Us." It sponsors a standard conservative Evangelical doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement and, that disagreement aside, I was reminded of the song and a line today in mass:

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.

Central to any discussion of the Passion, Holy Week, and Atonement, is the recognition that - whatever we mean by it - I am complicit in and guilty for the suffering of Christ on the Cross. The Lenten journey is a time of repentance and penance. We join Christ in his sufferings so that we might be glorified with him and share in a resurrection like his (Romans 8:17).

Baptism

I cannot seem to get away from this topic, so I'm going to embrace it and write a bit on it, here. This is my attempt to seriously begin blogging again. Why not make it about something I'm passionate about?

I was reading a blog post by a friend who blogs and whose blog I've gotten a little involved in. I guess I hope that as iron sharpens iron, maybe a rock could sharpen iron, too. Who knows.

Anyways, HERE is his post on Baptism.
Also - HERE is a defense of Infant Baptism by an old professor of mine, Dr. Mark Quanstrom.
And - HERE is a defense of Infant Dedication over against Baptism from another professor of mine - Dr. Carl Leth.

I've not held back, in many places, about defending both Infant Baptism as well as Baptism as the "normative means of God's saving and regenerating Grace." So, I thought maybe I should give an argument for it, and provide you, the reader, with the resources for understanding why the Church has practiced the way it has for nearly 2,000 years.