Lent!
I can’t believe that, once again, the time for Lent is here.
After years of Safe and Safer at Home, getting groceries delivered, talking to friends from 10 feet away even though we were outside… well, it feels like the enforced Lent is *FINALLY* over.
We’re not 100% back to normal, but we’re back to normal enough for Maribou and I to go out to the Black Bear Diner and order pancakes and discuss the year behind us and talk about the year to come. It’s been a good one, kinda. But Summer is winding down and the leaves look like they may start turning soon.
As such, this year I am going to be bringing back working out for Lent. Jogging, I think. Sure, I jog for a mile and a half on Sundays but that’s barely anything, if you think about it. At the height of the pandemic, I ran 3 5ks in one week (I still can’t believe I did that). I think I want to reach a point where I can do a 5k again. That’s the goal.
(And I need another “Oh, I remember that song!” song for the post… here’s one.)
The days are long but the years are short
So… what are you giving up for Lent? Or, at least, meditating on?
I have been lurking and reading this website for years. I occasionally comment, but definitely not frequently enough to be recognized by any of y’all.
I wanted to comment to say that this post is why I like Jaybird’s comments and posts – he’s just writing about normal life and doesn’t seem fishing miserable about everything like some of the people here do. Many of the writers and frequent commenters here seem like they can’t take pleasure in anything and actively resent anyone who does. “How can you talk about Costco pasta dishes when *this* bad thing is happening in the world?!?!?!” That sort of thing.
Jaybird catches a lot of shit from you people because he tries to look at things from what he perceived as the perspective of normal people. But it seems like he’s one of the most normal here in that when he writes it’s obvious that his politics is downstream from the everyday trappings of his life. What are we doing this weekend? How can I stretch these bucks into a really tasty meal? Am I using my leave at work like I should? I really should exercise more. Etc.
Idk. This is more combative than I intended. I just see a lot of frequenters here give jaybird a hard time, and I see a kindred spirit. Just trying to live life, make the mortgage payment, love my friends and family, enjoy the leisure time that I earn…
I don’t do lent, but I am exercising more and making changes to my diet. Have lost two belt notches since Christmas and want to keep going. I despise running but it’s the most convenient form of exercise. So doing that and then some basic body weight stuff – push-ups, squats, sit ups, etc.Report
I’m exceptionally lucky in my life (I make jokes about being the 2nd luckiest person alive (Ringo Starr)).
I saw a comment the other day talking about ChatGPT and AI alignment and one of the points made was “when you’re in the middle of logarithmic change, it looks flat behind you and vertical in front of you”.
He was excited about it but it struck me as a good reason to not look behind or ahead but, like, here. I think that looking here is a good way to find luck more often.Report
I can’t stand by and let you get away with that blaspheming. Listen to Strawberry Fields. Ringo was an impressive drummer. You need Jesus.Report
I’d ask you to bear in mind that there are incentive issues this sentiment is up against: “Public affairs are going pretty well, our elected officials are doing more or less what I’d like them to, and things are satisfactory to me if not affirmatively good,” might be reason for me to be happy for you, but that isn’t likely to make for an interesting post. “Here’s something that is sub-optimal and here’s how I would see it improved” is much more likely to produce something interesting to read, and more likely to prompt an interesting debate.
Politics is downstream of other things in the culture, and there’s evidence of a significant push by the Ed Board to get more upstream culture things posted here. We’ve got weekly poetry, semi-weekly comments on science in the media and in particular the movies and TV, lots of food, and a few road trip stories.
I see Jaybird getting friction from others in arenas like public policy and politics. But I don’t see a lot of vitriol shot at him when he discusses ways to zazz up a pizza, what’s good and bad about a classic video game, or offers up an earned-brag about finishing a 5K. Those ordinary life type posts are well-received, solicit pleasant sharing of observations from others, and political alignment in responding to them is generally of such trivial importance as to not be commented upon. I bet if you look hard you can find someone disagreeing strenuously with Jaybird on a political post and two minutes later offering a non-confrontational post about food or gaming or whatever on a different post.
That’s part of our brand.Report
I threatened (!) to give up sweets (I really could stand to lose at least 10 pounds) but decided instead I will cut back – so I will still periodically allow myself something (and not just on the “Sundays aren’t part of Lent, actually” days). I am too good at all-or-nothing thinking and I know saying “nothing sweet at all other than maybe plain fruit” for the next forty days would set me up to fail.
In the more-progressive-Christian circles I frequent there’s a lot of talk of “instead of giving something up, take something else on” and…..to me that feels even more punishing than giving something up would be this year; I’m awfully busy and tired and the thought of another batch of volunteer work or “time in contemplation” or whatever seems like it would be more difficult and potentially mood-cratering for me than even fully giving up sugar would.
(I did take on doing PT for my janky hip that had a bout of bursitis years back, but I started that long before Lent)Report
One of our assistant priests gave us the, ‘uh, yeah, the whole Sundays during Lent thing? That’s an urban legend’ homily.
I thought for a moment he might be cast out of the Church. Fortunately the moment passed, but I could see people composing the letter in their heads that they were going to write to the Pastor, maybe even the Bishop.
But I know our Pastor… too many of those letters and he’ll double down and make us go back to giving up Milk and eggs too. Or worse, fasting on St. Patrick’s day as if he’s not the Patron Saint of NOVA.Report
One of our priests responded to the Sunday Lent question by saying that all Sundays are mini-Easters and cause for celebration and feasting. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says “such practices are not regulated by the Church, but by individual conscience” which is cowardly. They need to take a stand.Report
Right. There is, in fact, an injunction ‘against’ a certain sort of ‘fasting’ on Sundays. So, for example if you are doing a hard (very hard) fast of only water… that is suspended on Sundays.
The operative point, however, is that most folks are, say, giving up TV or Twitter (or somesuch) and there’s no real way to partake in TV or Twitter in ways that glorify the Lord such that you should suspend the ‘fast’ on a Sunday. I might be possible – that’s where conscience comes in – but going back to shitpoasting and memes probably isn’t it. Now a #twittersupperclub picture of your family meal and the like? Maybe yes! But for most of those venial sins we’re trying to amend? It’s not open season on Sundays. 🙂
But like most things, it comes down to how people understand Conscience. Personally, my baseline is Newman. If we start with Newman on Conscience, we’re at least in the ballpark. So, when you see the USCCB say ‘conscience’ imagine that it’s Newman… and then realize we’re not doing conscience right.Report
Well today’s fast was a bit easier in that I have a bloodwork draw in the early afternoon.
I’m trying to do my usually thing of giving up sweets, and especially the afternoon coffeeshop visit with a pastry and a foo foo drink. Also no alcohol, Plus, a quasi-“Ramadan rules” for social media where I try to stay off of it during the day. (probably will still visit Mastodon, because the activity is still low and not that addictive)Report
“bloodwork draw in the early afternoon”
Nice, but probably gonna be light headed by triduum.Report
HeheReport
I’ve got a project at work. I could find semi-legitimate reasons to avoid it for up to a year. It’s boring material, and I’ll be working with people who don’t know what they want out of it, and doing the work on a system that’s both unfinished and obsolete.
The next seven weeks, I’m all about the project. It’s an odd sacrifice, but it’s unquestionably the right move.Report
Nothing. There is almost probably no deity (I guess my official stance can be described as militant yet apathetic agnosticism but pretty close to just atheist) and it seems silly to adopt the exercise of a religion I was not born into for vague spiritual reasons. I don’t even keep kosher.Report
Well, I’m kinda excited for *this* Lent because Marky Mark invited me to join him on a 40-day Lenten challenge on a new app. So I did.
Depending on what you think of me, that might be a: [record scratch] WHAT! or: [rolling eyes] Of course he did.
So it’s a Funky Bunch Lent for me… me and my boys Jim Caviezel, Johnathan Roumie, and Fr. Mike (Bible-in-a-year-guy). Wondering who Eduardo Verástegui pissed off to be left out.
Sure, usually I’m allergic to all Catholic Media projects, and ironically detached from all communal projects involving celebrities, and, well, suspicious that digital media is good for the soul. So what gives?
Call it a hunch; curiosity over ‘new media’ projects that have ‘Creator’ $$ and production capabilities as backers (vs. the usual Catholic bootstrapping of well intentioned incompetence paired with well intentioned but clueless wealth and defined by dreadful aesthetics); penance to do something communal that I also think is probably kinda lame, er, sus; and hope. Hope that maybe all the bootstrapped Irish-piety-drenched aesthetically cringy things have been left behind and maybe this thing is better. Cleaner, simpler, self-aware… effective. Maybe.
Not gonna lie… Day 1 had an auspicious start. But I have to back-up a bit to explain. Lady Marchmaine, the font of Virtue and Devotion in our household, made us all pick a saint out of a hat on New Year’s day. Or, as she put it, a the right Saint picked us as we rummaged around thinking we were doing the picking. At any rate, St. Francis de Sales picked me. Not being a cradle Catholic, I don’t have any particular notion of +FdS and kinda had him mixed-up with some other St. Francises (no, not THE St. Francis… you know, the tier-twos). Turns out that +FdS is an interesting Dude… not your usual dirty mendicant that the Irish love to talk about… but a nobleman, scholar, auto-didact, and Bishop. You could say in modern parlance that he was a Nepo-Bishop — because his nobility wasn’t of the petty sort — and you’d be right. But a Nepo-Bishop with a legitimate calling, incredible talents, and a humility drove him to take up his ‘shitty’ [canonical term] bishopric [not a canonical term] and do the Lord’s work. Now, most history books are fairly circumspect on what that work was; I, however, am not. He had to go into Switzerland and clean up the dog’s vomit of a mess left behind by John Calvin. (Sorry my Calvinist friends, I mean that in the nicest possible fraternal correction sort of way). He start’s small working the countryside in calvinist Savoy with shocking success. This is 1594 – only thirty years after Calvin himself had died. Eventually he’s consecrated Bishop of Geneva but can’t take-up residence in Geneva because of the whole Calvin thing (take that Nepo-Bishop!). But manages to revive a Catholic diocese from Annecy. Even stranger to modern ears, he was known far and wide as a great administrator. And now I’m fully converted on Nepo-Bishops. Cutting this short, the Gentleman Bishop (as he was known) also founded two Religious orders, supported the Oratorian movement of St. Philip Neri, and most surprising of all provided direct spiritual direction to ordinary folks in his diocese. One of whom saved his letters, shared them with a friend-of-a-friend of +SdF who prevailed upon the Bishop to ‘clean up his letters into a book’ (thus starting a horrible trend which continues to this day, mostly among scholars invited to present a famous lecture) — which +SdF reluctantly compiled into “Introduction to the Devout Life”. Considered by many to be a masterpiece. And considered by me a book I would *never* read because a) I’m Devotionally Challenged and b) You can see what the title of the book is.
But March, if you’re even reading this far, you said Day 1 was auspicious, how so? Well, the Marky Mark app (aka Hallow) in addition to the 40-day (technically 46) Lent Challenge *also* has a daily read-through of “Introduction to the Devout Life”. Which, as noted above, I would never read but for the fact Lady Marchmaine compelled a bona-fide Saint-in-heaven to reach down and force me to read. Which required him (the Saint) to compel Marky Mark and several other monied creator-type Catholics (but NOT Eduardo Verástegui) to create an App that would also have Introduction to the Devout Life on it so that I might fulfill my obligations to my Wife and maybe even overcome my devotional liabilities (perhaps temporarily). And that, people, is why Christianity is a communal, incarnational project that includes the living and the dead and dumb things on earth like, say, Apps.
See for yourself, it’s on google:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.hallow.android
Oh, and the Day 1 challenge? Invite others to join the challenge. Mic drop.Report
A warning about An Introduction to the Devout Life: It’s divided into four sections, the first of which is a series of meditations, and the second of which begins with how to do meditations. It’s a confusing read if you read it in order. If you’re familiar with Ignatian meditation, you can probably get by in Section 1, but otherwise it’s a bit hard.Report
oh, no, it will be a slog. My unofficial position with regards the devotional life is that mine is suited to whatever it was that occurred prior to the invention of the printing press. Maybe a little counter-intuitive at first… but if we meditate on it a bit, it might make sense.Report
You know, you could just like give up swearing for 40 days and actually wait until the dismissal instead of peacing out immediately after communion or something.Report
1. I *always* wait for the blessing and dismissal; but it’s a point of pride that I walk out during the recessional hymn. Penance would be waiting for the hymn to end.
2. Non blasphemous swearing is the most Catholic thing I do; that and pilgrimages.Report
Heh, fair enough, just me projecting out a couple of my (many) shortcomings again.Report
Yeah, I was just on a roll. But you should definitely go on a pilgrimage – will take your earthy swearing to new heights, I promise.Report
I’m sure it would! Of course my primary commitment among several this Lent is to actually make the pilgrimage to Church every week like I’m supposed to. So starting from a much more modest place altogether.Report
First things first and all that.Report
BTW, when you said “[record scratch] WHAT!” I heard that as [hip hop rythymic record scratch] “Say WHAT?”.Report
Improvement.Report
Not that I doubted but… it’s real.
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https://www.dailywire.com/news/god-is-doing-something-pretty-incredible-catholic-app-passes-up-google-tiktok-on-ash-wednesdayReport
Well, with influencers such as myself… foreseeable.
Day 3 update:
Marky Mark Challenge: Less cheesy than I thought, not quite a polished as I’d hoped. Have now had each of the ‘Big Three’ Roumie, Caviezel, and Wahlberg lead a day. The good is that it’s based on solid spiritual readings like The Imitation of Christ and the amount of woo is limited. Also, it’s not really the actors saying anything, just good voice-overs of the text – which the app gives you to read along. They are definitely building on the Fr. Mike Bible-in-a-year model. There seems to be some thought on the meta-framing: week 1 was humility.
Less than Liturgy of the Hours, but more than dudes giving personal reflections.
The St. Francis DeSales reading is, IMO, better… just the text and the (Chaldean!) Priest reading it is very good. I see your point about “How to Meditate” being Part 2 in a book on Meditations is kinda weird.
The App lets you pick different texts/devotions/meditations to join and schedule, so usability is good – you grab what you want, schedule and everything is ready day-by-day.
Not genius level execution, but works.Report
I should bring my own lunch to the office from home more often. Yes, the food carts are delicious. Yes, there are good restaurants downtown that need support if they are to thrive. But food from home is less expensive and healthier. And I would like to lose some weight…
Oh, who the hell am I kidding? It’s Korean cart Wednesday — time for bibimbap!Report
I have an ice cream problem. Some have a container in the freezer. I have a selection. This won’t be easy.Report