Trevecca students differ in how they observe lent

By Antonia Lopez

Staff Writer

As the Trevecca community participates in Lent and prepares for the celebration of Easter, students are taking different approaches to how they practice lent in their spiritual life.

“To me, [Lent] is my attempt to discipline my body, thoughts and actions through fasting and praying,” said Merna Hanna, a junior criminal justice major. “It’s a journey of seven weeks that the Lord Jesus went through, and he shows me what it is to be human and connect with God through what He experienced.”

Lent is 46 days before Easter Sunday on Ash Wednesday every year. According to the liturgical church calendar, this year it began on Feb. 14. The liturgical calendar is usually followed by the Western church, which most commonly include the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Christian churches.

Hanna grew up in Egypt in an Coptic Orthodox household and was baptized at 80-days-old. Coptic Orthodox Christians follow a different calendar than Protestant and Catholic churches, known as the Coptic Calendar. According to that calendar, Coptic Lent doesn’t begin until March 11, Hanna said.

According to an article by Campus Crusade for Christ International, people usually focus on three things during Lent: prayer, fasting, and giving. Fasting is the most popular of the three, where people choose to give up parts of their daily lives in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice. 

“Everyone celebrates Lent a little differently,” said Erik Gernand, university chaplain. “[It can be] an intentional way where you prepare yourself to celebrate Easter.”

Gernand encouraged students at the end of chapel on Feb. 13 to look into different spiritual practices during Lent. He encouraged students to practice fasting by deleting a social media app or giving up a part of a meal. 

“Christian tradition is like a wide river,” said Gernand. “Our student body is made up from all sorts of Christian traditions, and I think that adds to the richness of our experience in this place.”

Although there was no Ash Wednesday service planned by the University, the International Student Council held sign ups to go to a service at 5pm on Feb. 14. Trevecca Community Church also held an Ash Wednesday service at 7p.m.

Around nine percent of Trevecca’s traditional student body identified as Catholic, and 1 percent  as Coptic Orthodox, according to Trevecca’s Department of Institutional Research data from 2023. 

“I had no idea what Lent was,” said Jonathan Lopez, a senior business major. “I didn’t know people celebrated Lent at Trevecca, I thought it was a Catholic tradition.”

Lopez grew up attending a non-denominational Christian church. He had heard of the concept of Lent before it was mentioned in Chapel on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday but didn’t know what it meant.

For Coptic Lent, people are able to choose the lengths of their fasts according to their health, Hanna said. If people are not physically able to fast for long periods of time, they can still fast by eating a vegan diet or by only eating fish and seafood.

“Basically, [we] fast for 55 days,” said Hanna. “Usually, it is from 12 a.m. to 12 p.m., some people extend it to 3 p.m. or 5p.m.”

Hanna said the Coptic calendar also has a different Easter date, celebrating it closer to the beginning of May rather than the end of March. During their Holy Week, the Coptic Orthodox church provides services twice a day every day of the week, according to Hanna.