re: Ot Catholics, how long is Lent?

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Catholics are great at finding loopholes, like buttsex.

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I guess I don't get how this myth got going. I went to a catholic high school and although I'll readily admit that the girls were promiscuous, I can say with 100% certainty that I never heard of a single classmate who thought that anal sex was some type of loophole.

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I would rather not eat meat on Friday so I can get drunk everyday.

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Hey man I drink everyday too. Just frowned upon by the preacher man.

It's a joke. Gain a sense of humor.

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Weird how all them protestants broke off so they could pick and choose.

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The Ninety-Five Theses question the Catholic Church's practice of selling indulgences and view skeptically the notion that a papal pardon rather than penance or genuine contrition can achieve forgiveness of sins. Luther argued that Christians were being falsely told that they could obtain absolution for souls in purgatory by buying indulgences.

All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire, locally known as the Castle Church (Schlosskirche), where the Ninety-Five Theses famously appeared, held one of Europe's largest collections of holy relics. These had been piously collected by Frederick III of Saxony. At that time, pious veneration of relics supposedly allowed the viewer to receive relief from temporal punishment for sins in purgatory. By 1520, Frederick had over 19,000 relics, purportedly "including vials of the milk of the Virgin Mary, straws from the manger [of Jesus], and the body of one of the innocents massacred by King Herod."[3]

As part of a fund-raising campaign commissioned by Pope Leo X to finance the renovation of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican priest, began the selling of indulgences in the German lands. Albert of Mainz, the Archbishop of Mainz in Germany, had borrowed heavily to pay for his high church rank and was deeply in debt. He agreed to allow the sale of the indulgences in his territory in exchange for a cut of the proceeds. Luther was apparently not aware of this. Even though Luther's prince, Frederick III, and the prince of the neighboring territory, George, Duke of Saxony, forbade the sale thereof in their respective lands, people in Wittenberg traveled to purchase them. When these people came to confession, they presented their plenary indulgences for which they paid, claiming they no longer had to repent of their sins, since the document promised to forgive all their sins. Luther was outraged that they had paid money for what was theirs by right as a free gift from God. He felt compelled to expose the fraud that was being sold to the people. This exposure was to take place in the form of a public scholarly debate at the University of Wittenberg. The Ninety-Five Theses outlined the items to be discussed and issued the challenge to any and all comers.

Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory [also attested as 'into heaven'] springs."[4] He insisted that since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances.

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Funny, when Martin Luther wrote The Ninety-Five Theses he was calling out Catholics because for some strange reason they thought they could pretty much buy their way into heaven. Tell me where in the Bible does it say "Thou shalt fast for forty days and nights" nowhere. God literally doesn't care if you fast or don't fast. The funniest part about all this is lent was meant as a time to grow in your Christianity. Now it seems like y'all do it just because some guy with a funny hat tells you to.

If you read Ephesians 2:8 it states it pretty clear. "For by GRACE are ye saved through FAITH; and that not of YOURSELVES. It is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast"

God doesn't care if you participate in Lent every single year and adhere to every single rule that the church sets on you. If you haven't accepted Christ into your heart as your lord and savior then that all adds to nothing.

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Mainly because God doesn't care about what we give up or if we even do give something up.

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Just so long as you keep the drinking, smoking, cussing and card playing at the deer camp.

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Tell me where in the Bible does it say "Thou shalt fast for forty days and nights" nowhere. God literally doesn't care if you fast or don't fast. The funniest part about all this is lent was meant as a time to grow in your Christianity. Now it seems like y'all do it just because some guy with a funny hat tells you to.

If you read Ephesians 2:8 it states it pretty clear. "For by GRACE are ye saved through FAITH; and that not of YOURSELVES. It is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast"

God doesn't care if you participate in Lent every single year and adhere to every single rule that the church sets on you. If you haven't accepted Christ into your heart as your lord and savior then that all adds to nothing.

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LINK
I not a Roman Catholic, I'm an Anglican layman and cannot speak for Roman Catholics, though I believe we are not very far apart on this. From a layman's perspective, Lent is a part of the Church Calendar which take us through the Advent, Birth, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus. In other words the Gospel. (Other things as well, but those are not relevant here.) Our Prayer Book, our order of service for Sunday worship and personal and family devotions is laid out according to this calendar.

As you note Lent is intended to make the Church better by making her individual members better Christians-in this instance, by a 40 day time of fasting, prayer and reflection on my sins and their penalties which Christ took upon himself for me. I am emulating Jesus and symbolically standing with him during his 40 days of fasting and temptation in the Wilderness.

No one in a funny hat makes me do it, it is a voluntary act of spiritual discipline and personal sacrifice that I hope will give me a renewed appreciation and understanding of what exactly Christ did for me, and for you.

Nothing about Lent, or any other act of worship in which Anglicans participate, in any way implies or conveys the idea that, by them, we can earn our salvation. Much of this is dealt with in detail in some of the articles which define Anglican theology:

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X. Of Free-Will.
The condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith; and calling upon God. Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing (going before) us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.

XI. Of the Justification of Man.
We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only, is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.

XII. Of Good Works.
Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.
XIII. Of Works before Justification.
Works done before the grace of Christ, and the Inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ; neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the School-authors say) deserve grace of congruity: yea rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.

XIV. Of Works of Supererogation.
Voluntary Works besides, over and above, God's Commandments, which they call Works of Supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety: for by them men do declare, that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake, than of bounden duty is required: whereas Christ saith plainly When ye have done all that are commanded to you, say, We are unprofitable servants.

XV. Of Christ alone without Sin.
Christ in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things, sin only except, from which he was clearly void, both in his flesh, and in his spirit. He came to be the Lamb without spot, who, by sacrifice of himself once made, should take away the sins of the world; and sin (as Saint John saith) was not in him. But all we the rest, although baptized and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things; and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

XVI. Of Sin after Baptism.
Not every deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again, and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned, which say, they can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent.

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Sorry for the length and detail, but your misconceptions warranted the courtesy of a real reply.