Damn you, stop stealnig my ideas! Although I have pretty much been giving up Lent for Lent since I was old enough to realzie that I don’t beleive in the religion anymore (sometime in high school.)
How does one give up Lent for Lent? Easy, just do the opposite. Make sure not to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, eat meat on all Fridays, and add a vice. I’m thinknig of taking up heroin…seems it could be good for a larth.
This goes perfectly with that New Year’s resolution I made several years ago to never make another new year’s resolution…using the system against itself is my specialty.
The whole family is giving up sweets/desserts/snacks for Lent. You’ll be able to read about us going collectively over the edge somewhere around March 3rd.
You know, it never ceases to amaze me how, whenever there’s a thread that’s about a religious topic, folks feel free to come in bashing that religion or its observances. But if the religious folks were to mention to the atheists and agnostics that their Sundays might be better spent in church than sleeping late and God looks kindly on those who attend a church service, we’d be trounced up one side and down the other.
Tolerence works both ways. And I’m here to say that I’m tired of feeling like a second-class citizen because I have a faith that I practice. I don’t witness. I don’t demand that anyone else practice my faith. I only ask for a little respect. If you can’t say something germane to the OP, then stay the hell out.
I dare say you’ve read Surprised By Joy and The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. Both of them seem quite Lenten to me, but then I am a very lacklustre Christian. Someone on ship-of-fools.com recommended this site:
I’m assuming you’ve already read Therese’s Story of a Soul. There are two others that are very readable and relevant for everyday life, both by St. Francis de Sales:
Finding God’s Will for You
Introduction to the Devout Life
<< I don’t witness. I don’t demand that anyone else practice my faith. I only ask for a little respect. >>
That’s exactly how I feel too.
–gigi, enjoying a chocolate, French vanilla coffee with plenty of sugar and cream, for tomorrow we die
I haven’t read C.S. Lewis, except for the Chronicles of Narnia. I could try him. I’ve read St. Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life, which I liked quite a lot. I could try Finding God’s Will for you. I’m presently trying to read a Chesterton autobiography of St. Thomas Aquinas, but Chesterton was so busy trying to make him accessible to his readers that he used a great deal of cultural references from 1930’s Britain, which I don’t understand at all.
Have you read Orthodoxy, StGermain? It’s my favourite Chesterton book, and I think it would be good Lent reading.It’s quite accesible. It’s short, though. C. S. Lewis is always good, too.
I just sent Swimming With Scapulars (by Matthew Lickona) and a book of novenas to my best friend and her husband. I’m hoping they’ll use them for Lent reading. I’m thinking of taking another stab at The Dark Night of the Soul or The Imitation of Christ.
I feel like running around frantically eating fast food today. It’s a good thing I’m broke. Giving the money to charity is a good idea. I’m thinking of making and distributing muffins and sandwiches to all the local homeless once a week. I usually chat with them and give them granola bars if they want them, but I’ve been thinking about doing baked goods.
And 6 6 6, at the mad rate I’ve been running around baking, it wouldn’t be surprising if I found a way to bake online. I’ve gotten through 30 pounds of flour in a month and a half.
Who bashed? I do see some people who think they’re comedians and don’t realize that the joke gets old the 10,000th time it’s told. Luckily, although I’m of the No Faith contingent at present, when I was a young Methodist… we didn’t observe Lent.
Sorry for the hijack, but I have a question. Did giving up something you like for Lent ever have any practical basis? Or is it just another Catholic symbolic suffering for Jesus type thing? Some of the Jewish dietary rules had a practical basis originally, IIRC.
