I can only provide you with those of the Maronite Catholic Church but will be posting another thread, shortly, that gives some insight into the Byzantine Catholic lenten practices.
In our Maronite Rite, the season of Great Lent begins with the Sunday of the wedding at Cana, and is immediately followed by Ash Monday. It ends the Friday before Hosanna Sunday (Palm Sunday), which is the 40th day.
The season of Great Lent is like a trip we make in a boat that leads us to the shore of salvation. It is divided into seven Sundays:
The Wedding Feast at Cana, Healing of the Leper, the Hemorrhaging Woman, the Prodigal Son, the Paralyzed Man, the Blind Man, and Hosanna Sunday.
The season of Great Lent is divided into six weeks in three parts:
1- In the first three weeks of Great Lent, there is emphasis on practicing repentance during Lent, vigilance, prayer, works of righteousness, almsgiving, charity, imitation of the Savior, the prophets, the just of old who prepared Christ's coming. There is also emphasis on the Lord's teachings, his parables, and sermons. This part is called "the weeks of Lent".
2- In the 4th & 5th week, there is emphasis on Jesus' miracles which are deeds of righteousness & charity, signs & proofs that confirm the veracity of his teaching & message. This part is also a proclamation of God's glory in Jesus, a proclamation of his Passion & Death, as the Evangelist Matthew says, "He drove out the spirits with a command and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: He himself bore our sicknesses away and carried our diseases." (Matthew 8:16-17). This part is called "the two weeks of miracles".
3- In the 6th and the last week, there is emphasis on Jesus' repeated prophecies about his passion, death & resurrection, and the event of his entrance into Jerusalem on Hosanna Sunday. This part is called "Hosanna Week". On the 40th day, which is Friday (before Hosanna Sunday), the readings talk about Jesus' temptations in the desert, which is, according to the Evangelist Matthew, a reference to the temptations of the people of the Torah in the desert, whereas according to the Evangelist Luke, Jesus' temptations are related to the Passion event. Luke mentions that Jesus overcame the devil, who left the Lord "until the opportune moment" (Luke 4:13), when "Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve". (Luke 22:3). On Saturday, following the 40th day of Lent, the Church remembers the event of raising Lazarus in Bethany.
On each Friday throughout the season of Great Lent, the Maronite Church offers Stations with Adoration of the Cross. On Palm Sunday, the church will be packed! This Sunday is one of great meaning for the Church of Antioch, with its historical origins in the Middle East. Children will come dressed in their Easter finery, each one carrying a pillar candle that has been decorated with flowers and/or symbols of the season. Following distribution of the palms, the pastor leads the entire congregation in a procession.
Passion Week is especially beautiful. On Holy Thursday, during Mass, there is the washing of the feet. Most Maronite parishes use children because children bring their parents ;-). It also gets them involved. On the morning of Good Friday, the priest celebrates the ancient presanctified liturgy. In the afternoon, we gather as a parish to share a meatless meal, after which we proceed to church. There we find the Crucifix, draped with a black shawl, in a stand before the altar. Before the Crucifix is an icon of the Blessed Mother. The Crucifix is flanked by two candles, one one each side, representing the two thieves. One of the candles is tied with a black ribbon. Before the Crucifix, on the floor of the Sanctuary, is a black shroud. Since the corpus cannot be removed from the Crucifix, a smaller one is placed on the shroud. The women of the parish place flowers on the shroud. Midway through the service, the men in the congregation step forward and, in groups of 6, take turns carrying the shroud around the church in procession with the priest incensing the shroud. This is done 3 times. The priest then places the shroud with corpus and flowers into a "tomb" (made from paper machier) and places the stone in front of the opening. At midnight Mass on Easter morning, the stone is removed and we find the tomb empty. The flowers are distributed to the congregation as the first gifts from our Risen Lord.
Second: Thanks. My point was that there are disciplines and customs which, viewed after the flesh, are about group identity and group maintenance. Byzantines do this, Maronites do that, Romans do Stations of the cross followed by a soup and bread supper (or whatever). In all these we are directing our attention to the Love of God and the great gift which the Son both is and gives.
But nobody seriously thinks soup and bread is more or less required than some other thing. But we who observe these rites and ceremonies are edified and blessed.
There are people who have not admitted or perceived their thirst for God. Of them, those brought up in religious families feel some kind of uneasy obligation to observe some customs now and then. For them, the traditions might as well be "traditions of men." Of course, they're going about it the wrong way, trying to discharge some duty and to "take care of" or "get over with" all this God 'n Jesus stuff.
But even they can receive benefits. God is gracious and in an unguarded moment some may have a sudden realization that the lives of all of us are sometimes lonely, wild, and full of mad thoughts of gratification, power, and self-divinity. Others may see in our Lady's encounter with her Son on the way to Golgotha every parent's anxiety and sorrow at the doom of our children which, without God's love, they cannot escape. And into that small fissure in the heart, some tendril of love may find a way, and there swell and grow until the heat is cracked wide open. Surely the God who uses thorn and lash and cross to save the world can use soup and bread to open a heart.
It's not the soup and bread, it's not the holy Icon, it is God, and while we weep we rejoice to see the day.
Oops, I got all frilly again. Here let me make up for it. Our Roman way is the right way. Yours is barbaric and probably idolatrous. (I hope that's more in keeping with the FR religious spirit.)
Comments such as your #73 are a great Catholic “Cliffsnotes” for readers such as myself. That this particular comment describes another Rite, with its elegance and richness, is a bonus. Thanks. I shall look for the Byzantine thread presently.