For Lent, ashes Wednesday and 7 Fridays without meat

With the start of Lent on Wednesday, Roman Catholics and other Christians will engage in a centuries-old tradition for the next seven Fridays: abstaining from eating red meat and poultry.

The ritual goes back to the time of Jesus’s crucifixion  2,000 years ago and is meant to commemorate his death on the cross, said the Rev. Patrick Flanagan, chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John’s University.

As church attendance has declined in the past few decades, the ritual has been lost for some of the faithful, though church leaders like Flanagan see a resurgence.

“I do sense a great renewal,” said Flanagan, who celebrates weekend Masses at parishes in Centerport and Rockville Centre.

“I find that more and more people are looking for structure," he said. "They’re looking for benchmarks to understand how they might achieve some grace and how they might not fall into sin and how they might grow in their relationship with God."

Ash Wednesday

Thousands of Long Islanders are expected in churches on Wednesday — Ash Wednesday, among the most heavily attended holy days of the year — to have ashes dabbed on their foreheads in the shape of a cross.

The ashes mark the start of the 40 days of Lent, a season of fasting, reflection and penance in preparation for Holy Week and Easter Sunday, this year April 9, when Christians commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The ashes come from burned palms used in celebrating Palm Sunday of the previous year.

Catholics from age 14 up are supposed to follow the meatless-Friday regulation, which has declined in popularity, said Rick Hinshaw, a former editor of the Long Island Catholic newspaper.

“I would think that a lot of people who are not too focused on following the obligations on a regular basis,” including attending weekly Mass “probably would not pay too much attention to this,” he said. “Certainly it’s not observed as universally as it used to be.”

Other Catholics, like Hinshaw, are deeply devoted to the practice — and hope more will join, especially as awareness increases of the environmental cost to the planet of eating meat.

Patricia Boylan, an active parishioner at St. Agnes parish in Rockville Centre, said she embraces the rule.

“Honestly I don’t think it’s a huge sacrifice,” she said. “It’s really symbolic of our reverence to Jesus Christ and him dying on the cross to absolve us of our sins for salvation.”

During Lent, she whips up dishes of vegetarian lasagna, eggplant, pizza, fish or other items.

Boylan said she makes other  sacrifices, like eliminating  things on Fridays such as TV shows and music, and as a result, creates a prayerful, peaceful environment in her home.

“It’s a time of renewal and reflection, and I think that abstention [from meat] is only part of that,” she said.

David Bonagura, a Catholic schoolteacher who lives in Floral Park, said he takes the meat rule seriously, too.

“It’s a sacrifice that the church asks us to undertake in thanksgiving for the sacrifice that Christ undertook on our behalf,” he said.

He sticks to pasta, fruits, vegetables and sometimes fish on Fridays. He has made other small sacrifices for Lent as well, cutting down the cups of tea he drinks each day from three to one. He also attends a weekly Stations of the Cross service at his parish, Our Lady of Victory.

It’s all “just a reminder of the importance of faith and of the spiritual life,” he said. “Life is not just about material things.”

Hinshaw said he keeps to the meat abstention rule not only on Fridays during Lent, but throughout the year. He also attends Mass daily during Lent, and prays the rosary more often.

Beyond making sacrifices, another approach during Lent is to do something positive for others, he said, such as volunteering in a soup kitchen or helping a neighbor.