Lent

I wasn’t raised in a church that practiced the Lenten sacrifice, but I was surrounded by lots of Catholics in my small town. If you didn’t want to eat school cafeteria fish on Fridays during Lent, you’d better bring your own lunch to school. As someone who went to church every Sunday growing up and paying attention to those kind of things, the church calendar is deeply engrained in me. No matter how little or much I was paying attention to faith, hardly an Ash Wednesday went by unnoticed by me. As I got older, I got more and more attached to the idea of giving something up for Lent. The way I think of the Lenten sacrifice is as a reminder that when I’m weak, God is strong; that Jesus withstood temptation for forty days (and the rest of his life); that God gave up his Son for me; that I’ve been blessed with so much in life and others aren’t as lucky; that whatever we do unto the least of these,we do unto God.

Also, I just realized this year that there are 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter and 40 days in Lent. Hence, Sundays don’t count. I’ve decided (with absolutely no theological background to support this) that Sundays are supposed to celebrations of Easter, year-round. That’s why Christians go to church or “keep holy” Sunday instead of the Sabbath-Saturday. And you can’t celebrate Easter when you’re keeping Lent.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, for Lent this year, I’m doing a Daniel Fast, vegan, no sugar/honey/syrup, whole grains only, no leavening, just water to drink. I’m having to consciously tell myself not to lick the spoon after stirring up the chocolate cake and strawberry cookies I baked for my parents-in-laws’ birthdays, and prepare two kinds of lasagna instead of one for the same birthday celebration. Thursday, I spit out butter I accidentally licked off my finger while making a grilled cheese sandwich for my step-daughter. Friday, I ordered the most virtuous wrap at Longboards only to remember five bites in that the rice is white and not brown. I'm craving chocolate and sweets because it is around me 24/7 (especially after being snowed in from work for 2 days in a row). I’m finding ways to live within the rules, though. I can’t wait to get my hands on all the ingredients for some black bean, no flour, sweetened with dried fruit brownies. I keep mixing up concoctions of bananas, peanut butter, prunes and unsweetened cocoa powder. My Pinterest page is filling up with pictures of these:

I’m also trying to remember to pray the offices every day. I’ve gotten out of the habit of regular prayer (since about the age of 11) and I would like to try to remember to actively engage in prayer more often. The thing that works best for me is setting the alarm on my phone to remind myself to pray. I still end up forgetting. So far, my 40 Days app tells me that I’ve forgotten six of the eleven days. Hopefully, the habit will become more ingrained as the Lenten season wears on.

And while we’re on the topic of habit change, I don’t have a resolution for this week, either. What are your resolutions or Lenten sacrifices for this year? I need some inspiration.