Tonight at our Faith Festival we study the upcoming (and soon!) seasons of Lent and Easter. This year Lent could be a completely different experience for me. I've been in a Lent rut for the past several years, identifying closely with Jesus' suffering because I was suffering for my ministry, too. I have, as my Lenten practice, walked to daily Mass, and changed some dietary something. My Lenten Slogan each year was "He DIED for me, I'll DIET for him".But this year, I'm not so much suffering. How are you supposed to do Lent while being all happy and stuff? My new schedule means going in to work earlier, which means my walk to church is out. I will miss that discipline- I liked walking through the snow and ice at the beginning of the season and knowing that by Easter, grass would be greening. Of course, this year with Lent starting so early, it probably won't be very spring-like when Easter rolls around anyway. I do want to continue with daily Mass, but going to my parish at 9 means leaving by 8:30 and with morning traffic, that really should be 8:00. That's out. There's a 12:15 Mass down the street from my parish, but I've been once and it was pretty dreadful. Maybe that'll just have to be my penance. Maybe I'll drive to the 9:00 here in town, then keep on driving to work. Yeah, that'll work...
But I do want to do something dietary, and not just because I'm feeling a bit blimpy (as I always do this time of year) but because I feel so joyful and thankful, I want to show my gratitude by being a better steward of the life and body God has given me. We'll see.
When I was young I used to give up obscure things like Orange American Cheese, or Macadamia Nuts, or something like that- easily avoidable. In college I tried giving up soda every year, and failed miserably every year. Later on in life, I gave up fried foods and found Fridays to be fairly tricky- unfried fish at that time was a bit out of my price range and too much tuna fish is just... too much.
So, we'll see. And, we'll see how it feels to sacrifice from a place of non-suffering. Should be interesting...
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1 comment:
Hmmmmmm I always struggled with the concept that we are suppose to sacrifice without suffering and angst. I mean if you cannot be Job and b*tch and moan, what is the point?
Instead you can bring your joyous attitude to whatever you do, after all except for the Agony in the Garden (and ok those last few hours of His life) Christ went through his Ministry pretty happy and invogorated!
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