I don’t know why people consider not abstaining on Sunday to be cheating. The 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays. According to the Book of Common Prayer (Episcopal), p. 17, “All Sundays of the year are feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Further down, it says,4. Days of Special Devotion
The following days are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial:
Ash Wednesday and the other weekdays of Lent and of Holy Week, except the feast of the Annunciation.
Good Friday and all other Fridays of the year, in commemoration of the Lord’s crucifixion, except for Fridays in the Christmas and Easter seasons, and any Feasts of our Lord which occur on a Friday.
Bolding mine. So the “no Sundays” is not a loophole; it’s part of the liturgical calendar, at least for Anglicans. Maybe Catholic rules are different but I don’t think so.
Catholic rules are the same- Sundays are always a feast day, and not included in the 40 days of Lent.
I have two little kids. I’m hoping that daily Rosary will make me into a much calmer and more patient Mom. That will be miraculous.
When I gave up the internet the amount of time I had was staggering. Now I think if I gave it up I’d be reading *Chicka Chicka Boom Boom * an average of 400 times a day. Not a bad thing, necessarily, but I know if I do that and go veggie I’ll flounder and then give up. I will try to restrict internet time more.
For spiritual reading I might read the Catechism. My husband’s read the whole thing but I’ve only read sections. I’d like to re-read The Practise of the Presence of God because it’s short, but maybe something else will occur to me before next week.
I think it’s the fact that you have a very well-defined period of time to practice the discipline.
The last couple of years, I’ve tried to follow the Fast, Pray, Give calendar over at bustedhalo.com. It’s aimed at young adults, but I find it’s a good kick-start for Lent and forces me to think about this every day.
Sacred Space, a site developed by Irish Jesuits, generally has good Lenten links as well.
Haven’t really given Lent much thought yet, though…
I know they are not, just as I know Holy Saturday isn’t either, but I can’t bring myself to drink the Coke, eat the pizza or candy or whatever, until Easter Sunday.
For many, many years, I’ve given up all alcohol. For the last three years, I’ve also gone on the wagon at the end of the last Bowl Game on Jan 1 to the Super Bowl, leaving a one month window in February, more or less.
Maybe this year I’ll give it up altogether. Probably not, a beer or two after golf is too hard to pass up, especially on a warm day in April.
Sorry to be constantly asking questions, but for those of you who give something up, what do you do with the money saved? Is it normal or even expected to donate that money to charity?
Yes, it is. We’ll be giving some of the extra to charity. I’m trying to figure out how to involve my 3-year old- maybe take him out to buy some food with the excess and donate it to a food bank?
Or I could apply my New Years Resolution philosophy to Lent. Several years ago, I gave up making New Years Resolutions as my New Years Resolution–I’m the only person I know who’s kept the resolution for longer than three months. Maybe I could give up abstaining for Lent?
Our church has been called to fast over lent - but everyone gets to define their own regime. I’ll be fasting 2 days a week, but I have to balance it with a fairly heavy exercise schedule, so protein shakes will be allowed (to prevent muscle loss). And it will end a few days early as we fly to NZ before Easter arrives to see family.
I think it’s more of a natural start of the year than January 1st for people in the Northern Hemisphere, as the beginning of Spring weather usually falls sometime during Lent… thereabouts of September is another good point for that sort of thing, specially if you have kids.
It’s ok to ask. If you don’t ask, we might not think about it.
It depends. In the middle ages housewives were not allowed to use Lent or other fastdays as an excuse to be cheap about feeding the servants. Nowadays, when eating fish might cost more than eating chicken, you might not be saving any money. But people who give up specific habits (like coke or cigarettes) often do donate that money-not-spent to worthy causes.
Giving Up bad: I think I’m giving up chicken-cow-pig meat for Lent, and alcohol. I’m thinking about giving up sodapop as well, but that might be too ambitious in my current level of stress.
Taking On good: I need to figure out how much I’ve been spending on wine in the past few months and donate that amount to the local food bank. Or maybe I should drop a five dollar bill in a jar everytime I want a cocktail and then give that amount to the food bank. I may steal the Psalm-a-day idea someone posted upthread.