Lent is here!
Last year I was a bad Catholic and did not attend much to my spiritual life during this time. The only excuse I have is that I was pregnant and yarking all over the place and feeling pretty horrible the whole time. Still, being pregnant exempted me from the fasting and abstinence. I might have tried to make a small sacrifice in giving up sweets, but at some point I'm pretty sure I gave up giving up.
But this year is different! I have nothing to excuse me now. I have given up sweets and bread (rolls, buns, sandwich bread, etc.) and I am focusing on my prayer and meditation more. I was hoping to read parts of the Bible to Elliot but there never seems to be a moment of peace for us when I can read to him.
We went to Ash Wednesday Mass in the evening, since my husband was working the graveyard shift and slept during the day. We brought Elliot with us and once again we were so impressed with our little man's good behavior in church! I know it isn't destined to last, but right now I'm loving our baby's wide-eyed stares and silence during the holiest of prayers.
For those of you who may be unaware, Lent is a time - much like Advent - of expectation and prayer. Catholics especially have a special connection to Lent in that it leads to the day of Christ's Resurrection - also known as Easter. We journey with Christ along His road; we experience temptations, witness His miracles, and hear His message of love that the Pharisees were unable to understand or tolerate. The Easter Triduum at the end of Lent marks the time in which we celebrate Christ's Passion, Death, and His Resurrection. We follow Christ along the Way of the Cross and pray for souls on earth while administering to our own wounded souls through prayer, Mass, the sacrament of the Eucharist, charitable works, and of course, fasting and abstinence.
The ashes on our foreheads are given to us with the words, "Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return." It is a grim reminder of our mortality. But we know that, in the celebration of Easter, we are given a firm reminder of the immortality of our souls and how they may be united with Christ if we but tend them with love and care.
Father's homily on Ash Wednesday also reminded me of something. He spoke of Jesus' request that we pray and do our charitable acts in secret so that our Father in heaven may reward us. In this world of social media, where everyone shares everything and many seek publicity or 15 minutes of fame, Christ's words may be a hard concept to understand or accept. Especially if you refuse to believe that God is read; why bother doing anything in secret when you could enjoy the praise and admiration from flesh-and-blood people? But the phrase "doing good for good's sake" is a principle that applies well in this case. It is meaningful to help others when there's nothing in it for you.
In other news, Valentine's Day (otherwise known as Singles' Appreciation Day) is coming up! I was looking forward to Applebee's, but since Applebee's is practically the only nice restaurant in town, it's too likely to be packed. So I told him I'd settle for home-cooked steak, chocolate, and then an evening watching Deadpool.
Oh, yeah.
I never saw the point of flowers, although I always got jealous of my friends and coworkers who received them from their loved ones on Valentine's Day. Honestly, I never bought into the consumerism behind the holiday; it seemed to be just as good as any other day and there was little significance behind it for me. Still, it's one of those fun little holidays that brings cheer to people (or gloom, take your pick, but even while I was single I didn't care; pizza, soda, and movies were my lovers on that day). It's impossible not to get sucked into the spirit of the holidays!
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