For What It's Worth by Erin

The Sunday Before Fat Tuesday Musings: I have it on great authority that important occasions are generally followed by food and celebration, but in the case of Lent, it’s the exact opposite. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you FAST, ABSTAIN, AND GIVE ALMS!

What is it about my fragile humanity that needs to do one last hurrah with the “goodies” of life before getting serious about things? Am I so afraid that I am going to miss something important? Frankly, the real truth is that Lent is a way to shed the superficial attachments to things not worthy of so much of our attention.

And so it begins. . . Ash Wednesday is in 3 days when Lent commences, with 40 days where we pray, fast, and give alms, hoping to quench our yearning for holiness with simple and tried remedies for our spiritual sluggishness. Wednesday Masses will be filled because all who attend hear the call to conversion and need the refocusing.

It feels good to have an ashen cross marked on my forehead, reminding me of my sinfulness, and then humbly wearing it throughout my day. I see my fellow pilgrims, also marked, and I know that they, like me, are beginning again.

May Christ, who invites us, lead us to what we are yearning for, a holy and well kept Lent. +