What are you doing for Lent?

Tuesday, Nov. 28 - Shrove Tuesday...eat lotsa pancakes
Wed, March 1 - Ash Wednesday
April 9 - Palm Sunday
April 13 - Maundy Thursday
April 14 - Good Friday
April 16 - Easter

I'm throwing out the chocolate, avoiding sugar and booze ( I need
to lose some weight) eating healthier, learning more about Islam,
reading more about turning to an anti-imperial anti-corporate lifestyle.

Wanna join me on the journey? What are you doing for Lent?

i'm eliminating pop. Just water and milk, and maybe fruit juice.

Also, no french fries, chocolate, and i'm starting regular exercise. Throwing out sitting on my ass all the time counts, right? :D

ambitious! good luck with any or all of it.

did I mention I need to be more disciplined?
:-)

this is what I'm TRYING :D
Not what I'll end up doing at the END of lent.
I can last re: pop and french fries. But not sitting on my ass...

It helped me think of things to do for Lent. I have a booklet of daily devotions for Lent by Henri Nouwen; I have to try to find it so I can try to do that daily. I'd also like to get back to regular Bible reading, which I haven't done for quite some time. I'll try to get myself to bed earlier and get up earlier (which I've unsuccessfully been trying to do for quite some time). There is also someone not doing very well in a nursing home, and I have to make sure I visit her.

And this Tuesday night, my church is have a Shrove Tuesday "comfort food" potluck dinner.

We have a Lenten event also this weekend. Chris Hedges
is our speaker :-)

Maybe Joel says it best:

"Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all you heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend you hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing."

I need to work on that "with all your heart" thing.

Only wine or beer for me during Lent, and not much of that.

And will try to watch less TV (goddamn FOOD network!) and read more at night before going to bed, instead of falling asleep in front of the TV (goddamn FOOD network!)

box that our parish gave out for contributions to Episcopal Relief and Development.

I'm also attending a weekly study group given by a member of our parish who's a professor at the University of Minnesota. It's about the early desert fathers.

I'll be attending lots of services, too, beginning with a full-fledged high churchy Eucharist tonight (Ash Wednesday). We'll sing Allegri's "Miserere" during the imposition of ashes, and use the Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Byrd's Mass for Four Voices.

Then my EFM group on Sunday nights will be getting out just in time to attend Compline.

And I haven't even begun to describe Holy Week...

I'm going to the Ash Wednesday service tonight, reading the Daily Office every day during Lent, and attending the Holy Week services. Also, I'm going to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. O8)

...since I've noticed my prayer life pretty much reducing itself to the liturgical hours recently.

I'm not sure whether I'll try Ignatian contemplation or "centering prayer" (or both). I'll start with the former, though.

I'm not sure about what to "give up," since, thanks to the Bush Economy, giving up non-essentials has become more a matter of economic necessity than religious devotion. :eyes:

And purchase a bible for my home.

Decided to do something positive, instead of "giving something up."

than what I was with.

I've spent the past several years clarifying my thinking on what kind of theology I have and am at peace with my thinking. I'm now in the stages of trying to find a faith community that, more or less, fits with mine. Making the outer expression of my faith more inline with the inner faith, IOW.

So I'm spending some time thinking about all of that and talking w/ God about it.

Also, my lifestyle is rather spartan so usually at Lent, I try to think of adding in something rather than abstaining from something.

A couple of years ago while I was laid off, I took up painting as a form of therapy and a way to pass the time constructively and creatively. I want to set up a little artist's nook in my kitchen so that I always have easy access to it.

knows what I am going through... God also understands that I am trying to accept myself as a fat person. That said I am praying that God will help me stop hurting myself.
However, I plan to spend all my leftover money on charities. Also reading more theology.