So, let's muse a bit about Lent, which began this past Wednesday. Every year I struggle with the concept of giving up something for Lent - as a discipline. We Catholics are to refrain (fast) from eating meat on Fridays during Lent. It may seem blatant disrespect, but I say that practice (and by the way obligation) is rubbish! Nearly 52 Fridays of the year I refrain from eating meat and I'm basically vegitarian anyway! What's the "sacrifice" in it for me during Lent? I have jokingly said this year I will give up football - would be "easy" enough since the season and the Super Bowl is over anyway. The point of fasting from something during Lent is supposed to make us better, through discipline. Well, I equate the word discipline with negativity...and there is certainly more than enough negativity that surrounds many o
f us. And the point of my stubbornness in not giving up something tangible for Lent is not really a blatant defiance of the religious practice/obligation...or maybe it is.Anyway, what I have pondered, and invite everyone to consider, is to add something to life during Lent - to "label it", if you will, as a spiritual practice. Something that will seek and serve, if I am/we are faithful to the practice, to nourish and enrich life - and something that will "stick" longer than these 40 days. How about adding some meditation time - some silent abiding time? Heaven knows there is more than enough noise in our lives! Sure, I'll most likely have to "give up" a half hour of sleep. But it's not the giving up that is the focus; it's the adding of the specific practice that will (hopefully and with the grace of the Holy One) nurture and nourish the soul...yes, during Lent but also beyond. Now, isn't that, and the reality that God is deeply in love with us, the stuff of what REALLY matters?
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