Lent!
I just can’t believe that, once again, the time for Lent is here.
Last year was the first Lent that felt like we were no longer under the shadow of Covid-19 and so this is the first full year we’ve had that wasn’t marred by the pandemic. We ordered out this year and had our little annual review in the Living Room.
Every year, you see, we eat our pancakes and talk about the year behind and the year before. It’s a bigger deal to us than Valentine’s Day. It might even be our biggest household holiday. We’ve done stuff that has interfered with birthdays in years past… we’ve done stuff that has interfered with anniversaries in years past… but I don’t think we’ve missed out on Fat Tuesday pancakes.
We discussed the big changes and ordeals of the last year (cats old and new, dishwashers old and new, physical ailments old and new) but also the plans for the next year with a handful of milestones. After this big event we’re going to do this, after that other big event we’re going to do that… one of the things we had planned 4 or 5 years ago was moving from this house we’ve had for a couple of decades now and moving into one of the new houses down over there and turn my commute from 25 minutes into 5 minutes.
Not that we’re planning on moving this year, of course. More than we’re planning on being ready to say either “yes, we’re going to move” or “wow, now that we’ve culled down this much… I no longer feel like we need to move!” this year.
I mean, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise. You never know what’s going to happen.
After the meal, Maribou said “I don’t think we have to give anything up this year. We’ve been giving it up for months.”
So we will keep on, keeping on. And maybe Easter will have one heck of a feast.
The days are long but the years are short.
So… what are you giving up for Lent? Or, at least, meditating on?
(And I need another “Oh, I remember that song!” song for the post… here’s one.)
Last year out of curiosity I did the Marky Mark app.
Curiosity sated, I’m back to liturgy of the hours, simpliciter.
Usually I also doctor my coffee so it’s ‘not right’ … but I’ve been doing some intermittent fasting which has played havoc with my coffee routine … so this year I’m just not drinking coffee at all. The change in eating patterns almost nuked coffee anyway, so I’m just leaning in since coffee had become more of a treat at this point.
I’m glad Marky Mark and Hallow are a thing, it’s just not quite my thing.Report
My thought was that it was… how to put this… specifically designed for people unfamiliar with the whole thing.
Sort of eliding a bunch of important stuff over here, putting focus on the wrong stuff over there…
Like it was “Lent For Non-Denominational Folks Who Are Sick Of Max Lucado”.Report
Yeah, it was kinda ‘marketplacey’ but the vibe I got was definitely Catholic… a sort of soft center-right Catholic with room for lots of flavors, but not a lot of fads. Well maybe Bible in a Year is a fad, but it’s a neutral kind of fad, maybe more an ‘unexpected phenomenon’.
The ’40-day Challenge’ was solid in that it was consistent, orthodox, simple, short, and had professionals doing the voice work. They made an attempt at meta-themes that were good, but felt a bit understuffed. There were bits and pieces of personal stories that alternated between cool and cringe… but mostly they avoided going all-in on personal celebrity stories — which I think was a good decision. Praying ‘with’ celebrities rather than celebrities preaching the half-baked good intentions they usually muster – for that I was grateful.
I also went through the St. Francis de Sales ‘Introduction to the Devout Life’ offering and that was solid because, well, it’s a classic text brought on to an app with medium+ production values. No one tried to ‘explain’ de Sales to me; just produced the text with a tiny bit of context.
But yeah, I suppose we could point out that it was cafeteria catholicism … which is perhaps the besetting sin of Catholicism?Report
Oh, then that’s better than I expected.
Cafeteria Catholicism as gateway drug. First hit’s free!Report
Our biggest flaw AND our superpower.Report
But we do have the Jim Caviezel as Christopher Walken ad for Hallow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj4-iq73F8M
Comedians to impressions of Walken. Caviezel is an actor – he embodies Walken.Report
You do get to pick who your reader is… they should make Caviezel/Walken an option.Report
Things can be hilarious and have spiritual value. Hilarious and meditative don’t go together.Report
Good point, you want more of a Josh Brolin experience for the meditative parts.Report
I heard a priest talking about Lent on the radio yesterday. He related a story from his college days that I found pretty interesting. He was explaining Lenten abstinence to his friends. One, a Jew, asked him who got to pick what he was going to give up. He said, of course, himself. The other guy said how hard it that, someone else should pick. So that’s the way it went that year.
I moved in with my girlfriend late last year, 3 years after losing my wife of 29 years. It’s allowed me to consider all of the flaws I brought to that relationship and to work on correcting them. Every day I make a conscious effort to keep that in mind. For the last 10 years, after hearing someone talk about it, I’ve not given anything up. Rather, I pick something more affirmative. This is my thing for Lent 2024 (and hopefully for the rest of my life. 2nd chances are a wonderful thing.)Report
Sound advice.
Practicing virtue is probably better than purging vices; but often they work together.Report
Can I suggest something that I have included in my relationship with my spouse.
When he does anything for me, even if I don’t want it or like it (specially if I don’t want it or like it), my first response, my first words, are “Thank you”. And I really try to mean it and be thankful. Only after thanking him, I might say something like “next time less sugar”, or “I’m not thirsty now”, or “so where are we putting the nails now that you’ve moved them to clear room for the hammers?”.
I find that thanking him straight ahead focuses my mind away from how I (capital I) am impacted by his action, and towards how HE went out of his way to do it. So even if I’d rather the nails still were where they used to, the time it takes to say “Thank you” gives me chance to put myself in my partner’s place,.
It works wonders for me after 17 yearsReport
Maribou is very wise in the ways of wisdom.Report
I double endorse Slade’s comment.
As for me every Lent I pick a vice to try to shake it and also commit myself to some sort of recurring Church related activity beyond just showing up. Plus also making sure I actually do in fact show up. For some reason my spells of absence feel more forgivable than skipping times if atonement.Report
I struggle with this every year because I often feel like I have enough challenges in my life that, like, giving up chocolate would simply make me cranky with little benefit. I prefer the “try to take on some other good practice” mode of doing it. This year I am trying to take more moments during the day to pray or even just be still. I am prone to that restless monkeybrain (can’t meditate) so maybe that will help? I am also an impatient person. And I know I don’t pray often enough outside of church.
I am in a more “progressive” denomination so we’re pretty loosey-goosey on what to do for Lent; some people I know give up sweets or meat or substitute devotional reading or volunteer work for some other leisure time activity. One person I knew gave up swearing.Report